Posted on by sarahmichellelynch · 2 Comments

Value Your Words – Why I Didn’t Accept a Book Deal

Last week a publishing contract landed on my doormat and it took me maybe minutes after reading it to know it wasn’t for me. I’m not going to mention who the contract was with, the money involved, the clauses, etc. I’m just going to say it was a London publisher and they made me an offer after my agent approached them.

If you’ve been self-publishing as long as I have, almost three years now, you might have watched other self-published authors (some of whom are friends) land deals. I’ve watched loads of other Indie authors land deals with all sorts of publishers and some find themselves no better off; alternatively I’ve watched some find themselves worse off, and there are also the few, rare cases of the authors for whom it has really worked out because they have gained a massive, loyal readership from signing with a publisher. After all, gaining a readership is what we all care about most.

In the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve been warned about a few things:

  • Some publishers will offer you a deal without setting out the parameters of their own efforts.
  • Some publishers are not interested in collaboration.
  • Some publishers fail to pay royalties.
  • Some will give you a worse book cover than what you started out with.
  • Some will edit the life and soul from your book.
  • Some publishers offer a marketing package but often, authors have found it is up to them to do most of the marketing, if not all.
  • Some publishers will take most of your royalties.
  • Some don’t even offer an advance but expect a lot of commitment from the author.
  • Good publishers are hard to find.

I am sure there are lots of authors who see that contract land on their doormat and go gaga, immediately sign it and send it back. I can entirely understand why a lot of authors would be so excited at this prospect, so excited in fact, that they don’t think about not signing because signing seems the answer. It’s every writer’s dream to see themselves on a bookshelf; for most it symbolises respect and official authorship (I don’t believe this at all – we’re authors as soon as we have readers).

HOWEVER!

Landing a deal with a publisher does not guarantee your book will end up on a bookshelf anywhere. The biggest high-street stores are picky as to what they put on their shelves and unless you’re EL James, Dan Brown or Sylvia Day, your book may appear in Asda for a week before it is replaced by the next bestsellers.

So, what does that mean? With all these uncertainties, I mean. So many words in exchange for such small fortune. It means, those of us who are already self-published, have a choice. TRY TO SEE PAST THE SHINY CONTRACT. We always have a choice, no matter what deal comes through the door. Those words are ours and we can decide what to do with them. You have a choice to give your words away and risk losing them altogether, perhaps with only a small chance of getting the rewards you deserve, or you can seek that right publisher for you. The right publisher might not offer you a load of royalties either, but they might offer a package that will nurture you. Some publishers are not interested in this. I don’t know why, but they’re not.

When I started out in self-publishing, I was honest with myself. I am also honest with most people I meet and sometimes, people bristle at this quality but if you walked in my shoes a minute, you’d see why I hate dishonesty, time wasting and hollow promises. So I saw self-publishing as a chance to grow my writing ability, to develop my social networks, to learn the ropes of publishing in general. I was surprised when some people who read my first book (written while I was breastfeeding!) wrote to me to say they had been kept up reading all night, so eager to reach the end! I genuinely love what I do, and anyone else who does, is a bonus. I never will take myself seriously. I know I am a talented writer but I don’t take myself seriously. What I do take seriously is freedom. Don’t get me wrong, it is all a terrific juggling act as I also squeeze in the editing projects that land in my inbox in between my own projects. When a job comes in, I have to down my writing tools and neglect my true love while I provide for other people. This is a fact of life I accept but another string to my bow i.e. editing has definitely broadened my skills. When I finish an editing project, I go back to my writing – and this for me, is freedom. To have that choice, is everything.

This is what I am getting at: if you sign that contract, some choices are taken away. That is what a contract is. In exchange for signing away your words, you might not even see any rewards for losing your right to choose. Self-publishing allows me a freedom of expression that few publishers will because they have to peel a book through all sorts of official processes.

The lesson I take away from getting that contract through the door is that the words in black and white always have more of an impact than words spoken aloud or read on a screen. The words offered to me didn’t match the words I’ve written. I believe so much in my words (Unbind, if anyone is wondering) that I won’t take any deal I am not happy with because Unbind is too important to me. Unfortunately my agent underestimated how much.

One day, some black and white words are going to change my life – and I will be ready for it. I will know when it is right to share myself. Until then, I’m not giving my words away – I’m sharing them and sharing the journey. Anything to hinder the sharing thereof, and I’m not onboard.

I was taught to never take your first offer, just wait for something better. My mum says I seem to have dropped lucky a lot in life because of my propensity to be uncompromising. Well, someone has to be. I’ll let you know if it pays off. Maybe one day soon, eh…

p.s. There is no such thing as vanity publishing anymore, it’s now just about doing it for yourself, and many are thriving without a “publisher”.

In conclusion, here are two articles I found very interesting:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michaellevin/are-there-5-reasons-to-st_b_5569189.html?utm_hp_ref=books&ir=Books&utm_content=buffercbec0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/paul-murphy/indie-writers-are-doing-it-for-themselves_b_6919906.html?fb_action_ids=10152621244792038&fb_action_types=og.comments

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch · 6 Comments

Words for Readers, Editors and Writers

Every year I write some sort of roundup of my experiences of the past year; my thoughts, feelings and new things learned. So here it is, 2014, in a nutshell… or three.

2014 has been spent mainly editing books, both mine and others’. I also read a lot for leisure but reading underpins everything and is as much a part of my job as everything else. Reading is a superpower. Writers who don’t read 10 times more than they write are really missing out. It is essential.

It’s interesting therefore that this year, I have read some badly edited books and still enjoyed them. Sometimes you just pick up a story and find something in it that rings true. Mistakes are an inevitability of life, not every book can be absolutely perfect. Sure you may begrudge paying a decent amount of money on something littered with mistakes, but there are a lot of books out there which are 99 cents or less and sometimes, you give them a shot based on recommendation from a reviewer. Often some of those books turn out to be gems.

A lot of people from all walks of life come to me with their words and say, “I’m an accountant, not a writer, please sort this out for me…” or whatever. I always tell people that words are words and if they are your voice, what could be wrong with them? After all everyone has a voice and a story to tell, so what if you don’t sound clever or literary? Every story is worthy. My granddad died an illiterate man but even now, my mum remembers stories he used to tell – so what does that say? If you don’t tell your stories, you might never tell them. Do it. Now. Don’t hesitate.

For every variant of writer, you’ll discover ten different readers who prefer your genre but sometimes cross genres for variety. It’s the variant in genre that usually attracts attention because it represents something new. There is room for everyone in the book world because variety is embraced and is becoming more embraced all the time!

Some readers love to have every detail of a scene described to them, from the colour of a sofa to the smell of the room. Other readers want everything left to their imagination except the dialogue and action. This is subjective and OPINION. It is all opinion. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone also has a mood. Sometimes you read a book and it doesn’t gel, perhaps just because you’re not in the right mood. Everyone else might be raving about it and you feel so bad because you can’t see it! Perhaps coming back to it at a later date will help.

There are even readers who cannot stand the writers they love in real life, but they just love the stories they write. Bizarre? It proves to me it’s not always about likeability or popularity. I always thought the whole point of being a writer anyway was that you didn’t want to be an actor or a model or any kind of public figure but you wanted to put out great stories, so you spent your time behind a keyboard rather than in front of a camera! That is what pseudonyms were invented for. Right? Hmm.

It is important to remember it is only FICTION.

More important is this: EASY READING IS DAMN HARD WRITING. Most readers read to escape. I am one of those. I love a book to wrap me up in its clutches and swaddle me until the final word. I want to have everything taken care of and not be forced to move while I immerse myself in someone else’s work. Which is strange, again, because the books I write aren’t always those kinds of books. Speaking to someone the other day who I know does a particularly stressful job, they said to me, “I don’t want to think when I read a story or see a movie… I want stupidity and nonsense to pervade my brain!” It made me smile, it was just another reminder… not everyone wants the same things from a book/film.

It’s strange also that even though I’m a writer, it’s not my most natural inclination. I was always better with numbers at school, like, much better. My daughter’s first report home from nursery school showed me she also has this early ability with numbers and her grasp of computers at three years old is crazy. So perhaps these skills of mine explain to some extent why I often write puzzles, why I see stories as equations, why the meat doesn’t go on the bones until I have the equation laid out! Seriously, don’t ever step inside my head, it’s really scary! Not everyone is going to get what I do, what I’m about, and that is one of the hardest things to accept as a writer and is yet your simplest and most powerful tool.

They say life is for learning and this year, I haven’t stopped learning—from my mistakes, from other people’s and more importantly, from the things we’ve all done right. The things we do right are the things that don’t teach us anything new but do teach us how to move forward. Moving forward is something we all need to do and separating from the babies we create in our books is hard, but must be done.

A lot of people think writers are mostly crazy people. They are. Most of us are. My social networks are clogged with angry, angry people who are angry, angry, angry about being unheard and unloved. As an editor, I’ve stepped on some shoes (gently) but in the end, my colleagues looked at the end product and knew I was right to tell them how it was. The process always begins and ends with the author. We’re the ones with our names to that work and that is a difficult thing to comprehend. Writers have to be self-editors (without hacking the heart away), conjurors, adventurers, believers, faithful followers, dreamers… the list is inexhaustible. The buck stops with you. So if you don’t agree with an editor, shout up, say why. Compromise if you have to. Tell them no if you feel passionate enough. Argue for what you believe in. Sod them. There are always people around to support, but at the end of the day that book is yours and represents you. Another great tool to have is to be able to take a step back, view your work as a “work” and not a love affair you’ve dreamt up. It is being able to look at it and recognise that other people don’t have a plug into your mind and they need to be able to see all you can see and more. Above all else, listen to your gut. Writing isn’t a science, it’s pretty much a game of contradictions and explosions of mind, but the gut knows. Oh, it knows…!

One thing this year taught me is that writers who write for themselves will never learn but those who write for others’ enjoyment and delight, well, the possibilities are there for the taking and with the right attitude, the future might just hold endless stories…

Happy new year! Always another chance, always…

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

Contemporary romance #FREE to download – excerpt

angel avenue

**CLICK COVER TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE!**

EXCERPT:

When I wake and realise it was a cruel dream, I ache inside. I find I am drooling on his chest and I retract my hold on him immediately. It’s early but I roll away and let myself out of bed. I look back on him and see he’s still fast asleep so I leave him there and head to the bathroom, where I look in the mirror and see my cheeks are crimson.

I douse my face in cold water but nothing is helping to rid myself of this heat all over my body. Instead, I walk to the kitchen and down a tumbler full of cold water. I still feel as hot as hell. When I walk by the bed and see his chest uncovered by the duvet, I stare at what is before me. Yes, I admit, he’s a man I want and I want him more than anything else in the entire world. He makes me feel safer than I have ever felt before in my entire life.

Phew. Getting that out there with myself is a relief.

When he rolls over and pulls the blanket up around himself, I watch the expressions he makes in his sleep. His nose twitches and he grunts. A smile falls across my lips and I don’t feel too bad then. It’s just the same old Warrick, growling and snoring. One of my secret behaviours these days is to smell his pillow when he’s not here.

I sit at my desk and do the only thing that will occupy my mind ‒ marking. I congratulate myself that if I do it now, I shall have the rest of the day to relax.

When I get bored after the first batch are done, I get up and head to the kitchen to brew a pot of tea. I fill two cups and put one by his bedside.

He hears the stamp of the mug and his eyes twitch open.

“Tea for you.”

I turn and sit at my desk and place my own cup down. I try to keep working but the mirror of my desk/dressing table is reflecting his image. He sits up and stares.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just marking. Is that a crime?”

“You seem odd.”

“All normal then.”

I hear him take a big sip and he puts the cup back down and rolls over to stretch, but the duvet shifts with him. In the mirror I see the whole length of the back of his body, on show.

He’s tight. No hair where there shouldn’t be any. Muscles in his shoulders and arse, thighs and arms. I am falling for him and his body is an added bonus. Christ! If only I can get my act together and stop being a cock tease.

Next thing I know, he leaps up to dash to the loo and I watch his body as he walks. My eyes peel wide open.

He returns and openly sups from his mug, standing there in only his boxers still. I fight every impulse to look and I end up just randomly ticking every page of the books I am marking!

“I have a thing today.”

“What thing?”

“My voluntary work. You know, the thing I dragged you to that time.”

“Ah, rule me out then.”

“I promised Joe I would drop in for Sunday lunch too. I do that about once a month.”

“Fine.”

I don’t know why he’s fishing for my approval. He pulls on his jeans and a vest he must have been wearing beneath the mustard jumper yesterday.

“I’ll just go then?” he huffs.

I turn in my chair to face him, and bite my pen.

“What’s wrong?”

He shakes his wild hair out and his eyes look manic.

“Guess I just feel a bit like I am getting the brush-off here.”

“Look, I woke early. I often do if I have had an early night.”

He hops on his feet and I stare him out, refusing to get as irate as him.

“Stay. Make yourself breakfast. Watch telly. This is just my life, you know. I mark all the time.”

He sits on the edge of the bed and drinks the rest of the tea.

“Have you had breakfast yet?”

“No,” I murmur, making random ticks still.

“What do you want then?”

“There’s eggs. I like mine poached.”

“More tea?”

“Yep.” I hand him my now empty mug.

He calls me for breakfast soon later and we eat at the tiny table, which he has laid properly and garnished with a flower from my bouquet of carnations in the kitchen.

I seat myself, though still in my nightdress and robe. I chomp through the food in my usual fashion and I see him watching me. He wants to know whether he outdid my day with Laurie.

I am not going to tell him that he most certainly did, nor in being here for breakfast and doing it all himself, he’s winning by miles.

“I have a favour to ask.”

“Yeah?” he cheers.

“We go on a half-term dash to Bruges every autumn, me and the girls. Betsy and Ruby. They’ve pulled out this year because, well, they hate me now I have implemented all the changes that Dickhead Jack imposed on us.”

“That’s sad,” he remarks.

“Ah, it doesn’t matter. I don’t work there to be liked. Look, anyway, I booked mine and can’t get a refund. My cabin was booked, you know, ages ago. It was a two for one thing, so if you want to come, you’ll go free but it’ll be with me, in a tiny cabin, for two whole nights. Otherwise I will be going alone. I mean, I don’t mind,” I swing my fork around, looking anywhere, “but I thought, well, you seem stressed from work and it would be free… for you. Seems a waste.”

“When?”

“Friday next week? Sails late afternoon.”

He chomps down on some egg and toast and consults with his memory.

“I will have to do some begging but I don’t see why not. Just means I might have to work overtime in the evenings next week.”

“Oh, don’t put yourself out. It’s not essential.”

I toss off my disappointment.

“I’ll come,” he smiles.

“You will?”

“Course,” he replies.

He stands and collects the plates. I hear him washing up while I finish my marking.

When he comes back into the bedroom, he’s dressed and ready to leave. A hand drops on my shoulder and he kisses my cheek.

“I’ll text.”

I grab his hand and halt him, “Thank you, for yesterday.”

I know I am blushing. I hate myself.

He smiles and the next thing I know, he’s out of the door and then the building. I miss him already. I’m falling heart-screamingly in love with him. That dream is going to be the undoing of me!

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

One year ago I published a book that I enjoyed writing from start to finish. In fact I absolutely loved writing this book! Sometimes in the writing and editing of some books, you go through tough times, but it wasn’t the case with ANGEL AVENUE. As Jules was falling in love with Warrick, I was too. I TRULY loved writing this book. It may seem vain or indulgent but even now, I can still turn to any page in that book and get drawn in. I ♥ it!!

angel avenueIt just so happens… you can download this contemporary romance for #FREE right now!!

When you write a book, you can only hope people get what you’re trying to convey. Some things went unsaid in Angel Avenue and that is because the story wasn’t about blowing thoughts and feelings out of proportion. It was about real people, real issues, and I didn’t paint a pretty picture of something which happens and destroys lives. It’s about reading between the lines and spotting when someone is suffering…

A year ago, I wrote an extended epilogue. I didn’t include it. Why? Because I wanted people to make their own minds up about what happens next for Jules and Warrick. So many times I considered releasing this long epilogue but even recently, when I read it, I knew it didn’t belong in the book. It’s up to you to decide what happens next and why Jules needed to spend time doing her thing for a while. A book doesn’t always have to be picture perfect, sometimes it can be honest.

This is a book to read if you’ve ever had something unexpected happen to you which derailed your life, derailed you. Basically, Jules forgot who she was because past influences snuck into the present. It really happens.

angel avenue1

Go forth and download: it’s the perfect holiday read; it makes you remember that what you have in life, particularly the simple things, are really so very great!

Happy Christmas!

Sarah x x

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

Reaching 100,000 Words and Knowing…

…you now have another novel. That recently happened for me. It’s a point where you feel achievement, also a point where you know there’s much more work to do!

Often the story of creation is a story in itself, one you feel loathe to tell, but might be just as important as the work you’re creating.

A lot of my books centre on psychology and it’s something I have always been fascinated by. The human mind and its strengths, weaknesses and possibilities are why we write after all. I’ve found with my recent books, 100K is around about the stage I find myself with a first draft. In the first draft I’ve told myself the story, and now instead of telling it, I need to build upon what I’ve already established and embellish the events that make sense of the mystery. It is time to slow it down and explode the smells, sights, feelings, thoughts and dialogue… et al. So in other words, I need to ensure the reader can see exactly what I see.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????When I was writing UNBIND, the prequel to the novel I’m currently writing, I didn’t want to put a label on the complex psychology of one person in that novel. I still don’t. We all know mental illness is a complex thing, a grey area, and I consciously created a character you can’t put into one box or another. Going forward into the sequel, I had a job on my hands to keep away from that box and still not put this particular person into one category or another.

So when you’ve written about difficult topics in the past (i.e. issues of the mind), you feel like you have to find different ways of exploring those avenues…

I probably would have made myself ill in trying to keep UNBIND at just the one book. I know that sounds freaking crazy!! There was too much story and what I took out of UNBIND, I did purposely, so I could write a whole other story in UNFURL. No way is the sequel a retelling of the first book or a rehash. It’s not the same book, it’s got its own plot, yet some bits elevate and expand upon UNBIND. As an author, it is the hardest thing to know your characters and to try to write their stories without ruining the suspense.

UNFURL came to me so thick and fast and when I read it through last week, I felt the arrangement set into place inside my mind and I knew after that… I knew what I had left to do.

Yet still, the mysterious character I’ve alluded to in this blog is more than just a victim. She’s so much more. She’s an enigma, a mystery that will never be solved. She’s an artist and what I hope I am doing with UNFURL is showing how and why we use art. Why, even, we need art, and what it evokes in our souls.

Cai, our hero, is a dual artist – a photographer and a painter. He has the same gifts his mother mastered – and more. The purpose of Cai’s point of view in UNFURL is to explore that struggle we share, as artists, during the process of creation. A pain that is necessary to produce something that actually speaks to other people.

Instead of focusing on the label, then, I tried to focus on the confusion and mindset of a person who refuses to be misunderstood or even, understood. There isn’t even a middle ground. There is an unrealistic place where things make sense and another place, a worldly place, where nothing makes sense. Basically, there’s an artist who had her talent ripped from her… and her ability to create was tainted. Imagine if you’re born to create, and you just can’t. The reasons are hard to bear, but must be.

I wrote about life as art in another blog and I’m trying to follow through on that with UNFURL, a book that doesn’t play by the rules but when knotted to UNBIND, side by side, makes sense and yet, whether an injustice can be ever be truly resolved, we may never know…

As a writer, you know, anything can happen during the editing process. It’s a miraculous, thing, editing. Maybe like Rorschach in Watchmen, whose mood changes constantly, whose mask expresses him better than his own face, a writer can keep trying to paint the truth but only the reader can give the book its truth. So like an artist trying to paint a picture, I’m trying to use the tools (words) at my fingertips to explain what creation feels like, to explain why creatives need creation and what could happen if someone born to create had that ability tragically stolen from them.

Perhaps that’s why a novel is a novel and why sometimes, you can write all those words, only for one truth to come out of all of it.

It’s a work in progress… for sure!

(Hopefully this was an annoyingly spoiler-free preview)!

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch · 2 Comments

#NaNoWriMo – THE VERDICT!

I’ve been writing fiction for three years now and this is the first time I attempted November Writing Month. I admit I have been doing this unofficially because I have a couple of projects on the go and it was a test to myself to see what I could do when really pushed. Could I write 50,000 words in one month? That was the test.

Well, I have written at least 60,000 words this month… I’ll explain…

I am currently quite deep into my ninth novel, Unfurl, which is the sequel to Unbind. Unfurl had its claws in me before November 1st dawned so my first aim with November Writing Month was to see how many words I could add to the novel in one month. Well, I added around 39,000 words to that book.

At around 39,000 words I knew in myself I was burnt out. I knew I had reached a certain barrier and there was no going beyond that. Unfurl is a planned 120,000-word novel and yet when I reached 89,000 words… I knew that was it for me, for the time being. I am a writer who listens to my gut and my gut was telling me that if I continued on, I would be writing a load of air. The thing is, the novel in question is a slap-bang-wallop thriller and when you’re writing this kind of book, it is mind taxing on every page. Every sentence. The only other book I’ve written that was like this i.e. slap-bang-wallop… was Beneath the Veil, now The Radical. Unfurl will be the type of book where you simply cannot put it down… you simply have to know what evil lurks beneath the pages. It is an evil I was reluctant to explore in the first book, Unbind, but I have someone to do justice and their will is bidding me to tell their story.

So I gave up at 39,000 words and moved onto something else. I wrote a little vampirism (an Xmas novella) and because that was already pre-planned in my head and a lot less complex than Unfurl, it was easy to churn out and actually a great relief after the aforementioned block of stuff I had given to Unfurl. 60K words to two separate projects was being kinder to myself than forcing 50K words into a novel I knew I needed a break from. As a seasoned writer, you know your own strengths and limitations and gradually, you work out what works for you and what doesn’t. Be kind to yourself, sometimes, something just isn’t meant to be.

Writing, writing, writing… with just a wing and a prayer… is not a bad method. Sometimes writing freefall as I sometimes term it, or by the seat of your pants, can help spring an idea you never would have thought of. Writing with no onus other than to get the words out has its benefits, but also its drawbacks too. I know from those 39K I added to Unfurl, I will be scrapping around 10-15K or re-writing a hefty chunk of it. I have now had a period of reflection; I’ve given the editing side of my brain enough chance to absorb and consider – reflection is invaluable when creating a novel. If you have a period of reflection during which no regrets and no doubts emerge, then you know that work is done. If however you realise it all adds up but not as perfectly as you would like, you know you have more work to do.

I suppose what I am surmising here is that NaNoWriMo is good but only for experimentation purposes. Even a seasoned writer such as myself was tested to meet that 1,600+ words a day quota required to complete the task. Though what I often ended up doing was writing 500 words most days and on good days, when an idea was straining to get out, I might have written a healthy or indulgent 8,000. I am a mood writer, like some people are mood readers, and sometimes I have to wait all day to be able to get my precious writing time in. After working and looking after my husband and daughter, the idea has to be good for me to want to write, otherwise I am too tired to struggle with something that I am not quite feeling.

Word count is irrelevant, however. I firmly believe that. A story will be told in how ever few or many words it needs to be told in. I advise writers who take part in NaNoWriMo to step into the experience with the knowledge that what they write in one month is very likely to need plenty of work afterwards. You might even *shock horror* just want to put it in the bin. Yet the experience might have been worth it for exactly that – the experience. I also advise that if you don’t finish NaNoWriMo, it isn’t because you’re not good enough to be a novelist, it’s just that the story you were writing at the time wasn’t meant to be written so quickly or in so many words, or so few in my case. As I said, Unfurl will be around 120K when complete. If not a little less, maybe a little more! It will have as many words as it needs. I have said things in the past that my future self has disproved, so you know…

I can honestly say, I found the NaNoWriMo experience helpful but I won’t pressure myself to take part in this again. Especially when half the battle of being a writer is connecting to your readers and having enough time away from the laptop to actually generate the content and ideas that make your novel what it is… i.e. an enjoyable reading experience which doesn’t give away the fact that the writer rushed, struggled or compromised themselves during. Readers can tell, they can always tell.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

Writing for Men and Women

When I started out writing, well writing fiction anyway, it was because I had an idea that simply wouldn’t desist. I had to get this idea out of my mind and that was it. As soon as I began writing it out, it began spooling. I began to become an author.

I never did it intentionally, but I realised quite early on that my books appeal to both men and women. Which is funny. I never sat down and said to myself, “This will be for both sexes.” What I wrote just ended up that way. I suppose I was a little influenced by the saying, ‘Write for someone, if not yourself, someone else.’ So I always wrote stories both me and my husband would get a kick out of. Which in itself is bizarre because my husband’s preferences are different to mine. He loves horror and classical music, I love pop and action movies. He can watch Citizen Kane on repeat, whereas I can happily watch a boxed set of Homeland or Bourne!

I do actually feel sorry for blokes though, you know. Perhaps a smidgen. Well, a puny smidgen. It’s fairly accepted in the erotic community that even most male erotic authors are not alphas who want to thrash you to Kingdom Come, ahem. If that is your definition of alpha, anyway. My definition of a real-life alpha is much different to most novels out there…!

Well. The reason women write male characters so strong and so mixed up and so, I don’t know, kinky… is just because… and I don’t want to quote Bill Clinton but… “because we can”. Yet at the same time, me… the erotic author as guilty as most… I still feel a tiny, little responsibility to give guys a little break.

cropped-a-fine-profession-website-use.jpgMy husband reads all my stuff. One friend of ours bravely voiced his concern when I first started writing erotica, notably A Fine Profession, and asked my husband if he was okay with it all. I believe said friend made a joke of throbbing and clenching or something!! He was the one snickering embarrassedly, neither of us were! I am not the easily offended sort so I took it all in good stead. Andrew, too, just laughed it off because he is able to distinguish me from the writing, because he knows me so well. He is my best friend and there is literally nothing we don’t talk about. I won’t explain why A Fine Pursuit is still my husband’s favourite novel, suffice it to say that novel went beyond the fantasy and delved into the plight of the man just looking for love, not knowing how to combine his fantasies with a real relationship—without compromising other more delicate matters of the heart.

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As it happens, when I began writing A Fine Profession, I thought it was important to show that being sexualised is not inherent, it is learned. There are readers/writers out there for whom erotica will never, ever be their thing. You either veer toward sexual exploration, or you veer away. It’s a tricky path and one which Lottie herself finds herself jumping on and off between the books she features in.

When I first told people I was writing novels, pretty much all the male colleagues I had approached me, wanting to know where they could get it and what it was about. I wouldn’t say I am a tomboy but I have never and will never be a girly girl! It’s surprising because my daughter is a girly girl and she wants to do dress-up and stuff all the time, so she’s forcing me to do things my own mother could never get me into! I’ve also never been the *giggles* with a red face type either. We weren’t born on a nudist camp… but my three siblings and me never felt like we couldn’t talk about certain issues with our parents and each other! We’re all a pretty outspoken lot actually. Anyway my filthy, foul-mouthed nature and interest in the gritty stuff is certainly why boys want to know a little bit about what I write because they predict it won’t be all, “My god, I am pooling irresistibly in hidden places and my lady garden is dribbling and moist and I’ve never seen a willy before.” – – SIDE NOTE: Actually, god I wish I had wrote that sentence and published it, that’s ace! :-p

Hmm. Perhaps I should write books just for women or just for men or whatever, you know, but I am glad I write books that both men and women can enjoy. Certainly, some grown men have cried over my books and I love that. Anyway, I might just finish this zany blog with a little something-something. Boys… don’t feel bad when your girl is reading about the man with the massive shhhh-long and the perfect pecs and abs and all those other Bad Boy criteria… just take advantage of the fact a few words have got her all worked up for you, the real man in the bedroom! Because more and more each day, I am getting emails along the lines, “My husband says thanks!” OR “We got pregnant!”

Perhaps it is what comes next after the romance that we really need to write about, hey??

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????To finish this most bodacious blog, I want to leave you with this latest review of A Fine Pursuit (EROTICA FROM A COMPLETELY MALE PERSPECTIVE) – this was kindly done by Books and Beyond Fifty Shades… they gave A Fine Pursuit FIVE STARS!! Plus, this book is currently on sale at 99 cents in the AMAZON US Kindle store and can be read as a standalone if you wish:

We learned of Lottie’s life in A Fine Profession. Now we get to explore Noah’s mind in A Fine Pursuit. We get inside his head to see where he was coming from and his feelings on everything. Noah knows he has to come to terms with things from his past that he would rather leave buried. However, in order to get his love back, he must get to the heart of the matter. He has deep rooted issues and insecurities that make it extremely difficult for him to give himself completely.

He begins to see a therapist that is helping him figure out where all his deep feelings start and how to get over his past in order to have the future he so desperately desires. Noah and Lottie have an explosive connection. But is that all there is or is it truly something so much more deep and real. They learn that their overwhelming chemistry isn’t always enough to keep them connected forever.

I liked this book even more than A Fine Profession and I think that is because of getting the book from Noah’s POV. There were so many times that my heart broke for him and Lottie would push him away so that he could be able to figure things out. Which is what they needed since their sexual chemistry was off the charts. They needed that time apart to be able to sort everything out.

There were many times I wanted to strangle Lottie for the way she pushed him away and treated him. She would constantly throw leaving him in his face and I hated that for him. He loves her so deeply and his heart would break each time. Nevertheless, in the end she had her reasons for the way she acted and pushed. Will their love be able to survive both their pasts and the hurts that they both caused each other? One-click this book now to find out. You will not be disappointed. This was a wonderful sequel to A Fine Profession.

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

FIVE STAR #romantic #thriller… #FREE DOWNLOAD

freeWe should chase away from what we’re scared of, right? Run as fast as we can. Yet some of us seem to veer toward chaos and destruction…

Chloe sees anguish and despair lurking beneath the surface of Cai Matthews, the dark and dangerously handsome freelance photographer she meets on her first day in a new job. She can’t see straight in his presence—blinded by a blistering sexual attraction that has the potential to sweep her clean off her feet.

When Cai disappears from the workplace and doesn’t come back, Chloe tries to find out more about his life but all she knows is he’s set to inherit a ton of money and his aunt runs one of the most famous fashion magazines in the world.

Cai is running from a complicated past he doesn’t like talking about. Gossip columns rage with speculation concerning him and his aunt, who took guardianship of Cai after his parents died.

Conscientious journalist Chloe has a mind for details and once she gains access to his world, Cai realises she could undo every, single dirty little secret that he and his aunt have tried desperately to cover up.

Please check out the reviews and see what you think! http://mybook.to/unbind

Don’t forget I still have a paperback giveaway up and running over here.

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Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

Rafflecopter Giveaway and Other Stuff

To win a signed copy of A FINE PROFESSION (I will personalise it and everything, albeit with words alone…) please go on over to my FB page and enter here. Even if you don’t use FB, you can still take part as long as you have an email address.

In other news, I have just finished FABIEN, a paranormal erotic novella especially for Christmas. AfterDark Online have very kindly agreed to promote this latest work. To sign up for the blog tour, fill in this form… https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Mmlm7uCX3G3U_QvVkGRuIEh1_mYyhjrnza-ZZGvDR7E/viewform Review copies and all sorts will soon become available.

Fabien is outrageously filthy and it is has been suprising what my first venture into the paranormal has produced… cover coming soon!!!!

Don’t forget to keep up with everything as it happens, follow me on FB or Twitter!!

http://facebook.com/SarahMLynch

http://twitter.com/SarahMichelleLy

Posted on by sarahmichellelynch

Unofficial #NaNoWriMo Blog #5

So far this month I’ve managed to add 37,000 words to the pot! Woo-Hoo! How many of those are good do we think? I personally think a great portion! I am not sure if my future self will agree, but you know…!

I had to have a no-writing day today because I had edits to do and needed that break from it all. However, no-writing days are great for the mind to scour over all those ideas you’ve poured on a page – and to redesign that fictional landscape in a way that will flow and actually make sense! Seeing as though I’m writing a sequel, I will soon need to go back and re-read Book One to match sure everything matches up!

In other news, I have a special Christmas novella coming soon…! Details to follow!

And oh yes, I just bagged myself an agent, who is willing and brave enough to represent me! I know! Someone wants to represent my work! It’s amazing!

Peace out!

Still 99 cents….

99 cents