Books with strong female leads
by Holly Manno
Steamy book club fiction under development
LITTLE KNOWN FACTS
Regarding book titles, I must admit mine often change by the time the book is complete. Feedback from advanced readers and my perspective after reviewing the final version are two reasons why I've switched titles. For example, MY DIARY of DISASTER was initially going to be...MY FIRST DICK PIC, a diary of disaster. I thought it was clever, but it didn't get the response I was hoping for from readers. Also, I was unsure how the algorithm would handle it.
How do you choose your stories? I have gone about the subject/storyline creation in different ways. There are many things that influence my plots and ultimately the messages I hope to express. For example, I wrote ANCHOR of GOLD because life gave me a prompt and I ran with it.
First becomes Second so far... When I finally finished writing Love Test, I was quite excited and certain the story was what the world needed...a fresh romance. Unfortunately, I didn't get a warm reception from the agents I queried, but I did get some incredible feedback from editors. Instead of fork lifting the manuscript, I decided to write another book. I wanted to be sure I could do it again and I wanted to improve. That's where Anchor of Gold came in... The thing is, you can find the chinks in the armor of that story (or any) if you want, but I'd learned a lot from the critiques I'd received about Love Test that I applied as I wrote my second book. When it was done, I knew it was going to be easier to edit and publish that manuscript first.
I have a goal to write screenplays too. In fact, I'd love to adapt the Love Test series for film. This year, I took the first step and my first screenwriting course. During the term, I wrote three screenplays, two of which I published on my blog, but the first one didn't make the cut, not yet anyway. In the same tradition as my books, I found myself more open to sharing my second at-bat with the world (and by that I mean the 16 people who follow my blog). I will publish my first screenplay or maybe I'll even submit it. One day, it'll be out there.
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What else do you write? I am excited to have written a poem that was featured on this very cool YouTube channel called Tales from the Trail. I'm even more thrilled to be working on another project for their production. Here's a link to see:
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