November 2010 Happy Holidays!

It's fun to be back with another edition of my ezine. Especially since exciting things are happening at susanmeier.com. I'm adding more content to my website. You won't have to wait for this ezine for excerpts! Or to read a little bit more about the characters in each of my books. Starting with A FAIRYTALE CHRISTMAS, I'm posting "What Came Before" and "Happily Ever After" segments that will show you what came before the book opened for one of the main characters and how they're doing a few years later!

There will also be a new workshop up on the site...Goal Setting! Just in time for the new year.

I'm also toying with the idea of releasing an ezine every other month. I'd like to do it every month but with my schedule I think trying out every other month might be wiser!

So what about this anthology Barbara Wallace and I wrote for Christmas? Well, I'm prejudiced, but working with Barbara was lots of fun. This is her debut story, which was very humbling for me. What fun to be out with someone who is experiencing her first book rush!

Our heroines are twins. My twin Gwen finds her true love first in A BABY BENEATH THE CHRISTMAS TREE. The hero, Drew Teaberry, is a workaholic who doesn't believe in love. But single mom Gwen quickly turns into a confidante when Drew's adolescent son begins acting out, angry that he's left with his dad while his mom goes on her honeymoon.

All that would be great, but what makes this book special is that it takes place on a Christmas tree farm. And, even better, the trees are said to be magic. Legend has it that if you hold a branch and make a wish, your wish will come true.

There's a lot to wish for in the Teaberry family. There's the success of the business venture that brought Drew back to his family home. There's the longing of Drew's son, Brody, to have a place. There's the longing in Gwen's heart not to be alone.

Drew and his son become her temporary family...but can she keep them?

I think the two stories in A FAIRYTALE CHRISTMAS, will warm your heart. So grab a cup of cocoa, wrap up in a blanket and settle in for some holiday fun...and romance!

Enjoy the writing lesson that follows, along with this issue's Cat Tails, which features my favorite mouser, Sophia Maria Lolita Conchita Chequita Banana.

And for those of you who follow my workshops, a schedule is also posted below!

susan

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FOR THE WRITERS AMONG US!

This issue's lesson is Lesson One of one of my favorite workshops, THE POWER OF QUESTIONS. I'm thinking of shaking things up a bit and releasing all the lessons of this workshop in the upcoming editions. So you'll get the whole workshop!

Enjoy.

Lesson One: Questions can revolutionize your writing
Most of you are here for one of two reasons. Some of you are at the beginning of your career and you’re eager to learn everything you can. Others are trying to better yourselves or your work, or simply to take the next step.

If you’re here because you are at the beginning of your career and you’re eager to learn everything you can right now, before you take too many steps…Wow. I envy you. Learning how to use questions will make your path so much smoother!

If you’re here because you’re trying to better yourself, maybe your career has stalled, maybe your books seem to be falling flat, maybe you’re looking to take the next step…You are also in for a treat.

Learning how to use questions efficiently and effectively will revolutionize your life.

I’m not kidding.

But before we actually get into specifics, there are a few generalities about questions that you need to understand.

Every time I propose this workshop on THE POWER OF QUESTIONS, the coordinator always says, “Oh, you mean story question, right?” And I say, “No…well, yes, story question is in there, but there’s more to questions than just that one facet.”

More than anything else, learning how to ask good questions will set you up for life with a wealth of ideas.

Think it through. Does every idea you get become a book? If you’re like me, the answer is probably no. Not every idea comes full-blown. Not every idea is marketable.

But what if I were to tell you that by using a well constructed question you could just about assure that every idea you get could BECOME a great idea – not just a good idea, but a great idea? Or what if I told you that using the right question can help you take ideas you don’t think are marketable and turn them into marketable ideas?

Well, you’d probably kiss my feet! LOL

So questions can help you come up with great ideas, or turn lackluster, out-of-market ideas into great ideas.

But questions can also direct you. For instance, did you know that every type of book, genre and subgenre, has a core story question? And if you work with that core story question, you’ll not only write a tighter book; you’ll also write a more marketable book?

Did you know that YOUR BOOK should have a specific story question? Something that lures readers along?

And did you know that using scene or chapter questions can sharpen your story? Keep it from being boring? Prevent you from having purpose-less scenes?

Don’t limit your questions to the one facet of story question! Using all kinds of questions has the power to free your mind and to take your work to the next level.

So in this workshop, we’re going to take a look at all of them. Core story questions for your genre, individual story questions, scene questions and general, let’s-make-my-book-better questions! LOL But before we do that, I’d like you to take a look at your current WIP.

Do you have a story question? Is there a question in readers’ minds as they move through your story? Is there a question they want to have answered?

Do you know what the core story question is for your genre or subgenre? Is it clearly represented in your book?

After reading the first six or so scenes of your wip, can you see the scene questions?

If you answered no to any one of those, don’t worry! They may be there. You just don’t know it yet!

I realize it might be difficult to post answers to these questions, (LOL!) because they’re sort of your opinion at this point, but seriously read through at least the first six chapters of your book looking for your scene questions, your core story question, and the “story question” that should be guiding your readers along!

susan meier
A BABY BENEATH HIS CHRISTMAS TREE, Harlequin Romance, 11/10

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CAT TAILS -- Should we call you Granny Sophia?

A few weeks ago, I noticed that our sweet Sophia, who is a warrior at heart, now has two white whiskers. It wouldn't be so bad, except they are glaringly obvious in a mostly black cat.

At first she took offense when we pointed them out. "You are getting older," we reminded her, and our reward for that comment was a dead chimpmunk on the back porch. It was as if she was saying, "Old? Let's see you do that! Heck, let's see Fat Fluff do that!"

Sophia isn't going to be one of those women who ages gracefully. Or maybe she is. It appears she's decided to simply ignore her age. She still hunts. (The neighbors love that she keeps the rodent population down.) She still wrestles Fluffy who outweighs her by at least five pounds -- he is REALLY fat -- and she wins.

So maybe sweet Sophia knows the real meaning of life. Just keep going. Keep doing what you were doing. Don't let age slow you down and meaningless whisker colors upset you!

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COMING ATTRACTIONS!

Books!

I've told you a bit about A FAIRYTALE CHRISTMAS, an anthology with Barbara Wallace. An excerpt is at the end of the ezine.

But, in 2011, I have a special treat...at least it was a treat for me to write. Harlequin Romance is releasing my first 3-book series for them! BABIES IN THE BOARDROOM features 3 half-brothers, Darius, Nick and Cade Andreas. Because they have the same dad but different moms, they didn't really know about each other until the reading of their father's will where they discover there's a fourth 1/2 brother, baby Gino!

Book 1, THE BABY PROJECT, comes out in April.
Book 2, SECOND CHANCE BABY, comes out in May.
And book 3, A BABY ON THE RANCH comes out in June.

Watch for some special content to be posted on my website. There's a prologue for Nick's book, book 2 SECOND CHANCE BABY that didn't make the cut in edits, but which I know you will love. A cinnamon roll recipe that figures heavily in book 3, A BABY ON THE RANCH! And hopefully something a little special for book 1!


ONLINE WORKSHOPS

This year I'm doing things a bit differently with my online workshops. I'm only doing each workshop ONCE. I've given each group on exclusive for 2011. So if you miss it, you've missed it until 2012! So here are the four I've planned.

REMEMBER, IF YOU MISS IT, YOU MISS IT UNTIL 2012!

January:

This is the year you write that book! with Susan Meier

Dunes and Dreams RWA Chapter. Details aren't up on site yet, but I'm sure they will be soon!

http://dunesanddreams.org/writing-workshops/


Want to make 2011 the year you finally finish the novel that’s under the bed collecting dust? Or do you have a fresh, wonderful idea that you really want to see become a great book? Join Susan Meier for THIS IS THE YEAR YOU WRITE THAT BOOK and learn not only the basic crafting ins and outs of Plot, People, Polishing and Prestidigitation (tricks published authors use) but also get four lessons on the psychology of writing. The psychology of committing, drafting, pushing through the tough times and finishing. Make 2011 the year you write that book!



February

Story, Theme and Vehicle Mid Williamette Valley RWA Chapter http://www.midwillamettevalleyrwa.com/(info not up on their website yet!)

Have you ever written a book that was good, but simply didn’t seem good enough? Or one that wasn’t cohesive? Or one that should have been wonderful but seemed to fall flat? In Story, Theme and Vehicle, Susan Meier explains how knowing your book’s story type, story question, and the difference between its theme and its “vehicle” will keep your book focused. Learn the five easy steps to a synopsis and the four steps to a one-paragraph pitch.



April
http://starrwa.org/on-line-workshops/

April 4 – 29, 2011: Can This Manuscript be Saved
SUSAN MEIER IS ONLY OFFERING THIS CLASS ONCE IN 2011!
Instructor: Susan Meier
Deadline to Register: April 3, 2011

Course Content: Rejected? Can’t get an agent? Can’t sell, even though your critique partners LOVE your work? Susan Meier reviews the seven most common rejection catch phrases and explains how determining whether your problem is a story, scene or word problem, a first step on the road to recovery. She’ll shares tricks-of-the-trade to finding and fixing your errors before you submit. Following the assignments at the end of each lesson, attendees will learn how to “skim-read” their manuscripts quickly, marking specific problems with post-its. Susan also demonstrates how to use a storyboard, a list of twenty and a one-paragraph blurb to create a plan of attack for fixing your book’s trouble. She can’t revise or rewrite your manuscript for you, but with her tricks you’ll not only see how to revise the book of your heart; you’ll also see how published authors are able to write four, five and even six books a year without breaking a sweat!




August

Journey Steps. NEORWA (Info not up on site yet!)

http://www.neorwa.com/index.php/Workshops/Workshops

Journey Steps, Taking the Train to Somewhere Ever wonder what you’re supposed to “put” in between those four or five turning points of your story? Susan Meier’s Journey Steps, Taking the Train to Somewhere provides quick, easy solutions for any author who has ever wondered “now what?” Topics include the “magic formula” for plotting, the list of five, explanation of plot threads versus subplot and tricks for writing an “edge-of-the-seat” read. Learn to tell your story in one straight-forward paragraph that can be used for pitches! Beginners, intermediate and experienced authors will benefit from this workshop.

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Excerpt

Chapter 1
For as long as Gwendolyn MacKenzie could remember the old timers in the tiny town of Towering Pines, West Virginia had whispered that Teaberry Christmas Tree Farm was enchanted. The rumor was that if you touched one of the Teaberry trees while wishing, your wish would come true.

Driving up the fir-lined mountain road that took her to the farm, Gwen glanced around in amazement, understanding why the legend had formed. Majestic evergreens punched into a vast indigo sky. Fat fluffy white snowflakes pirouetted around the green pine branches, falling heavily, like frosting on sugar cookies, creating a magical world.

But when she reached Teaberry mansion, Gwen’s mouth dropped open in dismay. Two rows of tall windows with thin black shutters dominated the huge red brick home, but the shutters tilted drunkenly from age and neglect. The Teaberry family hadn’t even visited for at least a decade. It didn’t surprise her that the house was in disrepair. But she’d thought Andrew Teaberry, her new boss, would have called ahead to have the place prepared to be used. If the house was this bad on the outside, she feared it would be worse on the inside.

Still, a wisp of smoke rose from the red brick chimney, disappearing into the inky sky, proof that the caretaker, Max Peabody, had started a fire in preparation for the owner’s return. At least she and her daughter wouldn’t spend their time shivering, while they waited for Drew Teaberry to arrive.

She got out of her beat up little red car and opened the back door, reaching in to unbuckle the car seat of her three-month-old baby. When she’d gotten pregnant by a boyfriend who’d bolted the very second she told him, Gwen and her twin sister Gill had both worried that she might fall into the same trap their mom had. Ginger MacKenzie had married the man who had gotten her pregnant. But when twins were born, he’d panicked, saying one baby was difficult enough to handle, two was impossible, and he’d left town. Leaving Ginger to raise the girls alone, watching out the window, longing for him to come home.

Six months after her mom’s sudden death, finding herself in a position very close to Ginger’s, Gwen had quickly shaped up. She didn’t want to be one of those women who wasted her entire life pining after a man who didn’t want her. She stopped believing in miracles. She stopped believing wishes came true. She packed her dreamy side away. And she now only dealt in facts.

Which was why she was at this rundown old house, about to start a job as the assistant for a man she’d never met. She had to pay her own way, support a child and finish her degree. This job might be temporary, but it paid enough money that if she watched how she spent, she could keep herself and Claire through her last semester of university.

“Hey, Claire-bear,” she said, lifting the little girl and rubbing noses. Bundled in her thick pink snowsuit, with the white fur of the hood framing her face, chubby, happy Claire really did look something like a stuffed pink bear.

Using the key sent to her by Andrew Teaberry, Gwen unlocked the front door and stepped inside. A huge curving mahogany staircase greeted her and Claire. But so did cobwebs. A layer of dust coated the banister and the stairs.

“Wow. We could be in big trouble, Claire-bear.”

Walking from room to room, her dismay grew. Though the lights worked, the sinks had water and the kitchen appliances had been plugged into electrical outlets and hummed with life, the house was filthy. Drew Teaberry might have instructed the caretaker to get the utilities turned on and the furnace working, but he’d forgotten about cleaning.

Discovering a suite in the back that had probably at one time been maid’s quarters, Gwen set Claire’s baby carrier on the dusty bare mattress of the single bed but lifted it back up again. She’d arrived an hour early, hoping to make a good impression but Drew Teaberry hadn’t yet arrived. If she hurried, she could race home for a vacuum cleaner, mop, broom, soap and dust cloths, and still have time to clean this suite enough that Claire could sleep here.


Two hours later, Andrew Teaberry pulled his shiny black SUV into the circular driveway in front of his family’s old homestead and his face fell in disgust. Pressed for time on this spur-of-the moment trip, he’d thought ahead enough to hire an assistant and have the caretaker open the place, but he hadn’t considered that Teaberry mansion might not be habitable.

“So this is the fabulous Teaberry Farm.” In the passenger’s seat of the SUV, Drew’s sixteen-year-old son Brody glanced around and snorted with derision. “Looks like a rat hole to me.”

Drew nearly squeezed his eye shut in frustration. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he had to move into this old monstrosity while he negotiated the purchase of a local manufacturing company, his ex-wife decided to get remarried, forcing Drew to keep their son for the entire month of her honeymoon. So while he negotiated to buy the business of crusty old Jimmy Lane, a West Virginia entrepreneur who only wanted to sell his business to someone who lived in West Virginia, he was saddled with a sassy sixteen-year-old.

Inserting the key into the back door lock, he glanced behind him at Brody, who was so engrossed in whatever he was doing with his cell phone that he didn’t even watch where he walked. Wearing a black knit cap over his yellow hair and a thick parka that seemed to swallow him whole, Brody was the complete opposite of his dark-haired, dark-eyed, always observant dad. The kid was going to step into traffic one day.

Brushing up against one of the pine trees beside the kitchen door as he pulled the key out of the door lock, Drew prayed that they both survived this month. He pushed open the door, stepped into a kitchen that looked like something out of a horror movie and froze.

“Mr. Teaberry!” The woman standing by the dusty kitchen counter winced. “I’d say welcome home, but I’m not sure that’s exactly appropriate, given the condition of the place.”

Drew blinked at yet another surprise this morning. Unless she was Max Peabody, the caretaker, this had to be his temporary administrative assistant, Gwen MacKenzie. In their phone interview, she’d told him she had one more semester of university to finish, so he’d pictured her as being a petite blonde sprite, someone who’d look only a little older than his son. Instead, he’d hired a classically beautiful woman with thick dark hair and catlike green eyes, who was built like every man’s fantasy come to life. A bright red sweater accented her ample bosom. Dark, low riding jeans caressed her perfect bottom. Her shoulder-length hair swung gaily when she moved.

He slid his laptop to an available counter, glancing around at the nightmare of a kitchen. The oak cabinets were solid, but coated in dust, so were the kitchen table and the four chairs around it. But, like the cabinets, the furniture and the ceramic floor tiles looked to be in good shape. The house wasn’t really falling apart, just dirty.

“Good morning. Sorry we’re late. We couldn’t get on the road until hours after what we’d planned.”

She batted her hand in dismissal. “Not a problem.”

Brody pushed into the kitchen behind his dad, not caring that he’d bumped into him. “Hey, babe, thought for sure you’d have muffins and coffee waiting.”

Drew blanched at his son’s disrespect. “Not only is Gwen not our cook, but we don’t call employees babe.”

“All right. Great. No babe.” Brody pulled his sunglasses down his nose and peered over the rim at Gwen. “Sorry about that, sweetie.”

“We don’t call employees sweetie, either!” Drew said, his temperature rising. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the kid was deliberately antagonizing him. “How about an apology?”

Brody glared at his dad. “Fine. I’m sorry. Why don’t you just write a list of rules so I know what the hell I can and can’t say this next month!”

With that he stormed through the kitchen, all but knocking the swinging door off its hinges as he punched through it.

Though Drew knew he should go after him, he had no idea what to say to this new version of Brody. That was part of the problem. Sixteen years ago, when his ex had moved herself and their son to Colorado, two thousand miles away from Drew, he’d protested. But in the end she hadn’t budged and his visits with Brody became something like two-week vacations spent on tropical islands or ski resorts.

They’d always gotten along well. Until this trip. Now, Brody was suddenly obnoxious. Drew had absolutely no idea what the heck was he going to do with him for the entire month of December. One-on-one in a house so far out in the country that it didn’t get cable, they were going to be miserable. Especially since Drew wasn’t even sure when or why Brody had turned into such a mouthy kid or where to start with discipline.

He did, however, know exactly what to say to an embarrassed employee. He turned to Gwen. “I apologize for my son’s behavior.”

“Not a big deal,” she said with a laugh. “He’s what? Fifteen? Sixteen? He’s testing the water. All kids do it.”

A steamroller of relief rumbled through Drew. At least the relationship with his temporary administrative assistant would be normal. Then she smiled at him, her pretty green eyes shining, her full lips winging upward, and everything male inside of Drew responded. Her thick, shiny dark hair framed a heart-shaped face with bright eyes, a pert nose and generous lips made for kissing.

Involuntarily, his gaze swept down the red sweater and tight jeans. He rarely went out and, when he did, the women he dated were nothing like Gwen. They were tall, cool blondes. Sophisticates. Models. Starlets. But there was no denying that this gorgeous brunette ignited a spark inside him, made him wonder what it would be like to kiss her--

He groaned inwardly. He wanted a normal working relationship with this woman! Plus, even if he was the kind to dabble in affairs, she was too young for him and an employee. If those weren’t enough, he had responsibilities as the Chairman of the Board of his grandfather’s conglomerate. The pressure of holding the top position in a global company left him no time for anything but work. That was why he’d only spent vacations with Brody. Why Brody had had time to change without Drew even realizing. Why he had to figure out how he’d handle him for the four long weeks in December.

“I think I’ll grab Brody and get our bags.”

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