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Tuesday, June 27, 2017

FAVORITES, FAILURES & FRUSTRATIONS--GUEST AUTHOR BEVERLEY BATEMAN

Murder, mystery and romance fill award-winning Canadian author Beverley Bateman's life. She writes contemporary romantic suspense and medical thrillers and loves to plot, kill and hopefully baffle her readers along the way. Learn more about her and her books at her website and blog.

Failures and frustrations, I’m sure we’ve all had our share of them throughout our life. You learn by your failures, people have always said. And I agree with them. It’s better to try and fail, than not try at all. I’ve tried many things, failed and learned a lot. Writing is one of them.

I’ve always written, notes on plots, locked room mysteries, seen something while traveling and figured out a plot on what might have happened there. But I never did anything with it except get frustrated because I didn’t have time to write and didn’t know where to start to write an entire book.

When I finally took the leap, I didn’t tell people. I was afraid I’d fail. And I did. My first book is hidden away. I did like the plot, but the writing... I pitched it at a small conference. It was a failure, but I learned a lot there. Show, don’t tell; develop your voice and develop your characters. There were a few other things, too. I felt like a failure. I’d never get a book published. But I couldn’t stop writing. I wrote another book and entered it in a contest. I got mostly 3’s but I also got a 1 and a comment that said I should consider not writing anything else. That was a huge failure. I didn’t even pay attention to the other scores, which did have some nice things to say.

Once I recovered from that contest I went back to writing, and at another conference found a publisher who liked my books and published them. I kept writing and learning. Some people like my books, some don’t. And if I can get constructive criticism I’m thrilled.

I just released By Design. It’s a medical thriller about designer cloning. Cloning is presently being done in many countries, and yes, there is legislation that sets guidelines. But what if someone managed to stay off the grid and find ways to use cloning for personal use to make money? The idea intrigued me.

When I told anyone, including editors and agents, they said cloning wasn’t popular anymore. It was outdated. It’s been replaced by terrorism. No one would be interested in it. It would be another failure. I listened and researched and plotted. Then I put the book away. It would fail. But I kept coming back to it and decided to write it anyway. I hoped I could suspend readers’ disbelief and they would enjoy the story.

Everyone said – give it up. It won’t work in today’s society. Half the people probably haven’t even heard of cloning. It can only fail. It was frustrating because it’s a book I wanted published. So I published it. It’s possible it will fail, but hopefully people will enjoy the story. If not, I learned new things along the way. And now it’s on to a new book and its frustrations.

By Design
Nurse Evie Dalton succumbs to greed and a chance to work with sexy Dr. Adam Marsden. She accepts a position at an isolated hospital. There’s an onsite animal farm, screams in the night, mysterious limos come and go, and people disappear and turn up dead. There’s no way to leave and no communication outside the town. The more questions Evie asks, the more she’s pulled into a designer cloning operation with less chance of escaping alive.

Dr. Adam Marsden left his past behind. Now he has it all; a great job, money, and a chance to buy his own hospital. He brings his own patients out to the isolated hospital and for surgery, part of which they are unaware. He prefers to ignore what actually happens at the hospital and focuses on his personal goal - until Evie Dalton arrives.

Now he must choose between his goal, Evie’s life and possibly his own. And hired killers have shown up at the hospital. Can he find an escape and save the woman he realizes he loves?

3 comments:

darkwriter said...

Thank you, Lois, for having me as your guest.

Melissa Keir said...

It's always hard to put yourself out there and take a chance on something. Writing is like that because everyone thinks they can do it and that it's easy. :) Glad you kept at it!

darkwriter said...

Thanks, Melissa. You're right. How many times have you heard someone say, I think I'll write a book?