I’ve Been Tagged in a Blog Chain!

Hello everyone! I was invited to participate in a Blog Chain. Alana Munro a fellow author and blogging buddy was kind enough to tag me.

All I have to do is answer four writing questions, and then tag three other authors. Next week, these three authors will answer the same questions and tag three others and so the chain continues to grow larger. This will enable readers to get to know more authors and their books.

Thanks for tagging me, Alana, and sharing my work with all your followers. 

Alana’s debut non-fiction novel, Women Behaving Badly, has been receiving outstanding reviews

This book highlights the strange, controlling and spiteful behaviours that some females specialise in as it seeks to understand what actually drives women to be cruel or bitchy to each other and attempts to make sense of the huge expectations women place on each other. How can we avoid toxic women? What bad behaviours should we be looking out for? This book attempts to understand what is really going on between the females in our life

One reviewer said of Women Behaving Badly, ‘This isn’t a women bashing book, by any means, but it is a frank and truthful look at the relationships women often have with one another. Learning to recognize the behaviors of women who don’t have our best interests at heart will help us to develop healthy, long lasting relationships with the ones that do.’ (By Jaycie D)

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Okay so here are the questions I need to answer:

1) What are you currently working on?

I am busy editing my NaNoWriMo novel. During the last few days of October, the more I learned about NaNoWriMo, the more I wanted to participate, but I didn’t have a novel in mind to write from scratch. I had plenty of first drafts and half-finished ones, but nothing ready to start from scratch.

There is a file I have added to over the years filled with little snippets and scraps: things I’ve overheard; ideas that have come to me in the night; news items I’ve thought would hake a good story, and things like that. Dipping into that, I pulled out the merest sentence or two of a story my step-father used to tell of his sister.

How could I make a story out of it, and write the first draft of a novel, 50,000 words in one month…with absolutely no idea how or where to start? I decided to jump in and just go for it.

I’m so glad that I did, because I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. It got me writing every day. I couldn’t believe how it flowed from my fingers onto the screen. I finished the month with 60,000 words and my completed first draft, which I am now having a great time editing and getting into shape.

2) How does your work differ from others’ in the same genre?

Really, unless a writer deliberately tries to copy another author’s style or stories, I guess we all differ even within any one genre. And, since I write from my heart it is bound to be different to those written from another’s heart.

3) Why do you write what you do?

I admire ordinary people who find extraordinary strength when faced with adversity. I love writing about them, telling their stories, showing their strength as it grows and triumphs.

4) How does your writing process work?

I am not very good at plotting and planning. I hate having to write a synopsis. I prefer to write the story as it forms in my mind, looking no more than a step or two ahead at any given time. It is helpful if I know the ending though, so I know where I’m heading in general terms, deciding how to get there as the story progresses.

Then I do a whole series of edits and proofreads. Most of my time is spent on the editing and polishing stages. For instance, my NaNo novel…it only took me a month to write the first draft, but it has already taken me more than two months to edit, still writing every day…and I’m nowhere near finished polishing.

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Okay, now that you know a lot more about me, let me introduce you to the three authors I have tagged.

*If you have been tagged, please answer the above questions and introduce your followers to the person who tagged you and three other authors.

 First up, another blogger and internet buddy, Jo Robinson. It was Jo who encouraged me to have a go at NaNoWriMo in November, and I am so grateful to her for that and all the rest of the encouragement she gives me.

For many years Suzette has managed very well to live her life without actually taking part in it, avoiding any possibility of pain by very carefully ignoring reality. Until something happens. Something so terrible that she has no choice but to abandon her cocoon of safety.
After the brutal beating of an elderly domestic worker, Suzette takes her in, and sets off a chain of events that leads to devastating heartbreak. And an unexpected hero changes everything. Finally finding her voice, she speaks out, and her world explodes, culminating in the death of a very special man.
On her path to make amends, she discovers the story of his life, connects with the people of his past, and finds the chance to fully live her life once again if that’s what she chooses to.

One reviewer said, ‘I can only urge you to read this book, because I reckon only the hardest of hearts could fail to be moved.’ (By Wendy)

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The second author I’d like to tag is Neil Ostroff

What would you do if you knew you only had days to live? Would you freak out? Would you waste it in self-pity, resentment, or denial? Or would you go and pursue everything you’ve ever wanted to do?

Nearly a decade had passed since Nathan stood inside someone’s home, since that terrible September morning when he lost everything he ever loved. Outside, a hurricane sounded like it was beating palm trees against the siding. Nathan didn’t know the sickly woman who’d rescued him from the throes of the epic storm. Her name is Miriam and she is about to change everything he ever thought about the meaning of life and what lies beyond.

Nathan discovers the strength of love can piece his shattered world back together and heal wounds that cut deep into his soul. With the clock ticking toward the end of Miriam’s life, he never figured the perils he and this dying woman were about to face by knowing the most horrible knowledge one can know.

One reviewer said, ‘Ostroff hits a home run. Drop Out is a truly inspiring story of heartbreaking loss, survivor’s guilt, and the healing power of unconditional love.’ (By Dora Preston)

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And the third author I’d like to introduce to you is Anne Stenhouse. I know Anne personally from the days when I was a member of Edinburgh Writers’ Club. In those days Anne was known as an accomplished playwright. She now writes Historical Romance novels.

Leaving the chapel in London’s 19th century Thames’ side where she teaches the alphabet to a raggle-taggle of urchins, Mariah Fox is charged by a stray pig. The quick intervention of Tobias Longreach saves her from certain injury. Mariah has always believed her destiny to be teaching. After the early death of her mother, she was brought up by her papa, Jerome, to believe that she could learn anything a boy could. She shares his vision of a future in which everyone, rich or poor, boy or girl, will be taught at least the rudiments of reading, writing, and counting.

One reviewer said, ‘Mariah’s Marriage has a refreshingly intelligent heroine and an engaging hero who recognises her worth. I really enjoyed the background details of Mariah’s aim to educate the ragged children in the early 1820s, while falling for the charms of an Earl almost against her will.’ (By R. Gemmell)

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