Greetings All!
My name is Kathleen S. Allen and I write books. I also write short stories, poetry, lyric essays and whatever else I can think of! I decided to try my hand at a romance. Although many of my books have romantic elements in them, I haven’t written one that has romance as the main story line.
The name of my book is: THE CRAZY NURSE.
Here’s the blurb:
Molly, a new nurse on the psychiatric unit, falls in love with her manager John Whitefeather. His heart has been broken and he resists his attraction to her…at first. Afraid of getting hurt again after letting his guard down John leaves without a word. Molly quits her job and moves to San Francisco to take care of her brother who has AIDS. When they run in to each other again can they make their relationship work or is it too late for them?
From the novel:
He came out of the bathroom looking clean, and shiny. He had on a different pair of gray sweats, these were clean, and his chest was bare. His hair still hung loose around his shoulders, but, at least it was clean now. Molly hadn’t realized how beautiful long hair could be on a man. Especially this man. She looked quickly away before John could see her desire for him on her face. But, she didn’t look away fast enough, he saw the passion in her eyes, and it thrilled him.
Available here:
https://www.xoxopublishing.com/shop-online/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=32&products_id=184
The story takes place in a large urban hospital in the Midwest but quickly progresses to San Francisco. I wanted to write what is known as a medical romance with medical elements in it so Molly’s—the main character—brother has AIDS. Both the main characters, Molly and her love interest, John are psychiatric nurses. I wrote this novel before I actually worked on a locked psychiatric unit as a nurse and my colleagues joked that I based the story on them! A couple of them even wanted to know which character they were! I told them I wrote it before I got the job—I have since left it—but I don’t think anyone believed me! Guesses were made about who the love interest could be, a resident? One of our physicians? Another nurse? Finally, I told them that the characters were more of a combination of staff I interacted with on the unit and that seemed to pacify them! Although I am no longer working on the psychiatric unit I am still friends with colleagues and they still ask me who the love interest is based on! Uh, he’s more of my ideal man, except for the whole I-can’t-be-in-love-so-I’m-going-to-take-off scenario. I adore long hair on a man so I had to make him have long hair.
My experience with writing romance tells me two things. First of all, I can write a romance, especially a medical romance and second of all, writing a romance is hard! It’s hard to get the right nuances and it’s hard to not let the characters slide into stereotypical behavior. I recently wrote and published a murder mystery and that was hard to write but the romance is right up there!
Will I write another romance? Perhaps. Right now I am in the process of editing a faerie vs. human young adult fantasy novel called LORE OF FEI that is being published in April, 2012 by Muse It Up Publishing. My literary agent is shopping around a contemporary young adult novel and is looking at my latest novel, a young adult historical novel. I am also getting ready to do NaNoWriMo beginning November 1st. This is the competition where you write a 50K novel in 30 days. Your daily word count is 1,667. I did it last year and “won” with LORE OF FEI. My novel this year is about a 19th Century woman who falls in love with a man who may or may not be vampire. I’ve written about faeries, werewolves, dragons, unicorns, witches, ghosts and one short story about a vampire but never an entire book. It should be fun!
I also just joined a local children’s lit/YA book critique group and we are meeting next month. I have a critique partner I value online but I feel that meeting and socializing with other authors is important.
I am trying to be a writer full time so I am looking for writing gigs along with doing my fiction writing. My dream job would be to teach creative writing at a college. I do have a Master’s in English with an emphasis in creative writing but most colleges want either a MFA (Master’s in Fine Arts in writing) or a Ph D in English/Creative Writing. I am teaching an online workshop next year in March, 2012 for Novelists at Work on how to write a young adult novel. I hope to be able to do more of those.
Thanks for having me as a guest blogger today! You can find me here:
On Twitter: @kathleea
Email: gaelicfairie@gmail.com
Website: http://www.gaelicfairie.webs.com/
Guest blogger every Wednesday on http://www.downtownya.blogspot.com/
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Always looking for new authors and genres to read.
This looks interesting, thanks for the giveaway!
Sounds very interesting, I love the stories where you lose touch and meet up again!
Congratulations on the release of The Crazy Nurse! It sounds like a good read – thanks for the chance to win it!
I agree, it IS hard to write a romance. I tried it once but never finished it. (Hm, I just MAY pick that project up again…) Congratulations on accomplishing your goal, Kathleen. It seems to me that you can do anything! 🙂 And congrats on this other book. Good luck with it.
Sounds like a good book!
Thanks for the chance to win!
I think it's very brave to try a new genre! Congrats on the book and thanks for the giveaway.
MJB
msmjb65 AT gmail DOT com