January 2013

Good Morning!

I just got back from the dermatologist. I was to have my yearly skin exam ...except I got the date wrong. LOL So here I am on a Friday afternoon with nothing schedule, so I thought I'd catch up on my ezines.

My Christmas was wonderful. I perfected my apple pancakes! For those of you wondering, buy "add water only" pancake mix, replace one cup of water with apple juice. The other "1/2 cup of water" should be replaced with apple sauce. Everything else is the same. And let me tell you, they are yummy!

2013 is a busy year with lots of online and live workshops! So check out the Coming Attractions section.

But last month I finished my fiftieth book for Harlequin. Fittingly, it's a Christmas story.

I love Christmas stories and this one is a humdinger about a heroine who is a teacher, who was abused by her dad as a child, who's making her way back home again. The hero is a rich man whose wife was killed in an automobile accident, leaving him to raise two kids alone. He's over his head, even after three years. When the heroine comes to his house to start her job home-schooling his kids, she thinks it would be wiser to leave than to stay! But she can't desert the kids the way everyone deserted her as a child. It's one of those funny/sad stories that I love to write.

It's really one of my best books and I can hardly wait for fans to read it.

This month's ezine continues our instruction on writing a three-book series and there's an excerpt from book 1 of the Babies in the Boardroom series...we talk about it in the how-to-write article so I thought it might help if you read the excerpt!

That's about it for me now! I hope you'll look for me on Facebook.  http://www.facebook.com/susan.meier.54

or

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Susan-Meiers-Books/120647777954747?fref=ts




Enjoy!

susan



Coming Attractions

January 2013 LET CONFLICT TELL YOUR STORY FOR YOU, Maryland Romance Writers, online.

February 2013 CAN THIS MANUSCRIPT BE SAVED? Writersonlineworkshops

In February, my book in the Larkville Series BILLIONAIRE BABY SOS is released

March 2013 WHAT'S A SCENE SUPPOSED TO DO Savvy Authors

May, the first book in a duet about sisters is to be released: A FATHER FOR HER TRIPLETS The heroine is a wedding cake baker with triplets! Tons of fun to write!

June 2013 CONFLICT AND THE CATEGORY ROMANCE, STAR RWA Chapter

July 2013 a short 2-week workshop on Theme for Savvy Authors

September 2013 Keeping the Tension Alive in Romance Novels Without Sex NEORWA


For the Writers Among Us

Last ezine we began the 3-article series on writing a 3-book series, a group of articles I did for Savvy Authors. This is article 2.

How to Write a 3-Book Series: Book 2: Keeping Your Story Going
 

     In lesson 1, Setup, we learned that you must create characters -- especially secondary characters -- that readers like enough (or dislike enough) that they want to read about those characters again. If you’re writing a romance, you should write those characters in such a way that readers are clamoring to see how those characters make their own romantic matches. And if you write a character really craftily, you might just make readers wonder who the heck could ever be that guy’s (or girl’s) match! Cade, the hero for book 3 in my BABY IN THE BOARDROOM series is one of those. He’s so surly and so lost after the death of his wife that readers will wonder if anyone would even want him! LOL But in book 2 he shows he has a heart of gold.
 

     And, guess what? We’ve just stumbled onto the “series” purpose for book 2. Move the overarching story along another step or two and show us some character growth.

     In SECOND CHANCE BABY, second Andreas Brother, Nick, hires his ex-wife to be his new assistant. Under ordinary circumstances that would be bad. But Nick and Maggie were married at eighteen. Fifteen years ago. Plus, when they were kids, Nick and his mom had no money. Maggie shared with him. She also went fishing with him when he needed to catch supper for himself and his mom.

     They had a history that superseded their divorce.

     Or so he thought.

     The minute he sees Maggie, Nick remembers all those wonderful achy feelings he had for her as an adolescent. It makes him mad because he believes she didn’t have those feelings for him. Otherwise, she couldn’t have so easily left him.

     So he works to acclimate to having Maggie around and realizes she’s very smart. Much smarter than he’d expected. And she has work experience that kind of, sort of, makes her a candidate to replace him.

     Replace him? Yep. Throughout the course of book 1 and into book 2, oldest Andreas Brother Darius has been struggling with Andreas Holdings. His father had built a company so huge it can’t be run by one man. Which is why it went on the skids. Nick, who bought a manufacturing company at nineteen, and has all kinds of business experience now that he’s thirty-three, could leave his single company, move to New York and help Darius, if he could find the right person to run his company.

     Maggie seems like that person, but Nick worries. First, he is trying to get away from the magnetic pull of her. Is he only thinking he should move to NY to help Darius because he’s running from Maggie?
 

     Second, he worries that he’s attributing more intelligence, experience to her than is warranted. In his need to get away, is he only seeing her as the perfect replacement so he can leave?

     Darius suggests he bring Maggie to Gino’s first birthday party. (Note how we give readers a chance to see the darling little boy who brought Whitney and Darius from book 1 together?)
While she's at his house, Darius will question her, sort of interview her, for Nick. They’ll tell her that since all 3 brothers are together they need to have a brothers’ meeting for which they need her to take notes. She’ll never be any the wiser that she’s being interviewed.
 

     Notice how the overarching series story – the three brothers inheriting the company, getting to know each other, getting accustomed to having a baby brother – impacts the main story of even the second romance?
 

     Notice also, that I get in familiar characters…sweet baby Gino, Whitney, Darius, Cade … at the kind of function that readers would enjoy attending. Gino’s first birthday party.

     You don't want to go overboard by having too many scenes with secondary characters. You also can’t set up convoluted circumstances. You must get them in naturally. The situations where readers get to see the secondary characters must appear naturally and flow organically into the story.

     Taking Maggie to New York so that Darius can check her out to see if she’d be a good candidate to take over Nick’s business flowed perfectly.

    
     But it also had a secondary purpose for the story. Maggie’s an average girl. She went to college and made a life for herself with the man she married after she graduated from college, but she’s never risen above middle class. Nick is rich. His family is beyond rich. The world they live in is bright and fantastic. At one point she describes servants dressed in black and white uniforms as chess pieces that scurry across the black and white block floor.
 

     Nick and Maggie met in the years when Nick and his mom were so poor they fished for their supper. Maggie doesn’t know him as the wealthy magnate. In fact, she doesn’t know him as Nick Andreas. She never suspected that as an adult he’d take his father’s last name. In a lot of ways, he’s a totally different guy than the one she originally fell in love with.

     Using family is a great way to demonstrate conflict in any novel. But when you want to get that family into the story for readers to have a chance to see them again, it serves that dual purpose!

     Also using family gets Cade in, so he can take a few seconds to chasten Nick and show readers what kind of a guy he is. Having been married himself, Cade knows women need attention. (LOL!) He sees Darius working nonstop, having little time for Whitney or Gino, and Cade’s not the kind of guy who will zip his lip and hope for the best. Nope. He meddles. Well, actually, as a CEO he thinks meddling is his purpose in life!

     He takes Nick aside and tells him he needs to get his butt to New York to help Darius. Cade can’t. He owns and runs at least three businesses. It would take months to hire the people necessary to replace him. But Nick runs one measly manufacturing company and it looks like Maggie could run it for him, so he should man up, promote Maggie and get his butt to New York.

     In that exchange, we don’t merely see Cade pointing out the logical next step for Nick. We also see a side of Cade, a caring side, that we weren’t sure existed. We don’t just like him. We really like him. We also see that for all his bustle and gruffness, he does care about Andreas Holdings. But more than that, he cares about his brother Darius.

     Wow. He is definitely a candidate for the hero of book 3 now!

     But these scenes aren’t long. They aren’t protracted events. They are quick scenes in which the secondary characters help to move the book’s plot AND the series plot/story at the same time that they demonstrate their own character and sometimes character growth, as we see with Cade.

     The overarching story of the brothers becoming friends, allies, is complete in book 2. And right now most of you are thinking, what the heck happens in book 3 then?

     Well, don’t forget, in lesson 1 we learned that Andreas Holdings has an anonymous shareholder. Stephone’s first assistant to whom he gave shares of stock rather than Christmas bonuses in the beginning of his company when he was just starting out. Everybody believes this woman is old. Well, let’s face it. Stephone was no spring chicken when he died. So his first secretary would be old.

     She appears to be no threat because in the year that has passed, she hasn’t once even called. Not even when the company stopped mailing out dividends.

     But a new wrinkle appears. In book 2, one of the problems Darius is encountering (that causes Nick and Cade to realize Darius needs help) is that a firm in London is actively seeking to “buy into” Andreas Holdings. The brothers don’t want another shareholder. (They already have 5!) Though the company needs an influx of cash, they don’t want an investment firm buying in because that firm would meddle in how the company was run.

     They don’t worry about any of the Andreas Brothers themselves selling his stock. They’re solid now. But what about Granny Shareholder? What if London finds out about her? What if London gets to her before they do? Especially since they do not have the money to buy her shares?

     It’s a question dropped at the end of book two. Once it’s clear the brothers-not-getting-along segment of the story has been resolved, we needed to remind readers that there’s more to this series story than just the brothers meeting and bonding. There’s another shareholder and that could potentially be trouble.

     That’s all I did in book two. Drop that reminder. But it isn’t really just a reminder of the series story, is it? It’s an escalation of that particular story. The appearance of a London investment firm, a group of businessmen who would wrestle for control from Darius, Nick and Cade, adds a threat. The fact that they don’t know who their shareholder is adds another layer to that threat.

     Notice that it’s not such a big deal that it needs to be solved in this book. It’s woven into the story of Nick and Maggie’s reunion romance. It’s a nudge to Nick to begin working for Andreas Holdings fulltime. And once he does, readers get the “feeling” of satisfaction on the still open thread. Nick and Darius working together will be able to handle the threat of the London firm trying to buy in.

     Or so we believe. In book 3 we find out differently. But to resolve Nick and Maggie’s story, that threat serves the purpose of getting Nick to work for Andreas Holdings and give control of his company to Maggie, whom he loves.
 

     And that takes us to something interesting about series books. Epilogues. Romance readers love to “see” the characters’ true happily-ever-after in a short scene that takes place far enough into the future that they know the couple is definitely happy.

     But in a mini-series, epilogues serve double duty. They don’t just show the hero and heroine living happily ever after; they also give the author a chance to show the series characters again and demonstrate that whatever segment of the series problem you showcased in that particular book has been resolved.

     For instance:

     The epilogue of THE BABY PROJECT, book 1, shows us the three brothers at Darius’s wedding. Shows their bond growing. Which was the major series problem of book 1.
 

     The epilogue of SECOND CHANCE BABY, book 2, shows us Maggie’s baby Michael’s baptism, showing, of course, that the hero and heroine are happy and settled, but also the brothers are interacting a little more casually now. And even more people are coming into the circle they call family. Maggie’s dad and Nick’s mom join Whitney’s parents as extended family. Showing that the brothers who were so far apart at the beginning of book 1 are forming the bond all of them resisted early on!

     In book 3, BABY AT THE RANCH…oh, wait. I can’t tell you. I don’t want to spoil the fun of book 3. We’ll talk about that next month. Hopefully, after you’ve all had a chance to read it.

     You don’t want the beginning of BABY AT THE RANCH to be spoiled!

Excerpt

Since we've been talking about the Babies in the Boardroom Series, I thought I'd give you a taste of series book 1. The Baby Project  

Chapter 1

“The Andreas brothers have arrived.”

     As the secretary's announcement came through the speaker phone, attorney Whitney Ross turned from the window in her father’s law office. The gathering January storm clouds above the New York City skyscrapers concerned her, but the Andreas brothers’ visit would be every bit as tumultuous.

Gerard Ross pressed a button on his phone. “Tell them I need five minutes.”

He caught Whitney's gaze, his green eyes bright with something she decided was a cross between trepidation and humor.

“You're enjoying this.”

     “Not enjoying exactly.” He grimaced, leaning his round body back in his office chair. He rhythmically tapped the blotter on his cherry wood desk. “How about if we say Stephone used his will to accomplish a few important things?”

     Though Whitney had never met Stephone Andreas's sons, Stephone had been a close friend of her father’s. He'd come to dinner at least once a month from the time she was six, and had talked about “his boys” incessantly. So she suspected she knew what was going on. The senior Andreas had always believed his three sons needed a kick in the pants and it seemed he'd finally found a way to give them one.

“You persuaded Stephone to use his will to force them to grow up.”

     “This is about more than growing up. All three are smart. All three are good businessmen. Any one of them could take over the family holdings. But not one of them has a sense of loyalty or family.”

     “And this is where the will comes in?”

     “Yes. Stephone gave everything important to his oldest son, Darius. Whether that divides them for good or forces them to unite, all depends on whether Darius takes the reins like a true leader and unites them.”

He rose and headed for the black leather sofa in the comfortable meeting area in the corner of his big law office. After he sat, he patted the spot beside him, indicating this is where she should sit for their upcoming meeting.

“But before I bring the brothers in, there's something you need to know. Missy had something put in her will for you that Stephone agreed would also go into his.”

Whitney took the seat he’d offered. “Missy put something in her will for me?” She wasn't surprised. Missy Harrington had been her roommate from the time they were freshman at university the whole way through law school. With an alcoholic mom and a dad who'd left when Missy was young, Missy had adopted Whitney's family. For seven years, she'd shared every holiday and most of her vacations with the Rosses. Though Whitney had hardly seen her since she introduced Missy to Stephone, and they'd run off to Greece together, Whitney and Missy had a strong bond.

“She didn't exactly leave you something. In accordance with Stephone and Missy's wills, you and Darius got shared custody of their son.”

     Her stomach squeezed. “What?”

“Okay. Look. It's been three years since the accident that took Burn and Layla. And though I hadn't known Missy and Stephone would die so soon when I let them put this provision in their wills, it's still time you came back to the land of the living.” Her dad pulled a small envelope from one of the files in the stack on the coffee table. “She left this note for you.”

     Her hand wrapped around the envelope and she paled.

“Stephone wanted Darius to raise their son, but Missy was adamant about you having joint custody. The Andreas brothers are rich and spoiled. And they don’t even know their father had another son. It’s anybody's guess how they’ll react when they find out. I believe that Missy made you co-guardian to assure Gino was also in the hands of someone she trusted.”

“But I don't know Gino either! When Missy and Stephone moved to Greece, we lost touch. I've never met Gino. I'll be no better for this baby than his brother.”

He caught her hand. “You might not know Gino, but Missy knew you. She knew you had a sense of family. A sense of right and wrong. You've also been a mom. You'll get to know Gino and, as young as he is, Gino will grow accustomed to you too.” He squeezed her fingers. “Besides, you need this.”

     She tried to bounce off the sofa, but her dad held fast to her hand. When she faced him her eyes were blazing. “No! I don't need this! I'm fine!”

     “You're not fine. Otherwise, getting custody of Gino wouldn't make you angry.”

He pressed a button on the phone on the coffee table that sat in the center of the circle made by the sofa and three black leather chairs. “Cynthia, bring in Gino, please.”

     Whitney's heart stopped. Her stomach rolled. Her head spun. For the past three years, she'd avoided even being near a baby. The scent of baby powder, the feel of snuggly blankets, the sight of someone so tiny, so helpless, and so beautiful would have been her undoing. And now her father wanted her to take a baby into her home?

The side door opened and Cyndy Smith walked in carrying six-month-old Gino Andreas in a baby carrier, along with a diaper bag and duffel.

     Her father squeezed her hand again. “Your mother and I have been keeping Gino during the Andreas funerals, but it's time you took him.” He rose and accepted the baby carrier from Cyndy. “Thank you, Cyn.”

     She nodded and her blonde hair bobbed. “You're welcome, sir.”

     As Cyn left the room, Whitney's father set the carrier on the sofa, pulled Gino out and presented the dark-haired, dark-eyed baby boy to her. “He's yours, Whitney.”

     Knowing there was no arguing with her father or he'd send her back to therapy, Whitney slid the envelope into her jacket pocket and took the six-month-old with shaking hands. He immediately began to cry.

“Don't cry, sweetie,” she crooned, automatically pressing his head to her shoulder to comfort him. “It's okay.”

Her instinctive response to his crying amazed her, but she wasn't surprised by the pain that sliced through her – the memories that flashed through her brain. Her daughter had been a tiny blonde with huge blue eyes. She'd rarely cried. Except when she missed her mother. She'd loved bananas and puppies. To Whitney she'd seemed the smartest baby on the face of the earth.

Tears filled her eyes. Her stomach tightened.

She couldn't do this.

Maybe she did need more time with Dr. Miller?

But before she could say anything to her dad, the office door opened. Wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a cable knit sweater, Cade Andreas entered first. Behind him was Nick, the dark-haired, dark-eyed brother who most resembled the senior Andreas. And finally Darius. Taller than their father, but with eyes and hair as dark as his, striking in his expensive business suit, Darius was very clearly the leader of the group.

Their expressions were solemn, yet strong. Almost arrogant. The head of the Andreas family was dead. They now controlled one of the largest shipping conglomerates in the world. 

Or so they thought.

     She glanced at the baby in her arms. For the first time in three years she felt a swell of protectiveness only a mother could feel, and she understood why Missy had given her custody along with Darius. The Andreas men were strong. Maybe too strong. And babies needed love.

     The question was did she have any left to give?

“Are you kidding me?”

Darius Andreas gaped at Gerard Ross, his deceased father's attorney, then his daughter Whitney Ross, a tall, cool blonde with gray-blue eyes who looked nothing like her short, round father. The pair sat on the black leather sofa. The Andreas brothers sat across from them on three black leather chairs. Beside Whitney was a baby carrier and inside the carrier was a baby boy who looked to be only a few months old. His black hair and dark eyes marked him as an Andreas as clearly as Gerard Ross's pronouncement did.

“I assure you, there's no joke.” Gerard leaned back, getting more comfortable. “This little boy is your father's final son. There are four of you now.”

He picked up the will and began reading again. “It is my wish that the remaining two-thirds share of Andreas Holdings be divided equally among my four sons: Darius, Cade, Nick and Gino.”

Gino.

A baby.

His final half-sibling was a baby!

Darius sucked in a breath, forcing that to sink in, but it wouldn't. His brain had frozen. He was stunned, speechless, and working not to lose his temper over something he couldn't change. Silent Nick and Cade appeared to be equally shell shocked.

 Finally, the business sense Darius had trusted his entire life came to his rescue. “I want a DNA test.”

The smooth leather sofa sighed when Gerard sat forward. He looked down at his entwined fingers then caught Darius’s gaze. “Your father might not have married Missy Harrington, but he's named on the birth certificate as Gino's father. Had Missy not died with your father, you might be fighting her for the company right now.”

“I still want DNA.”

“I understand you're surprised—“

“Surprised? How about shocked? First, our father calls us to the hospital after the accident to tell us that he gave one-third interest in the company to his first administrative assistant. So we’ll never fully own our own damned company. Then he tells us we have no sense of family and unless we pull together we're going to lose everything he built. Then he dies. Just like that.” He snapped his fingers. “Now you're telling us there's a fourth brother?”

“Mr. Andreas, the very fact that you didn't know your father had another child is proof that your sense of family leaves a bit to be desired.”

Darius nearly cursed. Who was his womanizing father to tell him that he had no sense of family? His father had abandoned his mother. Hell, Stephone had abandoned him until he was in his teens. And then he'd only appeared in Darius's life because he wanted to assure that Darius went to a good university so he could be groomed to work for Andreas Holdings.

“For decades our father preached that we shouldn't take family troubles to outsiders.” He rose. “Yet it looks like that's exactly what he’s done.” He reached for the baby carrier. Now that the shock was receding, things were beginning to sink in and make sense. He didn't really need DNA to tell him this was his brother. His father had been living with a thirty-year-old woman. It was no shock she'd gotten pregnant. Gino had all the physical markings of an Andreas. With his father's name on the birth certificate and Gino's name in the will, this little boy was family. And his father wanted him to care for him. So he would. Unlike his two brothers, Darius always did want their father asked.

“We'll take our brother and go now.”

Whitney held back the carrier. “Dad?”

Gerard said, “There's more.”

Darius just barely controlled his rising fury. “More?”

“You, Darius, get custody of Gino but you share it with Whitney.”

He turned his heated gaze on her.

Her yellow hair was probably pretty, but she had it rolled in a tight, no-nonsense bun at the back of her head. Her gray suit hid any hint of the body beneath it. He caught the gaze of her blue-gray eyes. In spite of the fact that she dressed to downplay her appearance, Darius felt a click of attraction. And it was mutual. He saw the flicker in her pretty blue orbs.

“It's up to you how you divide Gino's time. If you want to have him three days a week and Whitney four, or if you want to have him for two weeks a month and Whitney two, whatever you choose is up to you two. But she will vote his share at your board of directors meetings.”

This time Darius did curse. But he quickly pulled in a breath, struggling to rein in his temper, and glanced again at Whitney. The click of attraction he’d felt when he'd first looked into her eyes turned into a current of electricity that zapped between them. They were definitely attracted.

If this were any other day, any other time, any other circumstance, he would have pursued her. Peel off a few layers of clothes, take down her hair and he was just about certain he'd find paradise.

But those eyes, those pretty Persian cat eyes, told him to forget it. It didn't matter if they were attracted to each other. They had a job to do. Raise Gino. Together.