Introduce Your Main Character Bloghop

A few weeks ago, I was tagged by new CQ author Samantha Dunaway Bryant, and I’m finally finding time to take part in the Introduce Your Main Character Bloghop.

Thanks for the tag, Samantha!

CW Arrow's Emily Bett Richards
would make the perfect Roxie

1. What is the name of your main character? Are they fictional or a historic person?

Roxie Whitmore, and she’s fictional.

2. When and where is the story set?

Present time, West Midlands UK. I didn’t base the story in a real city, but invented one, named Stourley, by combining elements of different cities in the Midlands.

3. What should we know about them?

Roxie is just an ordinary 22-year-old, who’s thrown into an extraordinary world.

She’s recently graduated university with a marketing degree, and has landed a lucrative job with Farley Cosmetics; one of the world’s leading cosmetics companies.

Only her first day doesn’t go as planned, when Roxie discovers her new boss, Catherine Farley, is a lich (supernatural creature) that feeds on other people’s souls.

Soon she’s caught up with the Order of the Ancile – an ancient group of supernatural creature hunters – and agrees to help defeat Catherine.

Now, she has to put her faith and trust in strangers, and make sense of what she discovers, while overcoming the insecurities and issues of being betrayed and lied to in the past.

4. What is the main conflict? What messes up their life?

There’s a few factors, actually. The main one is obviously Catherine Farley, and as soon as Roxie discovers what Farley is capable of, she wants to help the Order of the Ancile defeat Catherine.

However, Roxie also has trust issues, and is somewhat insecure, especially when it comes to guys. These insecurities complicate matters when she starts to fall for one of the Ancile members, Sol.

Now Roxie has to balance her growing feeling for Sol and get over her fear that if she lets him in he’s going to hurt her, while working with the Ancile to devise a way to defeat Catherine and protect the city of Stourley.

5. What is their personal goal?

Again, there’s a few. The main one is to defeat Farley and make sure no more innocent people die because of her. She also starts wondering about the Order of the Ancile, and how they deal with certain situations regarding civilians, which makes her want to join them so she can help improve their relationships with those effected by the supernatural.

Then there’s her growing feelings for Sol. Roxie needs to be sure she isn’t going to get her heart broken, and that once the threat of Farley is gone, things with her and Sol won’t just fizzle away.

6. Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

Yes. I’ve very recently settled on title I like, after months of brain storming. The whole series (I have six books planned) will be called The Order of the Ancile, and book one is “Liches, Lipstick and Love.”

You can find out more about it by reading through the Order of the Ancile tag.

7. When can we expect the books to be published?

Publishing is a long way off, I’m currently revising the manuscript based on the feedback from my awesome critters. But I aim to have it query/ pitch ready by the end of the year.

I tag Kyra Lennon, Christine Rains, Cecelia Robert, Darin Kennedy and Gail Strickland.

--

About Samantha Dunaway Bryant:

Samantha Bryant believes in love, magic, and unexplainable connections between people. Her favorite things are lonely beaches, untamed cliff tops, sunlight through the leaves of trees, summer rains, and children's laughter. She has lived in many places, including rural Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Vermont, England and Spain. She is fierce at heart, though she doesn't look it. (The shorter version is: Dangerous When Bored).

Samantha can be found at her blog, here: http://samanthadunawaybryant.blogspot.com

WIP: The Movie Bloghop

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you've all had a productive week. I certainly have, with the kids back in school, I'm managing to get a couple of hours writing in every morning! 

I'm here today taking part in WIP: The Movie Bloghop, hosted by the lovely Kyra Lennon and Rachel Schieffelbein.

For those of you unsure what the bloghop is all about, here's what Kyra and Rachel said:

Almost all of us have imagined who would play the characters in our WIPs if they were ever made into a movie. On February 28th, we want you to “cast” your WIP, and post photos of the actors/actresses you would choose to play the characters in your latest manuscript. You don’t have to cast everyone if you don’t want to, just show us your MCs and tell us a little about them. 

Also, we’d like you to tell us which songs you’d have on your WIP Movie soundtrack! This can be one song that fits the main theme of the story, or several songs that make you think of your story.

Rachel and Kyra will each pick a winner at random, and they're giving away one of their favourite books which were turned into movies!

Rachel’s prizes: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak + Choose one of Rachel’s ebooks.

Kyra's prizes: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky + Choose one of Kyra's ebooks OR an ARC of Game On Book 3.

And here is my dream cast for my current WIP, an untitled new-adult, urban-fantasy/ paranormal romance, that I'm referring to as The Order of The Ancile book one. 

So, you've seen my dream cast, let's find out a little more about them.

Roxie Whitmore - My leading lady, Roxie is a twenty-two year-old uni graduate, who's just landed her dream job at Farley Cosmetics - the UK's leading cosmetics company - working under her idol, Farley CEO Catherine Farley. 

Only Catherine is hiding a supernatural secret, and when Roxie accidentally uncovers it, she's thrust into a whole new world, as she meets The Order of the Ancile; a ancient order of supernatural creature hunters.

Good job she has this guy looking out for her ...

Sol  Purcell - My leading man, and Roxie's love interest, Sol is a soldier in the Order of the Ancile. Working an undercover mission at Farley Cosmetics to find a way to take down Catherine Farley, he saves Roxie when she discovers the truth about Catherine, and introduces her to the Order, who ask for Roxie's help destroying Catherine.

Catherine Farley - Catherine is my main antagonist, and the person Roxie and The Order of the Ancile need to defeat. While her public face is that of a 30-something CEO, heading a company that's been in her family for generations, the truth is, she's actually a 600 year-old lich, who is seeking immortality by feeding from other people's souls, and Roxie is her main target. 

Bernard Austin - Bernard is the leader of the Ancile's West Midlands unit, and Sol's commanding officer. He's a tough man, who will  go to any lengths to defeat the evil supernatural creatures he faces, and he instantly rubs Roxie up the wrong way. He doesn't think she can handle the paranormal world she's been thrown into, and is worried she will lead to them failing their mission to defeat Catherine. 

Sarah McKay - Sarah is another solider in the Ancile. A quick fighter who favors twin short-swords, Sarah has a supernatural secret of her own, and finding out what it is keeps Roxie intrigued during her training sessions with the Ancile.

Mike Tully - What Mike lacks in height, he makes up for in guts. Even though he's the shortest solider in the team, at just 5ft 2, when he's armed with his trusty cross-bow, Mike makes a formidable opponent. The joker of the Ancile, he's always there with a wisecrack to lighten the tension. 

Bethany Mayweather - Bethany is a scientist for the Ancile, and grew up in the Order. She's also a great cook, and secret computer hacker. Quiet and reserved, Bethany is often the voice of reason in the Ancile, and calms everyone down when the soldiers get worked up.

Graham Lloyd - Graham is the senior scientist in the Ancile, and Bethany's mentor. Though he and Bernard are close in age, that's where the similarities end. 

Now you know a little more about the characters from my WiP, let's hear the music that inspires me when I'm writing the story ...



Thanks for dropping by, and reading my entry in Kyra Lennon and Rachel Schieffelbein's WIP: The Movie Bloghop. I hope you enjoyed the little glimpse of The Order of the Ancile, and my dream cast for the story.

Don't forget to hop around to all the other blogs taking part. The full list of them can be found here. 

Have a great weekend, and I'll be back on Wednesday, for March's IWSG, where I'll be talking about if you should change what you write to be successful.

January Update

Happy Friday, everyone!

I hope you've all had a healthy, happy, productive week!

My week has been excellent. 

Work at Curiosity Quills is going well, and I'm still very much enjoying it. Having lots of fun at the moment reaching out to book reviewers to see if they want to become part of the official CQ review team, and then sending ARCs to those who've signed up. I get a real buzz helping authors promote their work, and seeing how happy they are when they get positive feedback. There's also some exciting behind the scenes stuff going on, including a complete site redesign and some super awesome news I'm not sure I can announce yet ...

Writing wise, everything is good in that department too! I got over whatever funk I was in last week when I wrote my first ISWG post. Thanks everyone who offered advice. It seems like the best course of action for me is to read the story back to remind myself of why I wanted to write it in the first place, and then power through until I'm out of my negative frame of mind.

It seems to be working, too, because I written every day this week. I'm working on a scene where the main characters, Roxie and Sol, have to break into a cosmetics company to do some digging on the big bad and discover something pretty gruesome. It's been a lot of fun to write, and I've somehow amassed 5K! 

My plans for this weekend include going shopping for a new desk, critiquing Waffles by the awesome Alex Tanner, and hopefully getting a spot of writing done. I had every intention of doing all that last weekend, but then the Elder Scrolls online beta happened ...

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, whether you're working or relaxing. I'll try to pop in over the weekend, and catch up on all the blogs I've missed recently. 

UnRaNoWriMo: The relaxed, no pressure version of National Novel Writing Month.

Yesterday I took to Facebook bemoaning how it seemed like everyone around me was taking part in NaNoWriMo, and I wasn't.

That's until Candilynn Fite said she wasn't either, and suggested we form our own Under the Radar Novel Writing Month! 

So what's UnRaNoWriMo? Well, it's just like NaNoWriMo only without the pressure, word-count goals, overall goal, limits or signs-ups etc. 

Be it a new project, and existing project, revisions or a bit of everything. Just write. Don't worry that you're not going to meet your target for the day, or that your writing buddy has gotten more words than you. Just celebrate the fact you're writing!

So, that's what I'm doing!

I'm not going to post word counts, but I will update my progress as often as I have time for.

Work was quiet this morning, so I managed to get a little writing done. I've moved onto act two of my WiP paranormal-romance, and opening with some pretty heavy emotional stuff! Funtimes! It's especially poignant for me, as I can really empathise with my MC Roxie. I used to be that girl. 

Here's a little unedited snippet from this morning's writing:

I promised myself after Stephen I’d never allow myself to get into that position again. I would never give anyone the power to break me like he had. Better to be alone than go through the pain of losing someone you loved. Now Sol was challenging my every resolve.  

It was only going to end in tears. Most likely mine. 

Sure, he thought he wanted me now, but in a couple of months when the threat of Catherine had gone and he got to know the real me, he’d get bored. He’d want something more. Someone like him. He was a superpowered prenatural creature hunter. I was just me. He deserved someone better. And I’d be left in pieces again.  

I couldn’t allow that to happen. It was hard enough to put myself back together the last time. Besides, I didn’t need anyone. I’d gotten a two-one in my marketing degree, and landed a job at Farley Cosmetics without anyone’s help.  

Nothing needed to change. 

The time for tears was over. I wiped my eyes on the sleeve of my top, stood up and grabbed my gym back. Carrying it through to the kitchen, I got a load of laundry on and phoned Catherine to arrange a meeting for that Monday.

Now it's time for a work meeting, and after that, if I have time, some revisions on act one. 

What's everyone else up to? NaNoing or not, I'd love to hear your Friday/ weekend plans!

Still Alive ...

I know I said I was returning to full-time, scheduled blogging in September after the summer break, but well ... that didn't happen.

The truth is, work has been so busy that I've not had time for very much else.

Not that I'm complaining. I'm still loving every second of my marketing role at Curiosity Quills, especially when it involves commissioning an illustrator to design a cat in a top hat with a monocle that later ends up on a tote bag!

I'm intending to get back to work on my WiP paranormal-romance next week (the kids are on school holidays this week, so I don't hold out hope of getting much writing done!), as I've only got a little bit more revising to do before act one (around 35k) is complete, and then I'm hoping to send it to some beta readers while I work on act two.

I know it's a while off to be thinking about publication, but I have been, it's hard not to. One idea that's sticking out in my mind is serializing my novel.

I mentioned the idea of serialization before, when I was contemplating doing just that with an unpublished contemporary romance. I've since come to realise I've only got time/ focus to work on one project, and well for me it's my PNR. Whenever I get tempted to do something else, this story keeps pulling me back.:)

So now I'm wondering about serializing my PNR Working for CQ I've seen novels that have been serialized, and then later released as complete editions, and spoken to authors about how the experience works. I've learned serialization is a great way to build a reader base, as your're putting out new content on a weekly basis. I really like that idea, and it's something I'm familiar with from when I wrote fanfiction.

I still want to make some more headway with the story, but think serializing is probably what I'll end up doing. I'll keep you updated.

NaNoWriMo is approaching, and I was very tempted by it. So much so, I started planning an erotic paranormal-romance I was going to write. But then, my current WiP called to me, and demanded I work on it. (Man, I love this story! ^_^) So, while I'm not doing NaNo this year, I will be cheering on everyone who is from the sidelines.

So, what have you all been up to while I've been busy with work? What projects are you working on? Anyone doing NaNo and need a cheerleader? Let me know, I'd love to hear all about what you've got going on.

I will try to update more regularly now work is calming down, however, I am ditching the schedule. I found it was restricting me too much. But hopefully I can drop in on regular basis to keep you all updated on what I'm going, and check in on how your guys are!

Have a great week!

More Than Just A Kiss blogfest

“A kiss, when all is said, what is it? 'Tis a secret told to the mouth instead of to the ear.” ~ Edmond Rostand 

The wonderful Cecilia Robert and Christine Rains would like to invite you to the MORE THAN JUST A KISS blogfest!

Sweet, sizzling, fiery, awkward, mind-blowing. They want to read your kissing scenes.

The rules are simple:
1. Sign up on the linky list and post the badge on your blog.
2. On one of the days of the week of September 9th, post a kissing scene on your blog. It can be either fiction or non-fiction.
3. Please do not exceed 250 words.
4. This is a blogfest, so visit the other participants and have fun!

But wait! This is more than a blogfest.

They're offering prizes!

The scenes will be judged by these amazing romance authors: Cecilia Robert, Laurelin Paige, Kyra Lennon, and Christine Rains. They will choose three posts to win these awesome prizes.

Prize 1 - A critique of a kissing/intimate scene from your WIP (not exceeding ten pages). Critiques will be done by Cecilia Robert, Kyra Lennon, and Christine Rains.

Prize 2 - A critique of a kissing/intimate scene from your WIP (not exceeding five pages). This critique will be done by Laurelin Paige and Christine.

Prize 3 - A critique of a kissing/intimate scene from your WIP (not exceeding one page). This critique will be done by Cecilia and Christine.

BONUS PRIZES:
Cecilia, Kyra, Laurelin, and Christine will each choose one of our favorites to give out some fantastic ebooks.
Cecilia – TRULY MADLY DEEPLY YOU and REAPER'S NOVICE.
Kyra - IF I LET YOU GO
Laurelin - FIXED ON YOU 
Christine – All six volumes of the 13th Floor series.

And here is my entry, taken from my current WiP, untitled paranormal-romance. 

“Are you asking me if I’m ready to stop resisting?” Sol ran his thumb across my bottom lip. 

“I am. If tonight’s taught me anything it’s that life is too short.” 

“Yeah?” Even in the dim lamplight I could see the smile on his lips; those gorgeous lips I wanted to crush mine against. 

“Yeah,” I said wrapping my arms around his neck, and finally giving into the desire to run my fingers through his hair.  

“Are you sure you’re ready for this?” he asked, pushing his weight gently against me. We were so close now his hot breath tickled my face.  

“Why don’t I give you a hint?” I used my left hand to tilt his face towards mine, and ran my tongue over his bottom lip. 

In reply, Sol captured my lips with his, and pushed me down into the bed. His tongue explored my mouth, as I pulled the band from his hair, and splayed it over his shoulders.  

The hairs of his goatee tickled my face as our lips melded together, and my hands wondered down the hard planes of his chest. I came to a stop at the hem of his shirt, and ventured underneath it; relishing the feel of his taut muscles under my fingertips.  

We broke apart both breathing heavily and Sol shuffled back from me, though his hands never left where they rested on my waist.  

“I guess that settles it then,” he said huskily, leaving a lingering kiss on my lips.

I hope you enjoyed that little snippet, and if you're so inclined, please check back on Wednesday for another Working Wednesday post! 

Working Wednesday: No Longer an Intern and WiP Snippet, plus bonus pictures!

Afternoon all! Hope your week is going wonderfully so far.

I'm here for another instalment of Working Wednesday;   

where I update about my current work in progress, and whatever other projects I have going on; including my internship at Curiosity Quills.

But first of all, thanks to all those who stopped by my two Memorable Mondays posts - New Writer, Free Story, Author Relief Fund and New Soul Album and

The Thrill of it All Blogfest.

I am no longer an intern at Curiosity Quills ... because now I'm a fully fledged member of the team. I'm staying on in my position of social media representative, as well as taking on a few additional duties including updating the CQ Wattpad, Goodreads and emailing industry contacts. 

There's a lot currently going on behind the scenes at Curiosity Quills, including a really great contest, an awesome giveaway and a summer sale. Be sure to follow/ like the CQ Facebook, Twitter and Googe+ pages for updates, links to content and daily discussions. 

As I'm still navigating revisions land, I haven't really got much of an update about my WiP to share with you, so instead I thought I'd share a little excerpt from the first chapter instead. Enjoy.

    "I was having a great time, living it up in the VIP area, drinking Champagne and dancing with my new co-workers, but with every song, every sip of alcohol, my heart hammered a little harder. I could feel the beat pumping through my body, at first energizing me, but as one song blurred into another the excitement turned to panic. Where had all these people come from? Why did I feel like I was tripping my ass off and the room was tilting on an axis? Strobe lights flashed above, making my colleagues’ bodies flicker and judder, as mine moved of its own volition. My head reeled as the bass vibrated through me, making my chest ache and my breath come in ragged gasps. I was overheating and my body felt weak. My head swam and my vision became soft around the edges. 

    But I’d only had a couple of glasses of Champagne …"

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and as a parting gift, here are some Polyvore style sheets I made of main character Roxie.

Please check back on Friday, where I'll be taking part in The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club over on my personal blog, and discussing my thoughts on Spook's: Alice (Wardstone Chronicles #12) by Joseph Delaney.