Wednesday, September 30, 2020

*Book Tour & giveaway* The Heart's Bidding by Jordan Riley Swan-GUEST POST


The Heart's Bidding
by Jordan Riley Swan
Genre: Clean Contemporary Romance 

Kaylee Heart would rather run through a roaring fire than endure even a minute of public speaking. Put in an eighty-hour work week? No problem. Shut down her grandfather’s gold-digging girlfriend? Easy peasy. Stand in front of an auction crowd and call for bids? Show her the exit.


So she has no idea how Gerald, the golden-voiced auctioneer she’s been crushing on at the local auction house, can find the courage to stand on stage every week, with all those eyes on him. But as cruel fate would have it, she is about to find out.
Her family antique shop, the Vintage at Heart, has tripped over one financial hurdle too many and Kay is propelled, full speed, into her biggest phobia—the spotlight.

With terror chasing her, she’ll have to fight to keep the family business from closing forever. Even if the battle takes place in front of a live crowd.



**Only .99 cents until Sep 14th!!**





Jordan Riley Swan is a wild word hunter living in the far and dangerous reaches of rural Ohio. He spends his nights tracking down big-game stories, capturing them in paper cages, and training them to be better tales.


The Heart's Bidding was the first novel he'd dared to use the keys of his typewriter to release back into the wild.



GUEST POST

Describe your writing style.

Sloppy.

Oh, you meant my story writing not my handwriting. Well, I’d say its linear and plot driven. Sherry Thomas once said, “I like big plots and I cannot lie.” I’d whole heartily agree with her. Sometimes that does put my characters and their emotions in the back seat but I am practicing to do better with that.


What makes a good story?

Did the reader have an emotional reaction (good or bad)? Was the ending satisfying? Yes? Then that’s a good story.


What are they currently reading?

Just finished Giver of Stars. Thinking I might pick up her other work. I loved Giver enough.


What is your writing process? For instance, do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first?

Come up with a broad concept first thing. Do some preliminary outlining of the plot over the next few days. Create some characters to fill said plot. Ask how can I make it harder for the characters each chapter (I love the try-fail cycle). Then write chapter by chapter in linear order through to a first draft with exceptionally light revisioning as I go. Come back to the beginning and start the heavy revisions. Send to developmental editor for notes. Talk myself out of strangling her when it comes back covered in red. Rewrite and revise. Resubmit. Then onto line editor. Copy edit. Onto Proofreaders. I don’t use beta readers as I will go into an endless cycle of trying to do appease them and end up rewriting into forever. Publish.


What are common traps for aspiring writers?

That your writing has to be great out of the gate. Nobody’s first draft is great. I fell into that trap for DECADES.


What is your writing Kryptonite?

Character motivation/believability.


Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

Original (at the cost of the genre and good reviews from time to time it seems. I may have to rethink this now. Hahaha)


If you could tell your younger writing-self anything, what would it be?

Keep your butt in the chair and for the love of god revise and polish. When you read other peoples work look for what they did to evoke emotions. Read books on writing instead of assuming you know it all.


What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?

As a guy, I’m deathly scared I’m going to find my work tweeted by the Men Writing Women account. LOL


How long on average does it take you to write a book?

First draft in a month. First revisions one month later. Endless cycle of changes and polishing: months and months. The Heart’s Bidding took a year and a half to write and polish. Anniversary Guy even longer. But I tended to do other projects while I let them rest. I’ve first drafted entire novels in a month and have some that are still not done years later. But I think now that I’m writing full time I’ll be putting out books a lot more frequently. Especially since I have actual deadlines for once.


Do you believe in writer’s block?

Yes and no. I believe we can concentrate on the wrong thing, aiming our self at something other than what we should be trying to accomplish, and lock ourselves up. If you write something that you don’t care about, the words will come. You didn’t lose your ability to write, your mind is just telling you something is wrong with the project you are working on currently and you need to step away from it to figure it out. But then again I may just be full of BS.

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!





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