Book reviews and Jon Bon Jovi

On Fire, my second romantic suspense, arrives in book stores in two weeks and one day. Not that I’m counting or anything. But the exact date is Sept. 4, 2007, if you’d care to put that on your calendar. :)

On Fire takes place in Charleston, West Virginia. The hero is a fire investigator. The heroine is a newspaper reporter. The two begin as adversaries but become allies when they realize the string of arsons they’re investigating is related to a series of murders.

I’ve already received two advance reviews, and I’m so relieved that they were strong, positive reviews. ChickLitGurrls (Shon Bacon) gave it a 4.5 out of 5 and called it a “suspenseful thriller.” Romantic Times Book Reviews (which reviews all genres of fiction; don’t let the magazine name mislead you) gave it a 4.5-star, fantastic, keeper review. The reviewer wrote, “Sargeant's scrupulous research coupled with terrific writing makes this a sensational and engrossing story.”

You're probably wondering what this has to do with Jon Bon Jovi.

I love watching biographies of successful people. What makes them successful? How do they keep moving forward? A couple of weekends ago, the Biography channel did a documentary on Jon Bon Jovi. At one point during the interview he talked about being nervous when it came time to produce his second album. And I quote, "You have your whole life to write your first album and this tiny window of time to write the second one."

I felt the same way when I was writing – or rewriting, actually – On Fire. After all, I had six years to polish my first romantic suspense, You Belong to Me, compared to nine months to rewrite On Fire. As a new author who’s still trying to find my writing pace and schedule, I was particularly nervous over how my second title would be received. That’s why the reviews were such a great relief.

Patricia

Stay in your story

The other day at my day job – the I’ve-got-bills-to-pay job – I was talking to a co-worker who wants to write for television. She hasn’t made the plunge into pursuing that dream yet, but she is trying the water. This co-worker told me about an excerpt of Walter Mosley's This Year You Write Your Novel in the August 2007 O Magazine.

According to my co-worker, Mr. Mosley says writers should commit to writing three hours every day. Since I was surprised to hear this - and since I intend to read Mr. Mosley's book - I went to the store that evening to purchase the O Magazine issue. I read the excerpt and found my co-worker had misunderstood Mr. Mosley's point.

He writes at least three hours every morning. But the point he was trying to convey is the importance of staying in your story so you can connect your unconscious mind with your characters, your setting and your plot.

I agree wholeheartedly with his position. To get to the place where your characters are telling you their story - and stay there - it's important to write something each and every day. You may not be able to manage three hours every day, but can you manage one hour? And even if you're not adding pages of new words every day, can you add a paragraph?

I believe the first step is making that connection with your characters and your story. Once that connection is there, the words will come. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Mr. Mosley's book.

Patricia