CHANGING THE PAST new release 2024-05-22

My new book release, Wednesday, May 22, 2024—CHANGING THE PAST, a contemporary romance by USA Today Bestselling author Shawna Delacorte, published by The Wild Rose Press in ebook and print.  Excerpts and other information available on my website   www.shawnadelacorte.com 

This is the story of Meg Wainwright and Blaine Reeves, a love story Meg believed would last a lifetime. Then Blaine shattered her heart into a million pieces when he betrayed her love and trust by suddenly walking out on her without any warning or explanation. Now he is desperate to win back the only woman he ever loved.

Blurb:

Successful freelance photojournalist Meg Wainwright is offered the assignment of her dreams—photographing and writing a new line of travel books for a publisher in the UK. But when she arrives, she learns she’ll be working for the man who walked out on her ten years ago without an explanation and left her heartbroken.

Blaine Reeves regrets leaving the only woman he ever loved. Luring her to London without revealing his involvement might not be his best plan. He can only hope it’s not too late to change the past.

Excerpt #2:

A sudden thought brightened Blaine's dismal mood. He sat up straight. The answer to his immediate problem with Meg? His sister. He would buy Crista a plane ticket and have her come for a visit. He checked his watch to determine the time in New York, then reached for the phone and dialed her  number.

“Crista, it’s Blaine. What would you say to dropping everything and coming to London for a month? I can use your help with something.”

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s Meg.”

“Meg?” Crista’s genuine shock raced along the phone connection.

“Yes. She’s here. I hired her to photograph and write a new travel book, and, uh, well…” The proper words to explain his plight refused to materialize, words he hoped wouldn’t make it sound as manipulative as the reality of the situation.

“Let me guess. You thought you’d get her to London—she probably didn’t even know it was your company—and the moment she saw you she would magically fall into your arms and forgive you for everything that happened. Things would be just the way they were ten years ago before you screwed it up big time. Am I close?”

A combination of irritation and embarrassment forced the words out of his mouth. “Dammit, Crista. It’s bad enough that you can usually read me like a book. At least let me tell it my own way.” A sigh of resignation escaped his throat. “You are, of course, right.”

“So, what’s your problem?”

“Well, first of all she hasn’t been in a forgiving mood. Second, there’s Dennis Mallory.”

“What’s Dennis have to do with this?”

“You know Dennis. He tries to get every woman who crosses his path into his bed. He has taken Meg out to dinner a couple of times, and they’re going out again tonight. He has his sights set on her.”

“And just what do you think I can do about that?”

“I want you to keep an eye on Meg. See that Dennis doesn’t take advantage of her. Right now, she’s in a very vulnerable state, and I, uh, might even have to accept a little bit of responsibility for that.” He cleared his throat. “Just a little while ago I asked her to cancel her date with Dennis for tonight.”

“And?”

“Let’s just say she didn’t take kindly to my suggestion.” Blaine took a steadying breath in an attempt to calm his rising panic. “That’s why I need you here, Crista. Help me make sure Dennis doesn’t seduce her, that she’ll be safe. Will you come? Right away? Like tonight?”

“This whole thing, tricking Meg into being there…” Crista’s tone conveyed her thoughts as clearly as her words. “This is, without a doubt, the dumbest thing you have ever done with the single exception of when you walked out on her originally.”

“Okay, it’s dumb. But will you do it? I’ll have a pre-paid ticket for you at the airline counter for whatever flight you want.”

Her voice teased. “That ticket will be first class, won’t it?”

 

Buy Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Changing-Past-Shawna-Delacorte-ebook/dp/B0CTHSZFST

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/changing-the-past-shawna-delacorte/1145014722?ean=9781509254798

also available at other online vendors

Check my blog next week. I'll have an interview with Meg Wainwright and Blaine Reeves.

Fighting A Writer's Self-doubts part 5 of 5

Motivation…and the kinds of doubts unique to writers.  I know exactly what you're up against to make it as a writer.  Writers work alone.  There's no one to give us attagirls or attaboys on the days when the words won't come.  There's no rule book to tell us if we have enough talent, if our writing is good enough, if we have what it takes to make it.  Worse than that, no matter how good we are we face repeated rejections of our efforts.  Rejection is a part of life, but it's still different for a writer.  When we submit a manuscript, we're sending in part of our heart and soul…our blood, sweat and tears.  When a story is rejected, it's like a kick in our heart, a direct and personal blow—and everyone is vulnerable to that kind of hurt.

That's intrinsic to the job of writing, but it's also easy to get sidetracked by the wrong things.  When we're working on our first book, we're afraid we'll never finish it.  Then we're afraid it's not good enough to be published.  Once we get it published, we're afraid that first sale is a fluke and we'll never publish a second one.  Along the way, maybe John Doe got a better review than we did.  Maybe Jane Doe got a higher advance than we did.  Then there's Suzy Smith who used to be such a close friend, and she just sold a hardback mainstream novel to a major New York print publisher.  We can't even talk to her—we feel left in the shade because we write ebook short stories.  And then there's Mary Jones who we feel is a much better writer than we are.  We'll never be that good and we know it.  And Polly Perfect…she just sold the first manuscript she wrote and we're on our fourth one after having the first three rejected by every publisher we submitted to.

Possibly if we didn't work alone we wouldn't be so susceptible to letting those kinds of doubts affect our confidence.  But we DO work alone. And that makes it extraordinarily easy to lose sight of what motivated us to start with.  There is a reason we started writing, and for most of us it's because we love doing it.  That's the strongest tool we have to beat the nasty dragon of doubt.  All those other things that can sabotage our confidence—some of them are real and some are doubts we lay on ourselves—are not strong enough to beat us if we keep what matters on the front line.

No flower has the chance to grow if it's getting choked out at the root level by weeds.  When we sit down to write, we have to get the irrelevant stuff out of the way.  We need to give ourselves the right—the freedom—to concentrate on one thing only.  Write the type of book we love.  The first magic we found…when we first discovered the wonder of characters coming alive for us, the joy of watching a story take life on a page…that magic is not something we use up.  It's not something we can lose, like a pair of socks.  It's not something we can forget like a memory we can't get back.  It's still there, the same place it's always been, inside us.  There is no cure for the doubts we go through.  There's no magic elixir that will make us feel better after a rejection, or guarantee that we'll never suffer writer's block, or help us not worry during a rough stretch.

All I can tell you is that I've been there, as has every writer I know.  Doubts detract from what matters and they trick us into focusing on things that don't matter.  The next time we sit down at the keyboard we just need to remember to keep what counts in front of us and not allow those doubts to sway us from the task at hand.

Research Can Be Fun--pt 4 of 5, writing techniques

There's no denying that research is a part of writing whether non-fiction or fiction. And within the parameters of fiction, the genre somewhat dictates how much research is required. Certainly, historical fiction requires extensive research into place and time in order to be accurate with details down to the simplest clothing items or food eaten. Techno thrillers, legal thrillers, and medical themed novels need to be accurate in terminology, science, and procedures.

But there is an area of research that is often considered trivial or inconsequential in the overall scope of your story—the location where your story is set. Certainly the setting is important, but as a matter of research seldom makes it to the top of the list.

A contemporary novel set in your home town requires little in the way of research for location.  You live there so you know about the terrain, weather, the businesses, the good neighborhoods vs. the bad neighborhoods, streets and highways, tourist attractions, places of special interest and historical interest. That's easy.

But, what about setting your story somewhere that you have never been? If that is the case, you have options available. The most obvious for accuracy is to visit the location—take in the ambiance, make note of the geographic elements, study the activities of the residents, and grab the tourist brochures usually available in the hotel lobby. All major metropolitan areas have certain must see tourist attractions that are common knowledge around the world. The Empire State Building and Statue Of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower. Well- known tourist attractions can certainly be included in descriptive passages of your setting or become part of a scene where some action takes place. That gives the reader an immediate mental image reference to go along with your descriptive passages. But keep in mind the publisher's house rules on using brand names, the names of real hotels and restaurants, etc.

Travel and tour books can be a great help for general research information. These books include information about the major cities in that state and certainly the tourist areas in addition to hotel/motel and restaurant listings. A real estate houses for sale search of a city will give you knowledge of the various neighborhoods. A city's website will tell you about the educational system, shopping, cultural events, sports activities, tourist attractions, etc.

My most interesting research experience was for one of my Harlequin Intrigue novels, THE SEDGWICK CURSE, a mystery romantic suspense originally in print then reissued by Harlequin in ebook.

My story was set in a stereotypical English country village of the type found in the Cotswolds. A large estate inhabited by the Lord of the manor—land and a title that had been in the family for centuries. An annual festival that had been held on the estate grounds every year for over two hundred years. And murder involving the titled rich and powerful from a century ago and a family curse that's brought to fruition now.

I needed to research several things. Certainly accurate information about the physical setting I'd chosen.  And then specifics (beyond what I'd gleaned from various British crime drama series on television) about the way local law enforcement interacted with the privileged titled aristocracy when investigating a murder.

I had already been to England several times and had another trip planned, so I included spending one week in the Cotswolds to do the research I needed. [This is where the fun part of the research came in. :)] I found a charming centuries old hotel in the town of Tewkesbury and used it as my base to explore the surrounding area.

My research started when I walked into the local police station, said I was a writer doing research for a novel, and asked if there was someone I could talk to about how a local murder would be investigated. I was passed on to a Detective Sergeant who was very helpful and spent about two hours with me, which was an hour and forty-five minutes longer than expected.  I garnered far more information than I needed for that specific book, but great research material for future needs.

The next step in my research was the immediate location for my fictional Lord Sedgwick's estate. This was a major stroke of good luck. About three miles north of Tewkesbury is the village of Bredon that had everything I needed, including a large estate that hosted a village festival every year and the weekend I was there happened to be festival weekend. I was able to wander around the grounds, take pictures, and get information about the estate straight from the owner's mouth. One of the buildings on the grounds, the Tithe Barn pictured here, is part of the National Trust and dates back to the 1300s. It is accurately described and used in my book, as are many of the features of the real counterpart of my Sedgwick Estate.

Obviously, traveling to a foreign country to research a location isn't that practical. If the location is a well-known tourist area, you will have lots of research material available to you. But what if your desired setting is a typical small town or village in a specific area? That brings us to the more practical solution of creating a fictional small town as the setting for your story.

I have set many of my Harlequin and Wild Rose Press books in fictional small towns. But the one thing these fictional small towns have in common is that they are all patterned after a real place that I've been in the state where I've set the story. And in lieu of that, there's always the ability of taking something like a beach town or mountain village you've been to and transplanting it to another state for the purposes of your story.

If there's someplace you've been, a vacation you enjoyed, and you want to recreate the feel and ambiance for your story setting without fear of getting some of the facts wrong about the real place, the best way to handle it is to create a fictional location. Do some basic research on the general type of location you've selected for your story such as a fishing village on the coast of Maine. That will give you basic generic facts for that type of setting. Then you can take the feel of the real life place you visited and impose those memories and impressions on top of your researched facts for a fully realized story setting. Your characters can then impart that sense of place to the readers with the words and actions you give them in addition to your descriptions.

Secondary Characters And How To Use Them

A couple of days ago I was watching on old movie, the 1974 production of Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express with its all star cast where almost everyone in the movie was a major character.  It occurred to me that there were very few characters other than the many primary ones (isolated on a train trapped by the snow is akin to a locked room mystery with no new characters added or current ones removed).  So I started thinking about secondary characters and how they can be used to prod, shove, and push the main characters into and along the necessary path for the story line.

So, let's talk a bit about secondary characters.

When I say secondary characters, I'm not referring to the minor characters that decorate a scene and maybe have a couple of lines of dialogue or only appear in one or two scenes.  I'm talking about the characters who have a prominent place in your story but are not your main characters.  These are the characters you can use to maneuver your main characters into and along the path toward achieving the story goal.  They are a key factor in moving your story along and determining what direction it takes.

In developing these characters, they need to do more than merely be there—more than just someone for your main character to have lunch with. You need to decide what you want them to accomplish and how you want them to relate to and interact with your main characters in addition to each other in order to move your story line along to its conclusion.  Let's take a look at how a set of secondary characters can be used to move a story line in a specific direction.  Remember, it's not who they are, it's what they do and how they relate to the main characters and how the main characters respond to them.

Example:  You have a story about a teenager who is the leader of a gang that has been stealing cars for some mobsters.  You have two ways you can go with your main character, in other words, two directions your story line can take and you must choose one of them.  #1: he wants to leave the gang and make something of his life OR #2: he runs his gang with a iron hand and threatens anyone who wants out.

With scenario #1 your secondary characters who will influence the story line can be his girl friend, his little brother, and one of his teachers.  That tells you who they are (what their relationship is to your main character), but doesn't tell you how they move the story.  His girl friend fears for his safety and finally gives him the ultimatum to leave the gang or she's leaving him.  His little brother idolizes him and wants to be just like him, but he doesn't want his little brother to make the same mistakes he did.  His teacher is mentoring him by helping him with his studies and finding him an after school job.

With scenario #2 your secondary characters can be his girl friend, a rival gang leader, and his contact with the mobster who pays him for the stolen cars.  Again, that tells you who they are and what their relationship is to your main character but not what they do to move the story in a specific direction.  His girl friend demands more and more in the way of material things so he needs the money from stealing cars to keep her happy.  The rival gang leader is trying to take over his stolen car business so he has to watch his back at all times to protect himself and his own interests.  The mobster gives him access to the easy money he needs to keep his girl friend happy and the promise of being able to move into their organization and advance in the criminal world.

Each scenario has a girl friend, but her function is different in the two scenarios so that her character helps move the two story lines in two different directions.

One of the great things about secondary characters is that you can make them as outrageous, unconventional and over-the-top as you want.  You don't have the same parameters and cautions with secondary characters as you do with your main characters.  The main thing you need to be careful with in creating your secondary character is to not make them more interesting than your main characters so that they don't steal the show and shove your main characters into the background.

Any comments about developing and using secondary characters in your writing?  Or any television shows, movies, or books where the secondary characters stood out in your mind with the way they were able to guide and manipulate the story line?