Welcome one and all to our PROPHECY TOUR, 2011! Gracen Miller, Elena Gray, and I have teamed up to bring you three days of fascinating fun at all three of our websites. There’s in-depth discussion of our craft, paranormal chit-chat, and promotions galore!

So, how does this work? All YOU need to do is read our posts and follow each day’s rules today, tomorrow, and the next to win prizes! At the end of each post are links to each of us that you can click on and follow. We hope you have fun, learn a bit more about us, and enjoy your experience. PROPHECY SAYS YOU WILL, SO WE SAY, GO WITH IT!

***

How I Create a Moment to Swoon Over

What is it that I do that compels a book reviewer such as the Bookish Snob to create a Top Ten List of reasons why a person should read Trinity, and they’re all swooning moments from the book? What have I done to be dubbed Queen of the Swoonworthy? I create moments in my story that you wish belonged to you.

But let me set the stage for you before we go any farther. You are now going to a place devoid of all screaming, demanding children. There are no husbands begging for “Me Time”. No dinner to be cooked or laundry to be cleaned. You are going to a place where it’s just you and the book you’ve been dying to read. Let’s just say it’s mine. *wink, wink*

Before my words can work their magic on you, YOU must be in the right frame of mind and in the right place. People may argue the point that it doesn’t matter where they are or how loud it is around them, a great author can take us away and void out all distraction. I agree. However, I venture to say that when we get some quiet time, we go back and reread those juicy parts. Quiet affords us the opportunity to feel, see, touch, taste, and hear our story unfold in a deeper, more empathetic way.

Whether we’ve ever experienced falling in love personally or not, we have all felt it vicariously through books, TV shows, and movies. We may never have had the private pleasure and pain of it, but we share in its emotional and physiological effects on the characters we’ve grown to care about. We feel sadness, anger, joy, heartache. Our hearts race, our stomachs clench, goosebumps arise, and sometimes we find ourselves shouting out loud because of something someone has said or done in the story.

So now that we’re in a good place, let’s examine what I do specifically to make you swoon. I’ll take a passage from Top Ten Reasons To Read Trinity by Deena Remiel,by the Bookish Snob. After reading it, I will explain how I got there.

 “God knows, I love you, Emma.” He placed a light kiss on her temple and whispered against her ear. “I’ve never known before the rapture a simple touch could bring or the joy of sharing all that I am with another whose heart is kind and true. You’ve brought these gifts to me. You’ve awakened the man inside the angel.”

Uh huh. I know. I’ll just give you a moment to collect yourselves.  If only. LOL That’s part of it! IF ONLY! “If only my husband or boyfriend would say stuff like that to me.” OR… “If only I could hear those words said to me again.” I write what I would love to hear from someone who’s fallen desperately in love with me.

When I write my scenes, I use my skill of empathy to anticipate what a character will say or do. No matter how many people are in a scene, I am hopping inside their heads, and then I speak for them and feel for them and act for them. It’s physically and emotionally exhausting to me, as the writer, to go through this process time and again, but I do this to give my stories a sense of authenticity.

So, the next time you go to write, think about what you’d like to hear said to you. Think about how you’d like to be treated. The next time you read a romance novel, feel free to insert yourself into the role of choice again. In either case, prepare to fall in love over and over again.

I leave you with a song that makes me swoon…
 

To win a Brethren Disciple bracelet and  Brethren Fan Pack, comment below with a favorite line from a book or movie that makes you swoon!

For more about WRITER’S CRAFT, head over to Gracen Miller’s and Elena Gray’s websites.