After spending the last three months studying for the Texas Bar Exam, I finally have time to do some writing and reading. I won't know my results until early November and in the meantime, I will be looking for a job as well as spending time with my kiddos before school starts in late August. I realize that I haven't been on here in about a month despite having the last fifteen days off. I have read about five books and swam a lot.
Now, I am spending some serious time on the sequel and smaller book in the Caged Beauty Series. Instead of writing the sequel and then writing one of the smaller books, I have been writing them concurrently. Since they deal with a similar timeline of events, the larger book is from the perspective of Kathryn and the smaller book is from Alex's POV. I find it interesting to write from a male perspective, and I hope to humanize Alex so that he is still considered great but less perfect and has some depth of character as he deals with the situation he is in.
I had some moments in The Swallow that Alex was jealous and got angry when Kathryn explained about her relationship with Evan, but some beta-readers said he was too angry. So I toned it down some, and although I love him in the book, he does seem wonderful, but it is really from Kathryn's POV, and she is smitten with him from their first meeting.
But I've written a considerable amount in each book that I am contemplating putting them together and using both POV. There are other books that I've read that have done this, and I personally like it in a secondary book, but I struggle with deciding if the reader will want to read the Alex's POV after or before.
I wonder about the first book being from just Kathryn's POV and then switching it up in the 2nd book. I know it has been done by other successfully, but I need to figure out if I should keep them separate or merge the two story.
Together they are roughly the size of the first book, but I am not finished writing The Bluebird, which is the second book in the series. I know that other series are usually three books, but at this point, I can't see dragging it out much longer. The Swallow was originally written as one book, and I broke it up because I changed the story dramatically to add more conflict. It got boring for me, and I just didn't see getting it all in one book any longer.
Anyway, I will try to update more frequently as I write and read. Enjoy the rest of your summer and keep reading!
Isabelle
The Crown by Kiera Cass
Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
Bennett by Seraphina Donavan
The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich
When I first read Outlander, I had no idea what to think because I knew nothing about the book. All I saw was this good looking dirty redheaded guy holding a beautiful brunette, and I was interested. I've always been a sucker for romance. But I did read part of a review, and it gave me an idea that she travels in time and meet someone so while I was reading the first 100 pages or so, I was chomping at the bit to get to the part when she crossed over the stones. I was very bored with her life or the vacation with Frank and later I could understand why Jaime would be the love of her life and the life she lived with him was more appealing than the one she did with Frank, he was boring. Yes, he loved her, and he was sweet, but he was condescending and arrogant. I didn't get the impression that she was on equal footing with Frank in their relationship. But with Jaime, she was, and he loved her so much. Diana did such a good job of holding out who the love interest would be though when she first crosses over, or I'm an idiot because Claire didn't make it clear immediately that she thought Jaime was attractive, and she talked about him as a boy or young man.
Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
