Boroughs Publishing Group

Here is the latest Boroughs Publishing Group newsletter for my followers to peruse:

Follow Us Like Us Follow Us Forward to a Friend October 2019 ·         > bpg news ·         > writer's world ·         > from the editor's desk Boroughs Publishing Group News Love Is In the Air Inevitably Emmie James is the youngest of the Devil's Spawn and the most well behaved of the bunch until she meets Kasen Cadence who happily assists in her fall from grace. learn more Break Away Zoey Hardesty's high school crush, Levi Gallagher is way better as an adult, but he’s off limits until he shows her there’s more to a man than the uniform he wears. learn more Cover Me In Chocolate When an employee goes missing from the erotic chocolate shop in Fetish Alley, Tate and Clay are called in to solve a mystery that has almost no clues. learn more James Alone has been a good place for former Army special ops team leader, James Masterson, then when he finds a family and almost loses them, it's more than he can bear, but for love he learns he can conquer anything. learn more Wade's Dangerous Debut Star of community theater, Wade Baxter's been living a lie for years, and to hold on to the man he loves, Wade must shed his demons and step into the light. learn more Men of London Box Sets Just in time for the holidays, a two volume box set of the entire Men of London series. Everyone is here, Leslie & Oliver, Tate & Clay … all the the couples you adore falling in love in London. Books 1-5 | Books 6-10 Writer's World Tips & Answers to Qs A NOD TO THE MASTERS OF THEIR CRAFT ON WRITING Mark Twain One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke. Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream. The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn’t because the book is not there and worth being written — it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself. I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them — then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice. Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words. It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense. Don't Forget to Sign Up For The Boroughs Book Club Buy any 10 ebook novels or novellas and get the 11th ebook free. (Lunchbox Romances are not included.) To sign up for the Boroughs Book Club, go to our website. From the Editor's Desk Gravity What holds your characters to the ground? This is not a NASA question, and it’s not a metaphysical one either. The reality you create for your characters must be adhered to or else the characters are not believable. Case in point: Cops. All cops start out as beat cops, even in small towns. They don’t become detectives, captains or police chiefs without having gotten into the gritty underbelly of society. Which means they are not going to behave, speak, or “date” like choirboys or Miss Mary Sunshine. Behavior: Get real. How many of you have day jobs that are desk jobs? Do you come home cranky sometimes? Don’t want to make dinner, go out to eat, socialize, be lovey-dovey with your significant other? Now, multiply that by ten thousand. Instead of biting your tongue during a three-hour meeting because your boss is dense as two wood planks, imagine having spent part of your day standing over the dead body of an elderly man who was killed for his social security check. Then the rest of your day is knocking on doors looking for witnesses, and/or filling out the requisite paperwork about your day. Are you feeling me now? Speech: Be accurate. Dialogue, internal or external, must reflect how the characters think and feel within the context of who they are and what they do. In an office setting, people tend to be civil, and if you’re lucky, collegial. Harsh language of any kind is frowned upon, and if you get pissy and use any of that harsh language, you’re sitting in HR explaining yourself. On the street, dealing with criminals, or people associated (read: fringe) with criminals, those folks are not speaking the Queen’s English. They are not civil, no where near collegial, and the economy of their communication is a necessity when things move quickly and could, and often do, result in bodily harm or death. If that’s who you spend most of your time with, either pursuing them, interviewing them, or arresting them, chances are you don’t speak the Queen’s English either, and the economy of your speech is a necessity so your authority is taken seriously, and you don’t get dead. Dating: This ain’t Darcy and Elizabeth. All good romances have lots of tension, heightened emotion, and the H/H are in a push-pull until they get to their happily ever after. If Sharon from finance is dating Fred from marketing, chances are they’re going to the movies, meeting for dinner in nice restaurants, and generally getting to know each other in social settings spread over a period of time that allows them to feel comfortable with the progress of their relationship. Most cops work either four days a week, ten hours shifts, or five days a week, eight hour shifts. Their workweeks are rarely Monday through Friday, and there are three shifts a day. The lower you are on the totem pole, the crappier your shift. If a cop gets caught up in an arrest or an incident a half hour before the end of shift, s/he is working OT until the job is done. Making plans is not easy. When a date takes place as planned, (and many don’t) it might be on a Wednesday night because that’s the cop’s weekend, and s/he is rested enough to go to dinner. The person they’re going out with probably has a “regular” day job, which means no tying one on or having a late night on a Wednesday. Buzz kill. For obvious reasons, cops have a different sense of urgency. If they’re serious about you, they – are – serious – about – you, and they want to nail that down fast as possible. Cops play the field a lot before settling down, and, again, for obvious reasons, have a high divorce rate. All of the above must factor when you’re telling your cop story, and the same holds true, with the requisite career information, whatever career you have your characters in. Otherwise, your H/H are not anchored by the reality of their profession and/or circumstances, and they are not believable.

. © 2011-2019 Boroughs Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Follow Us Like Us Follow Us Forward to a Friend September 2019 ·         > bpg news ·         > writer's world ·         > boroughs about town ·         > from the editor's desk Boroughs Publishing Group News Hold On Tight Her Haunted Heart When an aspiring artist inherits a haunted house it will take the help of the cute nerd next door, the crazy recluse down the street & a cat named DeLorean to drive out the evil. learn more Falling for Miami Breaking News: two sisters – both reporters – want to permanently co-anchor with the same guy. learn more See Me Mia's Mr. Right has to cherish her & be in it for the long haul, but Ethan's special & she gives him her heart when she should known better. learn more All I Want for Christmas While delivering Christmas cookies, Kate collides with a man in a Santa suit who changes her destiny. learn more Writer's World Tips & Answers to Qs A NOD TO THE MASTERS OF THEIR CRAFT ON WRITING Stephen King If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut. Wherever you write is supposed to be a little bit of a refuge, a place where you can get away from the world. The more closed in you are, the more you’re forced back on your own imagination. You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you. The writer must have a good imagination to begin with, but the imagination has to be muscular, which means it must be exercised in a disciplined way, day in and day out, by writing, failing, succeeding and revising. When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story… When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story. Don't Forget to Sign Up For The Boroughs Book Club Buy any 10 ebook novels or novellas and get the 11th ebook free. (Lunchbox Romances are not included.) To sign up for the Boroughs Book Club, go to our website. Boroughs About Town (& Country) Join Us Santa Clarita, California October 19th 2019 10:30 am Open Book Bookstore From the Editor's Desk Scars Lots of books have a hot guy with a cool scar. Sometimes it bisects his eyebrow, other times it zigzags across his cheek. The scar always has a story, frequently one that takes the hero back to a bad childhood, or a traumatic accident, or the scar evidences a dangerous line of work. More now than ever in fiction, women too have scars that factor, again speaking to a difficult past and those scars can be painful reminders every time she looks in the mirror. Scars are great devices and triggers, and the scars that aren’t visible create the best emotional tension. One of the ways to mine those feelings is to turn inward and look at your scars. Everyone has them. For many people their hearts and souls carry deep wounds that are often raw, or there’s a visible prompt tied to a bitter memory. Some “war wounds” are badges of honor, while others have funny stories attached to them. Regardless of how you use the scar(s), as long as the emotion connected to it is real, the reader will relate. Write what you know has more to do with experiences than vocation. An author with a nursing background doesn’t have to write a story set in a hospital. Any story from which the experiences gained by treating patients and dealing with patients’ loved ones translates onto the page if the author is honest and digs deep to imbue characters with the feelings the nurse has dealt with and/or witnessed. Fantasy and paranormal authors create new worlds with new rules, yet their characters’ emotions, reactions, and behaviors are familiar. That familiarity comes from experiences with which the reader can identify, all of which lie within the author. When it comes to writing an emotionally satisfying story, go ahead, pick at a scab. It’ll be worth it.

Follow Us Like Us Follow Us Forward to a Friend August 2019 ·         > bpg news ·         > writer's world ·         > boroughs about town ·         > from the editor's desk Boroughs Publishing Group News Scorching… Hidden Betrayal Shot & left for dead by his partner, betrayal and cynicism has Marshal Linc Jameson ready to turn in his badge until he meets Mikayla, who he vows to protect with his life. learn more Soul Crushing After everything Jace has been through, he has no expectations about his future, and he certainly doesn't expect love, but it finds him and rips him wide open. learn more Maggie's Starring Role Maggie has to secure grant funding to keep the Durango Street Theatre alive, but Kirby is standing in her way, and he’s too damn sexy to ignore. learn more Mend These Broken Stars Blake returns to his childhood home & hires Alex, a local contractor, to make the house saleable so he can flee his past, but instead, he finds his forever. learn more Writer's World Tips & Answers to Qs COLLOQUIALISMS Whether you write historical or contemporary fiction, most authors have characters from different regions of the USA, or write stories set in other countries. Getting the dialect and/or “sayings” correct is paramount. Our friends at Literary Devices have identified three different types of colloquialisms: words, phrases, and aphorisms. Words: Regional differences: One famous colloquial difference in the US is the way a person refers to a carbonated beverage. Regional borders separate the usage of the words “soda,” “pop,” “soft drink,” and “Coke” (used as a generic term not referring to the brand). There are numerous differences between American English and British English, such as “truck”/“lorry,” “soccer”/“football,” and “parakeet”/“budgie.” Contractions: Words such as “ain’t” and “gonna” are examples of colloquialism. Profanity: Some words are considered profane in some dialects of English where they are not at all bad in other dialects. A good example is the word “bloody,” which is a simple adjective in American English, but is an epithet in British English. Phrases: Old as the hills She’ll be right (Australian English, meaning everything will be all right) Eat my dust Aphorisms: I wasn’t born yesterday. Put your money where your mouth is. You’re driving me up the wall. To read the full article, go to: http://www.literarydevices.com/colloquialism/ Don't Forget to Sign Up For The Boroughs Book Club Buy any 10 ebook novels or novellas and get the 11th ebook free. (Lunchbox Romances are not included.) To sign up for the Boroughs Book Club, go to our website. Boroughs About Town (& Country) Join Us Santa Clarita, California October 19th 2019 10:30 am Open Book Bookstore From the Editor's Desk OW YA GOIN’ aka HOW ARE YOU GOING? In the colloquialism department, this question is a favorite. Akin to the US “How are you doing?” the Aussie greeting lends itself to many replies. Be creative. Language is a writer’s currency. Spend it wisely, and learn how it moves. It is imperative to know the rules and how to do everything properly – grammar, punctuation, verb conjugation, tense, sentence construction, syntax, etc. – so when you tear it apart, you make what you’ve created look and sound fabulous…and effortless. Enjoy breaking the rules after you have mastered them. Become a magician and pull a metaphor out of a hat, or create an allegory from smoke and mirrors. Misdirect your readers while pulling a red herring from up your sleeve. Send your readers down an emotional road from which they don’t think your characters will recover. Saw a relationship in half and put it back together in a way that is believable, yet staggering. Most importantly, don’t rely on your editor to whip your writing into shape – although you will get assists – your editor’s job is to help make your story better, to delve into your characters’ motivations, voice, dialogue and narrative. Your editor probes the whys and wherefores of plot development, and in a book that’s part of a series, to keep your over-arching theme on track. Your job is to give your editor the best and most polished material with which to work. Your story should be glowing from the shine you buffed into it after having done global searches for “just,” “very,” “eyes” and exclamation points. After you’ve checked to make sure you have no disembodiment (her eyes wandered the room), everyone’s names are the same throughout the story, and that you’re not using brand names when generic is better. After you are certain you have given all you have to give, then, and only then, send your MS on. If you’re not feeling it, a suggestion: read Brideshead Revisited* to see what extraordinary writing is, and watch it (the Jeremy Irons version) to hear what extraordinary writing sounds like. *Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh

© 2011-2019 Boroughs Publishing Group. All rights reserved.