Maya Rodale is a new author to me, and I am always excited to pick up a new author in the hopes I will have a new romance author to glom. This week, I had the opportunity to read: THE TATTOOED DUKE, which is the third in the Working Girls series.

The Working Girls series lives up to its euphemistic name. Four young women are column writers for the most popular newspaper in town, The London Weekly. Of course, since it’s 1825, such a career (so to speak) is scandalous in the extreme, and the women are kept secret, though London knows there are women who work for the paper. Already we know we do not have our typical shy, retiring wallflower trope in the Regency (slightly after) setting. We have trailblazers.

This heroine, Eliza Fielding, is having a bit of writer’s block and knows her next column better work or Knightly, her boss, is going to fire her. She needs this job (the reason is not made exactly clear right away, but it is clear she’s not as well off as her other Writing Girls friends, who have married into the gentry or ton.) She is offered a position to research and write about a newly-back-in-town scandalous duke who is a well-known explorer, traveler, and heartbreaker. She immediately applies as his housemaid (since no one with sense would want to work for such a scandalous man and there are many positions available) and begins her research.

Then the snowball rolls down the hill.

Eliza writes a most delicious column; it is published; the duke is even more infamous—and things get better and worse. The duke—Sebastian, the Duke of Wycliff—is dying to get some money (he has none) and go back out adventuring to find the city of Timbuktu. Eliza’s columns get more popular—and she’s getting paid more and being taken more seriously as a writer; however, her columns are ruining the duke’s reputation, and soon he is out of the running for being eligible to head the expedition to find Timbuktu. She feels bad (she now likes him), so she writes another column—and as you imagine, it just keeps circling down the drain. Hell is paved with good intentions, as they say.

Meanwhile, there are a couple other characters available to keep our hero and heroine busy and wreck their lives. There is no rest for the wicked, and the duke and Eliza are not perfect people by any means. Also, it’s a well-known fact that when one part of your life starts to implode, the rest explodes with it. It does keep things very exciting and keeps you turning the page to see what will go wrong next.

All in all, Maya’s author voice is compelling and keeps the reader engaged, and the pacing of the story was such that it made for a quick read. However, hard-hearted stickler I am for historical plausibility and emotional depth of characters, the story fell short on those aspects for me.

So while this story didn’t work totally for me, that is not to say it would not work for other readers. If you enjoy historicals where the heroines are a bit more modern and more relatable to the modern world; if you like plot twists and reveals that make your jaw drop (mine did a few times in the story—it did keep me guessing); and you particularly like the trope of CEO and secretary (which is where I think Lord and housemaid fits), this book will probably be a funny, engaging read for you.

I did see a glimmer in a couple of the other characters in the story, the last Writing Girl writer, Annabelle, and Knightly, the owner of The London Weekly. She's in love with him, and he barely seems to acknowledge she exists--so while the Lord and housemaid trope did not work for me (mostly on a political level *LOL*) in this story, I am looking forward to reading other books by Ms. Rodale, checking out the previous Writing Girls and finding out if anything happens for Annabelle and Knightly.

So this week, let’s discuss: What are your favorite and least favorite tropes? Are you a stickler for historical plausibility or do feisty heroines mean more to you? Has anyone else read this book and has a different take? I’d love to hear from you!

Big Thanks to 2nd Chance for changing days with me! Lifts tankard of rum in salute.

It's officially March. That's three months into the year and three months away from when many of us set new writing goals for this year. They looked so shiny and attainable and full of promise in January but as the days ticked by, they lost a little of their special shimmer didn't they?

It happens to all of us, this slow fade from a promising new year of writing highs to a harsh dose of reality that although you might WANT to improve your writing, it takes more than just setting a goal to affect real change. So here is some great advice for lighting the fire under your goals again and making them work for you!

First, focus on what does work for you. I know you've had that day where the words just flew and everything came together perfectly. Why was that? Was it the setting, the time of day, music choice, setting? Maybe it was because you planned your scenes or even relaxed before starting to write? Pay attention to these small things so you can find what works for your prefect writing environment. How can you recreate those things when you are having issues getting words down?

Secondly, what are your strengths as a writer? And I don’t want to hear you just suck at all of it. We all know better. In fact, I did a blog post not long ago asking you to sing your own praises on something you know you do well. Think back (or better yet check out that post again) and anytime you find writing a challenge or that your story just isn't working, move to a scene that will play to that strength.

Is your strength planning, plotting, etc? Don’t get bogged down in it, but take a few minutes to plan or plot your next scene. Step away and see if it helps to get the juices flowing. Likewise, if character banter is where you shine, skip ahead to a fun scene you can really let your characters go at each other. Let your writing strengths inspire you!

Next, step back from your goals. Yep. I know this is about how to reignite your writing goals but for right now just toss them aside. Instead let’s focus on a new concept, the worst case scenario goal. Set yourself a bare minimum goal for the day or week. Seriously, maybe 50 words a day?Think about that as the absolute worst case, life shot to hell goal. And meet it. Achieve that bare minimum goal and feel great about it. That bare minimum goal is going to surprise you one day with how close its getting you to that BIG GOAL without all that angst and drama that hangs over your head with a big goal. Oh, and make sure you are celebrating these worst case goals. Hell, I’m celebrating BICHOK the past few weeks!

Finally, never forget that basic thing that speaks to you about writing. Why do you love it and what drew you to writing in the first place? Don’t lose those feelings. Find something physical to keep around you to make you smile or give you that nostalgic lovey-dovey feeling for writing all over again. Is it a sticker on your laptop that reminds you of something? Is it a copy of your favorite book placed on the shelf next to your writing desk or the cover of your first book hung on the wall? These physical reminders of your passion for writing can help you focus on even the crummiest of days.

Today I want to hear any tips on how you stay focused on your goals or how you pick back up and refocus after time off. Do you let your goals just drop, or do you redouble your efforts? Will you set a drop dead goal and are you brave enough to share it? Are you someone who's fantastic with goals? Tell us your secret! Let’s talk it out and discover where we can help find the keys to making our goals cry out for mercy.

Fictional Mad Libs – Who Ya Gonna Write?
Join three authors as they coach you in how to choose the right words for the right character. From Scotland to the Caribbean to deep in the heart of Texas, we’ll spin you around and mix it up to create that Scottish Cowboy wearing a tricorn you’ve all been dreaming of. Trust us, it’s all in the words. Come play Mad Libs with us and discover a hilarious way to create a story.

Many, many, many moons ago, I was inspired to write an article called: “The Writer’s Compass: Writing for the Directionally Challenged.” It was pithy—and by that, I mean, brief—for me, touching on the four things a writer should evaluate in a scene (or book) that she is writing: characters, conflict, tension, and ending. It was a Quick Fix for Writer’s Block.

It assumed a few things: 1.) You were already in the middle of writing a story; 2.) You already started at a beginning and you likely had a clear or at least blurry vision of the ending; and 3.) You had characters, plot, and tension—but you were having a bit of trouble figuring out where to go next.

That’s where the article came in. It was like a little mantra to do a quick evaluation of your location and get you back to writing. Usually if you’re suffering from writer’s block, you either don’t know where to go next or you don’t feel you can move on because the scene you’ve just written doesn’t feel finished, yet you’ve written about a hundred pages on it so clearly it must be over.

So this is where you stop writing and pause to think, to recalibrate your writer’s compass, and the first thing you always recalibrate first is where True North is. In writing, for me, characters are always the True North of any story. If your writing has gone doldrums and adrift, your characters are probably pretty lifeless on the page. You need to fix them quick.

Characters seem to be rather easy…but hard. Most characters for me seem to arrive without warning, as if you’ve known them all your life. Of course, everyday you’ll likely learn something new about your characters—“I didn’t know you knew how to shoot a gun!”—and yet we all seem to feel pretty confident to just start writing, so we must have known quite a bit, right? At least that is how I feel. I’m typing along, confident I have some idea of the hopes, dreams, and ideals of my character and I know how the story is supposed to unfold.

Then one day I find that the story is not unfolding. Granted, I tend to unfold in the same manner every time. I write like I’m a scriptwriter for the old show 24, unraveling the story in real time, which can be a problem if say I was retelling the story The Illiad.

So the first thing I do is look at my characters. What are they doing in this scene? Are they avoiding their goal? (Characters do love to put off adventure and give it to someone else to accomplish. It’s why writers need to make sure they take away all the crutches a character might embrace to get out of doing what needs to happen.) Do they even know what their goal is? Have they forgotten about their goal?

Finding your True North again usually stems from the fact that the initial goals of your characters are not in attendance and you’re just flailing about on the page, trying to find a plot or some suspense…but the goals belong to the characters, not the plot. So you need to stop and figure out what goals belong to these characters. What makes these goals important to them? Why are they so important? Is there anything that can distract them from these goals? Is there anything else they want more?

The reasons don’t have to be life or death, or even reasons that would make you or your reader want to pursue these goals, but they have to be real to the character. If the character believes in them, you and the reader will too.

While it’s true that many characters’ goals aren’t the same at the end of a story as they are in the beginning, the goals do need to be strong enough that the character still wants to stick with them—wrong though they may be—for a long, long time. It’s not a real goal if they’re willing to give them up at the first opportunity. We want our character to grow, not be wishy-washy.

Goals work best if they are built out of universal themes: justice, righting of wrongs, survival, finding someone we love or saving someone we love, etc. Or even the darker attributes of us: revenge, finding the killer who killed our kinsman, etc. These are things that are passionate, and when we are passionate about something, we’re not likely to give them up at the first opportunity. We will cling to them like a child’s baby blanket, until it’s in rags and worthless only in memory.

I think we tend to create goals for our characters out of the core themes we like to tell in our story. I do think all aspects of a story work together and if you don’t have a firm foundation, your house will fall at the first breeze. So if you’re writing about redemption or forgiveness, then your character’s goals need to reflect something of it in its outcome. Sometimes we write without knowing—I get that—and it’s only after the story is all done and we think about our characters do we realize what the theme and such was. But I do believe, we tend to write the same kinds of stories that are dear to us. We’re all working out some deep Gordian knot within us. It’s our way of being the hero who fixes his life and gets the happily ever after—we don’t necessarily have it for our own.

So today I want to talk about goals and how to find True North? How do you recenter yourself when you finally realize you’re flailing about (either in writing or life in general)? What types of goals do you prefer characters to pursue? (I have a fondness for the goals that center around revenge. I love some revenge.) What type of goals do you usually give your characters (mine spend a lot of time trying to lead a conflict-free life—I swear to you that’s their goal, and it never works out)? Do you think core themes reflect in goals?