Tabitha Levin

Contemporary Romance Author

Writing Musings

The Brute is Published

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The-Brute-Cover-300x188The Brute is now live.

It’s a short novel (novella) of around 20,000 words.

Angel Parrish has got her dream job in Charlotte, and everything is going well, until she loses it and risks losing her apartment too. Not willing to give up her city life and admit failure, she accepts an offer from an older man she calls The Brute. He, however, wants more than just her company, he wants to own her body as well.

At first it wasn’t a problem, he was good looking for his age after all, but then his demands get more and more controlling. 

To make matters more complicated, James Trent, her old childhood friend, has turned up in town, and wants to stay the night in her apartment. It wouldn’t be so bad if he wasn’t so damn hot.

Hope you like it!

Happy reading,

Tabitha 🙂

Experimenting with First Person

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woman-writingSo far, all of the stories that I’ve written have been written in third person. I’ve been comfortable with that style for awhile, but lately I’ve been more and more drawn to stories written in first person.

I’ve become a huge fan of HM Ward who writes in first person present, and my all time favorite series is the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz (first person past).  (The first Odd Thomas is my favorite book of all time.)

So with my next story, The Brute, which will be published sometime next month, I decided to write it in first person. And you know what, I’m  finding it a lot easier than third . The words are flowing freely and it’s not unusual for me to write 6,000-7,000 words a day (I break up my day into sessions, each of my sessions is about twenty five minutes long with a five minute break in between, and a longer break for ‘lunch’. Generally I only write for about four or five hours, twice per week).

Increased Word Count

That output is far superior to what I was doing last month, which was 1000-2000 words per day, five days per week. (Often less when the family was home during school holidays – or even because I couldn’t get into the writing ‘groove’).

While I’m only writing the book twice per week now I’m still getting more words accomplished. Plus I’m enjoying it more. (The other three days are scheduled for things like writing blog posts (like this one), sourcing covers, editing and so on). I don’t work on weekends.

The first draft of The Brute will probably be finished tomorrow at the rate I’m going. It will need a lot of work to bring it up to scratch, as I’ve simply let my subconscious take over and write for me. Almost as if I’m just transcribing my thoughts. Now I need to go in and fix up the story to make logical sense, and put in breaks, settings, scenes etc. I work better as a ‘putter inner’ where I layer in detail on the second draft.

No Outline – Just Wrote

Another thing I experimented with this book was that I didn’t outline it. I didn’t force anything to happen, I just wrote. I have no idea whether that’s made my storytelling ability better or worse, but I wanted to again try something different.

In the past, I thought I needed outlining to tell a coherent story with a lovely plot, but I think it was making my stories too rushed. I was so busy getting to the major plot points that I wasn’t giving the characters enough time to breathe and make their own logical choices.

I don’t expect that The Brute will be a strong seller or be well received. It does have a rockin’ cover (cover reveal coming soon) but the story is unlike anything I’ve done before and therefore I have no idea what people will think of it. But that wasn’t my main reason for writing it. I simply wanted to try writing first person, and, see what would happen if I didn’t use an outline. (I have in the past not used an outline – the first story I did this with was Blood Stain which was a short thriller story. I like the story, but I can see that it doesn’t follow the usual structure. I’ve always outlined for the romance stories).

It will be a good experiment, and will help me to become a much stronger writer in the future. And isn’t that the point – to get better!

What’s Your Reason for Writing?

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Pink
I love Pink and everything she stand for.

I was watching P!nk on TV last night and was overcome with how bloody brilliant she is, not only as a songwriter, but as a person.

I’ve always liked her music. Her stories that permeate passion and angst (depending on the song) and how she can say something I’m feeling and make it come alive with such beautiful lyrics and music.

So yeah, I love her. 😉

But also I love what she represents. She stands up for her beliefs, isn’t afraid to tell someone if they are doing something crappy.

It got me thinking about my reason for writing.

Obviously the bare bones is that I love writing and want to share that others, but I think there is more to that as well. It’s not only about me, but about the reader, too. I want to explore what women are capable of, not just as a sex object for men (blech), but to explore their own fantasies, dreams and fears.

The Desperately Delicious stories were all about exploring different fantasies. They aren’t just erotica though, they have a story. I saw one review that said they were too PG-13. So yeah. I would agree with that (All Tied Up might be pushing it though).

There was another review that said Stranger Delight was about rape. Um no. Sure she has sex with a stranger (a common fantasy), but not once is she forced to do anything against her will. OF COURSE this wouldn’t happen in real life. That’s why it’s fiction — you can explore fantasies through the safety of words. That’s the point.

(Yeah, expect that I will read my reviews 😉 )

Anyway, back to my point. I’m currently writing the second Feathered book, and it struck me that this series is about much more than just a fun romp with a guy with wings. There is a deeper issue — one about society’s pressure to be with one sort of person, when your heart lie’s with another. This isn’t just about race, but also about gender, reputation, and so on.

Every day I see news reports about couples wanting to be together, but society telling them it’s wrong.

Really? Love is wrong?

I don’t understand it.

So in my way, The Feathered Lover (and the rest of the Feathered series) is really about fighting that pressure that says you can’t be together. It’s about fighting for your right to be with the person you love.

And in my view, that’s never wrong.

t xx

Tabitha Will Stick With Erotic Romance For Now

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I’ve been thinking a lot about pen names lately.  Originally I was going to put everything I write under Tabitha’s name, including the new novel that I’m writing, but I’ve had second thoughts on this.

The Desperately Delicious series is doing better than I expected and the Urban Darkness series is doing worse than I expected.  And so for that reason, I think I’ll continue to write only erotic romance (and perhaps some not so streamy romance down the track) under this name, and create a new pen name for the horror novel I’m writing.

It makes much more sense for readers since they’ll know exactly what to expect from Tabitha, and what to expect from (whatever name I come up with) for the zombie horror novel.

Now that I made the decision, I’m itching to get back to writing another erotic romance.  I want to do something a little different this time though and write something longer.  I’m not sure if I want to go full novel length (although perhaps I will) but I’ve got a great idea for a really cool sexy romance plot buzzing around in my brain which I want to get started on.

I’ll still need to finish the current novel though before I start a new one.  I’m hoping to get started on it before the end of the year.

Until then,

Tabs xx

September Sale!

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I like September.

Here in Australia it’s the first month of Spring, (which is my favorite season), and the weather is warming up to be a beautiful sunny day today.

So what better way to celebrate than with a September sale.

This month I have reduced all my ebook short stories to 0.99 cents and the collections to $2.99.  They’ll be that price for the whole of September.

Yah, Spring!

P.S. Some stores are slower to update prices than others.  Amazon and Kobo have the updated prices, but I’m still waiting on iBooks and B&N (they currently have changed about half the books but not all).  I’ll keep you posted when they do.

My books at Amazon | Kobo | B&N | iBookstore

P.S.S. Now I’m back to writing this novel …