This week’s featured Beau Monde PRO and Beau Monde volunteer is Suzy Kue, our chapter Newsletter editor.
Suzy’s tagline is “Historical Romance with a Kick of Culture Clash,” which I think is fantastic! Suzy is working on her second novel, a Victorian which is temporarily called Bounty Hunter, which will be changed, she notes, because the term bounty hunter was used until just after the time period for her story.
Welcome Suzy! So, over here at the PRO interview series, we’ve been starting with the twitter-pitch of your favorite finished manuscript. What to share?
Wow! That’s the hardest thing to do! But excellent practice. Still perfecting it but here goes:
Chills! Love it. What do you love most about that story?
I love working on the dialogue between a former American captain and a proper English miss. He commits any number of social faux pas that he’s able to charm his way out of by sheer force of his personality. And my heroine, as a lonely young girl, spent a great deal of time reading through Shakespeare and any number of other plays, thus she likes to speak with a flair of the dramatic and quipy one-liners.
Oh, this sounds absolutely yummy–lots of potential sizzle. It sounds like you really know how to create vivid characters! Will you describe an ah-ha writing moment and its trigger?
To quote the movie the Matrix, “It’s one thing to know the path and another to walk that path.”
So true!
The ah-ha moment for me, after years of dabbling and rewriting the same 3 chapters over and over again, trying to make them “just perfect” I finally followed the advice of, “Let the first draft be crap. You can’t edit a blank page.” My first MS, a multicultural historical that I have shelved for the moment, is the book-of-my-heart, but is not quite market ready. It took me 4 years to write because I kept editing along the way. My current WIP, which I have enrolled in my local RWA chapter’s PALs Challenge (which gives you specific deadlines to finish your book) is immensely helpful in keeping my on task. I have found that the deadlines make all the difference in the world. . . I guess another ah-ha moment. And my first crap draft is done! Have started editing to enter in Golden Heart and start querying agents later this year.
I’m so excited to hear you talk about this and I completely agree. I learned a great deal from April Kihlstrom’s Book-in-a-week. More recently, Candace Havens’ fast draft (2 weeks, 20 pages a day, no looking back) brought these very points home for me. You can’t rush revision, but you can help yourself by having an existing framework. Here’s to getting those drafts done!
So, What’s your favorite Romance and why?
I cannot not pick one, there are too many great books and authors that I have read. But I can tell you who some of my favorite authors are . . .Julia Quinn tops the list, Sabrina Jeffries, Sally MacKenzie, Eloisa James, and newcomer Anna Randol round out the list.
All fabulous, I agree–and three are or have been Beau Monde members? Any other thoughts/advice on pursuing publication?
Find support, whether it’s through a local chapter or an online one, having writing buddies that are going through the same struggles that you are makes a world of difference in an otherwise lonely career. My family, although supportive, have no clue why it’s taken me so long to write one book. They figure that I should be able to pop out a book in a month (I wish) and that all romance novels are Bodice Rippers (shudder). So having writer friends that you can share your trials and tribulations with is essential for emotional wellbeing.
I’m so glad you stopped by, Suzy. Good Luck with Bounty Hunter!
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.
Comment and win a e-book copy of Carolyn Jewel’s Lord Ruin. Drawing to be held by 10 am PST Saturday 9/24.
Suzy, your book sounds like a lot of fun! And your ah-ha moment about just getting words on the page is something that I have to constantly remind myself. Can’t really call myself a writer if I don’t write something down can I? Best of luck with the Golden Heart and the agent hunt.
Well, Karen, this one’s for you! Thanks so much for reading & commenting!