Tabitha Levin

Hey all!

Just a heads up to let you know that my latest book, In His Sails, has just been released on Amazon (other retailers coming soon). It’s novella length (although I prefer the term mini novel).

Here’s the blurb:

I didn’t want to go on holiday. Not with my family. I wanted to head up to the Gold Coast with my girlfriends instead, and have some fun.

But that was before I met David. Hot Aussie lifeguard, who seemed determined to pick me up. So I let him. A holiday romance was exactly what I needed.

I didn’t expect to fall so hard for him though. The holiday was only for two weeks. Two week’s and I’d have to leave him. That’s not so easy when your life is messed up and all you want to do is stay in his arms.

What do you think? Sound’s hot, right? I mean who doesn’t love a hunky lifeguard?

And that cover is just to die for. I love it so much I just want to lick it (too much information?).

Happy reading!
Tabitha

 

The 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 🙂

So 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!