Thursday, April 2, 2015

7 Things I Love About Writing



My dear friend, Ellis Vidler, an amazing writer and incredible editor, tagged me on Facebook to list seven things I love about writing.  

And you all know I love to talk about my passion.  

So I decided to list them here, and then they'll go to FB and Twitter

1) Creating the plot. I love coming up with an image in my head of a scene, and then letting it sit, deciding if it's enough to build a story around.  I love that. I only wish I'd make more time to do this more often.

2) My Characters. Well, actually it's a love/hate relationship.  I envy you writers who come up with a character and then build the story around them.  I can't seem to do that. But once I get my first draft done, I love finding out more layers, complexities and quirks of those people who live in my head often for years if I'm writing a series.  

3) Research.  I think you love it or hate it as well.  I love it. And I can literally lose myself in the minutiae of a detail.  HA. Sometimes those little things never see the light of day in the manuscript. But you know what? I'm learning.  I think I'd be great at cocktail parties, if we even have those any more.

4) I used to love writing love scenes.  All those hot and wonderful love scenes, but now I don't. It seems it's all been done. I'd rather write the lead up to it. Remember how your hearts pounds when that first kiss of passion happens.  Phew, yup, that's more fun to write.  But dear readers, what do you prefer to read?  


5) Falling in love with my story. Sounds narcissistic doesn't it?  But honestly it's not.  If I don't love it and want to spend my time with it, why do this?  

6) I love learning why my characters are afraid. Usually it's something inside me as well.  I love building their motivation for behaving badly or angelically. Why they need to do what they do. We all have motivations and they're not all stellar :)

7) Sheesh, only seven? Okay final one. I love it when I get email from my readers. When they tell me they can't wait for my next book to come out in that series. And I love when they leave reviews. Not the bad ones of course. Those make me hurt, I'm not that thick-skinned. But when some says they can't wait for the next L.A. Sartor book, my heart rejoices.  Maybe I'm doing something right after all.

There you have it. 
Warm hugs to all.
LA...you know where to find me...look to your right on the blog :)



Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Five Secrets From Author Tracey Cramer-Kelly



I met Tracey when she joined Scriptscene, the screenwriting chapter of RWA.  


Bio:
I write about bikers, soldiers and celebrities. I manage our family motorcycle accessories business (Leader Motorcycle) full-time and support my two kids in their competitive soccer teams, so I steal time to write whenever I can. I’m not fast, but I’m persistent!
You’ve caught me at an exciting time.

In April and May the first two books in my Army Ranger Series will release (about two Army Ranger buddies who survive everything together… except, perhaps… falling in love). See details and free excerpts here.

Also in April - if you like audio books, True Surrender military romance will RE-release from Blackstone/Downpour (the details will be here)True Surrender features a wounded veteran (amputee) who finds his biggest battle is the one within himself.

Okay so now you know about Tracey, let's learn some of her secrets!


Hi Tracey, please tell us Five Secrets we may not know about your Military Romantic Fiction or you, but will after today!

Hi L.A. Thanks for having me as your guest today. Here goes:

1) I was a good medic but a terrible soldier. I spent five years as an Army Combat Medic. I loved the medical aspects of my Army training but I wasn’t good at taking orders or keeping track of the many ‘traditions’ of military life (you can read more at http://www.traceycramerkelly.com/bad-soldier-good-medic/)

2) I don’t do well with vomit. I often write my characters experiencing medical emergencies. As an Army Combat Medic, I could handle blood, guts and gore. But when it was vomit (in the back of an ambulance, for example) I came perilously close to joining my patient in upchucking my dinner! (That was the end of my brilliant idea to pay my way through college working night shifts for an ambulance service.)

3) I get along better with men than women. I wasn’t a huge tomboy as a kid; but I had stuffed animals instead of Barbie dolls, and I preferred the Fisher-Price ‘people’ to dress-up sessions. In my late teens and early twenties, I spent a lot of time with men between riding a motorcycle (not many women doing that at the time) and joining the National Guard. (It worked out well, as I regularly write from the male’s POV!)

4) I became a ‘biker chick’ at age 15. I joke that I was riding a motorcycle before I was driving a car (thanks to my dad). I was a pretty ordinary, slightly nerdy teenager in every other way, but I think there was a rebel streak in me back then; I liked being one of the few women riders (that has, thankfully, changed!). My current ride is a Yamaha Raider.

5) I wasn’t especially patriotic in my younger years. Even though I was in the military myself (and dang near got sent to Desert Storm in the early ‘90s), I didn’t really ‘get it.’ As I got older, however, I was influenced by several things. One: my motorcycle buddies are very patriotic. Two: our family business manufactures US-made products and it’s not so easy! But it was writing True Surrender - having to get inside the mind of a soldier - that really made me proud to be an American.

Blurb
:
Ranger’s Luck, Book One in the Army Ranger Series

U.S. Army Ranger Cory Foster returns from his latest mission to find the ‘civilized’ world turned upside down. Trading in defending his country for protecting his sister, he’s just biding time until he can leave on his next mission.

Dr. Madison Wright doesn’t date military men - or family members of her patients. But when a medical emergency introduces her to a tough-but-sensitive Army Ranger, she’s tempted to bend the rules despite the little voice inside her head.

When a beaten and bloody Cory shows up on Maddy’s doorstep, she can’t turn him away. But their relationship is soon tested as Cory struggles with doubts about his future in the Rangers, and Maddy wonders if opening herself to loving a military man is a wise choice.

This is Book One in the Army Rangers Series. It is a novella of under 15K words. Warning: there is one sexually explicit/erotic scene in this novella. 

Also see Ranger’s Destiny, Book Two (Chase’s story).

To read more about the Army Ranger Series visit: http://www.traceycramerkelly.com/army-ranger-series/

Buy Links:
Pre-order NOW on Kindle

All other e-tailer links will be available on April 20 here:

Find Tracey: