A warm welcome to author Charley Descoteaux joining us today to talk about new release “Always Forward! Never Straight”.

Charley shares some writer rules, an excerpt and brought a giveaway!

Welcome Charley 🙂

10 Rules for Writers

Hello and Happy New Year!

Thank you, Dani, and everyone at Love Bytes for having me! I’m thrilled to be here to celebrate the start of 2019 and the release of my latest MM Romance!

This list was inspired by a NYT Bestselling author’s list with a similar premise. I’m not a NYT Bestseller (although a couple of my books have made the Dreamspinner Bestseller List, which I’m super proud of), so take these with as large a grain of salt as your doctor would approve of.

 

1. Daydream. This is how the plot bunnies know it’s safe come out and play.

2. Eavesdrop. Your dialogue will ring true and there’s the added bonus of catching a good story now and then.

3. Exercise. If you don’t do this all the blood will pool in your butt and your brain will starve

4. If you don’t do this all the blood will pool in your butt and your brain will starve.
5. School any negative self-talk and/or thoughts. If you’re your own worst critic… well, scratch that, you’ll never be your own worst critic if your work is published. But still, don’t let internal negativity derail you.
6. If you grew up in less than ideal economic circumstances try not to “write poor.” By which I mean don’t feel you can’t take up space on the page. Take up all the space you want and more, especially in a first draft. If your first drafts are lean beef them up in edits because if you’re lucky enough to have them, readers will notice if you write like a poor person. (Says someone who does, no matter how hard I try to cover it up.)
7. You don’t know what you don’t know. So, if you get a detail wrong—even if it’s available on a Google search—don’t beat yourself up. If you didn’t know you didn’t know it, why would you google it in the first place? Not everyone has a bevy of betas at the ready to find all the tiny (or glaring) errors. No error in a piece of fiction is unforgiveable, making a mistake won’t cause any deaths or earthquakes or floods.
8. Ingest stories. Read, watch movies, listen to songs, listen to people talk, soak up those stories because their shape will (hopefully) become embedded in your mind and help when you write. For those of us without the means to take writing classes, school is in session whenever we come in contact with a story. When the story is over think about why it was good, or why it wasn’t. This can be as simple as “too much exposition” or as complicated as writing an outline—whatever works for you.
9. Finish at least some of the stories you write. Not all, because some just aren’t worth the effort for whatever reason (or no reason at all). But if you don’t finish anything the imposter syndrome could take over. Even if it’s 500 words of flash fiction so you can say “I finished something” and mean it, do that. Your writer brain will thank you.
10. In the immortal words of Banksy on my laptop’s wallpaper: “If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” This right here has been the hardest thing for me to do. I mean, I could never quit writing for more than a year at a time (except when I got a massive concussion and couldn’t really write for two years and counting…) but I really really hate starting over again. So. My advice to all of us is to rest when we need to but not to quit.

 

If you got this far, thanks for reading! I hope my Ten Rules for Writing gave you something you can take with you, or at least was entertaining.

 

Here’s an excerpt from my new release, Always Forward! Never Straight. The story doesn’t follow all the rules, but does have an HEA. <3 Stick around afterward and comment with your favorite rule to break—in writing or in life—and enter to win an Amazon gift card.

In this excerpt Cay is at his daughter Mackenzie’s home the morning after the race where he and Bryan meet. Mac has the first dialogue, and Val is her mother.

“Well? What kind of car does he drive? It’ll make her feel better about Bryan if she knows he at least has one. She thinks he’s unemployed and ready to sponge off you. She thinks all men are jobless Poriferas.”

“Ha, ha. Isn’t that her job?”

Val stuck her tongue out at me. “Answer the girl’s question.”

“He drives a classic Mercedes sedan convertible.”

Mac kissed my cheek as she stood. “Marry him.”

“Angling for the car?” I stood and draped an arm across her shoulders.

“You betcha.” She winked. “But I’ll take the Buick once he starts driving you everywhere.”

“Not gonna happen, babycakes.” I steered her away from the table and foolishly thought we were in the clear.

Val sped through the galley kitchen and met us at the door, wearing a calculating expression. She’d obviously heard something in my voice I hadn’t intended. Probably from the part of me that had been stoked when Bryan had followed my lead so easily and wanted to crow a little. “Wait. You’re taking the lead with this guy?”

“Val. This is inappropriate conversation for mixed company.”

She stared me down. It didn’t take long. Yeah, that guy wanted her to know. He’s vain as fuck and happy to be followed by such a cutie.

“Yeah.”

“Good boy. It’s about time. Only took fifty years for someone to break through that shell and—”

“Hey. I’m not fifty yet.”

She shrugged and reached up to kiss my cheek.

“Close enough. Have fun, you two. Don’t be late for school tomorrow.” Val arched an eyebrow in Mac’s direction and shot a significant look my way.

“No worries, Mom. And my homework is in here.” She raised her duffel, and I took it from her to sling over my shoulder.

We spent a few hours playing music—Mackenzie wrote a song about her favorite word and how satisfying it is to shout it at the top of her lungs—and the rest of the day lounging in front of Netflix and gorging on pizza. I didn’t feel the least bit guilty when we ordered that second one. I was still flying, even after Mac informed me I wasn’t allowed to call Bryan for another two days. According to my social secretary there was such a thing as the “three-day rule.”

Luckily I hadn’t known a few hours sooner or I wouldn’t have sent the text that earned me a smiley emoji with heart eyes in return.

It would have been rude not to thank him for the lovely evening.

I didn’t think I’d last a whole three days without calling but agreed not to appear too needy and jeopardize her shot at the Merc ragtop.

Publisher: CeeTwo Publications

Release Date: January 1, 2019

Pages:  86

Cover Artist: Rainbow Danger Designs

Blurb:

Love isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.

 

Baxter Bryan is the nerdy half of BaxCo, a start-up in Portland’s Silicon Forest creating cutting-edge high-tech toys. He’s also a hermit. When BaxCo sponsors the Portland Rock and Roll Half Marathon, Bryan decides to break out of his comfort zone and do more than listen to the music with a beer in hand. The race has barely started when he bumps into a fit, handsome man, causing sparks to fly. But the long hours needed to make BaxCo a success aren’t the only reason Bryan spends most of his time alone in his apartment.

 

Cay Nissen runs every day to stay in shape. He would love to run away from his job in a Silicon Forest cube farm, but keeps returning to support his teenaged daughter. His true love is music. Cay writes songs for the band he helped form in high school but doesn’t see any way to turn music into a career. The half marathon seemed like a decent way to pass a Saturday, make his boss happy, and catch a performance of his old band all at the same time. When he meets a man who sparks his interest, the safety of his cubicle isn’t the only part of his life that’s in jeopardy of changing.

 

Buy Always Forward! Never Straight or read free on Kindle Unlimited

 

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Charley Descoteaux is the author of the Buchanan House Love Stories. Book One was a USA Today Must-Read Romance.

 

Charley has always heard voices. She was relieved to learn they were fictional characters, and started writing when they insisted daydreaming just wasn’t good enough. In exchange, they’ve agreed to let her sleep once in a while. Charley has survived earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, but couldn’t make it through a single day without stories.

 

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