Swimmin' in a Pool of Writing Funk Gunk

 

Wayyyyyy back in the day, I was in a Blog Chain with several other amazing authors. Basically, someone would choose a topic for the chain and we’d all post our take on it and link to each other. I was going back through a bunch of old posts and came across this one…which is very timely considering the writing funk I am currently in. The question asked was:

When you're in a pool of writing funk, how do you get out?

My response (slightly tweaked to reflect my current status):

This question is horribly timely as I am currently trying to hose off the gunk of the funk as we speak. Now, first of all, I need to point out that it is not my writing that gets me funky. Oh sure, when the rejections pour in, it dampens my mood a bit. And mostly because I get those “good” rejections; the ones that say “you are a great writer and this is a great story, it’s just not quite right for us right now.” It’s harder to be that close and not quite make it. My favorite was when one of my dream agents told me “it’s not you, it’s me.” Had me rolling on the ground.

(Update: I now have the most amazing agent on the planet. Absolutely worth the wait!)

Anyhow, my writing funks tend to happen as a side effect to what is going on in my Real Life. Writer’s block never lasts for long. I just work on something else or go do a load of dishes. I always get GREAT ideas when I’m doing dishes. But if I’ve been cooped in the house with the kids for months on end with no break, or if I’m stressed over anything else going on in my life, or just not feeling well…..my Real Life funk spills over into writing territory and becomes (dunh dunh duuuunh) WRITING FUNK.

How do I get out of it, you ask? I take a writing break. I read…a LOT. I will usually pick one of my favorite series and will read all the way through. Or find a new series and just let myself enjoy reading for a few days without the guilt of knowing I should be working on my own books. I am working on keeping my breaks to a few days, but most of the time, they will last several weeks. And occasionally longer. Sometimes I just really need that reset.

I also load up on romcoms and British comedies. Two of my favorite British comedies are the shows Vicar of Dibley and Absolutely Fabulous. I love watching movies like Fools Gold and The Holiday and Pure Luck. When I get in a funk, I want to laugh. Here are a couple clips of my favorite funnies for you (if I figure out how to post the video, I'll change it from the links) :) …

Absolutely Fabulous
Vicar of Dibley

And of course, my wonderful friends are great at pulling me out when I’m about to go under. I start sending out hordes of desperate messages. My weekly chat sessions with my writing bestie and collab partner Lisa Rayne, and my monthly chats with Lexi Post and our other writer buddies help SO much. Talking things out with peeps who understand the pain is incredibly helpful.

When things are really really bad, I tend to shut down a bit, stay away from everything and everyone, and that is when the hordes of messages start coming my way. I don’t know how I ever got through the day without my writing family. They are a true Godsend.

And of course, a daily funny fix from some choice memes always help….here are a few of my favorites….

 

Company's Coming!

 

Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well and staying safe!

Company’s coming! Our son and daughter-in-law are coming to visit next week so what have I been doing?         Cleaning. 

Of course, I am. 

Because that’s what I do. That’s not to say I haven’t been cleaning all along. Saturdays and Sundays are my chore days where I attempt (notice I say attempt) to clean the entire house…except for the spare/guest room.

We don’t have much company coming from out of state so the spare/guest room has become the repository of all the things we don’t know where else to put. 

Case in point. Suit cases. 

Now who in the world needs six suit cases? I certainly don’t. Hubby and I haven’t really gone anywhere since my son and his wife got married a couple years ago (hubby has some medical issues so traveling is difficult).

So where are all those suit cases stored? 

You guessed it. The spare room. 

There are other things in there, too. Things I haven’t seen or looked at in months so…I did a major cleaning and gave things to Goodwill or just threw them out. I don’t need all that (and isn’t it amazing how much stuff you can collect without even realizing it?). We’ve been in this house for thirty years and the hubby is kind of a pack rack (heck, we have still have stuff from when we moved to Arizona from New Jersey over forty years ago…it’s difficult to get him to part with things because, you know, ‘I might need it’. It’s an ongoing battle.

The spare/guest room now looks ready for company. New sheets on the bed, new throw rug on the floor, fresh flowers on the dresser. Nice and comfy.

Which brings me to the writing. I’ve hit 52K words in my current work in progress, Wife Unexpected (only 30 or so left to go) so as long as I was on a cleaning spree, I decided to ‘clean’ my book as well. I have edited and edited again, getting rid of all those filler words my editor dislikes. It’s much ‘cleaner’ now.

And that’s about all for me…got a lot to do and I’m running out of time. Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread kindness wherever you go!

Marie

Romance releases and deals at Romance & Books!

 Romance & Books has new releases and special deals this week.

Historicals, contemporaries, paranormals, oh my!

Click HERE to grab them!

Sometimes the End is Just the Beginning

Hello! I’m Rebecca Heflin, and since this is my first time here, I thought I should begin by introducing myself.

I write contemporary romance and women’s fiction with romantic elements—stories about ordinary people finding extraordinary love, often when they least expect it. Lately, I’ve been especially drawn to writing what I call “seasoned romance”: love stories about characters in their fifties and beyond who bring a little more life experience—and maybe a little more baggage—to their happily-ever-afters.

I’ve published thirteen books over the years, and while my stories are fiction, bits and pieces of my own life inevitably find their way onto the page. Not the events themselves, necessarily, but the emotions behind them.

After all, writers are notorious for repurposing everything that happens to us.

Heartbreak? Material.

Embarrassing moment? Material.

Family drama? Definitely material. (Names changed to protect the guilty.)

And sometimes, the experiences that were the hardest to live through become the richest ones to draw upon years later.

Which brings me to divorce.

When I met my now-husband, I had been divorced for almost three years. It had been an especially rough patch in my life, as most divorces are. A mutual friend introduced us, and I have to admit, I was gobsmacked by him.

I was twenty-eight years old and hadn’t traveled much in my life, unless you counted the many trips I’d made to Georgia to visit family. This man, on the other hand, had just returned from the Galápagos Islands. I had to look them up, by the way. And he was planning another trip that summer to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro.

My head was spinning. I barely knew where these places were, much less imagined that I would ever go there myself.

Spoiler alert: I eventually went to both. Although I did not climb Kilimanjaro. Some adventures are better left to Hubby.

Since then, I’ve traveled to more than twenty-two countries and many U.S. states. This year alone I added Norway, Denmark, Bhutan, and India to the list.

If you had told my twenty-eight-year-old self what her life would eventually look like, she would have said you were lying. Because at the time, I couldn’t see beyond where I was.

I had come out of a very dark period in my life and eventually found a man I could absolutely trust. We built a life together that the younger me could never have imagined—a life filled with love and friendship and adventures in places I once had to find on a map.

Some days, I’m tempted to write my ex-husband a thank-you letter for being such a jerk. Had he not been such a spectacular jerk, I might never have found the life I have today.

Time has a way of changing our perspective on the difficult periods in our lives. The angst I felt back then has become more distant with each passing year. But I can still remember it. And as a writer, I can use it.

When I write divorced characters—especially my heroines—I understand some of the emotions they’re experiencing.

The loss isn’t simply the loss of a marriage. It can be the loss of the future you thought you were going to have. It’s questioning your judgment. Wondering what you missed. Trying to figure out who you are outside the relationship.

And perhaps hardest of all, it’s wondering whether you’ll ever be able to trust someone that completely again.

I can take those emotions and channel them into my fiction.

That’s exactly what I did with Eleanor Marshall in Under the Paris Moon, the first book in my Whirlwind Romances series.

Ellie is in her fifties when her husband leaves her for a younger woman. Suddenly, she finds herself occupying a role she never imagined for herself: the divorced middle-aged woman whose husband traded her in for a younger model.

It’s a cliché, and Ellie knows it. That makes it hurt all the more.

She isn’t looking for another great love. She’s still trying to figure out what comes next when her best friend decides Ellie needs a reset—and secretly enters her in a contest to win a dream date in Paris with a real-life romcom heartthrob.

Enter Geoffrey Harrison.

Geoffrey is an aging actor whose once-thriving romcom career is beginning to falter. It turns out Hollywood’s romantic heroes keep getting younger, even if the people watching the movies don’t.

When his agent dreams up a social media contest to generate some buzz, Geoffrey agrees to have a romantic dinner in Paris with the winner.

The unexpectedly attractive Eleanor Marshall.

Then the publicity stunt blows up the internet.

Geoffrey persuades Ellie to extend their date into a ten-day fake romance, complete with handholding, candlelight dinners, romantic strolls through Paris, and, of course, kissing.

It’s like something straight out of one of his movies.

And just like in the movies, it isn’t long before their fake romance is anything but.

The problem is that falling in love requires Ellie to do the one thing she isn’t sure she can do anymore: trust.

And just when she begins to believe she might be ready to take that chance, her fragile trust is shattered.

Can Geoffrey convince her that their story deserves a Hollywood ending? Or will Ellie walk away from a second chance at her own happily-ever-after?

I sometimes wish I could go back and have a conversation with my twenty-eight-year-old self.

I wouldn’t tell her everything that was coming. Where would be the fun in that?

But I might tell her this:

The life you think is over is really just beginning.

There are places you haven’t seen yet. Adventures you haven’t had yet. People you haven’t met yet.

And love?

Well, sometimes the best love story begins after you thought yours had already ended.

Maybe that’s why, all these years later, I still believe so strongly in happily-ever-afters.

And why I love writing them.

WATCHING THE EARL by Lexi Post has Released!

 

Watching the Earl 

(Courting a Curious Lady: Book 6) 

by Lexi Post 

has released!

Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon AU | Amazon CA | Amazon DE

Lady Georgina is devastated. The lord who said he loved her, ruined her, then married another. Now her parents are desperate to keep her situation private by marrying her off to the first willing man no matter who he is. But even then, everything depends on her keeping her shame a secret…and she’s never kept a secret in her life.

Lord Philip Durham has lost it all on a sure bet. Desperate to save his father’s legacy and keep his situation hidden, he agrees to marry a woman with a large dowry. Discovering she’s also ruined only makes him more determined since it’s fitting penance for his past failings. Being forced to make a life with her, and thereby raising his family’s reputation, will satisfy both of his goals.

However, Lady Georgina appears to have goals of her own, including digging into his awkward family dynamics and returning to London for the remainder of the Season. As she becomes more confident, she seems to rise from the ashes of her old life like the mythical Phoenix. But can he avoid being burned or will her transformation bring him down in flames?

Need more Curious Ladies? There are five others who have found their happily ever after 😊

About Lexi:

Lexi Post is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of romance inspired by the classics. She spent years in higher education taking and teaching courses about the classical literature she loved. From Edgar Allan Poe's short story “The Masque of the Red Death” to Tolstoy’s War and Peace, she's read, studied, and taught wonderful classics.

But Lexi's first love is romance novels so she married her two first loves, romance and the classics. Whether it’s sizzling cowboys, dashing dukes, hot immortals, or hunks from out of this world, Lexi provides a sensuous experience with a “whole lotta story.”

Lexi is living her own happily ever after with her husband and her two cats in Florida. She makes her own ice cream every weekend, loves bright colors, and you’ll never see her without a hat.

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Changes

 

        Hello, gentle readers! Hope you are all well and staying safe!

        Today, I’m going to talk about change.

        There are some who like change…actually look forward to it. For them, it’s an opportunity and they’re willing (and eager) to accept that change.

        I’m not one of those. You probably already know that I am a creature of habit, of routine, and I have a really hard time with anything that upsets that routine. It throws me off because my days are carefully orchestrated, particularly weekdays. 

        Am I stuck in a rut? 

        Maybe, but with so many things going on, I really need my routines to get everything done. Weekday mornings are devoted to working on my latest story before heading into the day job, where anything can happen and usually does, but some reason, I am able to go with the flow! Saturdays are reserved for laundry and cleaning (that’s not to say I don’t clean during the week because I do, but Saturday is the big cleaning day for the inside of the house). Sundays are my outside chores, like weeding, watering the plants, grocery shopping and running errands if I don’t stop on my way home during the week). See? Nice routines. Easy Peasy.

        So here’s what happened to throw a monkey wrench into my routine. At the day job, we’ve been working from home on Fridays, which has been really nice. It’s a good day for that. Well, last week, that changed and we are now working from home on Tuesdays…and I can’t tell you how much that messed me up (not only me, but everyone I work with, my DH…and my dogs! They have their routines, too).

        But…

        I’ve decided to run with it because 1) I have no choice if I want to keep my day job, which I do, at least until I can retire; and 2) because shaking things up once in a while can be good for the soul. And might even be good for the brain.

        Why do I say that? Because I realized that, at its core, change is what I write about. Falling in love is a big change from the everyday, ordinary things. And that’s what my characters do. My heroes and heroines are going along with their lives as they know it then boom! Someone new comes along and shakes it up. In a big way! Maybe they’ve been looking for love but don’t think it’s in the cards for them. Or maybe they’re not looking for love at all and are happy with the way things are. 

        Then suddenly, it just…happens. They’re in love. They might not be expecting it. Heck, they might have given up on finding that someone special and then, just like that…the life they knew has changed!

        That’s what happening with Faith and Tysen in Wife Unexpected. They both have goals, neither of which involves falling in love. It’s happening anyway, almost against their wills. And it’s been fun (from my point of view at least).

        So, yeah, sometimes change is a good thing!

        One last thing before I get back to Faith and Tysen and turning their lives upside down. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we have new contributors to HEAT (another change!). Welcome Michelle and Darlene (I love pirates, too)!

        Stay well! Stay safe! And remember to spread kindness wherever you go!

Marie

Happy ITLAPD! (International Talk Like A Pirate Day)

Avast, me hearties! I'm Darlene Marshall, and I write historical romance with pirates, privateers, smugglers, and the occasional possum. In honor of this year's International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19, I want to give a shout-out to my favorite pirates, the ones Romancelandia refers to as "chicks in breeches."

I've been fascinated by pirates since I was a little girl, especially women pirates like Anne Bonny (pictured in the woodcut) and her bestie Mary Read. In the non-fiction Bold in Her Breeches, author Jo Stanley refers to these women as "transgressive rovers" and there were more of them out there than you might think

In addition to pirates Bonny and Read, historian Suzanne Stark says in Female Tars that there were 20 known cases of cross-dressing women in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the Regency Period when most of my books are set. If there were 20 known cases, how many more do we not have on the record? 

When I started writing Sea Change, the first in my High Seas series, I wanted a cross-dressing woman who goes to sea, someone who has to be able to hold her own on a ship full of men. One of the factoids from my research that interested me the most was this: If a woman's true identity was discovered, "he" was sometimes allowed to stay aboard ship if 1. they continued to dress and act as a man and 2. if they had particular skills like my like my surgeon/apprentice physician Charley Alcott.  One of these sailors in the historical record is "William Brown", an Anglo-African hero of the Royal Navy who continued to serve after their identity was discovered. William was too valuable as a Master of the Maintop to be discarded during wartime. 

Nowadays, of course, women serve with distinction in various navies around the world and when there are pirates about (as there still are), women may be going to sea with them. Transgressive rovers have always been with us, and when we are fighting off space pirates there no doubt will be bold people of all persuasions among them. So hoist your tankard of grog and toast the pirates past and future on International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2026!

Darlene Marshall writes award-winning historical romance set in the early to mid-19th c., mostly set around Florida and the Caribbean. She loves to hear from readers and you can email her at darlenemarshall[at]darlenemarshall[dot]com. Her books are available in French, German, English and Estonian. Marshall is Membership Director of Regency Fiction Writers, an organization for all authors of fiction set across the mid-18th to mid-19th c. She's also Section Leader for Erotic Writing at the Litforum.com. You can find her at her website www.darlenemarshall.com and on various social media sites wasting time when she should be writing her next book. She lives in North Central Florida, an excellent location for driving to the beach to do pirate research and drink mojitos.