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Guest - V.S. Nelson
Good morning! We've got V.S. Nelson visiting us today. She'll be giving us a new perspective on rule breaking as it applies to her writing. She's also given us a great excerpt of her book Sekmet's Guardians - Eternal Lovers AND a terrific book trailer. Enjoy!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BREAKING ALL THE RULES
By V.S.Nelson
So many things have changed in the publishing world over the
course of my writing career. These days, the changes are coming so fast, it’s
hard to keep up with all the new “standard rules” when writing fiction. The governing
officials seem to change their minds daily on what is acceptable and what is
not in the publishing industry. So why am I writing about this? Well, for
starters, every book my new paranormal series, SEKMET’S GUARDIANS break the old
standard rules for writing any kind of romance, except for writing erotica, and
that is a whole different subject.
I knew I would be breaking a few of the rules when I started
writing the first draft of the first book in the series, Eternal Lovers but
never in my wildest dreams did I expect to break nearly all of them.
First rule broken… There was no way my hero and heroine were
going to meet in the first two chapters. Setting up any kind of series the
first book is bound to have more back story while setting the scene and creating
a world which would support an additional nine to ten books. Staging is
essential.
So rule number two was broken – layering the first few
chapters with bits and pieces of back story and history. Mind you, I tried
removing some of the back story and slammed my characters into a face to face
meeting in chapter two. Didn’t work, there was definitely too much missing and
at this point the beta readers were asking, “Why should I care about either one
of these people?” So I took the almost 150 pages I dumped, reworked them into
48 pages and reinserted them. I, along with my beta readers was pleased with
the outcome. The hero and heroine now meet somewhere around page fifty. As
expected their meeting was not one filled with tender moments. The desire is present
but so are the fear and the complications. (Conflict is well established at
this point.)
Rule number three was broken when I centered the stories on
the heroines rather than heroes in a typical paranormal romance. Take a look at
the shelves upon shelves of vampire band-of-brother type paranormal romance
series. These stories are based upon the mighty, strong, handsome vamps that
unite together in a common cause while each takes their turn finding true love.
Now I’m not saying I don’t enjoy these stories because I do. J.R. Ward, Lara
Adrian, Alexandra Ivy and Caris Roane are some of my favorite authors and I
love their paranormal series! We, as authors often write for our audience and
our audience is more often female so it makes since to concentrate on the
mighty heroes when our stories are developing. We want our readers to fall
head-over-heals in love with him. Sadly, because the industry dictates how long
our books should be, we often leave out chapters pertaining to the heroine.
She, of course, appears in the manuscript, usually with him then ends up
sitting in the backseat to his heroics.
The heroine often becomes a secondary character in the novel she was
meant to play a lead role in. Although, my series is a paranormal with gorgeous
hunks, my heroines will not stand still and take second chair. Their stories
need to be told as they find a way to capture the hero’s heart and soul. Each
book in the series is a story of growth, independence and true love – the
heroine’s journey.
Rule number four was broken when I allowed the stories to
expand. Rather then keeping to one central story or one romance per book; the
books in the series tell life in their world as it develops, much like one
would experience while watching a night time soap, which is actually what I
often call the series. The series was written for adults but not limited to one
romantic couple. In Eternal Lovers, the central
theme remains the same, bringing Jennifer and Gabriel together but you
also experience life with two other couples, the Ancients (the other six
heroes) and Set’s Legions (the bad guys) while being introduced to characters
who will take center stage in the next book or two. The character’s story from
book one continues on to book two and so on. I’m often asked how to I keep up
with all the players. It’s easy, they have become more real to me than not.
Just because you have a dozen or so friends does not mean you forget them as
you make new ones. And so a night time soap was born.
Rule number five was broken when I mixed cultures. Again
this coincides with sticking with one main theme in your romance novel.
Jennifer, the heroine in Eternal Lovers is a half breed Native American who is
raised by her grandparents in a traditional manner. She is aware she has some
unusual abilities but never dreamed she was anything other than human. She is
also half Selkie. Gabriel, her soon to be lover, is an alien who is turned
immortal by Sekhmet when she leads him and his kindred to Earth through a
portal between their world’s dimensions. So what have I done? Rather than
working with one or two cultures I have intertwined Native American, European
and ancient Egyptian myths, thrown in some Sci-Fi and presto one paranormal
series emerges around modern day Lake Michigan.
I’m not going to bore you by continuing on with listing the
number of rules I managed to break with the creation of my paranormal series.
As I said in the beginning of this interview, I managed to break a lot of them
and leave it at that. I hope I have captured your interest enough to continue
to read the excerpt below from Sekhmet’s Guardians – Book One – Eternal Lovers.
About V.S. Nelson
V.S. Nelson has always
enjoyed reading stories with strong relationships and happy endings so it’s not
surprising she found herself writing across the romance genre. Even her
commercial fiction, Sins of a Man, the memoirs of a Mafia Hit man, is layered
with romantic elements.
Landing in Arizona, after an
exciting teaching career, which took her to the Middle East for several years,
she lives in Arizona where she spend most of my time making love to her
computer while writing, editing or researching, seven to ten hours a day. The
days she’s not writing, you will find her with my critique partners at
Starbucks, attending or presenting a workshop or at a RWA meeting.
Being a Native American woman
and a Scorpio, she’s always had a fondness for history, mythology, the occult,
and the unexplained events which have occurred on this world we call home. It
was no wonder she found herself writing a paranormal series.
She enjoys hearing from
readers, fans and people with similar interests. They are more than welcome to
contact her through her website http://www.authorvsnelson.com
SEKHMET’S GUARDIANSS – BOOK
ONE – ETERNAL LOVERS
When two hidden worlds collide
near modern day Lake Michigan, Jennifer, a young Native American, is confronted
with the reality, not everything is as it seems and things do go bump in the
night. The questions she has long since asked are answered in this epic tale of
self discovery when she meets Gabriel, the director of Guardians Incorporated.
Born in New Tuat, Netchkhet,
now known as Gabriel came to Earth some five thousand years ago to protect the
human race.
Disillusioned by an
unfulfilled prophecy, he has become cold and distant – even from those of his
kind. He secretly waits for his enemy to take his head so he may leave this
world for good.
Can a tiny Selkie melt his
hardened heart and restore his faith in a power far greater than himself?
When history repeats itself,
can he save her from death’s embrace or will they be robbed of a future again?
Excerpt taken from Chapter Five – Eternal Lovers
(Setting - making her escape from Gabriel’s penetrating
eyes, Jennifer is standing at the bar when she feels something on her neck.)
She was warmed by the drink, then instantly chilled to her
bone when she felt a breathe of air on her neck.
A deep voice whispered, “You smell delicious, good enough to
eat.”
She turned to find the dark haired stranger leaning against
her, his mouth upon her neck. Not knowing what to do, she took both hands and
pushed against his chest as hard as she could, yelling, “Get the fuck away from
me!”
Marching right past him she headed back to the billiard room.
She stomped up to Raphael, grabbed hold of his hand, pulling him into the other
room.
“Ah… Ah… Jennifer, where are we going?”
Looking around, she realized she had drug Raphael to the one
room, now empty of furniture, set aside for dancing. They were standing in the
center of the room with couples dancing all around them. She reached up and put
both of her hands around Raphael’s neck and demanded, “Dance with me.”
Puzzled as he must have been, he placed his hands on the
small of her back and began swaying with her to the music. She laid her head
against his chest. God, it felt good being so close to him–safe.
“You know all you had to do was ask. I’d never turn down a lady in distress. I’m
flattered but curious as to what brought all this on?”
“I guess I’m just over reacting, but there was a guy in
there…” She motioned with her head towards the other room. “...who was giving
me the creeps. Evidently, he was staring at me while I was playing backgammon
with Alice; well at least that’s what Marie said.”
“Jennifer, I’m sure you are use to having men stare at you.
You are a beautiful woman. I believe I told you earlier you look enchantingly
beautiful tonight.”
She blushed. Raphael could charm anyone.
“It wasn’t just that he was staring at me. I left the room
and went to get a drink and the next thing I knew he was leaning into me. He
had me pinned against the bar. Lord, I swear he was sniffing my hair. I don’t
know if he’s drunk, high or what but he really scared the living daylights out
of me.”
“Oh I see… and now you want the security guard and all this
time I thought it was my charm that held you captive? I thought maybe you
missed me… So what did this would be stalker look like?”
“Yes, no, hell I don’t know, all I could think of was
finding you.”
“Jennifer, what did he look like, I’ll go find him and have
a few words with him. If he’s drunk or on drugs, I’ll escort him out of here. I
can’t have one of Alice’s guests being all upset. Now can I?”
Racing through her memory she tried to picture him in her
mind. She couldn’t tell Raphael that he was a delectable yet scary looking hunk
with the most intriguing eyes she had ever seen, could she?
“He’s dark haired, yeah black hair, really tall, taller than
you, oh yeah, and he’s wearing a black suit with a black shirt and of all
things sunglasses. He came to the party with four girls. I think maybe he’s a
pimp?”
Eternal Lovers – Paperback -
http://tinyurl.com/b8ll29b
Eternal Lovers – Large Print - http://tinyurl.com/ae3u6lv
Eternal Lovers – Kindle - http://tinyurl.com/amvlphl
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Lynda Again
Wow! Terrific excerpt! In fact, the entire series sounds terrific, doesn't it? I'd actually started reading this one but had to stop to read contest entries. I can't wait to get back to it!
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6 Responses to "Guest - V.S. Nelson"
Thanks for being with us today! I think you've touched on some of the same 'rules' I've encountered in my writing as well. It's an interesting business, isn't it?
So ready to jump into "Eternal Lovers"...I've moved it to the top of my TBR pile.
Thanks Virginia for the publishing world insight. It seems the only rule for us writers is to write a great story (or stories) for our readers. Now more than ever we control our Destiny!
Congratulations!
KJ Montgomery
Wanted to add:
I love the tease you provided and I must say as a reader (and this is just me), I love a rich backstory that builds into the meeting of the heroine and hero. By the time they make their appearance together we’ve been able to immerse ourselves in their lives.
Great post. I tweeted.
Thank you Lynda for having me here with you today and thank you everyone who has left a comment. I'll be in and out today, saying hello and answering any questions anyone might have. Have a great Monday everyone! Virginia
Hi V.S.,
Congrats on your release and I enjoyed your thoughts on breaking the rules - especially rule no. 3. While readers want to fall in love with the hero, we still want to be the heroine and need her to shine as well.
Thanks for sharing!
Melinda
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