Book Name: 6 Days to Get Lucky
Series: A Nick Valentine Story
Book: Two
Series should be read in order for maximum enjoyment
 
Release Date: March 2, 2016

Blurb:
 
Mixologist Nick Valentine never thought love was in the cards, but after a scorching Valentine’s Day kiss from bouncer Davis “FatBoy” Newman, he’s beginning to think it’s possible. After four weeks of dry spell, Nick’s losing patience—it’s time FatBoy stop acting the gentleman and just throw him over the bar or Nick may just change his mind.
 
All FatBoy wants is a shot at winning Nick’s heart. As long as meddling bosses, an Irish hurling team and a bar riot don’t ruin his chances forever, he might just get lucky and take the man of his dreams, home.
 
Pages or Words: 72,000 words
 
Categories: Contemporary, Gay Fiction, Humor, M/M Romance, Romance

Excerpt:
Reaching across the empty bed next to me, I rode out the last waves of my dream alone. I could still feel his phantom kiss on my lips and the sensation of a hand stroking along my thigh.
The rest of it was just a blur of emotions and sticky residue on my sheets—though I could guess at it without much effort. FatBoy Newman had been a specter haunting me at work so it was no great leap to assume he’d shouldered his way into my dreams as well.
In fact, he was at the root of my problem: I’d been having a hell of a dry spell.
Four weeks of near misses had done nothing but stoke my bad mood and turn my balls a lovely shade of indigo that matched my jeans…
Four weeks of dashed hopes…
Four weeks since the most romantic kiss of my life…
Four weeks of nothing.
Fuck the South and its mythology of the Southern Gentleman—if FatBoy Newman didn’t stop treating me like a delicate flower and throw me up against a wall soon, I was going to explode.
It was six days until St. Patrick’s Day, and FatBoy had until then to make his move, or I was moving on.
 
Buy the book:
 
https://www.wildecity.com/books/gay-romance/6-days-to-get-lucky/#.VsTzeuw76nM

Meet the author:
LE Franks lives in the SF Bay area and writes M/M Romance in a unique mix of humor and drama with enough suspense to produce fast paced stories filled with emotion and passion and featuring characters that are quirky and complicated and sometimes a little bit dark. LE Franks is a best selling author and finalist for 2013 & 2014 Rainbow Awards. Her books are available through her publishers at MLR Press, Dreamspinner Press and Wilde City Press and Pride Publishing and online bookstores.
 
Where to find the author:
 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LE.Franks1
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/LEFranksAuthor/
Twitter: @boxtersushi
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lefrankswriter/le-franks-books/
Tumblr: http://boxtersushi.tumblr.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boxtersushi/
 
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7152228.L_E_Franks
Publisher: Wilde City Press
Cover Artist: Wilde City Press

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Tour Dates & Stops:
Parker Williams, Divine Magazine, Making It Happen, Open Skye Book Reviews, , Full Moon Dreaming,
Molly Lolly, Happily Ever Chapter, Bayou Book Junkie, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, All I Want and More Books, BFD Book Blog, The Hat Party, A.M. Leibowitz, Outrageous Heroes, Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews, Alpha Book Club, EE Montgomery, MM Good Book Reviews, Havan Fellows, Two Chicks Obsessed With Books and Eye Candy, V's Reads, Inked Rainbow Reads

Someone I loved died this week. He was the father of one of my closest friends. I've known him for twenty-five years. From the moment I met him, I felt like one of the family. Accepted and loved. I hope he felt the same from me.

My friend is devastated. I need to be with her.

Plotting has always been something I've had to work at. By inclination, I'm a pantser. I like to start writing and see where it all takes me. Then I write myself into a hole and have to spend time sorting things out so I can climb out and continue.

The Boot Camp I went to last weekend helped me work out how to plot but maintain the joy of discovery I have in writing.

Just to be clear, I know how to plot. I can use all sorts of plotting patterns like the Three Act Structure or the Hero's Journey and make them work, but plotting to that level of detail always spoils the surprises for me. That's why I generally write my rough draft off the top of my head and then have to spend months restructuring and rewriting the story to tidy it all up. And I hate editing.

The big thing I learned at this boot camp is that it's okay to have a scene plan that lists for one (or more) scenes 'blow stuff up'. It's okay to have a scene plan that says 'Miso boards ship, Lonnar meets Miso, Lonnar doesn't know his memories are stolen', or 'see Wes here'.

Apparently, the important things to remember about scenes are bigger than the details. You have to know:

1. if the scene fits in the beginning, early middle, late middle, or end of the story
   
2. if the scene is a 'feel-good' scene or a 'black' scene (ie enjoying the story, rising the tension)
   
3. if the scene moves the story forward and/or shows us about the characters
   
4. how to get into the scene
   
5. how to get out of the scene
   

It's all about the structure:

• Making sure the story has a beginning, a middle, an end.
  
• Making sure there are two transition points--one at the end of the beginning and one at the beginning of the end--that change everything and throw all plans into the fire.
  
• Checking the balance of 'feel-good' scenes and 'black' scenes and where they fall. For example, the middle will be heavy on the 'feel-good' at the beginning but heavy on the 'black' towards the second transition point.
  

Perhaps if I can use this method of pre-organisation with my stories, I can avoid a lot of the heavy editing I get bogged down in once I'm finished my first draft.

I'm at a novelists' boot camp this weekend. It's an intensive course run by QWC with Dr Kim Wilkins.  Over the weekend, we look at all things plotting and planning. Last night I learned an easier way of writing a blurb. I tried it last night and kept falling into old habits but I'm sure with practice I'll get better at it and it will become a relatively quick and easy thing to do, instead of the angst-ridden nightmare it currently is.

Today we're looking at structure, productivity and better writing. Only three things to master. Easy. ;)