Rochelle Bradley Author

The last few days I've been rereading the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo  2015. I shouldn't have been surprised at its length with NaNo's fifty-thousand-word goal but I had written more of the story than I thought. Inserted within the story are parenthesis that made me chuckle. (name of old bity), (someplace I can't remember), and (bimbo teacher) were just a few. This particular story is the third in a small town series set in fictional Fortuna, Texas. It was fun to be reacquainted with the cast of characters and the town antics. I'd forgotten how Desire (a short, little old lady with Spock-like hair, who happens to be one of my favorite characters) tries to seduce handsome police officer Ben when he pulls her over for a moving violation. As I continue to edit the first in the Fortuna Texas series, The Double D, I find looking into the later stories helps me enrich the original. The characters have depth, likes and dislikes, faults and, let me tell you, there are p...

I had a wonderful time at the Chicago North RWA's Spring Fling and Lori Foster's Reader & Author Get Together (RAGT). They were spaced two weeks apart. I had a busy, fun-filled spring. At the Spring Fling I sampled many sessions to hone my craft, visited with old and new friends, attended a gala dinner, pitched the Double D and received third place in the Fire & Ice Contest  for my romantic suspense Against the Laws. I pitched the Double D, a contemporary western romance, to two agents and they both wanted to see more. One requested the whole manuscript. I'm excited. My goal is to spend a few months polishing the Double D until it shines like a jewel. It's complete at around 85k words and has a sequel. The RAGT event was memorable. I met authors who took me under their wings and encouraged me. I bumped into some friends that I only see each year at RAGT. Took a few classes, made a romance book cover and designed the perfect hero. I met an author from ...

Good news! I received an email last week that made me smile. It still does. I'm attending a Romance Writers of America conference at the end of May, and they offer a writing contest. I considered entering but was intimidated. I'd never entered a romance writing contest before. I decided to try the category of romantic suspense. Dusting off an old NaNoWriMo Novel (from Nano 2012), I reviewed the manuscript. I found my courage and asked my critique group and a couple writer friends to view my edits. A few final tweaks and I sent it in. Low and behold, I'm now 1 of 3 finalists in the romantic suspense category. Yay! The Fire & Ice Finalist List The story, Against the Laws, is about  a woman trying to evade the clutches of her abusive husband and his hired thugs, who will stop at nothing to get her back under his control. For two years, she’s traveled the country, living small town to small town, and successfully flying under the radar—until a blundering bank ro...

I went to Panera this week to meet with a few other writers. I sat with my netbook open and my current WIP on screen in Scrivner . We happened to be talking over a characterization problem when a blond woman plopped her mammoth laptop on the table next to me. She was slender with long hair. Her eyes had mild crows feet but, by no means, was she old. As I studied her face, I wondered how I knew her. She smiled as she said, "This won't work. Can you get it to connect?" Okay. I'm not a computer genius but connecting to Wi-Fi I can do. Sometimes the Panera Wi-Fi is stubborn. She has the Yahoo homepage open and Scott Trade in the search bar but it's not searching. I check her Wi-Fi icon for connectivity (makes me sound tech savvy-huh?) The internet access icon had a ! next to it. Who knows why the connection was wonky but I disconnected and reconnected. I asked the lady if I could open a new internet window and the Yahoo homepage popped up again. She becam...

  I've been playing around with fonts and images trying to create something that represents me and my writing. When I find myself not in the mood to write I like to play with book cover designs and imagery. It's relaxing and it spurs my creative juices. What do you like to do when you're not writing?

What Comes Next? So you took the challenge of writing 50,000 words, whether or not you made that goal, it is time to decide how to proceed. 1. Finish the novel. You've got the momentum, ride it out. Get the story out of your head. Once "The End" is on the page, you can say you've written a book. You're now an author! 2. Take a breather. That's right, give your story a rest. A month or two is good then you'll be able to look at it with fresh eyes. During the waiting period read up on craft, journal story ideas or make an outline and start writing another manuscript. 3. Join a critiquing group or enroll in a writing/editing seminar. Whether local or online. It helps to have others to bounce things off of and give helpful hints to improve your work. It's nice to talk with people who are going through the same process and can relate. If you Google "critique groups" several sites will come up like Critique Circle and Roses Colored Glasses...

Daily Snippets #30, November 30, 2015    The month is almost over. We're down to the home stretch. Can you make the 50,000 goal. Usually  my novel is not finished when I reach 50k but it's close. The Writer Leopard. Going to miss him.  You know you're a writer when...