Writing Walks

by Carleen Brice

Need a clue? Take a hike.

I get some of my best ideas while I’m “not working.” Washing dishes, raking, weeding, walking. In fact, I often write while walking whether I intend to or not. There’s something about moving the body that gets the brain working creatively, and, for many writers, there’s something specifically about walking that works.

But I find that getting an idea isn’t the hard part. Read all the rest of the blog posts here for excellent tips on where to find ideas or how to generate them from your own life. For me the hard part is how to nourish that idea—how to keep feeding it so it stays alive and grows into something more.

For me, holding a whole story in my mind and heart is hard. With 300 or 400 pages of thoughts and actions, stuff gets lost. I can’t count the number of times (don’t even want to know!) I have written a scene only later to go back and find that scene doesn’t make sense because of something that came before it. One of the ways I know to keep the whole story fresh in my mind is to tell it to myself as I would tell it to a friend. And the best way I’ve found to do that is to put on my sneakers and start walking. As I walk, I imagine a good friend next to me, and I tell her the story like I’d tell the story of another book I read and really loved.

Over the course of a year or two or three or however long it takes to write that story, I will have to tell it to myself over and over again.

What about when I don’t know the whole thing? How does a writing walk help then? Well, I tell myself what I know so far about the people in the story and what’s happening to them. Walking while imagining my people lets me get out of my own head and my own way and immerse myself in the world of my story. On a good day I can write an entire scene in an hour walk.

Next time you’re feeling stuck or feel like you could use some fresh energy, hit the trails. (Don’t forget to take a small notebook or a smartphone!)

FYI, this is my last post as a member of the Girlfriends Book Club. Thanks Karin and all the members for the insights you’ve shared and for your support! I’ll still be a reader of the blog and hope to be back as a guest when my next book comes out. If you want to keep in touch in the meantime, please follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook.

More book recommends

by Carleen Brice

Writers just might be the biggest readers. If you're like me, you're always looking to learn something from what we read. A few books I've read lately that I can heartily recommend:

The Self-Compassion Diet by Jean Fain. It's a book about how treating yourself more kindly can lead to a healthy weight. "Dieters are hard on themselves and steep themselves in self-criticism all day long." Sound like another category of folks you know? Sure reminded me of writers. Fittingly, the tone of the book is kind, and quite a joy to read with helpful, easy tips that anyone can follow. What it taught me: Treating ourselves "like a friend or a loved one, with care and concern," as Fain puts it in this book trailer, might lead to all kinds of good things...including good writing.



Gathering of Waters by Bernice McFadden. A novel about the town of Money, Mississippi where Emmit Till was murdered. It's lyrical, historical magic realism. Reviewing for NPR, Alan Cheuses said, "Read it aloud. Hire a chorus to chant it to you and anyone else interested in hearing about civil rights and uncivil desires, about the dark heat of hate, about the force of forgiveness." What it taught me: Don't be afraid to try something new. A book narrated by a town!

Speaking of lyrical, I love We The Animals by Justin Torres. This is a book that reads like a prose poem. In spare, delicious language it tells the story of three brothers growing up with very young parents. As one of three children (two brothers) with very young parents, there was much I related to here. However, as I writer and a reader, I would have enjoyed this book even if the subject matter wasn't something I could relate to. NPR story here. What it taught me: Sometimes, less is more.

Finally, I just added If I Could by Donna Hill to my reading list and mention it here since most of the Girlfriends Book Club are women's fiction writers. I love a good story of transformation and can't wait to read this novel about a woman "who boldly, blindly, dares to trade a lifestyle for a life...certain of just one thing: from here on in, she'll live—and love—on her terms." And isn't the cover lovely?

Setting intentions

by Carleen Brice, author of the novels Orange Mint and Honey and Children of the Waters 

A good friend of mine says she sets New Year's intentions instead of making New Year's resolutions. She says resolutions seem too goal-oriented. According to this great online article on "The Power of Intention" intentions are a way “'to have in mind a purpose or plan, to direct the mind, to aim'....
By setting an intention, you make it clear to yourself and others, just what you plan to do. Set an intention to redefine what it means to be serious about your dreams."

*I like this idea. With the new year coming up and being in hardcore revision mode I'm thinking again of my writing intentions.

On a blog about writing, it’s easy to focus on the craft of writing: Characters, plot, setting, storytelling. It’s sometimes easy to focus on the business of writing: Do I need an agent? Should I self-publish or not? How do I build my platform? These things are important, and I know I speak for all of us Girlfriends here when I say that we hope we can help you improve your books and your writing careers.


Today, however, I'm hoping to get you to think about what writing means to you, what purpose you want your work to serve for you and for your readers. Being an author offers an amazing opportunity to express ourselves. We have a deep responsibility to get it right, to honor this opportunity, to not waste it or treat it frivolously.

As far as my intentions go, I've been thinking about what deeper things I want from writing and what I hope to give through it. As I finish up this revision on my third novel here are the intentions I'm (again) setting:

I want my writing to be entertaining and interesting. I hope that readers might laugh and cry when they read my books. But I want my writing to mean something more than that too. I want my writing to touch people, to make them feel known and understood, if only for the short time they spend with my characters. I want to make them think, to maybe see things a little differently or at least understand how others might see things a little differently. And maybe I, too, can learn something from all this, can see things a little differently, understand something a little more.

Those are my intentions. What are yours? (Try Flying Wish Paper for a fun way to set your intentions.)

Happy Holidays and happy writing!

*This blog post was inspired by a former post I did on my personal blog.

Never Fear

by Carleen Brice. LMN will be showing Sins of the Mother, the movie based on my first novel Orange Mint and Honey Saturday 10/15 and Sunday 10/16.

Halloween is coming up, but we writers don't need a special day to scare ourselves. Would that we only got the shivers once a year! Every writer has that moment (or moments) when they worry about their work. Will I finish? Will it be good enough? Do I have anything to say? Will my husband, mother, best friend still like me if I publish this? What if I fail? And on the list goes. Self-doubt is part of the creative process. Actually, a better headline for this post would be:

Fear, dear writers, but write anyway.

As I work on the rewrite of my next novel, I'm dealing with some fears of my own, so I asked some author friends how they deal with their inner Doubting Thomas or Thomasina. Grab a handful of candy corn and read some of their inspirational and funny answers below.

For more advice on conquering doubt, please check out my guest blog post on Writer Unboxed. It goes up on Friday, October 14 and includes interviews with three life coaches who are also authors. (If you're a writer, you really ought to be checking Writer Unboxed regularly!)


Fear vs. reality

I think it's about realizing that fear is just a feeling. It's not the truth. I used to think that being afraid meant, ‘I can't write.’ Now I know it just means I'm afraid. With more experience, you learn to tolerate the fear and accept it as part of the process... but certainly not the final word on the work itself. – Attica Locke, author of Black Water Rising

The "Doubting Thomas" will never go away completely, but you can learn to ignore it (the NLP technique of changing the sound of the voice to, say, Mickey Mouse, works great) or balance it with more positive voices. Meditation is a great way to learn the difference between your internal monologue and sensations...and the real you. – Steven Barnes, author of Shadow Valley and co-author with Tananarive Due and Blair Underwood of the Tennyson Hardwick mysteries.


Even the greats suffered

I think every writer has it. I remember reading the letters of Faulkner and Steinbeck and Hemingway (back when I was teaching) and they definitely had moments of self-doubt. So, it helps me to know that. And then I generally try to just put my head down and plow through it. I give myself permission to write total dreck, knowing it will be edited out during revisions. I remind myself that I write for the pure joy of it. For the sense of accomplishment for having written. Sometimes I pull out the letters I've received from readers thanking me for my novel, telling me it helped them or resonated with them. That's a definite confidence booster. But the most important thing I can do is sit down and write. Whether it's a good paragraph and a great chapter or a scene that does exactly what it was supposed to do. I'm a writer, so I write. – Judy Merrill Larsen, author of All the Numbers 

I remind myself that self-doubt is natural. It's normal. It's part of the process. Show me a writer who has no self-doubt, and I'll show you someone who doesn't understand what good writing takes. - Connie Briscoe, author of Money Can't Buy Love

Don’t compare yourself

We should all try to be the best we can be. But there comes a time to take our "inner critic" off the clock. I'm not endorsing complacency or mediocrity, but give yourself some slack. We have to stop comparing ourselves to others, or to impossible, self-imposed standards. There will always be talented, smart, successful writers out there, but so what? We have to remember that their talent in no way diminishes ours. – Virginia DeBerry, author (along with Donna Grant) of several novels including What Doesn’t Kill You and Uptown

"Doubt is the big machine." That's from Victor LaValle's novel Big Machine. I don't have any easy answers other than to say that anxiety can paralyze me if I let it. I just try to keep my head down, eyes focused on the page. The moment I look up--at other writers, at reviews, at sales numbers--I lose my balance. I also remind myself to smile, have fun. – Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of the New York Times best-selling Wench

Wallow a moment, then keep writing!

I would love to give you something profound. However all I can say is: ignore that voice and keep stepping. You were given this writing gift for a reason. – Beverly Jenkins, author of too many romances to count, including Night Hawk.

From the first time I sat down to write my novel, I’ve been plagued with doubt. I keep writing. The doubt never stops. Sometimes I succumb, giving myself a cutoff—one day of wallowing—and nurse it with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream. Then I read and reread the affirmations I keep in my office, so that when I sit down to write, I can shove that devil off my shoulder and keep doing what I love. – Jacqueline Luckett, author of Searching for Tina Turner and the forthcoming Passing Love

I sit and let myself feel sorry for myself for a bit and then I start to wonder, what else would I do if I didn't write? And I can never think of anything so, I get back to writing until the next time. – J.D. Mason, author of several novels including Somebody Pick Up My Pieces

Every project reaches what Joseph Campbell refers to as the ‘dark night of the soul,’ the moment when it seems that it won't work, can't work, and it was a mistake even to try. This is when your previous experience comes in--remembering that ‘you've been here before.’ I've published 25 books, and every single time I hit this ‘wall.’ My favorite way through it? I talk to my ex-wife, who was with me at the beginning: "Toni?" I say, "do I hit a point every single time where it feels as if my work is turning into puree of bat shit?" "Yep," she answers. "Every single time." Bless her heart. We all have those moments, and we all need to create rituals to get through them! – Steven Barnes, author of Shadow Valley, and co-author with Tananarive Due and Blair Underwood of the Tennyson Hardwick mysteries

I think of Doubt as the biggest gatekeeper. Like in order to get anything written or published, first you have to go toe-to-toe with Doubt. And it's like a videogame. It doesn't matter how many times Doubt beats you, you can always man-up and fight again. It's not over until you put the controller down/stop writing. So whenever, Doubt is starting to defeat me, I remind myself, that it defeats most people, and that's why a lot of folks will never get published. The writers who keep on coming back for more are the only ones who will ever win the game. – Ernessa T. Carter, author of 32 Candles

Be an instrument of the Divine

Doubt happens when I compare myself to other writers. So as a faith writer, when I doubt, I do a God thing. I talk to God, asking him to replace fear with faith—to quiet my voice so I can hear his. Then I sit down and write about it. In fact, I’ve sold a lot of commentary this way. So I take to heart William Zinsser's advice in On Writing Well: “Trust your material.” Still great advice. I mean, what better topic for a faith writer than doubt?” – Patricia Raybon, author of I Told the Mountain to Move and God’s Great Blessings

There are many ways to write a book and for me it was a matter of allowing myself to be used as an "instrument of the divine." In one day, four different people said that I should write a book. The next day, I took that idea into my morning meditation and the answer came back, "yes, write a book." I rushed downstairs, turned on the computer, wrote 6 pages…it was a struggle. The next day during my morning meditation, I said to God, “if you want a book, you write it”! I turned on my computer and waited …then I just started typing the words I heard. At the end of the day, I had 20 pages of just words with no paragraph spacing. Every day for the next five days the writing came like this. Finally, in my morning mediation I asked if I could be shown where this was going. It was like the “celestial editors” showed up. The 100 pages were sectioned off into paragraphs, chapter titles and subtitles were added. Everything written to that point was perfectly logical. I finished the book, Awakening of a Chocolate Mystic in just two weeks. The first time I got a chance to see what I created was when I read the book as it was about to be published… up to that point, it was just a bunch of words. – Robin Johnson, author of Awakening of a Chocolate Mystic

Beat it

by Carleen Brice

Coming Sept. 6th

On her recently released mp3 talk for writers, author Tananarive Due discusses the screenwriter's beat sheet. I was intrigued by the concept. The beat sheet is a way to keep track of all the major things that should happen in a screenplay, and Due makes the case that novelists should use one too. The late Blake Synder, author of Save the Cat!, which I know some of my girlfriends here swear by, also uses beat sheets.

I'm currently finishing up a rewrite for my next book and it has dawned on me that, while I never called them beat sheets, I already use them, or my version of them. In fact, I make several to help me keep track of the arcs in the plot and subplot(s) and the arcs of the characters' growth. If you've written a novel or are trying to, you know it's hard to keep all that stuff in your head. It's easy to drop a thread. A spreadsheet helps me make like Michael Jackson.



Once I have a draft that isn't necessarily the shitty first draft, but is still sorta open, I make an Excel spreadsheet for each plot/character arc in the story and write down everything pertinent to that plot/character arc and when in the story it happens (what page number or chapter number).

For example, my main character is engaged and there are complications about whether or not the wedding is going to happen. I want to know a few things as I read through this draft to rewrite it: how often do I tell the reader about a complication? Do the complications get progressively harder? Does the reader understand how my character is feeling about things and why? Did I drop something? (i.e. do I bring up something on page 17 and then never mention it again?)

So I have a spreadsheet called "marriage progression" and I write down what my MC says, thinks or does related to getting married and in what scene it happens.

I also have Excel spreadsheets for each major character to track how they change (or not).

Using a spread sheet helps me see the bones of the story, without all the pretty skin (imagery, symbolism, metaphor) to distract me. It helps me know where it's weak, so I can make those parts stronger or get rid of them altogether.

However, I may also use a spread sheet to keep track of images and symbols to make sure I'm consistent and haven't lost one of those threads either. For example, In Chapter 1 I describe one of my characters as looking like a stork. I like that description, and the beat sheet helps me see that after the opening chapters I didn't reinforce it. So later, I'm referring to her nose as a beak.

My spread sheet system is sort of reverse outlining--outlining after you've written the story.

I'm curious, how do you make sure you don't miss a beat in plot, characters and images in your story? What do you think of beat sheets?

Carleen Brice is writing the sequel to IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING, the sequel to ORANGE MINT AND HONEY, beat by beat and releasing it chapter by chapter at www.achapteramonth.com. Check it out!

Q&A with author Connie Briscoe

by Carleen Brice

Hi Girlfriends! Today I want to introduce you to my writer pal, Connie Briscoe, author of the new novel Money Can't Buy Love. Connie's bio from her website:

I have had seven novels, one novella, and one nonfiction book published. My first novel, Sisters and Lovers, sold more than 100,000 hardcover copies and about 500,000 copies in paperback. I still pinch myself about that. My work has appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly. Also pinch-worthy. A Long Way From Home, the story of my ancestors, was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. My nonfiction title Jewels, a photo-essay book featuring luminaries such as actress Ruby Dee and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, was coauthored with photographer Michael Cunningham. The collection of novellas was coauthored with Lolita Files and Anita Bunkley. Both of these were welcome changes from what I usually write. I’m currently living in Maryland with my family and trying to keep up with this brave, new publishing world.


**Tell us about your latest book. What’s it about?

Money Can’t Buy Love is the story of Lenora Stone, a thirty-eight-year-old photographer for the fictional Baltimore Scene magazine. She loves her job but is poor at managing her money. She can barely make the mortgage payments on her condo, and her clunker of a car, which she can’t afford to replace, could die on her at any moment. Even things with her boyfriend Gerald aren’t right. They've been together for three years and Lenora wants to take the relationship to the next level, but he isn’t ready to pop the question.

Then Lenora’s luck changes dramatically. Just when she thinks things can't get worse, she wins the jackpot in the Maryland lottery and meets the man of her dreams. She thinks her world has changed for the better. But has it? Or will she learn that fortune can come with a heavy price?

**What inspired this story? Have you ever won any money?

Given the current tough economic climate I asked myself: what might an insecure woman do—and many of us are insecure at times or in certain situations--if she suddenly won millions of dollars and met her ideal man? Would she smarten up, gain more confidence and go on to live a good life? Or would she blow it all?

As for me, the most money I have ever won was a few hundred dollars many years ago.

**What was the process of writing this novel like compared to your previous books?

Writing Money Can’t Buy Love was different because the main character Lenora is not like any of my previous main characters. She’s not beautiful in the traditional sense and struggles with her weight. She lacks poise and confidence. She’s vulnerable, like so many of us were when we were in our thirties.


**As a writer, what’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to you?

That’s easy. Hooking up with a wonderful agent from the beginning. We’ve been together since 1993, just before my first novel was published. And I honestly believe she’s one of the reasons I’ve endured through all the ups and downs in this crazy business. [Full disclosure, Connie and I have the same agent.]


**How would you define "hitting the jackpot" in your own life?
Writing a novel that sells a million copies. To me, that would be better than winning a lot of money because it would mean that I had done something to earn it.

**Last time I chatted with you on my blog White Readers Meet Black Authors, you were talking about looking into real estate as a side career. Is that still something you’re doing? If not, what’s next for you, especially writing-wise?

My sister and I inherited a couple of houses and we fixed them up and sold them. It was fun, and we’ve talked about buying property to flip. At this point, it’s just been talk. Writing is still my the focus of my career.

**What have you read lately that you recommend?

Right now I’m actually reading a book about social media, just trying to keep up with all the exciting changes around me.

Follow Carleen Brice and Connie Briscoe on Twitter!

Incite me, baby!

This blog post on beginnings is by Carleen Brice, author of two novels, Orange Mint and Honey and Children of the Waters. You can read the beginnings of both books on my website.

Randy Susan Myers, author of The Murderer's Daughters, posts the first pages of novels on her site and invited me to participate. I posted what I thought was the beginning of my current novel, Calling Every Good Wish Home. No sooner had I posted it, than bam, I had an idea for a better opening. Which I'm not going to post here because it may change again. (I learned my lesson!) This scene is still in the book, so please do read it; it's just not the first thing we see anymore.

Most writers and editors talk about the importance of the first few lines and pages being intriguing enough to draw the reader in. Of course, this is the primary work of the beginning. But I also find a good beginning does something else: it sets up the ending. To me, there's an added enjoyment of an ending when it's foreshadowed (subtly) by the beginning.

Indeed, that's what Robert McKee says in his book Story, which is one of my writing bibles. He calls the opening the "inciting incident." This isn't necessarily the first page of the story, but is "the first major event of the telling; the primary cause for all that follows." More from Mckee:

"...this is the event that incites and captures the audience's [I'll add readers] curiosity...witnessing [reading about] the inciting incdent projects an image of the obligatory scene into the audience's imagination. The obligatory scene (AKA crisis) is an event the audience knows it must see before the story can end."


Like a few others here, my writing process involves writing the beginning, usually the first 100 or so pages, then writing the end and then filling in the middle. The opening I'm currently working with really informed the ending, which then led me to great stuff for the middle.

I think. I hope. We'll see! If the published version of this novel has a different opening than the one I'm working with now I'll let you know!


Happy writing and reading, and good luck with your own beginnings, middles and endings!

32 days of writing

Carleen Brice here. I don't make resolutions, but this year I did participate in a "challenge" for the New Year. Last year, some online writer buddies and I started the 32-day writing challenge, with the idea that we would write every day for the first 32 days of the year. It was based on this essay by Ann Patchett in which she discusses her realizations that she needed to treat writing as a job. The quote that got us started:

"[Patchett's friend] told me that her teacher, a great and wise yogi, believed that whatever a person did with thoughtful consistency for the first 32 days of the year set the course for the entire year."

If it was good enough for yogis and Patchetts, we thought it was good enough for us. I created a Facebook page and we went to work. Even though it was very helpful and got me into the habit of writing every day, I had no intention of doing it again. Because I didn't want another online obligation. I blog. I Facebook. I Tweet. I Litchat (this week I'm guest hosting all week!). I Blacklitchat. That seemed like plenty, but of course my same writer buddies convinced me we should do it again this year. Still had the Facebook page, so why not?

Today is day 31 of the 32-day writing challenge. I confess I did not write every day. HOWEVER, I did write a damn good synopsis for a story and climb back into my novel in a way that I hadn't in a very long time. I got back to the place where I'm totally immersed in the world of my novel and am more concerned about my characters than I am about some of the real people in my life. I think I'm about to make that breakthough of understanding I will need to get me to the end.

I believe that the more we do of a thing, the more we do of it. When we put our energies and our intentions and, to be less woo-woo, when we put our focus on something, we make more of it. Sitting on the couch watching TV = more sitting on the couch watching TV. Healthy eating = more healthy eating. Writing = more writing.

It's never too late to set your intentions for the future. If you want to write every day or most days, start writing today and then do some tomorrow and then some the next day.

Carleen Brice is the author of Orange Mint and Honey and Children of the Waters, which you should totally buy or check out from the library.

10 notable books of 2010

by Carleen Brice

AND THE WINNER IS...Nicole! Please send me your mailing address and I will send you a signed copy of my book. Hope you like it! Thanks for leaving comments everyone!

First, I must send you all over to my other blog to celebrate National Buy a Book By a Black Author and Give it to Somebody Not Black Month. Author-friends are suggesting great books for gift ideas AND giving away signed books. I'll wait while you go check it out.

You're back? Ok, now I can offer you a signed copy of my book over here. Just leave me a comment letting me know you checked out said other blog and I'll randomly pick a winner at 5 pm MST Friday Dec. 10 to send a signed copy of Children of the Waters.

2010 was a wonderful year for book releases by black women. Brava sister-writers! (Of course, our own Lori L. Tharps and Ernessa T. Carter had great debut novels this year!) Here are 10 others that stand out and would make great holiday gifts for readers:

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans: Debut short story collection that is one of Alan Cheuses' tops of winter 2010.

Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin: 2nd in an amazing fantasy trilogy.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow: national-bestselling story of a young mixed-race girl who survives a family tragedy.

Glorious by Bernice McFadden: glorious story about the Harlem Renaissance and an Oprah-magazine pick.

Moonshine by Alaya Johnson, who mixes prohibition mobsters and vampires to create a mighty brew.



Uptown by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant: Speaking of timely, this is a story about real estate and family drama.



Wading Home by Rosalyn Story: I'm impressed by writers and impressed by musicians. A writer who is also a musician? Wow! Father-son drama set in New Orleans as Katrina hits.

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez: Heartwrenching novel about four women friends and their lovers (who also happen to own them) who visit a real-life resort right before the Civil War.

What Mother Never Told Me by Donna Hill: Like mother-daughter stories? Check this "good read" out!

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor: Another one for fantasy lovers. Amazon picked this as one of their top 10 of 2010.

Another True Hollywood Story

by Carleen Brice

With Nicole Beharie ("Shay) and Jill Scott ("Nona")

Though this one takes place in Vancouver. Almost a year ago to the day, I was in "Hollywood North" to visit the set of "Sins of the Mother" the Lifetime movie based on my first novel.

It was one of the highlights of my career. It was a great experience working with Lifetime and the publicity from the movie has surely boosted my reputation. The lady at my post office, thinks I am a goddess now!

Speaking of goddesses, I want to take a minute to say that fellow (sister) Girlfriends Book Clubber Melissa Senate was very kind to me in the months leading up to the airing of the movie. It was great to check in with someone who'd been in my shoes. So thanks Melissa!

Orange Mint and Honey pubbed in February 2008. Two years later, it was airing on LMN. For those that don't know that's crazy fast. I know of authors whose books were first optioned a decade ago who are still waiting & hoping the movie will actually get made. So how did mine happen so fast? Luck and serendipity.

Below is a blog post I originally wrote for SheWrites.com. Before I get to that, I am very happy to say that the movie did very, very well. I am very fortunate indeed. If you haven't seen the movie and want to, it'll be showing again next month. If you HAVE seen it, you can see bonus scenes here.

So from book to movie in two years:

My book was published in trade paperback by One World/Ballantine in February 2008. It did well. Made some lists. Won some awards. But it wasn’t a huge national best-seller. So how did it get sold to Lifetime?

My agent works with an editorial director. The ED is the one who works with clients to get their manuscripts in shape. She didn’t have me do much rewriting with Orange Mint and Honey (they got it after I had rewritten it from beginning to end four times!), but throughout the process she would tell me how excited she was to have her sister read it. I would always think How lovely to have someone so excited about my work she’s telling her family!

Winner of the 2009 First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the ALA.

It turns out her sister is also an agent and had worked in the movie business. Her sister was actually a producer on the movie “Waiting to Exhale.” When the book came out, the sister read it, loved it, and asked to co-represent it with my literary agent. She shopped it around and it was rejected as a feature (movies on the big screen), but Lifetime snatched it up.

This was around May 2008. BEA was in L.A. that year. So I went (paying for the trip myself) chatted up booksellers and readers, and got to meet with the executive from Lifetime who was interested in the book. He (yes, he!) told me that one of the reasons he liked the story was that he found it to be universal. He also told me that one of the benefits of working with television is that there was a 50/50 shot they would make the movie. I’ve heard that with feature films, only about 5% of the books that get optioned ever get made. Fifty-fifty sounded pretty good. He also told me they worked quick, which also sounded pretty good. And was the truth!

So, the book pubs in February. We sell it to Lifetime that summer. By the fall a producer is involved (Damon Lee, “Obsessed”) and they’ve hired a screenwriter. Everything rides on the script. If the script is good, odds are much better it will go into production. If the script isn’t so good, you could be in trouble.

This was the longest part of the process. The teleplay writer was Elizabeth Hunter (“The Fighting Temptations”). I’m not sure exactly how much time passed, but it seemed like hiring a writer and getting an approved script took about a year. Anyway, the option time elapsed and Lifetime renewed the option right before they had an approved script.

A note about optioning: when a book is optioned, the network, studio, producer or whoever is buying the rights basically pays a rental fee to lease the rights for a period of time (usually six months or a year, I believe) while they try to get a team and a script together. The author of the book gets the full purchase price when the movie actually gets made. Literally. The author gets a check on the first day of shooting.

After movie make-up.

So Ms. Hunter did a great job and we had an approved script (which I had no part of and didn’t even read) in late summer of 2009. Then things went into warp speed. The director Paul Kaufman ("Little Girl Lost") was hired and they began casting. They started shooting WEEKS after the script was approved! It was a short, intense production and was filmed in less than a month in October 2009. Scheduled for airing just three months later!

The only even slightly negative thing about the entire experience was that Lifetime changed the title. The movie is called "Sins of the Mother" so I've been working my behind off trying to let people know that movie is based on my book. I guess they prefer high-concept titles. I recently watched Lying to Be Perfect (which was excellent!) on Lifetime, based on the book The Cinderella Pact. Personally, I prefer Orange Mint and Honey and The Cinderella Pact, but what do I know?

I went to visit the set in Vancouver and got to appear as an extra. So if you watch, look for me during the church scene! I wrote an essay about what it was like emotionally to have my work adapted. If you’re interested in that check out The Defenders Online.
 

Read this: Playing the Hand You're Dealt (psst, I'm giving away a copy!)

Hello new blog readers! My name is Carleen Brice. Like everyone else blogging here, I'm a woman novelist looking to hook up with women readers. My first novel Orange Mint and Honey is a mother-daughter story (and premiered on LMN as "Sins of the Mother," which airs again on September 11). My second novel Children of the Waters is a story about two women, one white and one black, who discover they are sisters. I hope you'll check them both out if you haven't already.

I also can be found blogging at White Readers Meet Black Authors where I try to introduce authors to a wider readership (On Tuesday, I'm running a Q&A with Lori Tharps, author of the new "nanny novel" Substitute Me). In that vein, I thought I'd kick off my first blog post here by telling you all about a book I recently finished that comes out on August 24th. It's called Playing the Hand You're Dealt by Trice Hickman. I have to confess it's not a book I would have picked up on my own (I don't typically lean toward romance), but the publisher sent it to me and I read it. And I really liked it. The characters were fresh, interesting and believable and the story was just an enjoyable, easy read.

It's about two women (see perfect for the Girlfriends Book Club!) who meet in college and have been best friends ever since. The only hitch is that one of the women is in love with the other's father. Here's a snippet:

"Emily's my very best friend in the world. She was right there in the deliver room when CJ was born, holding my hand, reminding me to breathe. But even before he took his first breath, we both knew that motherhood wasn't my thing. I remember thinking that she should've had him, not me. She cradled him with love while I looked on, too scared to hold my own child because I thought I'd do something worng. When CJ was six months old my job transferred me to New York, and that's when we decided that CJ would be better left in her care. So Emily raised my son for the first four years of his life. See, I told you she was a selfless person.

I knew I'd never find anyone who accepted me the way she did. And it was funny because we were as different as caviar and catfish, with one exception--we were born on the exact same day. But here's the rub, she was born in the wee hours of the morning and I was born in the late hours of the night...."

The book opens on the cusp of the women's 30th birthdays and all kind of juicy stuff happens. Kind of romance-y, kind of women's fiction-y, Playing the Hand You're Dealt makes a great end-of-summer escape. As I said, it pubs Tuesday and I hope you'll pick up a copy.

To promote our new blog and to promote books by women, I'm giving away my advance copy of Playing the Hand You're Dealt. Post about Girlfriends Book Club or tweet or Facebook about it and leave me a note here in the comments on this post and I'll enter you to win. I'll randomly pick from the comments on August 31 at 5 pm MST and will announce the winner in the comments thread on this post. Good luck!