Romance Weekly Blog Hop - WIP Updates

Romance Writer's Weekly (RWW) has a website with its own blog, and a newsletter. There is also a Facebook page, and the Twitter handle is @LoveChatWrite.

I hope you've arrived here after having visited with Mishka Jenkins. An author buddy whom I met approximately two years ago, Mishka graciously introduced me to RWW and an even larger group of like-minded, helpful, friendly, and fun romance authors. I am forever in her debt as a result.

One of Mishka's novels, The Magic Spark, is available on Kindle here.

Successful businesswoman Alex is content with her life in London, and any ideas of romance have been left on the back burner. But when her fairy godmother, FG, waltzes into her office one morning announcing she has come to help Alex rekindle a passion for life and love, she is about to check herself into therapy!
The fairy godmother’s incessant wand-flicking soon lands them in the isolation of the Scottish highlands, where Alex’s next client, Mal Ross, not only stirs her professional interest but her romantic ones too.

But the path of love is never smooth, no matter how much magic you throw at it. 

This week on the hop, my question came up, and it is a nosy one. I'm curious to hear what everyone is working on right now, where they're at so far, and if they are experiencing any set-backs, dilemmas, or issues with things like plot, conflict resolution, etc. I also suggested bonus points for including a wee bit of their favorite scene.

Since joining RWW, I've met a host of new romance authors and enjoyed reading their writing. It's difficult to put into words just how exciting and educational it's been, too. A new world opened for me, and I've slowly started to break out of the thick wall of insecurity that I'd let myself get wrapped up a bit too tightly in over the years.

My goal is to have read at least one novel by everyone in the group, and while I am making my way through the novels, I can't say the same for my prompt attention to reviews, ratings, and blog posts. It will get done, though.

My latest WIP is tentatively titled THE CURSE, and I've written close to 50,000 words as of today. It is a story I put on the back-burner about four years ago and let simmer until it started to come back to me with more gusto and oomph.

My cue to get the thing back in line and run with it. :D

It is about a thirty-year-old woman who grew up believing the rumors and whispered secrets about a curse on the maternal side of her family. After her mother's untimely death, Kaisa decides it's time to discover the truth.

She bumps into the leading man at the airport, where their guardians make an invisible yet calamitous appearance, and the story takes off from there.

I like where it's headed, how it flows, and the amount of action involved. I think I've accomplished my goal to introduce a solid antagonist, and Jordan, a young, brash attorney with a personal vendetta against Perry, the reluctant leading man, is making headway.

I'm not sure how other authors feel, but I've always written my leading men in a way that makes me feel as if he's all mine. My lover, my boyfriend, my best friend, and mine forever. Maybe that's why most leading men are so freaking hot, perfectly chiseled, and Adonis in face, eh?

This time around, I stepped out of that comfort zone by creating a leading man with all of the outward features I tend NOT to admire in a man. Blonde hair, blue eyes, a bit hipster but still masculine yet in all of the wrong ways for a modern man to think, feel, and behave. He's a misfit with a needy boy mentality he's unaware even exists.

My biggest writing dilemma has always been with show vs. tell, but I think I've studied the two enough now to know when it crops up and how to remedy the problem. At least I hope I have. Also, I'd received an over-kill amount of bad and conflicting advice about imagery and description that left me deleting both from my work. Now, it is a struggle to bring it all back but I'm trying.

I should have known better, but . . . water under the bridge.

Here are a few paragraphs from that WIP

     “If that was all you came here to tell me,” Perry said to Jordan and folded his arms at his chest. Feeling bare skin made his eyes grow big, and then lowering his gaze, Perry now saw that he stood half-naked before them both.
     No way in hell.
     Perry hurried around the first row of lockers and quickly stepped out of his jeans. While cussing under his breath and berating himself for being twelve times the fool, he got dressed as fast as he could. Even as embarrassed as he was to have been in that stage of undress for that amount of time without even realizing it, his main concern remained wanting to keep Jordan away from Kaisa.
     After quickly swabbing some deodorant and then pulling a striped, long-sleeve shirt over his head, Perry peeked around the end of the lockers, checking on Jordan’s proximity to Kaisa while in the midst of zipping up his jeans.
     Jordan had crouched before Kaisa the same way Perry had done just moments ago, and seeing the man’s hands on her knees brought back his anger with a vengeance. He started forward on impulse and struck his little toe on a metal pole underneath a wooden bench between the row of lockers.
     In mortal pain, and with his mouth wide open, Perry didn’t make a sound as he slowly collapsed atop that bench. Closing his eyes, he leaned on an elbow and extended the injured foot in the air, shaking the excruciating pain away. Perry struggled to get his breath back. Squeezing his eyes tighter, he gently pounded a fist against the bench and kept shaking his throbbing foot.
     He wanted to roar in agony, laugh at himself, and yes, even cry like a baby, but he wasn’t alone and wouldn’t dare, so suffered in silence instead.
     “Are you okay?”
     Perry started to say he’d be alright, but it was Jordan who had asked, and even in blinding pain, he knew better than to assume that question was directed at him.
     “I’m fine,” he heard Kaisa reply, and the sound of her voice had a magical effect on Perry’s foot. He opened his eyes and stared ahead in silent wonder. A few seconds later, and he was well enough to stand up, zip up, and turn to face the two whom he would rather die than see in another embrace again.

Thank you kindly for stopping by and reading my response. Now, if you would please pay a visit with Jami Denise, to discover what she's working on right now.