YA Author Barbara Ehrentreu on Writing About Your Own Life, Giveaway

Hello and welcome to the J.Q. Rose blog. 

My collection of pens and writing instruments, but I use a keyboard!!

My friend and YA author, Barbara Ehrentreu, stops by today to talk about writing about your own life. She has also brought along a copy of her newest release, After, to give to a lucky commenter.

I loved this story written for the YA audience, and I think it will resonate with many of you. In After, Barbara portrays a real family with an emotional situation that many of us have experienced. 

Thanks, Barbara for coming in today. We're looking forward to your visit.

Writing About Your Own Life by Barbara Ehrentreu

Many writers think that they have nothing to write about. So they will use a topic that interests them and sometimes this works, especially if what you are writing is non-fiction. But with fiction when you are not invested in a subject it shows. How can you make your writing become part of you without taking away the emotion?

It would seem easy to do if you pick a subject in your life that has either caused you great joy or great pain. However, unfortunately, when you write about events that have affected you emotionally sometimes you can’t show that emotion to other people. I have used a great deal of my life in my second novel, After. But when I was revising this book, with the old title of When My Life Changed, several scenes that I thought would have emotional impact did not convey that emotion at all. I was surprised, because when I was writing the scene I felt all the emotions that had been there during the actual experience. You would think that the emotion would be there in the writing. Funny, though, these scenes had to be rewritten several times until what I had been feeling could be read by other readers. Writing scenes with emotional impact from your own life requires you to step back and observe them as if you were watching yourself during that time. Only when you write with an objective eye can you really show your readers the emotion you felt. 

Getting into the head of your character also helps, because you are actually reliving the scene through their eyes. Many of the scenes in After had to be rewritten in this way, because my critique partners felt there was no emotion. So I developed the ability to walk in my character’s shoes through my own life. This isn’t easy and it can only be done if you are very distanced from the event that caused such emotion. So writing about my own experiences during my husband’s heart attack and his subsequent bypass surgery made me understand my own emotions. Then I was able to see them through Lauren’s eyes as a fifteen year old girl and finally bring the emotion that one reviewer has said made her “sniffle.” 

Deciding about what to use from your own life can be difficult since you are using people who might read the book who are your relatives or friends. So, especially with this book, After, I made sure that my relatives knew that they were in there, though I did change their names. In my first book, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor, my inspiration was my daughter, who was sort of the basis for the main character and also some of Jennifer Taylor. In that case I needed her permission to use her and of course, she said yes. It can be tricky, especially if you are not showing the characters in a good light. But in my case I only used them in a few scenes to move the story along and they were actually honored to be in the book. 

In my own case I started After during NaNoWriMo and didn’t finish it, because I was visiting my husband every day and his condition got a little worse. So I wasn’t thinking about my writing at that time. But a few years later I picked it up again and decided to rewrite it. This book has gone through many rewrites mainly to get the emotional impact right. Since it is about my own husband, who passed away in May of this year, and I was in the middle of editing it at the time, the editing was very difficult for me. However, as I kept working on it I was able to distance myself from this experience. Also having written it made me realize how it helped me to go back over those events and in some ways it was a way to help myself during that time. 

Finally, I hope you will decide to read After, because anyone who has dealt with someone in the hospital no matter your age has gone through what Lauren experiences here. Plus, and I don’t want to give away anything, but there is a beautiful love story here and of course a mean girl.

It shows how despite a life changing experience, someone can be helped by it and go on to succeed in her life. 

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After, YA Romance

After is a story about the struggles Lauren Walstein, a fifteen-year-old girl, has to go through when her father suddenly has a heart attack and undergoes bypass surgery. In one phone call her life changes completely. Lauren is a character with whom most teens will relate. Her best friend since kindergarten, Joey, is going out with her enemy and they have grown apart. Before the phone call all she thought about was getting a scholarship for softball, and the Mets. Suddenly she must deal with both her father’s illness and being in school. The demands on her from both ends complicate the story. In the middle of all this, she finds she is developing feelings for her best friend that are more than friendly. Is he feeling the same or is he just comforting her? In addition there is Joey’s mean girl friend Amber, who doesn’t appreciate Lauren being in the picture. Will Lauren’s father recover? How will Lauren cope with her new feelings for Joey?

Buy Links for After - MuseItUp Publishing,  Amazon, Nook

About Barbara:

Barbara Ehrentreu grew up in Brooklyn and moved to Queens. She has lived and taught in Long Island, Buffalo, NY and Westchester, NY as well as a year in Los Angeles, CA. She has a Masters Degree in Reading and Writing. Currently she is retired from

YA author, Barbara Ehrentreu

teaching and living in Stamford, CT with her family. If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor won second prize in Preditors & Editors as Best Young Adult Book for 2011. It was inspired by Paula Danziger for her children's writing workshop at Manhattanville College. Her second book, After, considers what can happen to a teen when her father becomes ill with a heart attack. It is based on her own experiences when her husband had a heart attack and the aftermath of what she and her family experienced. She is preparing the sequel to If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor. Barbara also writes poetry and several of her poems are published in the anthologies, Prompted: An International Collection of Poetry, Beyond the Dark Room, Storm Cycle and Backlit Barbell. She has a blog, Barbara's Meanderings, and she hosts a radio show on Blog Talk Radio, Red River Radio Tales from the Pages once a month.

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Don't forget to leave a comment to enter the drawing. Winner will be chosen after 9 pm on Tuesday evening.

This Week:

Wednesday, Feb. 4--Insecure Writers Support Group blog hop.

Thursday, Feb 5-- Romance and Mystery Authors on Writing series features Heather Haven with writing tips on "Getting One's Novel Out There."  You're invited to join the discussion and enter the drawing for a free ebook of Book Four of the Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries, Dead...If Only.

Recipe: Heather Haven Shares Uncle Tio's Flan de Naranja

Welcome to Heather Haven, author of the Alvarez Family Mystery Series. Her protagonist, Lee Alvarez, shares Uncle Tio's authentic recipe with us. Heather is generously offering a PDF copy of A Wedding to Die For, an EPIC finalist for best mystery of the year 2012. However, she would like it to be a reward for the 'most mysterious' comment. Please leave your comments below, then copy this recipe for your files.

Recipe from a PI: Tio’s Flan de Naranja

Lee Alvarez, protagonist of the Alvarez Family Murder Mystery Series by Heather Haven, shares one of her uncle’s recipes.

I don’t mean to brag, but as the central character of the humorous Alvarez Family Murder Mystery Series, I get to eat a lot of terrific food. That’s because my Tio is the retired head chef of the world famous Las Mananita’s Restaurant in San Jose, California. During his illustrious career, his recipes were often written up in gourmet food magazines. They’d throw in a few pics, too, because Tio is one classy-looking uncle. I have all the articles and pictures in a scrapbook I started in my early teens. That was before my PI days. I don’t have time to make scrapbooks anymore – I don’t have time to do squat anymore– but I always seem to find time to sit down at the dinner table and scarf down one of his culinary masterpieces!

Tío’s desserts undo me. While he’s creating a recipe, he makes it again and again until it reaches his idea of perfection. Meanwhile, lucky me gets to gobble up every version, as he strives for the ultimate. When Tio was working on his homemade mango and red plum ice cream garnished with fresh spearmint leaves, I must have gained six pounds. Fortunately, I spend a lot of time chasing bad guys over Bay Area rooftops, so I tend to lose the weight as fast as I gain it. I’ll tell you, though; my favorite is his Flan de Naranja. No lie, his flan has gone down in song and legend. Tio even picks the oranges himself from our backyard. Olé!

Tio’s Flan de Naranja

Serves 4-6:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Ingredients:

5 egg yolks

1 cup white sugar

3 cups heavy cream

1 cup half-and-half cream

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1 orange peel

1/2 fluid ounce orange liqueur

2 ounces candied orange peel, grated

Preparation:

In a medium bowl, beat eggs and yolk. Beat in sugar until smooth. Set aside.  In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine cream, half-and-half, the vanilla bean and its scrapings, and the peel of one orange. Heat until bubbles form at edges of liquid, reduce heat to low and simmer 15 minutes. Remove orange peel. Beat hot cream into egg mixture, a little at a time, until all is incorporated. Stir in orange liqueur. Pour into 4 to 6 individual custard cups.

Line a roasting pan with a damp kitchen towel. Place cups on towel, inside roasting pan, and place roasting pan on oven rack. Fill roasting pan with boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the cups.

Bake in preheated oven 45 to 60 minutes, until set. Let cool completely.  Sprinkle candied orange peel on top of each cup before serving. Yum!

About the author

Heather is a story teller by nature and loves the written word.  In her career, she’s written short stories, novels, comedy acts, plays, television treatments, ad copy, commercials, and even ghost-wrote a book.

One of her first jobs as a writer was given to her by her then agent. It was that of writing a love story for a book published by Bantam called Moments of Love. She had a deadline of one week and then promptly came down with the flu. She wrote “The Sands of Time” with a temperature of 102 and delivered some pretty hot stuff because of it. Later on, she wrote short comedy skits for nightclub acts and ad copy for such places as No Soap Radio, where her love for comedy blossomed. Many of her short stories have been seen in various publications, as well as 2 one-act plays produced in Manhattan, one at the well-known, Playwrights Horizons.

Her novels, Murder is a Family Business and A Wedding to Die For, are the first two books of the Alvarez Family Murder Mystery series. The third in the series, Death Runs in the Family, debuts May 2012. The series is published by MuseItUp Publishing in ebook and print form and can be found at MuseItUp, Amazon, Barnes and Nobel and many Bay Area bookstores. Heather says the series is a joy to write. She gets to be all the characters, including the cat!

You can visit Heather online at www.heatherhavenstories.com and her blog at http://heatherhavensays.blogspot.com/.

The Alvarez Family

Murder Mystery Series

by

Heather Haven

Welcome to the Family! And when the Alvarez clan is not is not solving murders, they run Discretionary Inquiries, a successful Silicon Valley agency that normally deals with the theft of intellectual property and computer software.

Murder is a Family Business, A Wedding to Die For, and the soon to be released Death Runs in the Family are part of the humorous mystery series revolving around Lee Alvarez, a combination of Sue Graftonʼs Kinsey Millhone and Janet Evanovitchʼ Stephanie Plum. Completing the Alvarez Family is Leeʼs Never-Had-A-Bad-Hair-Day aristocratic mother, Lila; computer genius brother, Richard; beloved uncle “Tio;” and her energetic orange and white cat, Tugger. These whodunit novels explore familial love -- the good, the bad and the annoying.

 “Heather Haven makes a stellar debut in Murder is a Family Business. Highly recommended.” Sheldon Siegel. New York Times Best Selling Author of Perfect Alibi.

“Heather Haven has done it again with the second in the Alvarez series [A Wedding to Die For]. Just when I thought she couldn't best herself, she did.” Ginger Simpson, Dishin’ It Out with Ginger

Heather Haven Guests Today--Win a Copy of Her Book

Hello Readers,

Please welcome my very special guest, mystery author, Heather Haven. Heather writes a series of books about the delightfully entertaining Alvarez family. Heather pens a variety of personalities in her intriguing mysteries keeping the reader glued to the pages wondering what's next. You'll enjoy reading about her series in her post today with a focus on her "middle child," A Wedding to Die For.

Her first book in the series is Murder is a Family Business, the second or middle child of the series is A Wedding to Die For, and soon to be released third book, Death Runs in the Family from Muse It Up Publishing. Today, Heather is feeling a bit guilty about neglecting her second book. Read on to discover why, then leave a comment to WIN a copy of A Wedding to Die For.........

When the first book of the Alvarez Family Murder Mystery Series came out last January, I almost threw a ticker-tape parade. The main protagonist of this humorous series is Lee Alvarez, a combination of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone and Janet Evanovitch’ Stephanie Plum. This 34-year old divorcee works as a private investigator in the family business, Discretionary Inquiries, a successful Silicon Valley agency that normally deals with the theft of computer software. Since the death of Lee’s father, her beautiful ice-princess mother, Lila, has taken over as CEO and head of the business. Lee’s younger brother, Richard, is the head of Research and Information Technology. Her Uncle Tío is a retired head chef of a well-known Mexican restaurant. Even the new foundling kitten, Tugger, becomes head of the household in Lee’s small, two-bedroom apartment over the family garage. Lee isn’t head of squat, thank you. But she’s got the heart of a lion, eyes the color of twilight, and the instincts of a first-rate PI, which is good, because she’s always getting herself into trouble.

Ever since the first book came out, I’ve been blogging, promoting, bragging about, interviewing for, and in general being pretty obnoxious about Murder is a Family Business, the fore-runner of the series. At the same time, I was in the process of writing the 3^rd book of the series, Death Runs in the Family. Every writer knows there is nothing as all-consuming as the current project.

But somewhere along the line, the 2^nd book of the series, A Wedding to Die For, has fallen by the wayside. It quietly got published April 22^nd and came in, not as a lion, but as a mewing lamb. You could say, this is my middle child. I’ve read lots of articles proclaiming the middle child is often the one apt to be overlooked, even by the most caring of mothers. Well, just smack me silly. How could I do that to my little darling?

I mean, this is such a fun story! It starts out with troubled upcoming nuptials, due to the groom being arrested for murder. Even the most Bridezilla of us can’t pull off a wedding without a groom; nobody’s that good. Enter an ancient, missing statue of a blue dog, a crushed diamond stud earring, and our gal, Lee Alvarez, is off to the high mountains of Mexico, amid spectacular views and 16^th century cities, in search of pilfered Mesoamerican artifacts. Throw in a mysterious, gorgeous guy who keeps popping up in the oddest places, add a couple of dead bodies, toss in a kidnapping or two, sprinkle it with laughs, and top the whole thing off with the best tasting tamales ever. That’s the recipe for A Wedding to die For, sitting on the countertop of life waiting for someone to gobble it up.

I have to face it. I’ve been a neglectful, lacking mother. I’ve failed my middle child, who never asked to be born in the first place. All it wants is a little love and attention. Here goes: Who loves ya, baby? Who loves her widdle A Wedding to Die For, sweetie-pie, like nobody’s business? Who just wants to hug the words right off your pages? Me, your mumsie, that’s who.

Whoops! Still not enough?

Okay, I have to try to make it up to the little tyke. Below is an excerpt from the 2nd book, A Wedding to Die For.

Via a random drawing, one person who leaves a comment on this site will get a 

FREE pdf copy.

.

              I did the same for Murder is a Family Business, and as we all know, what you do for one kid, you gotta do for the other!do for one kid, you gotta do for the other!

Excerpt

Chapter One

I Love to Cry At Weddings

Dragging out a dog-eared, worn sheet of legal- size yellow paper, I read it carefully. “Wow! I don’t think there’s much more.” I giggled with relief. “I signed the contract with the two bands yesterday. One is an eleven-piece mariachi band that our very own Richard plays guitar with now and then. He’s agreed to play a set with them. I thought that was a nice touch. The alternating band is a three-piece jazz combo. Something for everyone.”

“Indeed,” Mom responded.

“Allied Arts is renting us the restaurant for the reception, including the outside patios, from five-thirty to eleven-thirty p.m. Do you think ten cases of champagne, plus five cases each of Chardonnay and a Napa cab are enough?”

“That sounds more than sufficient. What else?”

I started counting off items on my fingers. “Bridal shower, next week. Richard is in charge of the bachelor party. The tuxes are ordered. The gowns arrive this afternoon, and I have two seamstresses set up for the fittings. I haven’t seen a picture or rendering of the designs yet, but I’ll bet they’re incredible. Mr. McFadden designed them himself, something he hasn’t done for years. He said he chose a ‘theme,’ which reminds me, I’ll have to get samples of the fabric to the florist. Don’t you own one or two of Warren McFadden’s dresses?”

“No. I find him a little avant-garde, Liana,” Mom said.

“I think they call it cutting-edge now, Mom,” I corrected.

“If you say so.” She smiled and changed the subject. “Did you find a photographer?”

“Yes, finally. I thought I was going to have to buy a camera and take pictures, myself.”

“Who is it?”

“Did you know the reason the wedding got canceled that was supposed to take place at Mem Chu was because the bride came out of the closet and is now living in San Francisco with her lover, Charlene?”

“Get to the point, dear.”

“I thought you might be interested in hearing the lead-in.”

“No.”

“Oh. Well, anyway, this guy was supposed to be their photographer, so he was available. I’ve seen his portfolio. He’s good.”

“That sounds fine,” Lila said, somewhat mollified. “What about the rehearsal dinner? Didn’t John offer to take care of that part of the festivities?”

“Originally, but he had to bow out due to a heavy work schedule.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Yes,” I said and nothing more. My latest love had been pulling back big-time on a lot of things, but I didn’t want to admit it or deal with it yet. “However, Carlos took over and got us a private room at the new Japanese steakhouse for after we go through our paces.” I looked at the tattered list again with all the checkmarks indicating completion and would have done cartwheels around the room if I hadn’t been so tired.

“Mom, I think I’ve done it. After I order the flowers and take care of the fittings, I’m done,” I said with pride. “This wedding is completely done and Good-to-Go.”

            Five hours later, I stood in front of a mirror, enveloped in what felt like eighty yards of a chartreuse moiré taffeta laughingly called “Whipped Lime.” Between the starched crinoline underskirt, ruffled hem of the overskirt, and tufted bodice, all in a hideous yellow-green, I looked like a New Year’s Eve float depicting baby poo.

I ripped open the other boxes to find matching gowns in different odious colors sporting the names of “Pineapple Fizz,” “Mango Madness,” “Orange Frappe,” and “Passion Fruit Frazzle.” Mr. McFadden had created a theme, all right. Jamba Juice Rejects. And in moiré taffeta. When Mom called his work avant-garde, she was being kind.

The phone rang, but I was afraid to move. On top of how I looked, any movement sounded like leaves trapped in a wind tunnel. No wonder no one wore taffeta anymore, I thought. Noise pollution. One of the seamstresses answered the phone and slapped it into my frozen hand.

“Hello?” I said.

“Lee, it’s me. We need your help,” Mira said. Her voice sounded frantic and as if she’d been crying.

“Mira? Are you all right?”

“No, I’m not,” she sobbed. “Carlos is being arrested for murder.”

“What?” I said, sinking straight to the floor, buried in a mound of taffeta. “Carlos is being arrested for murder?”

“Yes, they say he murdered the thief who broke into our apartment last night. They’re taking him away,” she wailed.

“Wait a minute. What thief? What murder? Mira, what’s going on?” She tried to tell me, but between the hysteria, coughing, and wheezing, I couldn’t understand her.

“Never mind,” I interrupted. “Hold tight. I’ll be right there.” I struggled to my feet and thought, with the groom arrested for murder maybe this Good-to-Go wedding just Got Up and Went.

Trailer:

You can find the first chapter of book two, A Wedding to Die For, in its entirety and book one, Murder is a Family Business, on Heather's website: http://www.heatherhavenstories.com/

For some other internet things,

HTTP://Twitter.com/HeatherHaven

Follow Heather's blog at: http://tinyurl.com/4nensnp

Follow her character Lee Alvarez's daily Twitters at: http://twitter. com/PILeeAlvarez

What IS a Beach Read?

What IS a beach read?

I didn't realize there would be so many questions and fun discussion about the definition of a beach read. I thought everyone knew it would be a fun, entertaining, escape-from-life story to enjoy reading during the relaxing days of summer. (Mmm....I know families with young children don''t exactly have a relaxing summer..LOL).

The first in the Alvarez Family Murder series

Author Heather Haven defined it as

Beach read, plane read, summer read, fun read, easy read, all one to me, Caesar.

BTW Heather's the Lee Alvarez mystery series, Murder is a Family Business and A Wedding to Die For published by Muse It Up Publishing are excellent reads for this summer.

And now it is time for a shameless plug from me because my mystery/light horror e-book, Sunshine Boulevard, fits the definition of beach read.  Okay, you can sigh with relief. I have that plug in and we will move on to more great books for summer reading in the next post.

Please feel free to comment on books you would suggest for a beach read for us! Thank you...or you may get more plugs about Sunshine Boulevard!!  :-)