Category Archives: writing

WIP Wednesday – Introducing a new shapeshifter romance series!

Cougar Creek Mates - Shapeshifter Romance Series

I’m super excited today, because I’m going to reveal more about a new shapeshifter romance series I have in the works.

After finishing the first draft of ESHER, I settled down to take a break and do some admin work. The usual stuff–marketing experiments, typing up the hordes of notes I scribble on paper about future books, tackling emails, and pulling together everything I need to release my next book. What I didn’t expect to happen was a whole new series popping into my head!

I’ve always been fascinated with big cats, and watching a TV series about them recently got me thinking–I haven’t written any pumas in my paranormal romances yet! It must have been there in the back of my mind for days, because I woke up one morning and was suddenly hit with a whole series about this shifter species.

I knew I had to set it in Canada, out in the wilderness, because it was a place I knew these big cats called home. Of course, in Canada, pumas are called cougars (in the states it’s mountain lions, and South America call them pumas), so a change in name cropped up. These would be cougar shifters.

I scribbled a LOT of notes for this shapeshifter romance series, ending with a complete outline for one book and rough ideas for a further three, bringing the series to four novellas about four brothers.

I decided this needed to be a separate series even though it’s actually set in the Eternal Mates world. So, yes, these cougars are going to meet their fated ones, that one true mate who is out there for them.

And… COUGAR CREEK MATES was born!

These shapeshifter romance books will be a little shorter than the Eternal Mates novellas, more in the length of the novellas in my Vampire Erotic Theatre and Her Angel series, around the 35,000-45,000 words mark (the Eternal Mates novellas are more like category length romances at 45,000-60,000 words).

I’ve been so excited about this series, that I’m almost done with the first draft of the first book in the series, CLAIMED BY HER COUGAR. I have just a couple more chapters to write, and that means the first draft will be completed by end of play on Friday.

I’ll be editing ESHER next and getting it ready for release in March, and then I’ll edit this book and get writing the second book in the series, CAPTURED BY HER COUGAR.

I think I’m doing these big cat shifters justice. They’re solitary like their animal counterparts, preferring to pass most of their time alone, but they come together at times, and the series is set around one of those times. Oh, and I was asked by a reader whether Archangel will be involved, and yeah, they do come up in this series.

And yes, that dragon shifter spin-off series I teased is also going to happen. These charming cougars just stole my focus a little.

And the best news? (I hope you’ll think it is anyway) If I keep rolling like this with the stories, and everything runs smoothly, I’ll be releasing all four novellas this summer!

Are you as excited as I am?

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

Felicity Heaton

Posted in Cougar Creek Mates, Craved by her Cougar, paranormal romance, shapeshifter romance, writing | 7 Comments

WIP Wednesday – Esher First Draft Complete!

So, I meant to make a few WIP Wednesday posts this month because I started writing the next Guardians of Hades novel, Esher. However, writing was going so well that I ended up forgetting to post at my blog. Hell, I forgot to do anything but writing.

The upside of my radio silence, is that even though I only started writing this first draft on January 8th, I have now completed it. It took me only 11 days to write 100,000 words, which is some feat! I averaged over 9000 words a day on this puppy. I’m still not sure how that happened, but it feels good to have it done, and to find such an energetic flow. I haven’t written so many words a day in years!

The other upside is that it means the book will be ready for release earlier than anticipated by a couple of weeks, so I’ll be able to get it in your hands by the end of March instead of April.

In fact, I’m excited to confirm that right now, I have it penciled in as a release on March 24th.

I’ve been so productive, that I even got the cover designed on Monday, which ate up a couple of hours but was well worth it, believe me, and I got the blurb written. Writing the summary of a book is my least favourite thing to do, so it’s a huge relief to have it completed bar a final proofread.

I have to say, it feels awesome to be so ahead of schedule, not panicking that I won’t hit a deadline and having that cramp my writing by making me feel as if I’ll never get it done.

I want to post a teaser of the book, but I’m going to save that for when I’ve done my initial read over of the book in the next couple of weeks and I feel it’s in a good enough shape to share with you.

For now, I’ll leave you with that teaser of the cover up top…

Are you excited about getting your hands on Esher’s book?

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

Felicity Heaton

Posted in Esher, greek gods romance, Guardians of Hades, paranormal romance, writing | 4 Comments

WIP Wednesday – Unchained by a Forbidden Love complete in first draft!

eternal-mates

I had hoped to make this announcement earlier than November 1st, but I’ve finally completed the first draft of Unchained by a Forbidden Love, Fuery and Shaia’s book in the Eternal Mates series.

It’s been a long time coming. I started writing this book in the summer, before I decided to set it aside to write my three tiger shifter books in the series. I picked it up again in August, and between hitting a creative wall and real life stuff, it’s taken me until now to type the final few words on the page.

All in all, I spent 25 days working on this book, clocking up 105,000 words in that time. That’s far longer than it normally takes me to write a novel of this length, but with my upper back / neck / shoulder and arms problems (I have terrible ulnar nerve issues from too much writing – it’s like carpal tunnel, but it’s my ulnar nerves instead) I just can’t write as many words each day anymore, not without causing myself excruciating pain that slows me down even more. So, slow and steady wins the race. I miss those days of clocking up 10,000 words in a day though!

At least the first draft is done, and my second draft is chewing through a whole ream of paper now as I print it so it’s ready for me to read over once I start the editing process.

I’m not going to make any promises about the release date for this one, but expect to see it before the end of the year. Once I get a feel of the shape it’s in, I’ll be able to plan when it will be ready for sale.

But I can promise I won’t keep you waiting any longer than necessary!

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

Felicity Heaton

Posted in Eternal Mates, paranormal romance, Unchained by a Forbidden Love, writing | 1 Comment

WIP Wednesday – Inspiration strikes in the strangest places!

eternal-mates

I’ve been making slow progress this last week on Unchained by a Forbidden Love, Fuery and Shaia’s book in the Eternal Mates series.

I hit another stumbling block that saw me grind to a halt. Something just wasn’t right and it was slowing me down. I wasn’t sure what it was…

Until I was in the shower this morning, and I thought about the scene I had become stuck on, and realised it needed changing. And then, I realised I needed to tweak some other things in the remaining chapters in order to make them work. I wasn’t sure about the story from this point forwards anyway, something felt off about it, just not quite right… but as I began thinking about it, it all sort of fell into place in a way it had refused to do before.

So rather than writing more for the book today, I’ve been revising the outline, moving things around, removing some stuff, and layering the new stuff in to make it all work with the plan that came to me this morning in the shower.

I’m feeling much better about the book now, and it’s finally feeling right, like this was the way it was always meant to be and I just got muddled somewhere and wrote it wrong the first time around. I can finally see the light, which is more than we can say for the hero, Fuery 🙂

I had really wanted to get the book completed in first draft this week, but I still have another 10 chapters to write, so I’m thinking it’s going to be done by end of next week, and then I’ll move on to editing it.

I also have an update for my audio books! I’ve completed my check of Awakened by a Demoness, and once the final edits are back from my narrator, I’ll be ready to hit the go button on this audio book and it will be in stores a couple of weeks later. I’m thinking it will be available at the end of the month. I’m about to start listening through Haunted by the King of Death, and my awesome narrator has already begun work on Turned by a Tiger. It’s all go!

In the meantime, Possessed by a Dark Warrior is now available and I’ll be updating my website with links for the audio book as they become available. Yay!

Wish me words!

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

Felicity Heaton

Posted in Audio Books, Awakened by a Demoness, Eternal Mates, Haunted by the King of Death, paranormal romance, Possessed by a Dark Warrior, Turned by a Tiger, Unchained by a Forbidden Love, writing | Comments Off on WIP Wednesday – Inspiration strikes in the strangest places!

WIP Wednesday – Unchained by a Forbidden Love Update

eternal-mates

I took a break from writing Unchained by a Forbidden Love to treat myself to a little Staycation back in September, but now I’m back at it and I’m making progress on Fuery and Shaia’s book in the Eternal Mates series.

Progress is slower than I would like, and I’ve been struggling a little. Sometimes, it’s hard for an author to constantly pump out words. I like to think of my creativity as a sort of tank. When it’s full, I have the fuel to go wild and go fast, and words flow effortlessly onto the page. When it’s empty, I find myself fighting for each word, and the energy to put them on the page.

With Fuery’s book, my tank is fluctuating between full and empty so quickly it’s dizzying! On Monday, I managed to hit my quota of 6000 words, bringing Unchained by a Forbidden Love up to 55,000 words in total and leaving me with 12 chapters to write. Yesterday was my day off. Today, I’m staring at the page where I left off and trying to muster some energy, a little bit of fuel in that tank, just enough to get my going.

My mind is all over the place right now, which isn’t helping. I’m not talking about the writerly things I have to do, like putting my newsletter together or checking the audio edition of Awakened by a Demoness. I’m talking, planting spring bulbs in my garden because the weather looks like it will stay dry and I have a stack of bulbs that need to go in ASAP, or planning our vacation to Canada that will be happening next spring/summer to celebrate my 40th (I’ve dreamed of going to Canada since I was small). It’s all there, tempting me to ignore that line in my planner that says I should write 6000 words on Unchained by a Forbidden Love today.

I’m sure you’re all familiar with real life getting in the way of doing the things you want to do / should be doing!

I think getting this blog post ticked off my list will help, but I feel finding my focus today is going to be a fight. I’ll find it somehow though, even if it’s only enough to write a couple thousand words.

Hopefully by my next WIP Wednesday post, I’ll be able to say I’m now at 80,000 words done…

Wish me words!

As always, my comments are open, and I’d love to hear from you!

Felicity Heaton

Posted in Eternal Mates, paranormal romance, Unchained by a Forbidden Love, writing | 1 Comment

When Inspiration Strikes – The Power of Music

Sometimes, I find inspiration in the simplest things. It can be subtle, like a stirring in the back of my mind that I don’t really notice at first, and it can be a thunderbolt. It can strike me hard, right down to my soul.

Today, I was looking around on iTunes for new music, something that seems to happen with alarming regularity… I’m a music whore. Honestly, I can buy albums and listen to them non-stop, well beyond the point where most people would be sick of hearing the same tunes. But, I find myself quickly aching for something new, something fresh. I have so much music, I could probably find that fresh, new feel among the albums and bands I haven’t listened to for a while.

I digress. Let’s get back to why I suddenly felt the need to blog.

So, I’m looking on iTunes, scoping out all my favourite bands (Seether, 30 Seconds to Mars, Red, The Starting Line, Tupelo Honey, 3 Doors Down, Lifehouse and the list goes on) and I’m finding nothing new… so I’m going to give up.

And then I see in the list of similar bands to one of my favourites that an OLD favourite, Breaking Benjamin, has a new ablum out after forever and ever and ever (yeah, it’s been a while, I’m not forgiving them for that). So I check out the new album, and…

OH. MY. GODS!

It’s like a thunderbolt, and it hits me hard in my soul.

Continue reading

Posted in Eternal Mates, Inspiration, paranormal romance, soundtrack, Unchained by a Forbidden Love, writing | Comments Off on When Inspiration Strikes – The Power of Music

Happy New Year – 2015 release plans for my paranormal romance books and more!

facebook-newyear-2015

Happy New Year! My post is a little late but I was caught up in the craziness of releasing Hunted by a Jaguar (Eternal Mates paranormal romance series book 4) on January 6th and things haven’t really settled down yet as my next release, Craved by an Alpha (Eternal Mates paranormal romance series book 5) hits virtual shelves on January 27th. It’s all go in 2015!

I wanted to make a post looking back at how wonderful 2014 has been for me, thanks to you guys, and what’s in store for me in 2015.

2014 rocked! Together with a fantastic group of authors, I became a New York Times bestseller and hit the USA Today bestsellers list again. The Eternal Mates series really took off, much to my joy as I love writing in this world, and now I can happily write books for it to my heart’s content. I met plenty of wonderful new readers on my social networks, received some amazing reviews for my books, and I think I strengthened existing bonds with my readers. I also managed to smash my word count target for the year, hammering away 569,000 words to beat the 400,000 words goal. I even hit my reading target of devouring 20 books during my down time!

I’m hoping that 2015 will rock just as hard! I have exciting plans with the same group of authors I’ve been working with the past couple of years, lots of book releases on the cards if the gods are kind and let my schedule run as planned, intend to read another 20 books, and I have another 400,000 word count to achieve. How am I going to achieve that word count?

Well, regulars to my blog or Facebook will know I’m currently working on wrapping up book 7 in my Eternal Mates series, which will release in March. Once this book is done, I’ll be working on a novella for the Vampire Erotic Theatre series, one for the Eternal Mates series, and one for the Her Angel series. After those are done, I’ll be editing the first book in my Guardians of Hades series and writing the next two novels. I’m also hopeful that I can get a novella written for the Vampires Realm series and ready for release towards the end of the year. As I said above, this is all dependent on the gods being kind and my muse being as productive as ever.

Here’s what my release schedule will hopefully look like when we’re looking back on it in January 2016 in my New Year’s post then:

January 6th 2015 – Hunted by a Jaguar (Eternal Mates #4)
January 27th 2015 – Craved by an Alpha (Eternal Mates #5)
February 17th 2015 – Bitten by a Hellcat (Eternal Mates #6)
March 10th 2015 – Taken by a Dragon (Eternal Mates #7)
May 2015 – Untitled Novella (Vampire Erotic Theatre #6.5) – Victor and Elizabeth’s story
June 2015 – Untitled Novella/Novel (Eternal Mates #8) – Harbin’s story
July 2015 – Untitled Her Angel Novella (Her Angel #7.5) – the Devil’s story
Date TBC 2015 – Ares (Guardians of Hades #1)
Date TBC 2015 – Valen (Guardians of Hades #2)
Date TBC 2015 – Esher (Guardians of Hades #3)
Date TBC 2015 – Untitled Novella (Vampires Realm) – Tynan’s story

I may or may not manage the final one. It all depends on time really. It might end up pushed for another book entirely or just moved into early 2016. Or a bit of both.

So, leave a comment and be sure to let me know whether you’re excited about my release line up this year!

 

Posted in 2015 releases, angel romance, Bitten by a Hellcat, Craved by an Alpha, demons, Eternal Mates, Guardians of Hades, Her Angel Series, Hunted by a Jaguar, paranormal romance, shapeshifter romance, Taken by a Dragon, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance, Vampires Realm, writing | Comments Off on Happy New Year – 2015 release plans for my paranormal romance books and more!

WIP Wednesday – How does a wicked angel kiss? Just like this… sneak peek!

 

Since I don’t have a cover for the next Her Angel romance series book, HER WICKED ANGEL, and won’t have one for a while, I’m sticking with using one of my warning signs. I did make this one with Asmodeus in mind.

I ended last week on 17000 of this book written in first draft. So far this week, I’ve bumped that up to 36550 words. It was nice breaking the 30,000 word mark, which should be around 1/3 of the book. It’s slow going with this one. I’m building my focus but I’m easily distracted at the moment and not working at my normal speed because I have less outlined for this book so I have to write and think a lot at the same time. That really slows me down. I think there’s something else holding me back too, and maybe that’s a sense that this one won’t be as good as Her Demonic Angel. It’s going to be hard to top that one. I’m think it might be as good as Her Guardian Angel. I wish I had time before I write these books to read over the series. It sucks that I don’t get that sort of luxury. My schedule is just too demanding.

I don’t think it’s a lack of pace or tension that’s making writing this one feel as though it’s dragging. We’ve had a few altercations and fights in the book already, and stuff is happening, and Asmodeus and Liora are growing closer. I just left them on the verge of doing the nasty for the first time, which should definitely be an interesting scene to write.

I’m really not sure what’s slowing me down. I want to stick with saying that it’s the thin outline I have for this one, but my muse is saying that it’s something else. Something more. It’s all stuff that I will fix in the second draft, layering in the details and boosting the drama, but it still leaves me feeling concerned. I think it’s really that feeling of concern about this book that is probably slowing me down. I’m feeling a bit on edge, a bit like my writing sucks right now, and a bit drained and up against it because I’m behind my deadlines, and that makes me doubt the book. Ah, I’ve not missed that feeling. I’ve had it with Unleash, and with Her Demonic Angel, and with other books. The more I write, and the more readers love the books, the more pressure I feel. I need to get used to it and get over it, and then get on with it.

The stupid thing is, I’m sure when I read this book over, I’ll think it’s fine and wonder what the heck I was worried about. It has big drama, big tension, big emotion, and a bad-ass hero and bitching heroine, and what I’ve read back so far is perfectly good.

Why don’t I let you be the judge of it and share a snippet?

Here’s a teaser from the book so far… all first draft because I’m only just writing it so forgive any errors…

Continue reading

Posted in angel romance, Her Angel Series, Her Wicked Angel, paranormal romance, writing | 8 Comments

WIP Wednesday on a Friday – Her Wicked Angel

 

Since I don’t have a cover for the next Her Angel romance series book, HER WICKED ANGEL, I thought I would use one of my warning signs I often post on my Facebook page… it works for me.

I haven’t made as much progress with this book as I would have liked at this stage. Life things have interferred and stolen my time and concentration, and I was having niggling doubts about the book until I read over it this morning and realised that the 17000 words I have so far are perfectly good, and I’m striking the right balance in the characters.

This one is a tricky book to write. Asmodeus is not your average romance hero. He’s very much full-on evil, and has naughty thoughts that see him regularly contemplating a massacre. The guy was raised in Hell, and it seems the heroine, Liora, is willing to give him a chance to show her that he’s not really 100% evil… it’s more like 95% and a seed of good.

Writing Asmodeus is a fun journey though. So far, he’s been extremely mischievous, very wicked, disobedient, vicious, violent, protective, aggressive, vulnerable, confused, overwhelmed, hurt, offended and generally cruel and prideful. Thankfully, his heroine, Liora, has a full spectrum of her own emotions to run through and she’s been everything from sweet to sassy, peaceful to downright angry, horrified, aroused, worried, extremely dangerous and verging on violent, and all those other things you can imagine you’d feel if you met the king of demons and found him hot!

Let’s just say she’s no saint and she might just be wicked enough to fall for him.

I do like it when I come across heroes like Asmodeus though (or anti-heroes as the case may be) as he’s such a fantastic mixture of experience and innocence. Apollyon is right about him and he’s definitely complicated. I think I’m putting him through a rough time right now and we’re only 17000 words into the novel! He has some seriously bumpy times ahead. I’m sure he’ll make it through with the help of Liora, and maybe some other characters in the series. I really can’t wait to write him and Apollyon in the same scene though. Sparks will fly.

Here’s a teaser from the book so far… all first draft because I’m only just writing it so forgive any errors…

Continue reading

Posted in angel romance, Her Angel Series, Her Wicked Angel, paranormal romance, writing | 3 Comments

WIP Wednesday – Her Wicked Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 6) and More

 

Since I don’t have a cover for the next Her Angel romance series book, I thought I would use one of my warning signs I often post on my Facebook page.

I’ve been a busy writer, but unfortunately so much of my time has been spent on non-writing work. I was at London Book Fair from Monday to Wednesday last week, and had a fantastic time meeting the wonderful Mark Lefebvre and Shayna from Kobo Writing Life, and also Patrick from Goodreads, amongst others. I had wanted to write a blog post all about it, but haven’t had a chance to do that yet.

Since getting back from London on Thursday, I’ve been snowed under with work for the Unleash release on May 18th, and it has meant that my work on Her Wicked Angel has fallen to the back burner. It shouldn’t be there, I know that, but I have so much work to do for Unleash. Right now, I’m wondering if it’s really worth all this hassle though. Most of the work is for the virtual book tour. I’ve had hit and miss experiences with virtual tours.

To be honest, I didn’t tour with Her Demonic Angel and that did just as well as Bewitch, which I did tour with. I’m not sure I get anything out of virtual tours now, other than headaches and stressful schedules. I get just as much exposure from reviews and my fabulous hard-working mistresses on my street team.

Tours can take up a lot of time – probably as long as it takes me to write a novella and edit it. I think I figured out once that if I toured with each book I released in a year (say 4 novels), then I could write, edit and complete a fifth novel in the time I spent working on tour posts, sending out prizes, arranging everything, etc. I’d rather write another novel, and I think you would probably like that too.

Her Wicked Angel has made it past the planning stage though. I have all the character biographies in place, and the outline is complete at around 13000 words. I just need to write it now. It’s going to be a challenge. Asmodeus isn’t going to be a very easy hero to write. If you’ve read Her Demonic Angel, then you’ll know why. He’s 99% pure evil, with a seed of good in him. It’s going to be difficult to write him well in the beginning and capture just how complex and complicated he is. There is good in him, but it’s buried deep, and for a good reason. It wouldn’t do to have demon minions and others living in Hell realising that you’ve got a softer side underneath that cruel exterior.

I think his heroine, Liora, can help him grow and overcome his upbringing to become a much better angel. She’s strong and feisty, and she’ll bring the guy to his knees. Both of them are going to be fun to write. I’ve written some bad bad men in the past, and it’s fun getting them in touch with their softer sides and making them realise there’s some good in them, and there’s nothing they can do about that.

If you want to know who else is in this book… well, I think the gang is all there! We have Serenity and Apollyon in it for quite a lot of the book, and Veiron and Erin lend a hand, and Taylor and Einar are there, together with Marcus and Amelia. Even Lukas will make an appearance in this one. It’s a huge get together, and I think it will be nice writing Lukas again. Readers missed him in Her Demonic Angel.

Hopefully, in my next WIP Wednesday post, I will be able to tell you that I’ve begun writing Her Wicked Angel and I’m racing through it and on target!

 

Posted in angel romance, Her Angel Series, Her Wicked Angel, paranormal romance, Unleash, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance, writing | 2 Comments