Elaine M DeGroot

Strong writing equates to a better reader experience. A few ways to accomplish this are by using active verbs and stronger descriptions.

For example, did the heroine walk away? Or did she stagger or march or stumble? Did the antagonist look at the target? Or stare or glare or glance? Did the hero laugh? Or chuckle or snicker?

Very is a word to avoid. Instead of saying very pretty, why not use a stronger word? How about gorgeous or striking?

Fortunately, through my research, I have lists of alternative words for walk, look, laugh, and many others! Also, when I'm on the AutoCrit editing platform, I can run various reports to strengthen my writing for these areas and others.

The thing to remember is the typical words used when people talk. This means dialogue is different from narration. Weaker words may be more realistic when used in dialogue. Consider how often you use very when you talk to people.

My assistant, Missy, and I work hard to ensure our writing has vibrant narration and realistic dialogue providing each character with a unique voice.

Music influences my writing in a variety of ways.

Starting with the writing process. Music has played a part in inspiring scenes in my stories. Notable ones are "I Don't Dance" by Lee Brice which led to a scene in Victorious Love where Garrett asks Leigh to dance with him in a bar. I often listened to the CD with that song on it, and one day it struck me that my couple hadn't danced together after two books, Resolute Love and Challenged Love! I needed to correct that. So, I wrote a scene that presented the opportunity. A song played that led him to ask her to dance. What was it? "Crazy" by Patsy Cline. That's a favorite of mine and is an older song. Turns out not only did that song result in a dance, but it also offered an opportunity for Garrett to share a memory from his youth with Leigh.

If you're interested in hearing these songs, here are links.

• "I Don't Dance" by Lee Brice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBEBbgQEJy4
• "Crazy" by Patsy Cline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbnrdCS57d0

The next stage is editing. I listen to music while polishing my writing which includes lots of country music and older music from LPs we've had for years. Okay, it's more like decades! The old music works magic, what can I say?

The last use of music is on the reels I create for my Facebook page. I select music that fits the story. These are some of my favorites:

• Playground Antics – "Holding out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler
• Sparks Fly – "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summers
• Green Eyes & Dimples – "Lonely Eyes" by Chris Young
• Restoration – "Girl Like You" by Jason Aldean
• Accidental Attraction – "Beautiful Mess" by Diamond Rio

If you're interested in the reels, visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RomanceByDeGroot and take a look at the Videos or Reels, whichever shows up for you. Have fun!

1. Introduce yourself to our readers. Where do you fit into the story? What should we know about you?

I'm Tracie Braun, the main female character of Green Eyes & Dimples. How I fit into the story is simple. If not for my fascination with Matt West's features, we wouldn't have a title or a story! I'm a devoted sister, a loving aunt to twins (Nicky and Lucy), and a photographer/social media guru.

2. What do you think about the author? Tell us everything. We want to know.

This book reflects well on the author, Elaine M. DeGroot. She kept a promise to a friend and executed it with her typical precision by writing this touching story. Her instincts for creating storylines that grab hold of your imagination are amazing and translate into a captivating read! I'm proud of playing a strong, key role in one of her well-crafted stories.

3. What are your feelings about this story?

I love this story and the varied characters. The nasty soccer moms were adversaries I faced and defeated. The twins are adorable, important to the story, and fun to care for while my brother and sister-in-law were galivanting half a world away! The author ensured Matt and I practiced safe sex—at times with humorous challenges.

4. How do you feel about being a character in this book?

I enjoyed being a character in this book, especially because I met Matt and his parents. Being a stand-in parent for my niece and nephew proved I have what it takes to be a mother. That's critical for a possible future with my leading man, Matt West.

5. What do you see in your future? (No spoilers please!)

a. Being instrumental in increasing my Uncle Ben's success as a custom home builder.

b. Watching Nicky and Lucy grow up.

c. Experiencing love and adventures with Matt.

6. Is there a Sequel in the future? Will you be part of it?

I don't anticipate a sequel, but that's up to Elaine and her readers. If there is one, I'm all in!

7. Say a movie producer comes knocking. What actress would you want to play you and why?

Hmm, Green Eyes & Dimples the movie, let me think. The actress needs to be adventurous, strong-willed, and capable of being a bossy hussy. Do you know anyone who fits that description? I'm open to all suggestions.

The backstories of the stories that become books are interesting stories in their own right. Oftentimes, it's a story of inspiration.

My latest book, Green Eyes & Dimples, came about as a promise kept.

The story behind the story:

While writing Playground Antics, I posted on my Author Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/RomanceByDeGroot, how I was searching for a name for the mayor. A friend commented and recommended his name. Said it had a nice ring to it, "His Honorable Mayor…" I agreed. However, as the story progressed, the mayor turned out to be a bad guy. I couldn't bring myself to use his family name for such a scoundrel and criminal.

So, I promised I'd base my next main male character on him, making the character an Air Force brat and a volunteer youth soccer coach.

Months later, my promise resulted in a heck of a story and one I'm proud of. It's my eighth published romance.

As I wrote in his copy: "A promise made. A promise kept."

I have reasons/inspirations/stories behind all of my books. I share simple summaries on my Facebook page. I believe the why behind a book is of interest to readers.

Our official first day of FALL is almost here—22 September. Ah, the changing of the seasons!

This post is all about the setting in these books. Where I place my characters, AKA the setting, offers me fun clothing and thrilling activity choices for my scenes. Let's review some of my wardrobe and activity choices. 

For example, the move to fall brings cooler weather and warmer clothes. I love cold weather and all it brings: flannel shirts & sheets, sweaters, jackets, sitting before the flames in a fireplace, shoveling, hazardous travel conditions, and snowmobiling. Perhaps that's why winter played an important role in my first three stories, the Consequential Love Series. These books included winter weather, a blizzard, flannel shirts, sweaters, and fires blazing in the fireplace. These choices led to action and conversation. A flannel shirt is "worn" by Garrett on the cover of Resolute Love. The first appearance of him in a flannel shirt became a scene. Remember, Leigh is woken by him. After opening one eye and then the other, her first words are "You have a lumberjack thing going for you this morning. Why?"

Restoration is a summertime story. Alex wore many sundresses. They displayed her fine figure for our hero, Seth. He appreciated her many, shall we say, assets.

Green Eyes & Dimples begins around the 4th of July. Both main characters wear a variety of shorts. Let me tell you, Matt appreciated how Tracie looked in her short shorts. Of course, she admired him in his sports shorts during soccer camp.

The wintery setting in Resolute Love provided snowmobiling as a mode of transportation. This provided Garrett insight into Leigh's background and habits. She was quite the little speed demon. Do you recall his comment when he surged ahead of her on his snowmobile to stop her? "You're driving as though hell hounds are on your tail."

In Restoration, a pristine pond, farm work, and a lakeside country supper club offered Seth and Alex a couple of skinny-dipping episodes, a picnic in a field, and a few interesting encounters. I cracked up while writing the scene of Seth and the club owner and head chef, Harry, meeting after one of those encounters. "…Tuck in your shirt before you go upstairs." He turned and headed back to the kitchen. "And you might want to zip up, too."

Then there is the picnic in Sparks Fly. After Caleb surprised himself by suggesting a picnic to Ivy, her grandmother, Avis, identified the activity of "picnicking" to the youngsters. Caleb asked her what the term meant. Her answer was epic. "Well, it doesn't have anything to do with food and everything to do with you two and nature."

Green Eyes & Dimples offers backyard fun with a bit of canoodling or more intense activity.

All of these examples are thanks to the setting of a story. You could say I enjoy creating fun scenes by incorporating all the setting offers me.

Let me know if you have a favorite setting in any of my books with a comment on this post.

A long time ago, I read that the cover of a romance indicates how steamy the story is by the amount of bare skin you see. I think that is an efficient way to show the reader what they can expect in the book.

When I start the process, I search for a cover photo that fits the story. For Resolute Love, the flannel shirt matches the northern Minnesota winter setting. Plus, Garrett wears a flannel shirt for his snowmobile bonding session with Leigh's dad.

The cover of Victorious Love mirrors a scene in the book when Garrett and Leigh stay at her brother's house and Alex has Garrett sleeping alone on a daybed in his home office.

I searched for a sexy construction worker photo for Playground Antics. I believe I hit the jackpot with the one I selected. The photo had a slight issue meeting Amazon's cover requirements, so a banner was used to overcome the issue. I love the "A Solstice Publishing Romance" banner. It's simple with no fancy embellishments and identified my book as part of a collection! I hope a similar banner can be used for the Green Eyes & Dimples cover.

Playground Antics was also the first of my covers with only one person on the cover instead of a couple. Risky? I don't think so; what do you think? Personally, it's my favorite cover of all my books.

The font used is another consideration. Most are straight. Because Accidental Attraction is a romantic comedy, I wanted a curly font for a fun, lighthearted look. I think it worked.

Do you have a favorite cover? Your choice doesn't have to be one of mine, although I'd also like to know which of my covers are your favorite.

Once a work in progress (WIP) reaches THE END, the focus shifts to editing. This can be a challenge.

Fortunately, many tools exist to assist authors with this critical step. My primary tool of choice is the AutoCrit on-line editing platform. The features are amazing and are improving all the time.

I choose Romance as the genre to which to compare my work. A score is generated based on general topics of Pacing and Momentum, Dialogue, Strong Writing, Word Choice, Repetition, and Readability. Each of these offers subtopics with reports highlighting suggested changes. I focus on pacing, adverbs, showing versus telling, and repetitions within the subtopics. I consider these and either accept or disregard them. Over the years of using this system, my writing has strengthened, and my initial scores have improved from the 70's to the 90's.

I've identified four authors who have similar writing styles and do a comparison with them. Recently, I've also done a comparison against General Fiction. It's interesting to see the difference in the scoring. 

They added a story analyzer feature. For my current WIP, I used this feature to review possible contradictions, foreshadowing events, and a timeline analysis. As a result, I caught and corrected discrepancies in my writing. Very handy!

I also use MS Word's Read Aloud feature. I set the view to 200% and listen as the program reads through my story. This helps me find punctuation discrepancies such as commas instead of periods and missing quotation marks. I also identify awkward phrasing and repeated words. Find is a handy feature as I catch myself using words too often in my dialogue, like starting with "So" or "Well."

I don't make use of Beta readers, but many authors do. These folks read the story and offer constructive critiques.

Professional editors are available to hire for a variety of editing focused on different aspects of writing, such as the big picture of your story, the plot, the structure, the pacing, your characters, the theme, the sharpness of the prose, spelling, typos, and punctuation.

No one ever said writing a book that's ready for publication is easy!

Emotions are a big deal in life and in writing!

When you experience happiness what do you do? What physically shows you're happy? If you don't want others to see your happiness, how do you hide it?

In writing, showing a character's emotions helps the reader connect with them and identify with what they're experiencing. How to incorporate the showing of emotions into my writing is a challenge. I imagine my responses to emotions in the past or that of others. Observing how characters in movies and TV shows react and display their emotions is another way for me to learn.

I purchased The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression to assist me in this. I read about this resource, and other writers recommended it. So, I used my Barnes & Noble Premium Membership combined with Mike's blood money ($ from donating blood) and ordered the most recent edition!

As a resource, it's amazing and a worthwhile purchase. The book includes one hundred thirty emotions! Each emotion has two pages of information, including a definition; physical signals and behavior; internal sensations, mental responses; acute or long-term responses; signs that this emotion is being suppressed; may escalate to & may de-escalate to (these list other emotions with the page number for each); associated power verbs; and a writer's tip. There's also a wealth of advice presented about including emotions in your writing.

I'm saving this for my editing process because I'm afraid of falling into a deep rabbit hole if I dig into it while writing. I will read through the material and study it while taking breaks from my writing. Hopefully, nuggets of information will stick with me and fall into the writing of my first drafts.

This all leads to a couple of questions for you, the reader. Do you prefer reading how the characters are acting, so you can decide what the character is feeling? Or do you prefer being told? This is the basis of the Show Don't Tell theory of writing. I wrote about Show Don't Tell in my January 2024 Blog post. Try as I might, I think I often fall into telling at times.

Writing isn't easy, but it is fun!

1. Introduce yourself to our readers. Where do you fit into the story? What should we know about you?

I'm Mitchell Tobias. The oldest of the Tobias siblings, a widower, and owner of the family farm. In recent years, I developed an intense interest in wetland restorations and conservation programs I'm the favorite uncle and mentor of the main male character, Seth; I'm also dead when the story begins. I wrote the letter that sends Alex to meet Seth, so without me, there would be no story. Some may say I orchestrated things from beyond the grave. And what do I say? I'd do anything to ensure my favorite nephew finds happiness and love.

2. What do you think about the author? Tell us everything. We want to know.

Elaine writes a wonderful story. And oh my, she includes some steamy love scenes. I'm happy she included my friends' supper club in the story. Tina & Harry lost my business when I died. Although what she had Seth and Alex do in that restroom…wow! She used her experience in U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to create this story. I like how she uses her experiences to come up with ideas for stories.

3. What are your feelings about this story?

It's a heartfelt story that offers redemption for those who thought love was lost to them. Everything and everyone is worthy of restoration. I especially enjoyed the last scene when she shows Seth's total restoration as he and Alex visit my gravesite. I confess that it brought tears to my eyes.

4. How do you feel about being a character in this book?

I'm proud of holding such a critical role in this story.

5. What do you see in your future? (No spoilers please!)

Going to be enjoying life everlasting with my true love, Jennie, who passed before me. Plus, I'll be watching over Seth and Alex as they move forward in their life together.

6. Is there a Sequel in the future? Will you be part of it?

I'm thinking not as Elaine pretty much laid me to rest.

7. Say a movie producer comes knocking. What actor would you want to play you and why?

Jeff Bridges, he's fun, cocky, and good-looking for an old guy.

Lately, I've shared character interviews on my Blog. They included a protagonist, an antagonist, and a support character.

The importance of characters to a story cannot be understated. If readers can't identify with characters, love characters, or despise/hate characters, why would they care about what happens to them in the story? They won't.

I try to create interesting characters in each story. I strive to give each and every character their own voice, their unique life, their own goals, and their own motives for doing what they do. The last thing I want are cookie-cutter people marching to a set formula.

I enjoy giving characters a sense of humor that emerges in quirky ways. That touch of humor adds an interesting dimension to a character and story. It's useful to lower intensity and add silliness to a situation.

Relationships with other characters provide opportunities to explore the dynamics of a situation through their interactions. I enjoyed creating the brotherly feelings and attitudes between Caleb and his older brother, Josh, in Sparks Fly. Their interactions when together or talking on the phone added insight into the protagonist, Caleb.

Creating bad guys or gals is interesting. Antagonists are especially needed in romantic suspense stories. In the Consequential Love Series, Garrett faced a host of bad guys. And in Playground Antics, both Jace and Beth had confrontations with the scheming Mayor Roebel. Personally, I found him an easy guy to hate. Those characters add to the conflict in a story, which is an important element to the plot.

I like creating loving, caring support characters. Parents and friends have filled this role in my stories. Ben and Julie in Accidental Attraction added support and humor to the story. I still laugh at the thought of Ben scurrying across the hall to the bathroom, naked as a jaybird!

Bottomline is characters can make or break a story. I hope you have enjoyed the many characters found in my books.