Author Interview: Narelle Atkins (part 2)

Today we're welcoming back Narelle Atkins, debut author, for the second half of her interview. The first half (here) focused on her novel, Falling for the Farmer. This week, we are looking at the writing and publishing side. Welcome back, Narelle.

When did you seriously start writing? How long did it take before you signed your first publishing contract?

I started writing my first book in 1998, and I discovered I had a lot to learn. I believe it takes time to learn the craft of writing. Not many people write their first book and sell it straight away to a traditional publisher.

I took a long break from writing while my children were small. In 2006 I started to seriously pursue my love of writing. I used to write for two hours every Friday morning while my children were attending pre-school programmes. In 2007 I entered my first book in a number of writing contests in the US. My goal was to receive constructive feedback on how I could improve my stories. I was a finalist in four contests and received a full manuscript request from a Love Inspired editor, who left the company a few months later. I submitted the book and received a form rejection. Over the next few years I wrote my runaway bride story and the second book in my Sydney series.

In August 2012 Harlequin announced they had purchased the Heartsong Presents line from Barbour. I emailed a query and sold my first book in September 2012. My editor asked if I’d written anything else, which led to writing proposals for three brand new stories. I signed a six book contract with Harlequin Love Inspired Heartsong Presents for two 3-book series in February 2013.      

Heartsong Presents novels are known as category romance. What does this mean, and how is it different from the longer single title romance novels?

Category romance books are usually shorter reads that fit within defined parameters. My Heartsong Presents books are just under 200 pages long. My publisher, Harlequin, is the biggest romance publisher in the world. Harlequin has a large number of romance imprints in a wide range of romance sub-genres, including the Love Inspired range of inspirational romance books. The books are released on a monthly schedule. Heartsong Presents currently releases two contemporary and two historical inspirational romances each month. Readers can subscribe to the Harlequin Reader Service and receive a shipment of books every month from their favourite romance lines.

Single title books are longer, and are usually more complex stories with subplots. My Heartsong Presents books focus on the developing relationship between the hero and heroine. The romance plot is the central storyline, and I introduce minor characters who will feature in later books in the series.

Another difference between category and single title books relates to marketing. A new category romance author will sell their book to loyal readers of the category romance line. Readers who love the Heartsong Presents books will buy new authors because they trust the brand will deliver the type of story they like to read. The Heartsong Presents brand will generate sales. In contrast, a single title book is more dependent on the author’s name. It’s harder for a new single title author to stand out in the crowded book marketplace. That’s one reason why building an author platform is important for new writers looking to sell a single title book or series to a traditional publisher.   

Why have you chosen to write category romance? Do you think you will stick with category, or will you move into full-length novels?

I started reading category romance when I was a teenager. My grandmother was an avid category romance reader and she used to share her large book collection with me. I like writing shorter books and I’ve never felt that the category guidelines have limited the scope of my writing. Our books are a product and authors need to deliver books that meet reader expectations. There are genre expectations that single title authors need to follow.

I recently signed an agency agreement with Steve Laube from The Steve Laube Agency. This means I can potentially sell to the larger Christian publishers who only accept agented submissions. I’m more than happy to continue writing for Love Inspired and Heartsong Presents because I love category romance. That said, I do like new challenges and one day I may decide to write a single title contemporary romance series. I’ll work with Steve to map out my career goals and future directions.

People often criticise romance novels (and especially category romance) for being formulaic. Is there a formula? Does this make it easier or harder to write a novel that is accepted for publication?

All genres are formulaic in some way because readers have specific genre expectations. For example, romance plots must have a happily-ever-after ending. Romance is a popular genre with readers because they like reading stories with those essential romance story elements that could be considered formulaic.

I think it’s easier to write a shorter, single romance plot story that doesn’t have one or more sub-plots woven into the main plot. Other writers will say it’s harder to write category romance because they find it difficult to write short. I’ve read single title books that sink in the middle and are boring because the author hasn’t mastered the art of writing effective sub-plots.   

I’ve spent a lot of time studying story structure. The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler explores the mythic story structures. He talks about the stages of the hero’s journey, starting with the ordinary world and call to adventure. In essence, all stories are formulaic if you look at them from a structural perspective, and readers find this underlying story structure satisfying.   

What kind of support does your publisher give you? What are you expected to do yourself?

My publisher provides all the editorial and other support you’d expect from a large traditional publisher, plus they have in-built marketing support eg. Harlequin Reader Service. I’m expected to market and promote my books, and Harlequin provides author copies to help with this process. I was also given the opportunity to write an article for Harlequin’s Simply Books Magazine, which will be mailed out to all their reader service subscribers this month.

It’s important for authors to work with their publishers in all the stages of the book production process. I provide art fact sheet information that is used to create the cover art, and a list of suggested book titles. One day a title I suggest may actually be used, lol.  

Lol indeed! Thanks for visiting, Narelle. 

Review and Giveaway: Friend Me by John Fabion

Melissa Montalvo is an ambitious young software development specialist who has just been given her dream job—a project to create virtual online friends in an IT start-up, working on the next Facebook or SecondLife—only better. The friend you can share anything with, because they’re not real. More intimate.

Rachel and Scott Douglas are the parents of two small children. Rachel is a stay-at-home mom who feels isolated—her husband works all hours in his job as an investment advisor, and she doesn’t have any close friends. So when she finds a new website, VirtualFriendMe, she is intrigued enough to sign upland recreate her best friend, Suzanne—who died two years ago. There should be something inherently creepy about creating a virtual version of a dead person, but the author manages to make this seem not only believable, but a logical course of action.

Meanwhile, Scott is feeling the pressure at work, and decides to create his own virtual friend after Rachel tells him about the site. Only Scott chooses a female friend, Alicia. She’s loving and supportive and he can tell her anything. She seems almost real. Then he sees someone in real life who looks like Alicia—coincidence, surely …

Friend Me was a mix of Single White Female, The Net, with shades of Nick Lesson’s real-life story. Parts of it made awkward reading, as in many ways Melissa was the best character. She was intelligent, hardworking and ambitious, a woman succeeding in a male-dominated industry. There was just the problem of her warped ethics and questionable business practices.

In contrast, Rachel’s life ambition was to get married and be a mother. To paraphrase the current retirement planning campaign with my bank, a man is not a life plan. In the author interview at the end, Fabion said she was the hardest character to write. It showed, in that Rachel was the character I had least sympathy for (which is curious, as I’m also a wife and mother. Perhaps that was because Rachel let her family role be her whole identity, and that seems unhealthy. But now I’m trying to psychoanalyse a fictional character, a virtual person if you like).

I thought Rachel was immature and needy, worrying that she wasn’t a good enough wife and mother (don’t we all?). The couple are supposed to be Christians, but there’s little mention of God, church or prayer, and it felt like Rachel was trying to please Scott and herself, not God. In contrast, Scott read his Bible at work … at least until he created Alicia.

Friend Me is a sobering reminder of how seemingly small acts can have unintended and unforseen consequences, as Scott and Rachel find. It’s an excellent first novel, with good characters that invite the reader to feel a range of emotions, and an unusual suspense plot that raises some interesting issues. Not for the faint-hearted. Recommended.

John Faubion is celebrating his debut novel, Friend Me, with a Kindle HDX giveaway!

One winner will receive:

• A brand new Kindle Fire HDX
• Friend Me by John Faubion

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on February 22nd. Winner will be announced February 24th on John Faubion's blog.

Don't miss a moment of the fun; enter today and be sure to stop by John's blog on the 24th to see if you won.

Review: The Painted Table by Suzanne Field

It should have been excellent ...

In 1858, a tree is felled that will become a table. In 1921, widowed immigrant Knute Kirkeborg is trying to eke out a living farming the harsh North Dakota prairie, supporting seven daughters and two sons. Daughter Joann hides under the huge kitchen table as she mourns her mother, who died in a Hospital for the Insane.

In 1943, Joann is left at home with her toddler, Sapphire Eve, while husband Nels serves in the navy, yet Joann has no idea how to be a mother, because her own mother was always too busy with the baby. Her parenting style is detached to the point of emotional neglect, because she never learned otherwise. As a result, Saffee doesn’t learn either.

There’s a rule in modern writing that fiction it shouldn’t be written in omniscient point of view. That’s the first thing I noticed about The Painted Table: it doesn’t obey this dictum. But it works, somehow, at least at first. This could be because the book is written in present tense, which gives it a sense of immediacy, as though perhaps we are not in omniscient point of view at all, but are reading the ramblings of a mad woman, someone who thinks of herself in the third person.

The other rule of modern fiction is that writers should show, not tell. We want to see the story in pictures, to see the characters and their emotions, not be told (she said vehemently). The Painted Table does show, but it’s not showing everything. Rather, it is selecting vignettes through Joann and Saffee’s lives that show the family story. As a result, at times it feels as though nothing is happening.

It’s a curious technique, more literary than genre and not helped by the fact that it’s difficult to tell whether the main character in the story is Joann, Saffee, or mental illness. This lack of clarity around plot and character did mean the story dragged in places, as I was wondering when something was going to happen.

Each scene seems to show one of three things. It either shows Joann’s descent into mental illness (the first quarter of the book), it shows Saffee watching her mother’s descent into mental illness (the second quarter), or it shows Saffee struggling to not become her mother (a valid worry, as the reader knows—although Saffee doesn’t—that Joann has followed her own mother into mental illness).

At first this was an interesting way to tell a story. But it got old. I wasn’t exactly sure why I wasn’t enjoying it, then I read a Writer Unboxed blog post about layering, by Dave King (yes, Mr Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. That Dave King). His point is that every element of a story has to work on different layers. He says in the comments:

“The danger is including elements of your story that only mean one thing … If you have enough of those one-purpose elements, your story starts to feel a little contrived”.

He’s nailed it. That’s exactly how I felt. I’m not trying to diminish mental illness or those who suffer from it. It’s a real and growing problem, especially with our ageing population. Nor am I saying that Christian novels shouldn’t be addressing mental illness. They should. What I am saying is that the book still has to have a plot. It has to have characters that go though some kind of change. And while it has to have a theme, the theme should be layered into the plot, not the primary focus of every scene.

My other problem with this book is the blurb. It’s not acting as a teaser to the story: it’s telling the entire story in a few sentences:

“The Norwegian table, a century-old heirloom ingrained with family memory, has become a totem of a life Saffee would rather forget—a childhood disrupted by her mother’s mental illness. 

Saffee does not want the table. By the time she inherits the object of her mother’s obsession, the surface is thick with haphazard layers of paint and heavy with unsettling memories.”

Saffee doesn’t inherit the table until around three-quarters of the way through the story. If this is the central plot, then the first 75% of the story was all backstory—which will explain why it dragged so much.

I wanted to like The Painted Table. The writing is different to what we normally see in Christian fiction, and part of me wanted to like the more literary style. And I wanted to like it because it’s different, not the typical western or Amish romance that makes up so much of Christian fiction. I wanted something that was a little more challenging, but that I would find ultimately rewarding. It had good points, especially the way Nels loved and supported Joann, but in the end I didn’t enjoy it because there was too little plot, too little character development, and too much theme.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and Booksneeze for providing a free ebook for review.

Echoes of Mercy by Kim Vogel Sawyer

Excellent romance, through-provoking plot

Ollie Moore, the day janitor at Dinsmore’s World-Famous Chocolate Factor finds himself attracted to the new toter, Carrie Lang. But he knows Carrie isn’t someone his parents will approve of. After all, he’s not really janitor Ollie Moore. He’s Oliver Fulton Dinsmore, son of the owner of the chocolate factor, working in disguise to investigate working practices at the factory, and the factory manager, Gordon Hightower.

Carrie isn’t who she seems, either. She’s an undercover investigator for the Labor Commission, working to ascertain whether the recent death at the factory was an accident or something more sinister, and with a personal mission to end child labour (sorry. New Zealand spelling coming through here). Carrie is attracted by Ollie, but suspects there is more to him than meets the eye—he might look like a common factory worker, but he doesn’t always sound like one.

I have enjoyed the previous books I’ve read by Kim Vogel Sawyer, and Echoes of Mercy was no different. She combines interesting and likeable characters with a historical romance plot that manages to exceed my expectations in the way she weaves in issues of the day, in this case, child labour. Yet this theme is a natural outflowing of the story and never seems forced, and she gives weight to the arguments both for and against child labour: economic necessity vs. human compassion.

Echoes of Mercy also includes a subtle but solid Christian element, best evidenced for me with this quote:

“Jesus tells us in the eleventh chapter of Matthew, verse twenty-eight, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’. He’ll honor the promise, but you must do your part in laying down the burden.”

We live in a world where so many of us are so very busy, yet we are not always prepared to lay that burden at the cross.  Hmm …

I very much enjoyed the story, and found the information in the notes at the end informative. The state of Kansas passed laws in 1905 prohibiting children under the age of 14 from working in factors or mines, while national (US) laws weren’t passed until 1917.

What the author doesn’t mention, but which is worth thinking about, is that child labour still exists in many countries, particularly in Africa and Asia. Children are sent out to work because their families can’t support them without the wages they earn, as low as they are. As a result, these children are unable to gain the education they need to acquire higher-level, better-paying jobs, and so the cycle continues.

One idea I’ve often heard is that there would be no need for child labour if we in the west were prepared to give up our low-cost clothing manufactured in Asian sweatshops. The idea has merit, but misses the economic necessity for many families. If their children do not work, there is not enough money to feed them. In fact, a UNICEF study found that after the US passed a law forbidding child labour in garment factories, an estimated 50,000 Bangladeshi children lost their jobs, which left many resorting to working in areas such as stone-crushing, street hustling and prostitution. That’s a sobering thought: that a child might be safer in a factory.

So what can we do to make a difference in these young lives? First, I’d like to remind you that you might not be able to change the world, but you can change the world for one person. Then I’d like you to join writer Jeff Goins as he recounts his recenttrip to Africa, to visit the child he sponsors with Compassion. Child sponsorship not the answer. It won’t change the world. But it gives hope to one child, and hope can change the world for that child.

Overall, I highly recommend Echoes of Mercy as a good story with a thought-provoking yet unobtrusive theme. And I hope you'll forgive me for the additional commentary it inspired.

Thanks to Waterbrook Multnomah and Blogging for Books for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Kim Vogel Sawyer at her website. 

Author Interview and Giveaway: Narelle Atkins

I'm pleased to welcome Narelle Atkins to the blog today. Narelle will be telling us a bit about herself, and a bit about her debut novel, Falling for the Farmer, which released last week.

I'll be reviewing Falling for the Farmer in March, as part of the Australasian Christian Readers Blog Alliance blog tour, but I can tell you now: I very much enjoyed it, and I've enjoyed getting to know Narelle a bit better through this interview.

About Falling for the Farmer

Kate Lawson is a runaway bride ...

And she's incredibly grateful when Jack Bradley offers her a job on his apple farm. Working side by side in the orchards with her best friend's brother seems like the perfect way to get over her disastrous engagement. Until Kate finds herself falling hard for the handsome farmer.

Jack Bradley knows city-girl Kate isn't here to stay. Yet suddenly he's imagining a life with her in the country. When Kate considers going back to the city, can Jack find a way to show her that her real home is here on the farm, by his side?

About Narelle

A fun loving Aussie girl at heart, Narelle Atkins was born and raised on the beautiful northern beaches in Sydney, Australia. She has settled in Canberra with her husband and children. A lifelong romance reader, she found the perfect genre to write when she discovered inspirational romance. Narelle's contemporary stories of faith and romance are set in Australia and she is thrilled to have the opportunity to write for Heartsong Presents.

So, Narelle, what inspired Falling for the Farmer?

I’m a city girl, and I was introduced to farm life after I married my husband and visited his family. I’ve helped out on their farms and picked apples, planted apple trees, rounded up sheep. I started writing my first book, set in Sydney, a few years after I married. I remember staying at one of the farms and thinking what if a city girl lived and worked on an apple farm? Months later I woke one morning and my first thought was that Kate, my city girl heroine, was a runaway bride. The story was in my head for a number of years, brewing away while I was in the midst of baby and toddler chaos, before I actually started writing chapter one.

Who is your favourite character and why?

Jack is my favourite character. My heroes are always my favourite character in my stories. If I can’t fall in love with my heroes, I can’t expect my readers to care for them. Jack ticks most of my boxes in terms of heroic qualities. He’s hard working, loyal, dependable, lots of fun, and has a sense of humour. He’s his own man, does want he wants, and has turned his expensive hobby and love of cars into a thriving business. My husband copes with my oohs and aahs as I’m writing my books and swooning over my heroes.

Kate’s mother is rather over-the-top. What inspired her?

I think we’ve all come across people like Kate’s mother. She’s a social climber who attends church because she believes it will improve her social status, and God is more of an afterthought. She does a lot of good things, for example charity work, but her heart motivation for why she does these things is questionable. She thinks she knows best and is determined to see her daughter marry a wealthy man. She equates material wealth with happiness. Kate’s mother epitomises the hypocritical behaviour that may turn people off attending church and becoming involved in a church community.

Do you have anything in common with Kate?

Years ago I worked as an accounts clerk/bookkeeper for a small business. I also did a couple of accounting subjects in my Economics Degree, although I discovered accounting wasn’t my area of interest. Our personalities are very different. I’m not a people pleaser like Kate. I’m prepared to say the hard things, stand up for myself and accept the consequences. I’ve enjoyed helping out on the farms, and I can understand why Kate is drawn to farm life.    

Falling for the Farmer is your debut novel, and the first book in a trilogy. What can we expect in the next two books?

My Snowgum Creek books are a continuity series. Either the hero, heroine, or both are minor characters in a previous book in the series. The Nurse’s Perfect Match (May 2014) starts two years after Falling for the Farmer ends. Amy, a minor character in Falling for the Farmer, is the heroine. I introduce a new family to the series starting with the eldest brother, Ben. I tell Megan’s story in Book 3, The Doctor’s Return (August 2014). Megan is Jack’s sister and Kate’s best friend. I have ideas for future books in the series that I hope I’ll have the opportunity to write. 

What advice do you have for someone seeking to write and publish a novel?

Be prepared to work hard and learn the craft of writing. Join writing organisations and find critique partners and groups who will help you improve your writing. Attend conferences that will assist in your professional development. Contribute to the writing community in volunteer capacities. And, enjoy the journey. Your goal may be to publish a book, but there are many blessings to be found along the way.  

Worldwide Giveaway

Narelle has kindly offered a paperback copy of Falling for the Farmer to one visitor today. If you'd like to win a copy, please leave a comment below. Narelle will select one winner, to be announced when she returns to Iola's Christian Reads next week for the second part of her interview.