Inside the mind of Travis Maddox - The Difference between Men and Women

My previous four books were all written from a female POV, and had a fan not suggested that I write Beautiful Disaster from Travis’s POV, I might not have made the attempt. When I was about a quarter into the book, I sent the manuscript to Abbi Glines (author of Never Too Far), who is experienced and gifted at writing male POVs to make sure I was doing it right. Her response? “You must have been a foul-mouthed frat boy in a former life.”

Truthfully, writing Walking Disaster was the most fun I’ve had writing a novel. My female main characters could never be so brash, so vulgar, so brutally honest—and still be likable. Guys punch each other for no reason, they say the most hurtful things to the friends they love most, but that’s just the way some men communicate their feelings. It’s bizarre and amusing and liberating. 

Writing Travis, though, was a heavy responsibility. He’d caught quite a bit of hell for his actions in Beautiful Disaster. And I agree that not everything he did was excusable, but flawed humans aren’t born that way, they’re made. Each experience in his life—good or bad—shaped him, and I wanted readers to understand what molded him into who he is. It’s easy to condemn damaged people, but even with his shortcomings, Travis is inherently good. All of his fighting—for love, respect, and in the underground fighting ring—stemmed from one experience in his life. An experience that is revealed in Walking Disaster.

After publishing Beautiful Disaster, I was genuinely surprised by the reactions some readers had toward Abby’s indecision. Wavering is so common, especially at nineteen and certainly when it comes to relationships. When you’re barely an adult, the inability to commit to a choice when your heart is so strongly pulling you in the other direction, is part of the journey. 

But in fiction—as in life—women aren’t given the same number of free passes to make mistakes as men. Our choices become us, even when we’re still young and learning. It’s likely this is why many readers came away from Beautiful Disaster loving Travis and feeling annoyed with Abby. When Travis made bad choices, the reader could disassociate them from him, but Abby’s choices were perceived as her inherent faults.

I would definitely like to write a male POV again. In fact, I’m partially writing from a male POV in my current work in progress, Red Hill, which is told from three different POVs: a mother who has been separated from her children, a newly single father, and a female college student. I do find it more difficult to write from the male POV though. I was already familiar with Travis, so maybe that’s why writing Walking Disaster came so naturally to me. I’ll probably write the Maddox brothers books from a female POV like I did in Beautiful Disaster, but then again I’m never sure what’s going to work until I start typing.

Walking Disaster is out now in paperback and eBook.

"Why I hate starting to write a book!"

Patricia Scanlan

Let me say straight away, that even after the twenty-three years that have passed since my first book, City Girl, was published, that I still love writing and am so happy to be working in a job I love. I have really enjoyed writing With All My Love, my seventeenth novel. However, I absolutely hate starting a book!
For me, starting a book is like being at a wedding I don’t want to be at. You know the feeling: your heart sinks when the invitation comes through the door….
‘Oh no! I don’t want to go. Do I have to?’
‘Yes you do.’
Now, you’re sitting at a table with all these other guests that you don’t know… feeling quite grumpy because you don’t want to know them. You’d far rather be lying on a lounger in the back garden if it’s a sunny day, or sprawled on the sofa in front of the fire, if it’s a horrible day, reading a book. You’re not in the mood to make polite conversation. Then gradually, you get talking, and you start to find out things about these strangers. Some you connect with more than others, while some are less talkative, more reticent, until you coax their story out of them. By the end of the night, you know these people very well; some of them even feel like family because you’re so comfortable with them.
And so it is with the characters in a new novel. These strangers, who you have to get to know and who are so different from the last wedding guests you engaged with, begin to muscle in and take over. Gradually, they make themselves indispensible to you. The more you get to know them, the more you want to be with them. Your new best friends are engaging all your energies, leaving room for no one else.
They are all very different. Some have hidden pasts that you ferret through, worming secrets out of them until you can say, ‘Aha, so that’s why they are the way they are!’ Some you can dance and have fun with. Some you’d like to take to bed (especially the lean, broad-shouldered, slim-hipped, handsome ones that have twinkly eyes). Others are guests you don’t particularly care for, but they too have their stories and it’s important to be polite and listen to them.
Sometimes they cause a scene and behave dreadfully. Uproar at the wedding. Wonderful when that happens…
Sometimes they get into a snit and ignore you. You sit twiddling your thumbs, wishing they would talk to you, while you comfort yourself with an extra slice of cake until they come back and all is forgiven.
Some make a brief but interesting appearance and then leave, but many stay until the end of the evening; when the wedding is over and they are gone from your life, they still linger in your mind for ages, and you miss them and wonder what’s happened to them…
And then another wedding invitation comes through the door and you don’t want to go because you think you’ll never find as interesting a group as you encountered at the last wedding. But you reluctantly put away the books you were enjoying, doll yourself up and set off again, a tad grumpy to be sure. And slowly, slowly, you get to know the guests you are seated with and they begin to engage you. And before you know it, it becomes the best wedding you were ever at.

"Why I became such an incorrigible match-maker"

Author Helen Warner

I love February.  As an incurable romantic, it feels to me as if Valentine’s Day casts a rosy glow over the whole month.  My own Valentine is my husband, Rob. When I tell people that I met him when I was 8 and he was 11, the reaction is always: ‘Ahhhh, how romantic!’  And of course it is romantic but it also has its drawbacks.  Although I had lots of other boyfriends in my teens, I have been with him since I was 18, so my only experience of ‘grown-up’ dating has had to be gained vicariously through my friends. 

I have been there in the first flush of new love, to hear them give a gushing moment-by-moment analysis of the first date.  I have heard all the gory details as the relationship develops and I’ve been there to comfort them when it all falls apart.

It’s always at this point that my friends stop thinking that it’s a bit dull to have been with the same man since I was 18 and envy me that I don’t have to go through the agony of a messy break-up.  But I envy them too. Because despite the pain it causes when it doesn’t work out, there is nothing quite like the heart-fluttering, dry-mouthed excitement of a new relationship.

I think this is why I became such an incorrigible match-maker.  Even now, every time I meet someone who’s single, I find myself flicking through a mental rolodex of other single friends that I could fix them up with. I want everyone to find love because I’m convinced that somehow, when you find true love, everything else in life seems to fall magically into place.

And am I successful in my endeavours?  Do these mutual friends find love and race to the altar? No. Never. I am possibly the worst match-maker in history and can claim absolutely no triumphs.  In fact, now that I think about it, there are people who are no longer friends with me after my efforts...  

Well, what’s a girl to do?  I had to get my match-making fix somehow.  So I started writing novels.  It’s the perfect way to determine the romantic destiny of people I know and love (my characters) without annoying real-life details like them hating each other getting in the way.

My first novel, RSVP, was about whether we all have ‘the one’ true love. In my new novel, Stay Close To Me, I have moved on to the notion that it is possible to love more than one person. I don’t plan my books in advance, so I open my laptop each day wondering what will happen to my characters and I adore having the power to decide if they’re right for each other or not.

So maybe all of that unsuccessful match-making wasn’t entirely in vain.  It has provided me with endless inspiration for my novels and let me experience the highs and lows of love and dating, without any of the pain. In my book, that counts as a winning result.

The Power of Love by Ali Harris

I have a confession to make. No, it’s not that I’ve spent the past month watching the John Lewis Christmas ad on a loop (I have) or that I’m a closet fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals (I am). It’s a far more serious affliction – and one that I can’t be cured of. Oh go on then. I may as well tell you now I’m here. My name is Ali Harris and I’m shamelessly, incurably addicted to love.

I love the idea of love so much that I can’t get enough of it. I need it every day. I fantasise about falling in it, I can’t imagine life without it. Luckily for me (and my marriage) I get to experience falling in love every time I write a book. Last year it was with Molly and Ryan, my main characters in The First Last Kiss. The book focuses on their relationship from teen crush to enduring love. And it does this by specifically focusing on their most sweet, sensual and tender exchanges of affection: their kisses.

Kissing; it sounds so old fashioned doesn’t it? Kind of sweetly asexual compared to what we’ve been reading about for the past year (thank you Fifty Shades of Grey). And yet I believe a kiss is infinitely more intimate and sensual than sex. More life-affirming. More love-affirming. A kiss holds the key to everything, our hearts and souls, hopes and fears. Kisses have the power to heal, inspire and strengthen. They convey affection, understanding, pain, pleasure, love, and loss. Kisses are precious, and yet they are so easily thrown away. How many times have you kissed your partner and barely registered it? Turned your cheek or brushed one away? I came up with the idea for The First Last Kiss when I wondered - what if you knew you only had a finite number of kisses left with the person you love? Would you do everything you could to savour every single one? Or would you try desperately to recall all the ones that had gone before?

Writing this book has taught me more than I ever expected about the everlasting strength and power of true love. From it I’ve learned to never take a kiss, or love, for granted again.  Love may not be as fashionable as sex right now, but as I’m concerned its power will live on long after the shades of grey have faded - and those John Lewis snowmen have melted away.

The First Last Kiss by Ali Harris is out in paperback and eBook on January 17th 2013.

Colette Caddle

Every Time I Say Goodbye....

For me, getting to know the characters in my story is a bit like falling in love.

The first meeting: 

When I first came up with the characters for Every Time We Say Goodbye I had a loose idea of what they would be like but at that stage they were flat and two-dimensional and if you asked me to describe them you would have got a blank look.

The first time you feel the ‘spark’:

You know that moment! You get talking and suddenly you start to notice things: He has a lovely laugh, everything he says is interesting, or funny, or clever.  His smile gives you goose-bumps and you realise you want to know more about this man. Well, that’s the way I feel the moment I’m able to ‘see’ my characters, the moment they seem real to me. There’s nothing quite like it.

The first date:

These can often be disastrous but sometimes, just sometimes you look across at someone and think he could be ‘the one’. As the characters take shape and personalities develop I feel that same sense of wonder and excitement. Full of enthusiasm and on an absolute high, I can’t wait to open my laptop in the morning, dying to find out more about these people, longing to spend time with them.

Going steady:

Those first few weeks or months, you want your new love to think you’re perfect. You wouldn’t dream of going out without washing your hair, or being seen wearing a face. But as you grow more comfortable with each other and real life intervenes, the guards come down. This is when it’s easy to fall into a boring routine and stop appreciating each other and it’s the same for me when I’m writing. The ‘going steady’ stage is the hardest and most dangerous. I’ve set the scene, introduced my readers to all the characters and it’s all too easy to slip into a rut or lose interest. It’s especially worrying if doing household chores is more appealing than sitting down to write. At times like this I become disillusioned and that’s when it’s important to stay focussed or my story, my love, will suffer.

The doubts:

Everyone’s been there. The day you say to yourself ‘Is this really what I want? Is it going anywhere? Do I want it to? Does he?’ I ask myself similar questions every time I write a book. Is it any good? Should I give up and start again? Should I throw in the towel completely and take up knitting instead? It’s soul-destroying but that’s when you need a firm but kindly friend to remind you that you suffer the same doubts with every book and just…get on with it!  

The happy ending:

By the time I’ve written 100,000 words it’s fair to say that I’m immersed in my characters’ lives and, good or bad, I love them all. I get quite emotional when I have to say goodbye but if I’m lucky, really lucky, there is usually a new cast waiting in the wings and it’s time to start all over again...