The Sequel to my best seller! How I had to create one.

Diane Scott Lewis was born in California, wrote her first novel at five (with her mother's help), and published short-stories and poems in school magazines. She had a short-story submitted by my High School to a literary festival when she was seventeen. She joined the navy at nineteen. Married her navy husband in Greece, had two sons. She now lives in Western Pennsylvania.
  
She had her first novel published in 2010. That novel is now the reworked Escape the Revolution.
But today we discuss the sequel, Hostage to the Revolution, due out July 19th.

What do you do when a book grows too big?                        

When I started writing, I had no idea there were word count restrictions. I'd read huge, lumbering books numerous times. But the fiction world had changed, especially for a new author.

The answer to this problem is you cut the story in half, or in this case, the last third, which was the perfect place to break the flow. When I wrote this first novel, originally titled The False Light, renamed Betrayed Countess, and now Escape the Revolution, it grew to nearly 700 pages. I suppose I didn’t want the adventure to end, but the novel was unwieldy, and out of control.

I had to shave off the last third, plump up that part of the story, and create a sequel: Hostage to the Revolution.

Below is the blurb to explain the first book ESCAPE THE REVOLUTION:

Forced from France on the eve of the French Revolution, Countess Bettina Jonquiere must deliver an important package to further the royalist cause. In England, she discovers the package is full of blank papers, the address false and she’s penniless. Bettina toils in a bawdy tavern and falls in love with a man who may have murdered his wife. Tracked by ruthless revolutionaries, she must uncover the truth about her father’s murder—and her lover’s guilt—while her life is threatened.

The Historical Novel Society called it: "Simply brilliant."

For the reviewers who lamented that this novel has no Happily Ever After, that’s because you need to read the sequel for the true ending. For those who haven’t read the first book, I hope you’ll download both novels.

Here’s the blurb for HOSTAGE TO THE REVOLUTION:

Sequel to Escape the Revolution. In 1796, ruined countess Bettina Jonquiere leaves England after the reported drowning of her lover, Everett.  In New Orleans she struggles to establish a new life for her children. Soon a ruthless Frenchman demands the money stolen by her father at the start of the French Revolution. Bettina is forced on a dangerous mission to France to recover the funds. She unravels dark family secrets, but will she find the man she lost as well?

This last book on Bettina’s story will be available July 19^th.

I hope fans will enjoy both of these novels. I think readers will be satisfied with this surprise ending.

For more on my books, please visit my BWL Author page

Or my website: dianescottlewis.org

 

Soul Sisters by Gail Roughton

Take a Trip Down Home!

Netflix binge-watching is one of the joys of retirement. I missed a lot of television shows and movies during my working years. I've enjoyed the heck out of the opportunity to see past episodes of favorite series I'd somehow never managed to catch, and I've fallen in love with series I'd never followed at all, like Supernatural, Blacklist and Grey's Anatomy.  But being human, of course I found a few favorites.

One of two of the prize jewels in my crown of newly discovered (to me) series was a little CW production that ran for four seasons by the name of Hart of Dixie.  New York City girl Dr. Zoe Hart transplanted herself down to Bluebell, a little Alabama town on the Gulf, to take over her deceased father's practice. Turns out her mama'd had a little fling on a cruise ship some years back nobody'd known about, don't you know, including Zoe, and she was the souvenir.  It was filmed on a back lot and not on location and the set had been used before for several small towns, but hey! If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Oh, the critics didn't like it much, it was "demeaning" and "insulting" and certainly not realistic in it's portrayal of life in a small town.  Say whaaaat???  

Well, I've never liked what the critics liked and in general, tend to adore a lot of productions they trash. And in this case, all I can say is whoever thought this show was insulting and demeaning definitely had no experience with life in a small southern town, or ever followed the ebb and flow of town gossip.  You know, who's dating whom,  who's mad at whom, who's sick, who's dying, who's having a baby, who's cheating...well, you get the idea.  Life in microcosm. I even loved the accents and that's saying something for the accent coach, 'cause few of those actors were southern and I absolutely detest Hollywood's standard fake southern accent. The entire cast did an outstanding job and let me state for the record there's no such thing as one southern accent.  Every region has it's own and this show nailed it's target. It also nailed all the town characters, from socialites to eccentrics, from small town doctor to hair dresser, sports hero to local shopkeepers and jacks of all trades. A few of them may have been exaggerated a bit. And then again, when I think of all the characters I've known over the years--maybe not. I've watched the whole thing twice (don't judge me) and pretty much went into withdrawal without new adventures for these characters to star in. 

That's when I went on a search for a new series to fill the void left by Hart of Dixie, nothing involving cops and robbers, or spys, or medical emergencies and surgeries. I didn't want a situational comedy or even anything paranormal (yes, this is still me and I haven't been taken over by a clone, I promise). I wanted something real. No, not reality television.  Fictional real. Something you watched and wanted to jump into yourself, set in a place you wanted to live, populated by characters you wanted to know.  

That's when I discovered BBC's Doc Martin, the story of Martin Ellingham, successful, emotionally stunted London surgeon, who suddenly found himself getting sick (literally) at the sight of blood.  What to do, what to do? Become a GP in a Portwenn, Cornwall.  Be still my heart.  Filmed on location in Port Isaac, Cornwall, the scenery alone made my breath catch. The sea, the cliffs, the houses and cottages and shops!  

I've never lived anywhere but smack-dab in the center of the the state of Georgia; that is to say, in the Deep South, and truthfully, I've never wanted to.  I've never believed I'd be happy living anywhere else.  I'm a place person, my roots sunk deep into the small town Southern society I was born into, raised in, raised my children in, and will die in. And that's undoubtedly the reason I love Hart of Dixie so much. But I honestly think I'd be happy in Cornwall.  Why?  Because in their deepest essence, folks are the same everywhere.  Especially in small towns.  Every small town has the same ebb and flow of gossip and relationships, troubles and joys, and especially eccentric characters.  

As I got acquainted with all the town characters, the group of giggling girls, the depressed constable, the pharmacist with the crush on Doc Martin, father and son plumbers Bert and Al Large, I realized I knew them. I knew them all and loved them already.  Because every small town everywhere has them. All small towns are soul sisters and the citizens of each share kinship with the citizens of all.  It seems the BBC and Great Britain are more sensitive to that fact than Americans, as Doc Martin is highly lauded and critically acclaimed and nobody's ever called it insulting and demeaning in it's portrayal of the town characters. Which it isn't. But neither is Hart of Dixie. 

But no matter the reason, I send thanks to the BBC for Doc Martin and it's continued production, though I understand it's ninth season will be it's last.  Of course, that's what they said about the seventh and eighth season, too, so hope springs eternal.  I just hope the seventh season hits Netflix before I have to break down and buy the DVD set. The British aren't in too much of a hurry when it comes to the telly, it seems, they only typically film eight shows per season and typically film a season every two years. And they're slower than that when it comes to giving Netflix the green light. That's enough to drive any American crazy, including me--but Doc Martin is well worth the wait.  

Speaking of small towns, if you haven't ever visited Turkey Creek, Rockland County, Georgia, the door's always open. Just click the front cover and step into a world where everybody in town knows if your eggs were scrambled or over-easy before you even step outside the Scales of Justice Cafe....

Come Visit!

Check out Gail Roughton at

Books We Love

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Writin' With Southern Stylin'

A Trip (literally) back in time-a Cornish Village in Wisconsin, by Diane Scott Lewis

Years ago someone, after I told him my novels were set in Cornwall, England, suggested I visit this village called Pendarvis in Wisconsin, so off we went in the spring of 2015.
Pendarvis was built by the hundreds of Cornish immigrants who poured into southern Wisconsin in the 1830’s to work in the lead mines. They were homesick, so designed small timber and limestone cottages that reminded them of what they’d left behind. There’s even a Kiddleywink (a common word used for the working class and poorer people’s drinking houses) Pub.

Author in front of Pendarvis

But the mining faded away as the mines were exhausted. People went west for the California Gold Rush.

A hundred years later, most of these cottages had vanished. Two men, Neal and Hellum, teamed up to preserve the ones that remained. In 1935 they started reconstructing the buildings, and, in the Cornish tradition, named each cottage: Pendarvis, Polperro, Trelawny.

My husband, George, and I had been to Cornwall, England and toured local cottages. We even stayed in one built as a barn in the 1600’s, then converted to a home in 1750.

We walked through the refurbished Wisconsin version of Cornwall, quite impressed. Furniture from that 19th century time period filled the majority of the dwellings. I fell in love with one cottage and had to be dragged out.

Then the visit turned into a Comedy of Errors. My husband, who is tall by 19th century standards, walked into a low door lintel, knocked himself backwards and scraped his arm on a table. Due to a heart irregularity, George is on blood thinners. By the time we got outside, on our way to the next cottage, blood was dripping down his arm.

He told me to wait and he’d rush to the car for a bandage. Being stubborn, I started up the stone steps toward the next dwelling. In the shade, unbeknownst to me, the step was covered in slippery moss. Not the most graceful of people, I of course, slipped and tumbled into the low shrubs next to the walkway. The shrubs broke my fall nicely. But George had hurried back to pull me out, blood still dripping down his arm. As he danced around, trying not to smear me with blood, and I struggled to rise, we made an amusing sight. Thank goodness we were the only ones there.

If you’d like to learn more about old Cornwall, visit my website, or check out my novel, The Apothecary’s Widow, set in Truro, England in the 18th century. The Historical Novel Society called it “entertaining.”


Click HERE to order.

Source: http://pendarvis.wisconsinhistory.org/About/History.aspx

Diane Scott Lewis writes historical fiction with romantic elements.
Visit her website:
http://www.dianescottlewis.org

Interviews...Friend or Foe? by Nancy M Bell

Hello again, thanks for stopping by. As I write this post I'm getting ready to do a Blog Talk Radio interview to promote Go Gently, the third book in the Cornwall Adventures. For no good reason, I always get nervous before an interview. It doesn't matter if it's face to face, over the phone or the internet. There's no good reason for it, I suppose. Left over angst from my 'fat kid' childhood maybe. I'm always thinking in the back of my mind about what people will think of what I'm wearing, or if they actually like the book, or are just being kind. Sometimes you wonder if the interviewer even read the book. But, then again, that's just my own inner critic rearing its head.
Even though outwardly it appears I have no trouble speaking to a crowd or facilitating an event, inside I'm triple thinking about what I should or shouldn't say or do. Silly, I know. It's like there is another person inside who takes over and just speaks naturally and comes up with concise and well thought out answers to questions. I used to teach riding lessons for a living, over 70 students a week. I always got a bit a stage fright, even though I loved what I was doing. The behaviors we learn in childhood never really leave us.

I recently released the third book in the Cornwall Adventures series. Go Gently is available from the publisher, Books We Love and major distributors everywhere. While I'm extremely proud of the books, it's almost like they are a separate entity from me and their success is somehow their own and not mine. Weird. It's okay to crow about the books, but I would never crow about me, tiny voices whisper my grandmother's words - "Don't be bragging, it's unbecoming of a young lady." "Quit thinking you're so smart or your head will get so big it won't fit through the door" Or my mother - "I can never find nice things for Nancy, she's just so big for her age. I can always finds such cute things for Wendy (my younger sister) She's so tiny and blonde."

I realize none of that actually defines me or indeed really has anything to do with me. It's their view of the world, not mine. But in times of stress, up they pop.

The funny thing is, I really do enjoy the interview once I arrive or it begins. I love talking about writing, the process, and the craft. The magic of putting words on paper that evoke a reaction and emotions from others. It is magic and I love it. When the interview is over, I'm always riding a bit of a high and wonder what the heck I was so nervous about beforehand. Giving interviews or readings is a great way to connect with people. A reader will often pick up a book and buy it if they feel a connection with the author. Reaching out to them through interviews is a great tool. With the internet today, you can instantly connect with readers on a worldwide scale. It boggles the imagination of a child of the 1950s, that's for sure.

Summer Solstice Sunset 2012

I know, I know, picture has nothing to do with content of my post, but I love the colours. It's taken from my back yard over the rolling prairie. Home of my heart.

Okay, the interview is over and it was fun. Now, if I could just remember NOT to say Ummm so many times. LOL

If you want to listen to the interview (and count the Umms LOL) click here

For more on the latest Cornwall Adventures book, Go Gently, please visit my author page at Books We Love. It is also available in ebook and print online and at bookstores everywhere. Thanks for visiting. See you next month on June 18th. Until then be safe and be happy.