Works in Progress

Welcome to the LAST “Six Sentence Sunday”. Thank you to everyone who has ever visited me as part of that weekly Sunday routine. I’ve loved all your comments and in turn all the fantabulous sixes I’ve read on others’ blogs. I’m sure there will be a replacement equally worthy eventually, but today we’re bidding adieu to the grand-daddy of them all.

This six comes from my still in process (sigh…I know, I know) NaNoWriMo cruise ship romance, title to be determined.

The hero and heroine have just concluded a rather trying dinner with some fellow passengers while on a cruise ship as secret shoppers. They have finally escaped and are taking in the air on the promenade.

Photo of The Puffy shirt on display at the Smithsonian

“Well, that was fun,” she remarked at last, breaking the silence.

Paul chuckled, a warm rumble that emanated deep in his chest. She drank in his dark form at the rail. He was tall and powerfully built, like a rogue pirate at the helm of his ship. All he needed was an eye patch, and maybe also to shed the jacket and open a few top buttons of his shirt. A puffy shirt would be better still, but she doubted the gift shop sold any of those.

Ok, ok, guilty as charged for the Seinfeld allusion. I couldn’t resist.

Be sure to check out the host site, Six Sentence Sunday, for links to more tantalizing snippets from some very talented writers.

I hope you’ll visit me again in the near future, SSS or not. Cheers! 🙂

Yes, I made my own meme banner.

I’ve been tagged by the uber-talented Dale Long to share my “next big thing”, that is talk about a project in process. Be sure to check out what he’s up to by visiting his post HERE.

Last time I did a similar meme, I told you about Purely Relative, which is currently in submission mode. This time, I’ve selected another WIP, my NaNo project that I’m still working on. It’s at about 60k words so far.

Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:

What is your working title of your book?

Argh, we’re starting off with a hard question. My creative side is currently at war with my mercenary side. A very wealthy Cajun is the hero and the trend these days is to inject “billionaire” into the title to snag the readers. On the other hand, it’s kind of being over done. Here are a few I’ve played with:

Mentoring the Cajun
Cruise Ship Billionaire
Billionaire in Training
Tricked by the Cajun
Mistress in Training
The Billionaire’s Deception
How to Train a Billionaire

i know these all sound too Mills & Boon, so you can spare me your groans, missy!

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I took a cruise to Alaska earlier this summer and the summer before that, my family and I went on a Baltic cruise. The whole workings of the ship fascinated me…so I decided to plop a secret shopper on board to dig under the covers.

What genre does your book fall under?

Contemporary romance

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

By David Shankbone (David Shankbone) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

By David Shankbone (David Shankbone) via Wikimedia Commons

Another toughee since the book isn’t quite finished yet. The billionaire, Paul, is a self-made man who grew up poor but able to cash in on his charisma, his luck at the poker table and his ability to read people. He never graduated from high school however, and that’s his Achilles heel. Let’s go with Jesse Bradford for now, only make him a lot taller than his 5’8″.

December 2011 cover of El Pais.
Photography by Eric Guillemain and styling by Isabel Moralejo

For my heroine, Lydia, I need an olive-skinned woman, short to medium, rather curvy figure. Paz de la Huerta would work because she’s especially gorgeous in full makeup, but I’ve also seen her looking rather plain, especially if you slap a pair of spectacles on her.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A seldom-seen billionaire goes undercover as a secret shopper trainee to one of his stalwart employees in order to discover why his cruise ship is losing money. (I know, I know…needs work.)

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Neither. I’ll probably go directly to a publisher with it.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Er…still in process this baby is but I started it November 1st for NaNoWriMo. I took a break to do some writing as my alter-ego for a bit and when I finish up her in process story, I’ll regroup and try to finish this one. It’s at 60k+ now and I anticipate the first draft to come in around 80k. Then I’ll probably edit it down to 70k.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I dunno…there’s a ton of bossy alpha male billionaire books out there. Mine does NOT have BDSM and the hero is not all that literate, so that makes it rather unique methinks.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I’ve read about several self-made millionaires and they are rarely the ones with the Harvard educations. Many are simply hard-workers with excellent people skills and a healthy dose of entrepreneurial spirit. These people are not the flashy celebrity-types.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I always try to throw in a few yucks mixed with sarcasm and some snappy dialogue.

And here are the blogs of other writers for you to visit and discover what is cooking in their ‘creative kitchens’:

(I will list a few people, but they may have already done this meme or aren’t into memes, so I’ve no idea if they’ll participate or not. If they do, then all’s the better for us nosy types, eh?)