Abby Green: My 35th Book!

I have a book coming out in March – it’s my 35^th story for the Harlequin Presents line, so you would think with a little experience I’d have a fairly good idea of what works and what doesn’t, wouldn’t you?

Apparently not.

When I was coming up with the plot for this book – you would not believe how complicated I made it. (Really, you wouldn’t believe it.)

It was as if I deliberately went out of my way to make it as convoluted as possible. I twisted my brain into knots for several weeks trying to make it work. And I thought it was brilliant! I was very excited about doing my very complicated story because I was deluding myself into believing that this obviously meant it was going to be fantastic.

Needless to say, when it came to actually writing the story, it all fell apart pretty quickly! Disaster.

I’d forgotten the golden rule : keep it simple, stupid.

There’s a great quote by Robyn Donald – doyenne of many brilliant Mills and Boons and some of my favourites – ‘Keep it simple and go deep.’

That’s the thing though, sometimes keeping it simple is the hardest thing to do so we tie our brains into pretzels to avoid the fact that maybe we just don’t have a brilliant idea after all.

I now have Robyn Donald’s quote stuck on my computer to try and remember her words of wisdom when I’m in danger of straying down a thorny path.

Simplicity is good. But simple stories with deep emotions are the hardest to write, believe me!

A brilliantly complicated plot just masks the fact that you’ve lost the essence of the story somewhere along the way.  There isn’t room in a 50,000 word book for an over – complicated plot. The focus has to be on the Hero and Heroine and their journey to HEA.

With my own story, when it stopped working because it was just too ridiculously over – complicated, I had to go back to the start and simplify it until it worked again. The result is ‘Claimed For The De Carrillo Twins.’

So the next time you’re tangling yourself into knots (or I am!) trying to make your story as brilliantly complicated as possible…stop and remember Robyn’s words: Keep it simple and go deep.  

*If you would like to win a copy of this book to see for yourself what it became after the great plot purge, email me (abbygreenauthor@gmail.com - include your postal address!) with Totes Bags ‘n’ Blogs in the subject header and I’ll pick a winner at random by March 3^rd J

Abby Green: 10 Year Calliversary!

What do Heidi Rice, Scarlet Wilson, Fiona Harper and Iona Grey have in common with one of my favourite films, Four Weddings And A Funeral?

Well, they’ve all provided me with inspiration for this blog! My friends helpfully reminded me that it’s 10 years since I got ‘the call’, and then I thought of that great scene in Four Weddings And A Funeral where Andie MacDowell lists her lovers to an increasingly nervous looking Hugh Grant. 

Anyway, I thought of the ten years and imagined that each one is significant…a bit like a relationship with a lover. 

Year 1 – THE CALL! You’ve been wooing this lover for a long time, and finally it HAPPENS! Cue fireworks and Angels singing. It really is as amazing as you’ve been told.

Year 2 – The rush of love continues. You’re coasting on the excitement of your first book coming out. You are working on a second book and even though there’s a pesky little voice in your ear - ‘But how did we do it the first time around?’ - you ignore it and hope for the best.

Year 3 – The glow of the honeymoon period hasn’t quite worn off. But now you’ve done your second book and have come through that hellish fear + realization that you do know how to do it and now you have deadlines to contend with and they suddenly loom large.

Year 4 – With about three books under your belt, a kind of quiet cockiness sets in. You’re confident your lover isn’t leaving, just yet. You might even go public – to your first conference – whether it’s the RNA or RWA. Agents and Editors and Publishers, Oh My! Everything is a whirl of talk about Indies or Outies; Self-Pub or Trad-Pub; Paranormal or Inspirational. Lots of new words, workshops and all while trying to figure out what the heck a capsule wardrobe is.

Year 5 – You might build your first official home office now. A little nest for you and your love. But can you work here? Hell no! Why is it that the corner of your bedroom or the corner of the kitchen table still seems to be the only magic spot?

Year 6 – Now you’re a pro at going public. No longer the shy wallflower at conferences, you’re giving workshops and wowing newbie and aspiring authors with your knowledge. Even as you quake quietly in your boots because you still feel like a bit of a fraud and as if someone is going to snatch your latest contract out of your hands and screech, ‘We’ve made a huge mistake!’

Year 7 – This is when you might feel confident enough to leave the day job. The fear of leaving all that’s secure behind and taking a leap into the creative abyss. But with your lover by your side, how can you fall? Wheeeeeeeee! (Hopefully you bounce gently onto a soft feather mattress and don’t go splat onto concrete).

Year 8 – You can now look at your lover with a certain smug gleam in your eye. You’re both still here. A little battered and bruised maybe, but more in love than ever….or, wait a second…what’s that you see in the distance….*gasp* a more handsome/interesting lover???

Year 9 – You’ve broken up (or maybe you’re two-timing your lover). But it’s ok…because you weren’t content with the limited repertoire of your old lover, so you’ve taken a younger and more inspiring model who offers all sorts of new, er, positions. Suddenly, you want to try everything…what about self-pubbing a paranormal romance featuring a Werewolf/Fallen Angel/Biker?

Year 10 – As you wait to hear if your newest lover is going to commit, you realize you’ve come full circle and are awaiting ‘The Call’, again. Except, this time you know exactly what’s ahead and are ready to leap into the abyss with both feet. You’ll take a parachute though…just in case your lover steps aside at the last second. You’re not as naïve as you used to be! 

Look for Abby's new release, Awakened by Her Desert Captor on Amazon!

Connemara - by Abby Green

Thanks Leena for inviting me to blog! I thought that I’d like to share with you all, a very special place. I live in Dublin, which is the capital city of Ireland. It’s a tiny island, especially in comparison with the UK and the US. Special as Dublin is though, it’s not the place I’m talking about.

This April, myself and the lovely Kate Walker drove from Dublin to the west of Ireland to a place called Connemara. It’s right on the west coast and stunningly beautiful. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked down there a couple of times last year and it was so nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of Dublin for a few weeks.


Anyway, we set off on our little road trip. I had decided to go to a place called Delphi Lodge for a week to, ahem, write. In fact what I needed was a break so when Kate said she’d come too, it was the perfect excuse to make it into a holiday. I will state for the record here that Kate did encourage me to write, I just seemed to find it easier to read some of her early Mills and Boon books instead. For inspiration of course.


Delphi Lodge is a very well known fishing lodge (Prince Charles stayed there!), situated in a gloriously beautiful valley, on a lake. (It’s about a ten minute drive from Leenane where ‘The Field’ was filmed).

It is quiet and peaceful. The house is run as if it’s your own home; there are no locks on the doors, dogs come and go, and the kitchen is open for you to have tea, coffee, whatever you want, when you want. There is a small library, stacked with books and comfy chairs.

In the evening everyone who is there for dinner, meets in the lounge for aperitifs. There is an ‘honesty’ bar, where you can help yourself and write down what you have in a little book – a very dangerous state of affairs for two lady romance novelists. Having said that, I’d recommend the gin and tonics.

Then at approximately eight pm, you are called into the dining room and everyone sits down to eat at the same huge table. The lodge is renowned for its menu. In the week that we were there we had dinner with: A doctor, a barrister, a writer, a twice Oscar nominated actress (!), a Hollywood producer, a luxury car mechanic whose gorgeous girlfriend was a fan of Mills and Boon (clearly a girl with great taste ;-))…and that’s just to name drop a few!

There were lots of obsessed fly fishermen too, so we now know more about fly-fishing than we ever did. I don’t know about Kate but I haven’t quite decided how to marry fly-fishing with an Alpha male just yet…!

The place is truly magical, and I’m lucky that I got to share it with a good friend and mentor. It is absolutely perfect for a writing retreat. However, we were too busy nattering and socializing and walking and getting massages to write. (There is a place called the Delphi Mountain Resort – not linked to Delphi Lodge at all, just ten minutes walk down the road where they have a spa…say no more.)

So if anyone has a yen to get away from it all and to sit and write, in a room of one’s own, in peace and tranquility, Delphi Lodge is worth thinking, and dreaming about. Perhaps one day I’ll go back and actually write…or perhaps just go back with a friend again and relish the peace. And have more gorgeous massages…and gin and tonics.

Delphi Lodge is like the best treat you could ever give yourself…so go on, don’t you deserve it?! Check it out: http://www.delphilodge.ie/

Abby
http://www.abby-green.com/


ps - I have a Harlequin Presents Extra out this June – The Spaniard’s Marriage Bargain, and in September, Mistress to the Merciless Millionaire is released as a Harlequin Presents.I have a Harlequin Presents Extra out this June – The Spaniard’s Marriage Bargain, and in September, Mistress to the Merciless Millionaire is released as a Harlequin Presents.

Attending AMBA - by Abby Green

I’ve just recently returned home to Dublin after my second outing to London for the annual Mills and Boon author’s lunch, which is always followed by the celebratory champagne reception that Mills and Boon throw for their authors.

This year was even more enjoyable for me, primarily because I wasn’t shaking in my shoes, at every moment, and because I had met and made friends last year and it was so nice to catch up with them again. And I also got to meet and make new friends like the lovely Donna Alward who came all the way from Canada…

The trip started with meeting my room mate India Grey in our hotel room, she got there first and got the best bed, ransacked the tea and generally exploded all over the place. (Just kidding, she was very tidy and left a copy of her new book in its minty hardback cover on my bed: The Italian’s Captive Virgin UK January 2008, and quite brilliant it is too – but she did take all the tea).

The evening before the lunch we had dinner with some fellow Presents/Modern Authors. It was organised by Kate Walker and Michelle Reid, and also there were Jackie Baird; Christina Hollis; Natalie Rivers; myself and India again. A lovely chance to meet and talk before the mayhem of the next day…

…Which was straight to the RAF club, Picadilly. A very grand place with lots of plaques and pictures of flying men and women (well not literally…you know what I mean). The lunch was very ably and gracefully compered by Michelle Styles, historicals author. As if there hadn’t been enough talking and discussing the night before...I had Donna Alward on my right and Gill Sanderson on my left, and as Trish Wylie was on Donna’s other side I spent a lot of time sticking my face across Donna’s chest, but I’m sure she didn’t mind, as she ate her vegetarian noodles…very posh.

Then when lunch was over we managed to fit in a little tea and shopping at Selfridges…as you do. And I saw Noel Gallagher from Oasis going down the escalator. As he’s practically Irish, I didn’t get too excited. Brad Pitt might have got me excited…or George Clooney…but I digress.

After we’d taken tea, (have I mentioned that India Grey is inordinately fond of tea? She could give Mrs Doyle from Father Ted a run for her money), we walked up the road the short distance to The Oriental Club which is just off Oxford St/Bond St, right in the centre of everything. Amazing. In a little tree line cul de sac, it is exactly what you would imagine one of the old gentlemen’s clubs to be like.

As soon as we arrived and had left our coats in the cloakroom and marveled at the size of the bathroom – well I marveled at the size because my own house could have fit into it…twice – we went downstairs, got name tags and entered the fray. A very handsome waiter, straight out of central casting for the cover of a Mills and Boon/Presents novel offered us a glass of champagne, of course I accepted, well…what’s a girl to do?! And I won’t go into the fact that the glass always seemed to be full, I swear I wasn’t holding it out on a regular basis.

So, apart from even more authors here, who hadn’t made the lunch we also had the lovely and very glamorous Editors from Richmond. They are all gorgeous, buzzing around checking on their various authors, making sure we were all looked after.

And the day was even more special when first of all Kate Hardy received her 25th book pin and commemorative gift along with Mary Nichols, and then the other Kate, Kate Walker received her 50th book pin…! Needless to say we didn’t need any encouragement to celebrate and toast them. The day was rounded off with dinner in Brown’s, a restaurant just around the corner and organised by the lovely Biddy Coady. All in all, a great couple of days. It’s such a special treat…especially for us authors who don’t live near anyone else, this is generally the one chance in the year to meet up, discuss and talk the hind legs off a donkey…Here’s to next year, I’m looking forward to it already!

Abby

http://abby-green.com/

London Calling - Christina Hollis

I’ve just spent 363 days chained to my computer. Then last week, I escaped! I left my home in the countryside, and went up to London. This was a big deal for me. It was the first time I’d spent away from home, alone, in seventeen years. Kate Walker and Michelle Reid were hosting a dinner for the Harlequin Mills and Boon ‘Presents’ authors, so it was a very special appointment. I’d met Kate, Jacqueline Baird and Abby Green last year, at my first Mills and Boon event. This time I got to chat with India Grey and Natalie Rivers, too. Next day, there was a lunch organised by the Association of Mills and Boon authors. That was followed by a reception where, among other excitements, Kate Walker received her commemorative gold brooch for the fantastic achievement of writing fifty romances.

Meeting up like this is a great opportunity to socialise and swap experiences. Writing romance is the best job in the world, but it’s a solitary affair. It’s good to know that you’re not alone in sharing the pleasures and pitfalls of sitting behind a computer screen all day. We keep in touch regularly via e-mail, but there’s no substitute for a face-to-face chat. Especially when it comes complete with good food and a glass of wine!

If you’d like to read more about my first trip to London alone, I’ll be posting on my blog when I get the chance. Find it on my website, http://www.christinahollis.com/, by clicking on the link to ‘Christina’s blog’