Burning Bridges, a contemporary Romance from Anne Krist

Please help us give Dee S. Knight and her alter ego Anne Krist a very warm welcome to the blog this week. Dee is here with a fun guest post on writing and Anne is here to share her newest release Burning Bridges. Welcome, Dee and Anne! We are excited to hear more about Burning Bridges.

Guest Post from Dee S. Knight:

A short distance away from us is a house. I mean a big, mama of a house that looks modest enough (in a Victorian kind of way) from the street front, but then extends half a block to the rear. One of their second floor windows looks into a room that has a whopping huge TV. The screen faces my kitchen window. If I focus, I can see bright color, movement and large shapes. Viewing pleasure on that sucker must be fantastic.

There are a few reasons why I can’t watch TV surreptitiously on my neighbor’s big-screen. There’s a big old tree outside the window. It’s branches fragment the window and thus the screen, like grout between pieces of tile in a mosaic. I can tell objects onscreen are moving but not what they’re doing exactly. Then there’s the distance between our houses that keeps me from seeing the action clearly. Finally, there’s a certain amount of discomfort in staring at someone’s window. There’s always the danger they could be staring back, you know? Being caught in the act of snooping is so darn embarrassing.

Not enough to stop me, of course, but it’s really better to perform the act unnoticed.

It occurred to me lately that trying to see that TV screen clearly is like what happens when we write. Whether it’s a written outline, a grid or simply a developed plan in your mind, you need to have an idea of where your story starts and ends, and what’s going to happen in the middle. You need a clear path you can follow while at the keyboard. Otherwise, newly injected plot ideas, unplanned characters and unintended consequences can interfere with your thinking. Like that tree, it’s branches moving back and forth across the window making it difficult to piece together a cohesive picture, not having a good idea of where you’re going in a book will slow your writing and prevent your accomplishing a book that flows well from point to point.

In the same way that my being far away from the other house keeps me from breaking out the popcorn and setting up TV-watching shop in my kitchen, having a distance between you and your characters can prevent them from coming to life. For your characters to read as well-rounded and three dimensional, it takes more than knowing hair color, size and weight. Where did your hero come from? What did his father do? Who was your heroine’s best friend in high school? What was her favorite subject? What bad habits do they have? Where’s one place in the world they’d like to see?

I don’t mean you need to know the answers to all of these questions, but you should know as much as possible. The more you know about your characters, the more you’ll be able to show your readers. Before you know it, they’ll feel as though they know your characters, too. That’s a joyful situation! So don’t keep yourself at a distance from your characters. Treat them as friends. Get to know them, inside out. The great thing is, they don’t have to know you, so you can maintain the secret of how much you spend on shoes. It’s okay.

Finally, there’s fear to face. Writers have all kinds of fears: that you might not be able to pull off the grand book plan you’ve spent years dreaming about or that you might not do your characters justice. Even that you might succeed in everything you’ve ever hoped for. (Weird, huh? But it happens.)

Then there’s that greatest fear, that someone else will soon pick up your manuscript and read it—the equivalent of my nervousness at the thought of looking up to see my neighbors watching me watch them. Unlike my situation, facing fear is something writers must excel at doing. Unless you’re someone who writes strictly for your own entertainment, someone else is going to read your work—many someones, you hope. If this is something that’s slowing you down, follow the advice of my New York/New Jersey friends: get over it.

If you suffer from this problem, hold your nose, close your eyes and repeat the mantra I’m a very good writer. Readers will love my book. Write it on an index card and tape it to your bathroom mirror. Make it the background on your computer. Stick the sentiment in your lunch bag. The more you read it and say it, the less trepidation you’ll feel when you hand your work over to a stranger. Then do more than read it, believe it.

The fact of the matter is, almost no one has an easy time writing a book. It takes a lot of dedication, thought, and just plain time with butt in chair. But if you form a plan to guide you through the process, develop your characters as full-fledged people and force yourself to persevere over all your writer fears, you’ll find the finished product to be one you and others will enjoy.

Now if I can just find a way to pipe in sound and see into my neighbor’s TV room, I could sit back and enjoy watching, uh, whatever it is they watch. Come to think of it, maybe I’ll just tune in Netflix.

About Burning Bridges: 

Consider the role of strangers in our lives. An unknown postman in Virginia hides a bag of mail one day. His simple action set in motion untold consequences for many others—strangers—all over the country. How many bridges were burned in that forgotten mail pouch?

Sara Richards’s world is rocked when three love letters from 1970 are delivered decades late. The letters were written by Paul Steinert, a young sailor who took her innocence with whispered words of love and promises of forever before leaving for Vietnam. Sara is left behind, broken hearted and secretly pregnant, yearning for letters she never received.

Then he died.

Now, years later, she discovers the betrayal wasn’t Paul’s, when her mother confesses to a sin that changed their lives forever. How can Sara reveal to Paul’s parents that they have a granddaughter they’ve missed the chance to know? Even worse, how will she find the words to tell her daughter that she’s lived her life in the shadow of a lie?

Picking her way through the minefields of distrust and betrayal, Sara finds that putting her life together again while crossing burning bridges will be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

• Amazon Buy Link – https://amzn.to/2SaayhW

About Dee:

A few years ago, Dee S. Knight began writing, making getting up in the morning fun. During the day, her characters killed people, fell in love, became drunk with power, or sober with responsibility. And they had sex, lots of sex.

After a while, Dee split her personality into thirds. She writes as Anne Krist for sweeter romances, and Jenna Stewart for ménage and shifter stories. All three of her personas are found on the Nomad Authors website. Also, once a month, look for Dee’s Charity Sunday blog posts, where your comment can support a selected charity.

Anne Krist is the “sister” to erotic romance author Dee S. Knight. She is quieter, more reserved, and certainly more circumspect about S-E-X than her wild and crazy sibling. Thus she’s more comfortable writing sweet(er) romance, where there might be a few sensual scenes, but no more than that. One thing about Anne: she’s not more romantic than Dee. They both write in happily ever after and share the solid belief that love can last forever and beyond!

Author links:

• Website: https://nomadauthors.com
• Blog: http://nomadauthors.com/blog
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/DeeSKnight
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeeSKnight2018
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/265222.Dee_S_Knight
• Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B079BGZNDN
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• LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/dee-s-knight-0500749