Hello everyone!
I’m finally getting some time to work on my website, and I realized I had not written a blog post in a very long time. The past year has been a whirlwind!
Why have I been so busy? Well, I’ve been writing! Also editing, creating, promoting, and learning the world of the contemporary romance novel, the querying and publishing process, and everything in between. Oh, and surviving a Pandemic and lockdowns, kids in virtual school, camping, hiking, skiing, gardening, baking, and working remotely at my day job. Phew!
Who knew, at this time last year, that we would be a year into a global event of this magnitude? Not me, that’s for sure.
What is A Royal Deception?
One of the writing projects that took up a large part of my summer and into Fall was a commissioned book. I’d never written a book like this before, where I outlined the entire thing to spec, and when it was approved, wrote the draft. I’m more of a pantser, and I really learned a LOT about outlining and beat points of a story arc as I went through the process.
This book is a “season” of what Wattpad is calling Infinite Stories. I was contracted to write Season 2.
The book is called A Royal Deception, and is hosted on the @paidstories profile on Wattpad. Yes, it requires coins to purchase via the mobile app, or a Premium or Premium+ account, but I am hopeful you will think it is worth the price!
Season 1 was written by the wonderfully talented @TDMcGee - Tom McGee, who gave me such a great base to create from. I had fleshed out, vibrant characters and plot touchpoints ready to work with as I created the storyline. He made my job easy!
From the book’s front page:
When commoner-in-disguise Eddie Shaw is hired to trick a prince into falling for her, will she be able to break both their hearts when seduction turns to love?
*****
Being hired to trick the crown prince of Valandria into falling in love with her is maybe the last thing Chicago-born Edwina "Eddie" Shaw thought she'd be doing after losing her waitressing job. But when her hot as hell ex-boyfriend suddenly comes motorcycling back into her life, that's exactly what he hires her to do. The problem? No one warned her the prince had arms like a lumberjack and abs like a Greek god. No one warned her he had a sweet spot for rescue horses, a laughable inability to dance, and a wicked way with his hands. But Eddie WAS warned about one thing: her job is to make the prince fall in love with her, not to fall in love herself. Otherwise, breaking his heart might just mean breaking her own in the process...
What was it like, writing a book like this?
I had an utter blast bringing Eddie, Harold, Dylan and the rest of the cast to life on the page. I could be creative in what sort of ridiculous situations I placed the characters in, I stretched my skills in thinking about story continuity, foreshadowing, and properly arcing the storylines. It was insane how many scribbled notes I had scattered around me to remember what happened where, so I could resolve niggly plot points, realistically world build, or introduce characters organically, sowing seeds for Season 3’s writer! Tom gave me so many fun situations to bring forward into Season 2 that I wanted to do the same for Season 3!
It was also a huge challenge for me, and looking back at it now, I really grew as a writer with this project.
I have never written in first-person, preferring third-person (in all its iterations), and I’ve not had much experience writing a lighter rom-com with characters younger than me. I had to reach back and find my 20-something self, and think about my motivations then - which was twenty or so years ago. What was I thinking and doing? How did I make my decisions? What influenced me the most? I’ll admit, I asked my younger co-workers a lot of strange philosophical questions, and reminisced a great deal about my younger days. I wrote the entire season in less than six months, all while working on other projects that had deadlines as well. I was exhausted at the end of it. I took a break from writing anything new for a few weeks when it was all done to just breathe a bit - and catch up on sleep!
Would I do that again? I might take on another commissioned book at some point, but be more clear about deadlines and time frames, knowing more about my writing speed and capabilities now. I would also likely learn to schedule my time better.
It normally takes me a year to go from idea to the finished book, ready for final editing and posting on Wattpad. I’m not a full-time writer, I have a full-time day job working as a documentation specialist and process manager for the Canadian Federal Government. I write after hours, when the kids are in bed, or on weekends when it is quiet. Lunch breaks, the nooks and crannies of time I stumble across during my day. I usually get three to four “blocks” of writing a week. So, my creative pace is slower than some who are able to put out three to four books a year.
Now that the book is currently posting to Wattpad, and I’m seeing my hard work manifest on the page, I’m very proud of what I created and accomplished. I’m so hopeful it does well, and readers enjoy the journey. As with anyone who puts their creative work on display for the world to see - and critique - I now hold my breath and wait for comments.
I’ll update again soon on what else I’ve been up to, but I hope everyone is well, safe, and doing the best you can. I hope you are reading, writing, and happy.
Go check out A Royal Deception - I hope you love it!
~Caroline
