Sending "The Bed Wife" book 1 to the editor!

Well I'm not sure if I should be attempting cartwheels or hiding under my desk right now. I have been in talks with an editor and have sent her the first ten pages of book one to give me a 'pre-edit'. 

I will be honest, I am so incredibly nervous right now. Writing the book was the easy part, getting it edited by someone who will give it to you straight is entirely another thing.  Yes, I have a couple family members who have read it, but they would sugar coat it. I do want it straight, but now I'm scared!

So say a little prayer for me; here's hoping it's as good as I think it is!

Movie trailer for The Bed Wife

So yes, I am 110% a complete nerd and I'm proud of it. haha

I have been a bit stuck in the second book, I'm about 10,000 words in (which is not in any way bad) but my brain was kind of dead the past few days. So I decided to take some screen clips of the actor and actress who most inspire the characters of Baylin and Luana and I made this little video.

I'm a huge (like, super huge) fan of Richard Armitage, and his depiction of Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit was amazing. So he truly did inspire Baylin in both looks and heart I think (more Richard in the heart department than Thorin lol).

This is my first fan made video like this (and boy can I tell you it is a lot harder than it looks), and I feel it gives a decent enough breakdown of the first book.  Obviously, you can't cram 18,000 + words and emotions into a 4 minute video, but it's at least a little taste.

So here is your first 'trailer' for The Bed Wife Book 1!

Bed Wife Teaser

If I spent as much time writing as I do making these silly teasers, I would probably be done with the entire story!  However, I just can't help it; it does help inspire me to see my character's better anyway, and it gives you a glimpse at what I see when I'm writing.

I cannot take credit for those in the pictures, I 'm not even sure who the girl is. The man is the actor Richard Armitage (who is an absolutely wonderful muse for inspiring Baylin... I simply love him!).  So no copyright infringement is intended, these are merely meant to be fun.

So here is a wonderful little teaser of when Baylin first sees Luana.  Enjoy!

A week of hiccups

In between getting book one of The Bed Wife read and edited and starting on book two in the series, we have been working on remodeling our home and have had a few hiccups along the way (most sever was the burst water pipe that flooded under our house!).

That being said, I am well into the second book and feeling very promising about it.

Additionally, I'm excitedly getting details finalized with my wonderful cover artist (this, I think, is my most exciting piece of news).  I cannot wait to see what she comes up with!

So I thought I should go ahead and post a little something just to let you all know I'm still alive, well and writing!

Another 'Bed Wife' Teaser

Yes, I know, I cannot help myself... I just love making little teaser photos for this story!

I'm a very visual person, so being able to put together a few pictures as a representation of a scene really helps to relay the emotion that is happening during that moment.  It also is a lot of fun to show to everyone!

So here you go!

The last line of book one of The Bed Wife

So, as I have been saying, I'm working currently the hardest on my story, "The Bed Wife."

I have finally gotten to a point where I'm pretty happy with how book one feels and reads. It still needs to be edited, but otherwise I'm feeling pretty good.

So here is the last line of the first book for you (along with that wonderful word count of 18,048)!

Cat on my back...

 

So last night, while staying up writing on The Bed Wife, I guess my cat on my lap got a bit cold and decided it was much more comfortable to sleep behind me while I hunched over my computer keyboard.

 

It's a wonder I get any work done at all!

Shameless photo manipulation

Yep, that's me, taking a few moments of off time to shamelessly do a photo manipulation of Richard Armitage as Baylin from The Bed Wife.

Truth be told, I was inspired by Richard's portrayal of Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit movies so much, in my mind he sort of took on the role of Baylin.

Now, in The Hobbit, Thorin is a dwarf who stands a mere five feet or so high, while in real life Richard Armitage is 6'2".  I would like to think Baylin is a combination of the two.

Baylin is described as being very tall 6'6" man with a strong muscular build.  He has long flowing black hair with a well trimmed beard.

Additionally I took parts of their personalities to really make the character Baylin come alive.  While Thorin is a rough, war hardened character who has a loving heart for his men however, he (and the story itself) lacks the romantic aspects that Baylin has. 

While I have not had (and most likely never will have) the pleasure and honor of meeting Richard Armitage in person, he appears (in interviews and such) to be a kindhearted guy who could indeed be a romantic and strive to earn the affections of the one he loves.

Of course this is just all imaginary, I don't know him after all; but I do know Baylin.

That being said, here is my shameless photo manipulation, enjoy!

Working on The Bed Wife

Though I have been working on a couple of different story plots, my most prominent and soonest to be released is going to be the novelette "The Bed Wife".

I am currently 15,000 words into it and have it pretty much down (complete with cliffhanger ending to get you all excited for book two!).

I still have a lot to get organized; I still need to write a back story to a great battle that happened before the book takes place, but then all the writing should be complete.

Then it's off to get it edited.

My biggest goal is getting an amazing cover art designed for it.

The book, which takes place in a time long before our current time, makes me feel like the cover art needs to be just that, art.  I feel like a hand drawn cover will give it that feel of picking up a book long forgotten about. 

I am currently talking to someone out of Greece (*cross your fingers*) that has the most amazing talent for drawing.

If she decided to take on the task of bringing my lead character's to life (which I know she is totally capable of doing), the reader will see exactly who I envisioned as I wrote this story.

So here is hoping that this pans out, because I would love to have this artist bring Baylin and Luana to life!

A little Teaser

So, as I said, I have been working on this romance for a while and I wanted to give a little tasty teaser.

Obviously the people in the photos are not going to be my cover art (I do not own the rights to their beauty), however I wanted give readers some visual inspiration while reading the snippet.

Please comment below and tell me what you think?  Does this make you curious as to what is going on in the book?

Hello!

This is me!

I guess I should tell everyone a little bit about myself.

My name is Suzanna (though everyone calls me Suzanne; funny how changing one letter can make a name feel so formal) and I grew up in a little town of less than a thousand people.

I come from a very talented family, most have gifts in art, music and writing.

So why did I start "Cat on the Lap"?

Ever since I was young, I have written poems, song lyrics and even short stories; many of which I won awards with.  I love to write, but do not think I'm truly qualified to call myself an author just let (here's hoping).

A while back I began writing a sci-fi thriller story that was slowly, but surely, beginning to pan out.

Then out of nowhere, another story presented itself to me.  Within three days I had taken my idea from thought to a 15,000 word novelette!

I am currently in the process of fine tuning it and plan to self-publish using Amazon's wonderful resources.

Am I going to become rich and famous?  Probably not.  However, if there is even one person out there that reads my story and gets enjoyment from it, I have succeeded.

Where did "Cat on the Lap" come from?

Well, to be very plain, every great think I have ever written took place while one of my cats laid asleep in my lap.  My current muse is an orange tabby named "Donut" (don't judge me - my daughter named him).

Are you a crazy cat lady?

No, I just have two cats and apparently I have a warm lap.

Why do I want to be an author?

To me, writing brings dreams to life, and that is highly therapeutic to me. I am allowed to go into a world that has none of the problems of this world; where good defeats evil, where the guy always gets the girl and where happily ever after can happen.

I hope you will follow me; it would be wonderful if you left a comment below so I knew I wasn't just out here writing to no one!

Talk to you soon!

~ Suzanne