New Book Publication Spotlight & Author Guest Post: Sun, Sea and Summer Vibes by Zoe Allison

Tips for New Romance Writers

I consider myself new to this game. I only began writing around six years ago, in my late 30s (not trying to hide my age by being vague, I’m just so old that I can’t remember). My first book was published in 2020 and Sun, Sea and Summer Vibes is my third novel of 2021. I don’t consider myself an expert by any manner or means. I’m a doctor by trade and I have no qualifications in English or writing except for my trusty GCSEs in English Literature and English Language (yes, GCSEs. That’s how old I am). However, there are some things I’ve found helpful, which I can share.

1. Firstly, the post important thing is to write. Get your ideas down on paper. It doesn’t matter that it’s unpolished and rubbish to start with, practice makes perfect.

2. Read craft books. I had never written anything substantial before, so to start with I read a book about writing romance and another one about writing dialogue, because that was the area where I felt least confident. What’s a beat? What’s a tag? How do you separate different characters’ speech?

3. Don’t start off a book with description. It’s doesn’t capture the reader’s attention. Start with action or dialogue. Enter the story as it’s underway.

4. Don’t include stuff about the non-central characters unless it’s driving the main characters’ stories forward. Otherwise it can make the story drag and the reader gets bored.

5. Show don’t tell. Don’t explain things to the reader as the narrator, show them how someone feels or what their backstory is through action and dialogue.

6. Read your work out loud. When it comes to self-editing, you catch so many more repeated words, missing words or errors of flow if you read out loud. An editor recommended this to me and I’ve found it invaluable.

7. Whatever path you want to take for your romance book, I’d recommend trying to get a place on the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme. The RNA website tells you more, but at the start of each year you can apply for a place on the scheme which has many benefits and a mahoosive one is the opportunity to submit a manuscript once per year to be read and critiqued by a professional writer. This is a big deal in order to improve your writing in general and also to a publishable standard (no matter what sort of publishing path you want to go for).

8. Get a copy of The Writers’ and Artists’ yearbook. This is a helpful resource for writers, and contains information on how to go about getting an agent and getting published. An up to date one comes out every year.

9. Get on social media. Join the writing community on Twitter. There’s a lot of mutual support out there and getting to know other writers virtually helps you along the way. I’m mainly active on Twitter and now also TikTok, which is video based. I’m also on Instagram and Facebook but don’t find those quite as much fun, however there are many choices and you can delve in to see which suits you best.

10. Make a website. This s a good idea no matter what stage you’re at, you have control over the content and you can use it to display your brand and pop a link on your social media to direct people to it.

11. There is no one path! If you ask one hundred different writers you will not find two stories which are the same. Everybody’s journey is different and there isn’t one more valid than the other.

Now get writing!

Sun, Sea and Summer Vibes

Sometimes first impressions are far from the truth...

Nina Darwish is a scientist who likes to proceed with caution and careful deliberation. When she arrives at the party destination of Ibiza to play PA for her best friend and international pop sensation Isla Starr, she has trouble adapting to the carefree and easy-going vibe on the island. The situation isn’t aided by Isla’s seemingly surly yet irritatingly attractive music producer, the world-renowned dance DJ Logan Wild, known by his real name—Cameron—to his friends. Plus, Nina’s run-ins with, and repeated rebuttal of, an extremely entitled and very annoying male singer named Zac don’t help to aid her mood.

Unbeknownst to Nina, Cameron remembers her from the past, when he was a geeky student who admired her from afar. Unfortunately, it’s clear that Nina considers him ill-natured, no doubt due to his natural awkwardness, which he masks using a stage persona. However, even if that weren’t the situation, he’s involved in a dead-end relationship with his celebrity girlfriend Ash. Plus, Nina’s eye appears to have been drawn onto Ash’s no good ex-boyfriend, Zac, therefore there’s no point in believing anything could ever happen between them.

But despite all of that being the case, for some reason, he just cannot stop thinking about her.

First for Romance (Totally Bound’s bookstore): https://www.firstforromance.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=71339

Amazon UK: http://mybook.to/sunseaandsummervibes

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Sea-Summer-Vibes-Allison-ebook/dp/B094JXJSWP

Growing up, Zoe Allison loved stories about falling in love. But rather than being rescued by a knight in shining armour, she imagined herself fighting dragons alongside him, battling supervillains as heroic allies, or teaming up to dive into perilous waters in order to save a loved one from drowning. Once Zoe did grow up, she became a doctor. But as time went on, she craved a creative outlet to counter the soul sapping burnout that her career inflicted upon her, and also to achieve those happy endings that were so often lacking in the real world. She wanted heroes who truly love and value women, who find their true love inspiring, are fascinated by her, want to connect with her as a soulmate and fully open themselves to her on an emotional level. And so, Zoe began to write her romances.

A Zoe Allison novel promises a heroine who is not only her hero’s equal in ability and intellect, but whose hero equals her in emotional intelligence. Her characters overcome conflict infused with spine tingling sexual tension to forge a deep connection as soul mates as well as lovers, and ultimately, they both rescue each other emotionally. Even if they might begin their journey as enemies…

Twitter: https://twitter.com/zoeallisonauth1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zoe.allison.9279

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TikTok: tiktok.com/@zoeallisonauthor

New Book Publication Spotlight & Author Guest Post: Getting Away With Murder by Joy Wood

After taking voluntary redundancy from a high profile job in the NHS, my intention was to look around for a part-time job locally in nursing. I decided to give myself the summer off and whilst walking up and down the seafront each day for my morning exercise, I came up with the idea of writing a novel. Each day I would sit and watch the tide turn, dreaming up characters, and then rush home and type them up before they completely disappeared from my mind.

The first novel took almost a year to complete before even finding an editor to take me on. Thankfully I did and it soon became apparent there was “a lot of work to be done.” But I persevered with everything he suggested and self-published my first novel, For the Love of Emily. I had to learn all the tools to market which was a significant challenge for me as due to my high profile job – I wasn’t even on Facebook! But I quickly grasped it taking advantage of the many offers of help. The book community really are fabulous and supportive. I’d entered a completely new world which I can’t ever imagine not being in now. With their help, I launched my book and it did relatively well for a new author. But after an initial flurry, sales diminished. I went on local radio and TV and also did several book signing in local cafes. Although being visible increased my sales – I still needed more.

I proceeded to write that second book Knight & Dey (authors advised this was necessary to increase sales), and initially, it did do exactly that. But even though it raised my profile, it was still ‘work in progress’. But then I got lucky. I was invited one evening to a local book club to talk about my writing, and it was a delight to explain to the ladies about my journey from nursing to author. I must have done okay as before I knew it, I was asked to attend other local venue to speak. It soon snowballed and I developed the talk and included more humour to amuse the audience (From Bedpan to Pen!) and before I knew it, I was getting booked up most weeks by various WI’s, as an after lunch/dinner speaker, and other book clubs. The added bonus of the speaking events was the paperback books I sold once I’d finished my talk. The audiences were so keen to support me by buying a book, which was lovely. So, while I wasn’t racing up the Amazon charts with digital books like many authors, I was doing really well with paperback sales. My initial books were romance with a few twists and turns along the way, however, there was a large amount of adult content in them and it became apparent that I was losing some potential sales because of this.

I must just add, making money from selling books is not my greatest objective – my goal is for more readers enjoying the stories I’ve written. Any author will say that is primarily why they write. That said, of course the royalties are nice, but personally, I’m not looking for a holiday home in the Caribbean on the strength of those!

So, with the attention of attracting a larger readership (particularly at my public speaking events), I decided I’d write a psychological thriller (Who’s Smiling Now?) to ensure there would be a book to suit everyone’s taste. To my amazement it did really well despite me launching it just before we went into lockdown last year. The book still had an element of romance in it, but no adult content. And because of its success, I decided to try and write another crime/romance and the result is my new novel ‘Getting Away with Murder’.

I think the change in genre has been a positive one as I have since been signed with Dark Edge Press to write two books for them which I’m thrilled about. It will be interesting to see the contrast between independently publishing and traditional publishing.

Getting Away with Murder is a book is about two women who both love the same man. They are complete opposites. One is a happily married woman (Claire) with a ten year old boy, and her family is her whole focus. The other (Annabelle) is a wealthy career driven woman with a life based on achieving success in both her work and private life.

I wrote this book last year during lockdown – what else was there to do? I carefully constructed each character - one was easy to do, while the other was more difficult as she is so complex.

My goal is for the reader to be rooting for one of the women and disliking the other. Let’s hope I’ve succeeded – the proof of the pudding and all that . . . !

Getting Away with Murder by Joy Wood

Claire is happily married to the charismatic Max Maric and living the dream in a luxury house in the prestigious Sandbanks area of Poole Harbour. She loves her husband and their precious son, Freddy. Her life is perfect. Or so she thinks.

Annabelle is Max Maric’s lover. She’s a wealthy widow and is all set to marry him, just as soon as he’s divorced. Her life will then be perfect. Or so she thinks.

One man, two women, but they can’t both have him.
And he doesn’t get to choose – the schizophrenic decides, with a sophisticated plan to eradicate her nemesis in the most heinous of ways.

The intended victim needs a friend. Fortunately, she has a new one she’s become close to.
But nobody told her that false friends are worse than open enemies.

Amazon UK               Amazon US 

Joy Wood has worked as a nurse most of her adult life and turned to writing six years ago to ‘see if she could.’ Her earlier work was adult romance and intrigue, but more recently she has switched genres to romance with a crime element. Joy lives in the small but charming seaside town of Cleethorpes in North East Lincolnshire and her writing ideas come from watching the tide turn daily, of course with the obligatory ice-cream – someone has to support the local economy!

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