I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved these two stories. I started off with a heroine, Liz Harper, who had run away (with her mom and sisters) from an abusive father. She'd married the perfect guy, Cain Nestor, but never told him about her past. Three weeks after they eloped, his brother was killed in an automobile accident and he fell into a deep depression. She stayed with him for three long years but when she miscarried their first child, she knew she needed support he couldn't give and she left him.
Fast forward three years. Cain is filthy rich (because all he does is work) and Liz owns her own house cleaning service. She's still in the beginning stages of her company, so she still does eight hours of cleaning every day. And who does she walk in on in his underwear? Her ex. His assistant had hired Liz to work for "the CEO of Cain Corporation" so she had no idea he was her ex.
The story is funny, yet gut wrenching, because she never told him about her past or the miscarriage and she has to face a lot of demons. But so does Cain. He knows he let her down. He loved her, but he let her down. If any two characters ever deserved a happy ending, it's these two.
Unless it's Mac Carmichael and Ellie Swanson. Ellie has such a honed sixth sense about people that her friends call her Magic. She was abused by a former boyfriend and met Liz when she ran to a charity Liz supports that helps abused women with kids. The charity couldn't help childless Ellie, so Liz took her in herself. Now, they're best friends and Ellie is Liz's second in command.
So when Liz goes on her honeymoon with Cain, Ellie takes over Happy Maids and meets Mac. Because he's a business associate of Cain's, someone Cain has been trying to woo for a decade, Ellie knows she can't disappoint Mac. She agrees to take the job at his house before he explains she'll also have to be a nanny to his two kids.
With the help of Cain's silly administrative assistant, Ava, Ellie not only manages to run Happy Maids, she also becomes a nanny for Mac's kids. Seeing Ellie with his kids, Mac realizes how special she is. But she's damaged and his life as a member of one of the richest families in the United States is anything but easy.
It's one of those cases where it looks like a compromise won't ever be found, until a bomb threat shows them what's really important and how to work to get it.
I hope you enjoy these books as much as I enjoyed writing them...And I hope you enjoy your summer. Take a book to the beach! And enjoy the rest of the ezine! I've posted a great lesson for the writers among us. Cat Tails this month focuses on my daughter's cat, Fluffy! And an excerpt from the first chapter of MAID FOR THE MILLIONAIRE is posted at the end.
Enjoy!
susan
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Writing Tip
Journey Steps: Creating a Compelling Story (Or as I like to say. . .Taking the Train To Somewhere) is one of my most popular workshops. So I thought those of you who haven't taken it would enjoy the first lesson!
Lesson One: What are Journey Steps?
Lots of speakers, writers and pundits define plot points as four or five major events of your story, pivotal points, points of change or twists that take the story in a different direction. High points of the story.
Couldn't agree more. But when I would sit down to write a book, I'd come up with four or five 'high points' and have no idea what to put in between those high points. So I dug deeper and that's when I discovered 'Journey Steps.' Actually, I might have made them up. But they work, so you might want to try them too.
What are Journey Steps?
In Susan Meier World -- which is a little bit like a theme park but you have to 'work' on the rides -- Journey Steps are the steps it takes your main character (protagonist) to get from who he or she is at the opening of the book -- the inciting incident, the terrible trouble, the day/moment everything changed -- to who he or she is at the resolution of the trouble and the satisfying conclusion.
Note that I don't say it's all the steps from one plot point to another. . . though I could. I'd rather see the big picture of a story. The journey. And not put so much emphasis on those four or five points. Though obviously plot points do shake things up on the journey, they are still 'steps' and if I don't make a big deal out of them (LOL) I see my whole story unfolding as 'steps.' Plot points being more important steps, but still steps . . .
And steps are action, and action breeds a reaction and reaction breed decision, which always breed action, which breeds a reaction, which breeds a decision and on and on and on.
When I discovered this action/reaction/decision sequence in books by Jack Bickham and Dwight Swain, I started calling the sequence a magic formula for plotting because it is. If you follow action/reaction and decision, you can not only tell a story, you can tell it in a tight, focused way.
Which should be all of our goal!
But even when I figured all this stuff out, I still had a bit of trouble with my books. That’s when I discovered Story, Scene and Word.
Good grief! What the heck is Story, Scene and Word?
Story, Scene and Word are actually the three levels on which we write. If you want to write a good novel, you must be able to come up with a story, manifest that story through scenes and be able to build those scenes using words.
Coming up with a story, creating scenes and using words well are three distinct and definitely different skills, by the way. Right now, some of you are probably very good with coming up with stories, but you’re having trouble turning them into books because you might not be as good at dividing your stories into scenes. Or maybe you can write great scenes, but your “stories” aren’t as strong as they need to be. This might be what’s keeping your from publication, or slowing down your process.
For the purposes of understanding journey steps, words don't concern us. But scenes sure as heck do. Why? Because the basis of every scene should be a journey step. But even scenes don't yet concern us because before you can come up with scenes that manifest your story, you actually have to have a story.
Lots of people groan at that, but you have to know your story. For the pantsers among us, you don't have to get fancy and/or specific and do an outline that ruins your fun. In fact, the less fancy or specific you are the better. Having a one sentence or one paragraph description of your story is enough to begin figuring out journey steps. From there you can write each scene individually and come up with your journey steps as you go along. So your pantser fun isn't ruined!
But you have to know at least the bare bones of your story to come up with the "correct" first journey step. The important one that starts the book.
Okay, so what does a one-line or one-paragraph story description look like?
How about this: In my romantic suspense novel, the hero and heroine must catch a killer but she's already been arrested for the crime and he's the DA prosecuting her.
Short, succinct, no fun spoiling, but enough to come up with a great opening scene.
Here's another: Driving home from Vegas, where the heroine ran when she realized she didn't want to marry her fiancé, the hero and heroine are incredibly attracted. But in this SEXY CATEGORY ROMANCE, the hero won't do anything about the attraction because the heroine's ex-fiancé is his BOSS.
(By the way, I call this a story summary. Couldn't write a book without one!)
Once you have your one-paragraph or one-sentence idea, the "steps" or journey steps, are the way you tell that story. And basically you illustrate those "steps" in scenes.
Okay. You now know that in order to figure out your journey steps, you need to know your story -- at least the bare-bones idea. So, I'd like you to see if you can condense your story down to one line or one short, succinct paragraph that tells the kind of story it is (that’s why I “capped” the sexy category romance…to show you it doesn’t have to go at the beginning, though it can) and the overall GMC.
How do you do that?
Well, first...you never want to say the words 'The hero's goal is' or 'The Heroine's motivation is'. You want them to blend seamlessly into your sentence.
Remember our example? In my romantic suspense, the hero and heroine must catch a killer but she's already been arrested for the crime and he's the DA prosecuting her?
Do you know what their goal is? Yes, to catch a killer.
Do you know what their motivation is? Yes. . .They're trying to save her. Well, she's trying to save herself. He's trying to make sure the right person is prosecuted for the crime.
Do you know what their conflict is? Sure. They are on opposite sides of a battle for one. But also, they're running against the clock. So, they can't be attracted because of being on opposite ends of a battle. He WILL prosecute her if the evidence turns him in that direction. AND they don't have a lot of time.
Do you see how I took all that "stuff" and turned it into one sentence?
THAT'S what you need to do with your book!
That's your assignment. Rather than just read this post, try to put your book's concept into one sentence! You will be thrilled with what you will learn from this experiment!
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Coming Attractions
I'm blogging
July 6 Cataromance
July 10 at Petticoats and Pistols
July 14 eHarlequin
July 20 Pink Heart Society
August 6 Heroines with Heart
August 11 Writing with the Top Down
August 11 eharlequin
August 26 Pink Heart Society
WORKSHOP:
STORY THEME AND VEHICLE writersonline.com
This is a great workshop. We really get down and dirty with figuring out your idea, seeing if you have enough for a story, and pulling it all together.
I haven't given it often. Maybe twice. So it's some fresh material for those of you who follow my workshops!
What you missed...
If you haven't been reading the Susan Meier blog you missed...
THE MAGIC OF A FAMILY CHRISTMAS finaled in the Gayle Wilson Award of Execllence Contest (March archives)
A size 14 in a size 0 world...very funny! (October archives)
Cookie Painting at Grandma's (November archives)
Christmas Cats (December archives)
Valentine's Day post...also very funny! (February)
Grubby kids at Easter! (April)
I attended the NOLA conference (which was fabulous!), Washington Romance Writers Conference (also fabulous!) and gave an hour-long talk for the New Jersey RWA chapter.
Cat Tails
This edition we'll talk about my daughter's cat, Fluffy. It's not easy liviing with a cat named Sophia Maria Lolita Conchita Chequita Banana. She can be a tad vain. So Fluffy is more laid back. But he gets his licks in on Sophia! For one, he weights eighteen pounds to her nine. When it comes to cat food, he's the ruler of the dish!
But what makes Fluffy really adorable is that he knows the sound of my daughter's car. We'll be watching TV, with him sleeping comfortably on the oval rug in the living room and suddenly he'll bolt up, his ears will go back and he'll race to the door. (Like a dog!)
Even cuter is the way he'll sit by the door when she's gone for more than her work shift. If she's on vacation or staying a weekend away, he will sit by the door, patiently waiting for her return.
He's the most loyal cat I've ever met!
Book Excerpts
MAID FOR THE MILLIONAIRE
Pink underwear?
Cain Nestor tossed his formerly white cotton briefs into the washer and slammed the door closed. Damn it! He should have stopped at the mall the night before and bought new, but it had been late when his private plane finally landed in Miami. Besides, back in Kansas he had done his own laundry plenty of times. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten so much in twelve years that he’d end up with pink underwear, but apparently he had.
Tightening the knot of the towel at his waist, he stormed out of the laundry room and into the kitchen just as the back door opened. From the pretty yellow ruffled apron that was the trademark of Happy Maids, he knew that his personal assistant was one step ahead of him again. He’d been without a housekeeper since February 1 – three long weeks. Though Eva had interviewed, he’d found something wrong with every person she’d chosen – his maid lived in and a man couldn’t be too careful about whom he let stay in his home – but the lack of clean underwear had clearly proven he’d hit a wall.
Leave it to his assistant to think of the stopgap measure. She’d hired a cleaning service.
Ready to make an apology for his appearance, Cain caught his once-a-week housekeeper’s gaze and his heart froze in his chest. His breathing stopped. His thigh muscles turned to rubber.
“Liz?”
Though her long black hair had been pulled into a severe bun at her nape and she’d lost a few pounds in the three years since he’d seen her, he’d know those catlike green eyes anywhere.
“Cain?”
A million questions danced through his head, but they were quickly replaced by recriminations. She’d quit a very good job in Philadelphia and moved with him to Miami when she’d married him. Now, she was a maid? Not even a permanently employed housekeeper. She was a fill-in. A stopgap measure.
And it was his fault.
He swallowed. “I don’t know what to say.”
Liz Harper blinked a few times, making sure her eyes were in focus and she really was seeing her ex-husband standing wrapped in only a towel in the kitchen of the house that was her first assignment for the day. He hadn’t changed a bit in three years. His onyx eyes still had the uncanny ability to make her feel he could see the whole way to her soul. He still wore his black hair short. And he still had incredible muscles that rippled when he moved. Broad shoulders. Defined pecs. And six-pack abs. All of which were on display at the moment.
She licked her suddenly dry lips. “You could start by saying, ‘Excuse my nakedness. I’ll just run upstairs and get a robe’.”
Remarkably, that made him laugh and myriad memories assaulted her…
The day they met on the flight from Dallas to Philadelphia…
How they’d exchanged business cards and he’d called her cell phone even before she was out of the airport...
How they’d had dinner that night, entered into a long-distance relationship, made love for the first time on the beach just beyond his beautiful Miami home, and married on the spur of the moment in Las Vegas.
And now she was his housekeeper.
Could a woman fall any farther?
Worse, she wasn’t in a position where she could turn down this job.
“Okay. I’ll just—“
“Do you think—“
They stopped. The scent of his soap drifted to her and she realized he hadn’t changed brands. More memories danced through her. The warmth of his touch. The seriousness of his kiss.
She cleared her throat. “You first.”
He shook his head. “No. Ladies first.”
“Okay.” She pulled in a breath. She didn’t have to tell him her secrets. Wouldn’t be so foolish again as to trust him with her dreams. If everything went well, she wouldn’t even have to see him. “Are you going to have a problem with this?”
He gripped his towel a little tighter. “You working for me or chatting about you working for me while I stand here just about naked?”
Her cheeks heated. The reminder that he was naked under one thin towel caused her blood to simmer with anticipation. For another two people that might be ridiculous three years after their divorce, but she and Cain had always had chemistry. Realistically, she knew it wouldn’t simply disappear. After all, it had been strong enough to coax a normally sensible Pennsylvania girl to quit her dream job and follow him to Miami, and strong enough that a typically reclusive entrepreneur had opened up and let her into his life.
“Me working here for you until you hire a new maid.” She motioned around the kitchen. The bronze and tan cut-glass backsplash accented tall cherry wood cabinets and bright stainless steel appliances. “Is that going to be a problem?”
He glanced at the ceramic tile floor then back up at her. “I’ve gotta be honest, Liz. It does make me feel uncomfortable.”
“Why? You’re not supposed to be here when I am. In fact, I was told you’re typically at the office by eight. It’s a fluke that we’ve even run into each other. And I need this job!”
“Which is exactly why I feel bad.”
That changed her blood from simmering with chemistry to boiling with fury. “You feel sorry for me?”
He winced. “Not sorry, per se—“
“Then sorry, per what?” But as the words tumbled out of her mouth she realized what was going on. Three steps got her to the big center island of his kitchen. “You think I fell apart when our marriage did and now I can only get a job as a maid?”
“Well—“
Three more steps had her standing in front of him. “Honey, I own this company. I am the original Happy Maid.”
