Today I'm delighted to welcome a guest post from Rhoda Baxter.
Rhoda Baxter
always wanted to be a writer, but her parents told her she needed to get a
‘real’ job and write in her spare time. So she became a scientist and now works
in technology transfer. She now writes contemporary romantic comedies in
whatever spare time she can find around her day job and her family. Which means
her parents were right all along. How irritating
Her first
novel Patently in Love was
shortlisted for the RNA Joan Hessayon award 2012. Her third novel Dr January will be published by Choc Lit
in 2014.
She can be found wittering on about science, comedy and cake
on her website www.rhodabaxter.com, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/rhoda.baxter.5), Google+ or on Twitter (@rhodabaxter).
Patently in Love
(Book 1 of the Email and Ice Cream series)
The girl who ran away
from fame to become a lawyer.
After her popstar boyfriend publicly humiliates her, Jane
wants to start a new life away from media scrutiny. Maybe even find a new man.
Marshall wants a partnership in his patent law firm. He just
has to prove he’s totally focussed on his work. No distractions. No office romance.
Unless, of course, no one knows about it.
The last thing Jane needs is to have her picture splashed on
the front page of a gossip magazine. To makes matters worse, the only person
who could have told the paparazzi where Jane was… is Marshall.
Book buy links:
All other formats (including non-DRM PDF) from the
publisher’s site: https://www.uncialpress.com/Rhoda-Baxter
Excerpt : (first
chapter is available on the Uncial website (http://www.uncialpress.com/patently-ch1.html
)
New Year's Resolutions
I’m not very good with New Year’s Resolutions. I’m a bit of
a ditherer, you see. Which makes me rather irresolute. What I am very good at,
though, is making lists. So here’s a list of the New Years Resolutions I SHOULD
be making:
11.
Be more productive in my writing time. I write a
book a year. I have two kids and a job, so I can only write at night, when the
kids are in bed. I do spend a lot of time chatting to people on Twitter and
Facebook in this time. If I didn’t do that, I’d be able to write more…
22.
Blog regularly. I blog at random intervals,
which isn’t the done thing, I’m told. Thankfully, I usually have a post from a
guest on Inheritance Books each week, which gives me something to post most
weeks, but I should try and do more of my own blog posts in between.
33.
Try and persuade someone famous to do an
Inheritance Books post.
44.
Plot properly. I love the idea of plot tools and
colour coded index cards, and I do try. Honestly, I do. But I always end up
writing off into the mists of confusion towards the end. I usually have to
rewrite the ending a couple of times. Better plotting would make things
quicker. Which would also help with point 1.
55.
Write some short stories. One of my short
stories is in the Truly, Madly, Deeply anthology that’s coming out next month.
I should do more of those. It’s fun to write something different.
66.
Learn to meditate. It’s good to let your mind
stop and do nothing every so often. I have a the sort of mind that, left to
itself, would wander off and start playing with the mental Lego. IT needs a bit
of taming.
77.
Do some exercise. The flabby middle and
disappointing end aren’t just limited to stories, the can affect the writers
too. So exercise would be a good thing. I wonder if you can combine it with
point 5 and achieve a zen-like exercise state.
88.
Invent a time machine so that I have time to do
all the things I intend to do in all these resolutions. I’m not great with
quantum physics, so maybe I’ll need to ask someone else to make it for me. I
wonder if Brian Cox has a time machine.
So that’s what I should do. I should make a nice chart of
those, really. With colour coding and highlighting and stuff. I feel a trip to Staples coming on.
Here’s what I’ll really do (probably):
11.
Waste my writing time wittering on about science
and Dr Who on Facebook. Then do some writing when the guilt becomes too much.
22.
Have a burst of blogging around February (when
Truly, Madly, Deeply comes out) and September-ish (when Dr January comes out
from Choc-Lit), but otherwise continue to post only when I have something to
share.
33.
Do the usual half-plot, half-seat of pants
method of writing my book and spend most of the November tearing my hair out
trying to edit the latest book into shape.
4 As for all the other resolutions, I’ll probably
have a go, stare into space for a bit, then wander off and eat some chocolate.
Chocolate is mental health food, right? It’s good for you.
How about you? Have you made a list of resolutions? Which
ones are you likely to keep? (If you’re Prof. Brian Cox – DO you have a time
machine? Go on, you can tell me.)
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