Games of the Heart (Crimson Romance) (35 page)
Thank you, too, to my Crimson Romance “sisters” who are inspirations. Your friendships have been a delightful perk since joining the CR “family.”
To my online students — more than 50,000 of you “out there” now — thank you. Helping you to become the best writers possible, being your mentor, and nudging you all the way toward publication, you have helped me become a better writer and person in the process.
Thank you to my early readers: Paulette Stewart, Ellen Hobart, and Dr. C.J. Johnson. Your encouragement meant the world to me, especially in the early stages, when I told you I was writing a mystery/romance/comedy about black market adoption.
On a personal note, this book is dedicated to my mother-in-law, Stella Angieski Shaw. I am certain she’s now in heaven serving up cakes, coffee, and laughter-filled conversation just like the buscias — the Polish grandmothers you have met in this book.
This book came about after reading an article in the
San Diego Union Tribune
about black market adoption schemes where profit-hungry companies sold “return” policies to adoptive parents. These unscrupulous companies were “selling” toddlers to prospective parents without disclosing their hidden and heartbreaking mental challenges to cash in on the exorbitant return option. I couldn’t get it out of my head or my heart.
Then I learned about the squalor found in many eastern European orphanages and women kept as sex slaves to produce “made-to-order” babies sold to Americans. Sure I could have written an article about the crimes, but I wanted to show the faces and hearts involved. A novel with plenty of mystery and a quirky protagonist that could make you smile became the vehicle of choice.
I started writing as soon as I could hold a pencil. At eight, I wrote
The Teddy Bear Trilogy
. For a long time, especially when I was a shy, bookworm teenager, I only “wrote” novels in my mind, but boy what elaborate scenes. Because of an undiagnosed hearing loss and two strong-willed sisters as a middle child, I found comfort in reading. It was about this time, too, that I started talking with my characters and asking them what they wanted to tell in a story. Sounds a tad psychotic, but most writers do this and I continue to do it with each novel.
I think of you, the reader, with each word I write. I work to spin characters that you love or love to hate. For the main characters, I strive to build heroines and heroes that make you want to know them better and make you miss them as the last page is finished.
As a writer, I need the story to carry you along. I don’t want to interrupt you from thinking, “Now what in the world did the writer have in mind?” I believe good fiction writers should be nonexistent. You don’t want to know me. I’m boring. You want to know the people in my books. You want to be involved in what’s making them laugh, angry, fall in love, or do something you’ve always wanted to attempt. That’s what I want for you, too.
I keep on top of trends and try to foretell what readers will want in the next year or three or four years. From the time I get an idea to the time a book is published can be 3 months to 18 months, depending on the nature of the contract with the publisher. I struggle not to “date” the book with current events, a freakish blizzard or some movie star’s latest rehab exploit, so that 18 months from now it’ll seem fresh.
My online writing students, although they don’t know it, have been most helpful to keep my writing clear and help me stay on top of trends. I teach six different online writing courses available at 2000 colleges and universities worldwide. How do these faceless and nameless (because of privacy, I know nothing about my students) writers help? They force me to write clearly and with the tightest writing possible. When they don’t understand something about writing, whether it’s fiction or an essay, they ask. I supply the answers. They want facts, not fluff. Teaching has taught me to write more succinctly and with purpose. I’m a better writer because of being a writing professor.
I love to write. Don’t tell publishers, but I’d write for free if that were the only way. So sitting down at my computer in my cluttered and comfortable home office to write isn’t a problem. Stopping is the problem, because I always have to stop before I’m ready.
I have an incredible, full life. I’m blessed with a wonderful husband Joseph who still makes my heart pitter patter after decades of being my partner in life, a playful Welsh terrier Miss Rosy, an incredible garden that’s always begging for my attention, paintings to start and to finish, books to read, friends to hang out with and volunteer with activities in my community, church country. I’m a board member Days for Girls, an international organization that works to increase personal dignity and sanitary products to girls and women throughout developing nations. I run out of hours long before I run out of determination or creativity for each day.
As a seven-days-a-week writer (with Sunday morning off for church), I have a flexible schedule. Each morning, Joseph and I talk and solve world problems as we take Rosy for her six-mile daily walk. She doesn’t know she’s 13 and I’m not going to tell her. After lupper (a combo of lunch and supper that we eat, since we both work from home) we always have a cup of tea or coffee while we sit in the garden. As a breast cancer survivor, I’ve learned to be good to myself and cherish the small things, like spending time with those I love.
My best advice for any writer, of any age, is: Read in your genre. Study it like your life depends on it. Learn from those who write well. For instance if one is struggling writing dialogue, study the work of Debbie Macomber. If one is struggling with storytelling, check out the work of John Grisham or J. K. Rowling. Don’t put off writing, if it’s calling to your heart. There is never, ever a good time start except right now. Take a class, find a mentor, and ask for help from someone you admire.
I apply the Golden Rule to writing and to relationships. When I’ve helped someone to learn, to understand, to relax, or to better cope with something, I’m humbled. I’m happiest when I’ve given someone the keys to a door they’ve wanted to open and they’ve not only opened it, but rushed through and succeeded. I get this feeling in my online courses when writers start to love writing and get published. My greatest disappointment is that there are only 24 hours in the day, and I have to sleep about nine of them. I want more, I want more time to write, more time to read, more time to teach and share. I work to squeeze more time into every task and hence I’ve become a cracker-jack time manager.
I love meeting my readers and those who’ve read my books or taken my online classes. When a reader or one of the writers I’ve mentored in the online classes (more than 50,000 when I figured it recently) comes up to me at an event, I cannot contain myself. The connection is intimate and it’s wonderful.
A few years ago, I was at the launch of
What to Do When a Loved One Dies: A practical and compassionate guide to dealing with death on life’s terms.
This was at a national convention for death care providers and vendors who provide services for the industry. A woman stopped me and told me I’d saved her life. She explained, “On my only son’s twenty-first birthday, he and colleges buddies went drinking. He swallowed twenty-one shots and died on the spot. I nearly died, too. All the well-meaning drivel that friends and family handed out just made it worse. Then someone gave me a copy of
What to Do
, and truly you saved my life with the solid information, the facts of what I was feeling in this horrific experience. I was this close,” she squeezed her index finger to her thumb, “to taking my own life, until I read about physical and emotional grief.” We cried together for a while, hugged, and I never saw her again.
I have been blessed with similar experiences with fiction and nonfiction time and again. When does one know a book is a success? If there is one smile, one “aha,” and, like the woman at the convention, one life changed or one time to forget the troubles of the world because a novel is plain fun to read, that book is a bestseller to me.
I’m looking forward to meeting you, my reader, so please visit my site and meet me at that next workshop or conference.
Eva Shaw
Carlsbad, California
In the mood for more Crimson Romance?
Check out
One Hit Wonder
by Denyse Cohen
at
CrimsonRomance.com
.