Week 10: The Next Big Thing

Thanks to Vickie Johnstone (Vixie’s Stories) for tagging me for 'The Next Big Thing'!

If you have been tagged to participate, you have to answer 10 questions about your WIP (work in progress) and post on your blog. At the bottom of your post, list your five author volunteers who will answer the same 10 questions on their blog the following Wednesday.

Below, are the answers to my WIP (without a good title - HELP!!!!), and the five volunteers are listed below with links to their blogs. Head over to theirs next Wednesday, August 29th to read all about their answers.

1. What is the working title of your book?

The old one is ‘Love Enternally’ but today, 20 years later, I am not liking that title.  Here are some others I am entertaining:

          Liza’s Pinkerton Man                                                   Liza’s Outlaw Hunter
          Liza and the Cowboy                                                   Liza’s Cowboy Traveler
          Liza’s Outlaw Hunter and Belle Starr.  

Actually, I might have to run a contest to have the readers come up with a title.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I love studying western history, from about 1840s to 1900s. I got interested in it while researching my ancestry and learning that on my father’s father’s mother’s side there was not only one US Deputy Marshall, but two in Oklahoma Territory. One was a Marshall for 20 years in the Choctaw Nation. I like to write, I like to read historical romances with time travelling so I came up with the idea my heroine is an historical romance author researching her ancestors and ends up travelling back in time. She ends up meeting some of her ancestors of the law and as well as some who are outlaws and she must find a way to keep Ross, a man she is falling in love with from finding her most famous ancestor and keep him from killing her. Ross is a lawmen of the west who hunts down famous outlaws of the time. 

3. What genre does your book fall under?
Time Travel Historical Cowboy Romantic Suspense or what I call the TTHCRS.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
          Elizabeth 'Liza' (Starr) Love - Kate Capshaw

          Ross Lambert – A hunky, deep voiced man like Sam Elliott, only younger.

          Janie (Liza’s niece she is raising) – new child actor

          Sara Lambert – new child actor

          Belle Starr (Myra Maybelle Shirley) – myself, lol.  I’m a good shot with a gun.

          Bud Shirley (Belle’s brother who taught her how to shoot) – no idea

          Cole Younger (Belle’s friend she grew up with) – no idea

          Jesse James – no idea

5.  What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When Liza Starr Love, an historical romance author, travels back in time with her main characters, she must prevent them from altering the future - and try to save the life of her infamous ancestor:  Belle Starr.

6.  Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It will probably be self-published, unless it draws the attention of an agency or publisher. Then I  might entertain looking at a contract, but it has to be a good one where they do most of the marketing and promoting of the book, like it used to be done back in the 1970s and 1980s. Also, the uploading of the ebook has to be double checked more than once to make sure the formatting did not get changed, all indents, line spacing, chapter headings, etc. are where they are supposed to be and didn't get changed during the upload. 

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Unfortunately, I am not done yet. This book started about 20 years ago and got put on hold when life, marriage, raising kids, divorce, US disaster, unemployment, possible bankruptcy, and general survival got in the way of wanting to write. 

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I need to do more research, I have no idea. Since reading June Lund Shiplett's two books (see below) back in the early 1980s, I have not seen any other books of this genre, but I wasn't looking either. Probably because I was in the US Navy from 1981 to 1988 and I kind of quit reading romances during that time.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
June Lund Shiplett (RIP) wrote two historical time travel books titled 'Journey to Yesterday' and 'Return to Yesterday'. I fell in love with her writing and where she took me in those two books. I knew, after reading them, that I wanted to write books like this. She was a great writer of this new genre of the time.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
That if I ever get it finished, there might be room for a series of these characters. I hear series are books readers love to read. It would depend on how well this book was received by the readers. I can see Liza pursuing other ancestors back in time with the man she falls in love with in this first book.

Tagged for next week - you're it!

Thank you -

Laurie E. Boris

Delle Jacobs

Rhonda Hopkins

Lisa Vandiver

Carole Foley Bellacera

Rules
*** Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (Work In Progress) ***

Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them. It's that simple.

Ten interview questions for The Next Big Thing
1. What is the working title of your book?
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
3. What genre does your book fall under?
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?