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The first novel in the women’s fiction series Captain’s Point Stories, A Clue for Adrianna, written by multi-published, internationally known From Women’s Pens authors Annie Acorn and Juliette Hill under the pseudonym Charlotte Kent, offers the reader romance, mystery, humor, and adventure in a story of love and personal growth.
Forced to return to her ancestral home in Captain’s Point, a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Adrianna Montgomery receives a shock and a challenge when the terms of her great-aunt’s will are read. Faced with a haughty attorney, a crumbling old house and a clue, she must draw upon the resources found in those around her as well as her own inner strengths in order to solve the riddle and secure her inheritance. Little understanding the adventure and danger she will encounter along the journey ahead, she accepts the challenge and ultimately learns who she is destined to be and discovers the meaning of true love.
Don’t miss this chance to fall in love again!
A
Clue for Adrianna, recently released by Annie Acorn
Publishing LLC, is the first novel in the contemporary romantic woman’s fiction
series Captain’s Point Stories that I am writing in collaboration with writer
and publisher, Annie Acorn under our pseudonym Charlotte Kent. The pseudonym celebrates our efforts and sets
them apart from our individual work as Juliette Hill and Annie Acorn. Our
collaboration has been smooth, exciting and rewarding, as well as lots and lots
of fun!
It all began back in January when Annie and I were
discussing upcoming WIPs for the year. She offered me the opportunity to work
with her on a romance series that she had been thinking about writing for years,
but was still fluid in her mind. I
always intended to start a series of my own at some point. Who would have imagined that, in approximately
90 days, we would have written, edited and published our first full-length
novel?
The process was amazing, as we’ve truly experienced
two creative minds being better than one, melding our similar writing styles,
voices, and visions. Our individual ideas about setting, characters and plot
development wove seamlessly together, creating a romantic, suspenseful,
contemporary, often humorous, women’s fiction novel. It’s our belief that readers will find
themselves falling in love again as they follow our main character’s journey of
personal growth and discovery of true love!
The fictitious town of Captain’s Point on Maryland’s
Eastern Shore is the setting of our series.
Living in Maryland as we do, Annie and I both have a soft place in our
hearts for the Eastern Shore with the area’s deep roots in history, its
picturesque towns and scenery, friendly residents and, of course, the close
proximity of both the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. The commerce and lifestyle of the area blend
with our storylines, enhancing their beautiful imagery and larger than life
characters.
A strong cast of characters, who will grow and
change depending upon whatever curve balls life throws at them, are introduced
within the first book. Adrianna
Montgomery, the series’ central character, is a modern young woman who meets a
number of challenges that life throws at her.
Doors close, and she embraces others as they open. As her character exploded onto the pages,
Adrianna guided us through the episodes of her journey, dictating and
influencing our approach to her interactions with the other main players.
The series, as it’s developing, proudly embraces our
characters’ pasts and heritage while dealing with present day situations and
issues. Storylines highlight Adrianna’s
development of friendships and relationships with the residence of Captain’s
Point and beyond. Serious writing has
already been completed on the next three novels, within which the series merges
our characters business lives with fun, romance, courtship, marriage, children,
friendships, human failures and flaws as well as personal triumphs and
successes.
A Man for Susan, the second novel in the series will
be available August 1, 2013. The future
for our readers is bright indeed as we explore the wonders of Captain’s Point
together!
Interview by Juliette Hill of Annie Acorn
Question #1:
We were able to write and edit A
Clue for Adrianna, the first novel in our Captain’s Point Stories
series in the contemporary romantic fiction genre in approximately 90
days. Besides churning out sometimes
thousands of words a day, what do you feel was the secret to accomplishing such
an ambitious goal?
Annie Acorn:
It isn’t only the number of words we produced each day that led us to
accomplishing such a goal–the key to writing a good novel, which was our goal,
is saying what you intend to say in a way that will be entertaining and helpful
to the reader, if they should chose to learn from the experience of the
characters presented.
I am personally proud of what came out of our daily
collaboration, during which we continually reminded ourselves who these
characters were, what their lives were like, what their hopes and dreams were
and their baggage (or what they as individuals had to overcome) in order to
become the best they could be.
We put ourselves in the position of our characters
to truly understand their actions and individual growth.
Question #2:
Did you ever experience writer’s block while we were working on A
Clue for Adrianna or while you were writing any of your prior literary
works? If so, how did you deal with this
issue?
Annie Acorn:
I can honestly say that I have never experienced writers’ block. Scenes will come to me unexpectedly like a
gift but when writing a daily quota, what I do is reread the previous scene and
ask which one of the characters would take the next step, or who might show up
at the door–that sort of thing.
Question #3: How did you find the experience of our
collaboration on such a large undertaking like A
Clue for Adrianna?
Annie Acorn:
I have always had an overactive imagination and obviously you do, too,
Juliette. Every time I thought I had a
story line, you brought just as much to the table. By bringing our creative perspectives
together in the book, we produced vastly better material than we could have on
our own.
Saying that, there were three things that I found
during my experience: (1) knowing I was checking in with you each day kept me
writing; (2) having daily collaboration discussions helped me focus on
characters’ motivations, dreams and goals; and (3) I often saw your role,
Juliette, in collaborating as keeping me on track–true to the characters by
insisting that a character had to do something or not do something.
Question #4:
How did you approach this undertaking, given that this novel is the
first in the Captain’s Point Stories (romance) series, compared to any of your
previous works such as your highly successful Chocolate
Can Kill, the first in the Emily Harris Cozy Mystery series?
Annie Acorn:
First, in a mystery series, the author is constantly looking to move the
sleuth from one environment or group of people to another so that the reader
has a fresh suspect or set of suspects to choose from. With a romance series, a writer wants to set
up an environment and a broad group of strong characters that the reader will
want follow as they move forward together in the series.
When writing a mystery, one usually wants to limit
the number of characters to between 12 and 15.
While in an ongoing romance series, the more characters that are
casually introduced the better, without confusing the reader.
Question #5:
What if any, surprises or unexpected challenges did you encounter during
our collaborative effort?
Annie Acorn:
I was surprised by how much fun that it was! At the start, I had carried around a setting
for a series for 30 years–a young woman that inherits a large money pit
property in a small town who meets a cast of characters who change, broaden and
enrich each other’s lives. On Jan. 10,
2013, I had no plot, no characters, no message beyond the single woman and the
house. In point of fact, the town of
Captain’s Point is small but the house is not at all what I had envisioned nor
is the character of Adrianna. After we
started, Adrianna took on a life of her own.
When she became defined, she dictated how we would move forward
imagining the people around her and who might be thrown in her path that we
could draw upon for the story.
The second surprise would be how much fun it could
be to write collaboratively with another author who’s voice and vision are so
similar. I found it stimulating working
with another accomplished author such as yourself, Juliette. Our brainstorming sessions were amazing.
Question #6:
Working with you on this endeavor has been a dream-come-true for me and
I have learned so much about completing a full-length novel. What would you say is the greatest lesson
that you’ve learned from this experience?
Annie Acorn:
Having written for more decades than I care to reveal, after all, Annie
Acorn writes blog posts as– A Tired Older Woman… , it was wonderful to reaffirm
that you’re never too old to take on a new challenge and stretch your talents
such that they may be.
Second lesson:
Annie Acorn really does need 8 hours sleep a night rather than 4!
Question #7:
Was there anything about the collaborative approach to writing this
novel that has surprised you?
Annie Acorn:
At times, A Clue… poured out of me!
So many words wanted to come out that it would have been physically
painful not to put pen to paper.
For days on end, I would go to bed, only to wake up
three hours later having to complete one or two chapters that were ready to be
borne. Being A Tired Older Woman… this
took its toll–flipping my days and nights, forgetting to eat–a slave to my
words. At the end of the day, reading A
Clue for Adrianna–it was all worth it!
Question #8:
Since A Clue for Adrianna is your first novel which would be categorized
primarily as a romance, what have you found to be the most appealing aspect of
working in this genre?
Annie Acorn:
Having the opportunity to fall in love again. I have occasionally on my blog annieacorn.com
mentioned that I’ve been a widow for almost 20 years, writing this story of
two, three-dimensional true to life young professionals, whose paths have met
at a crucial time during which they fall in love, has allowed me to relive the
time when I fell in love and married my soul mate.
We set out to write a romance and what we wrote was
a romantic women’s fiction novel taking our work way beyond our initial
expectations. Our characters are so
strong!
Question #9:
What do Charlotte Kent’s readers have in store for them in the near
future?
Annie Acorn: Lots of fun and romance! A Man for Susan, the second novel in our
series has a projected launch date of August 1st! Substantial writing has been completed on
this work. At the moment, we have five
books in the works with others to come.
Romance and humor consistently flow through all five books as do a
strong cast of characters experiencing and learning from life surrounded by
friends and family at Captain’s Point.
Thank you so much, Annie, for spending this time
with us and sharing your personal experiences, so that our readers and fellow
authors have a better understanding of what motivates and influences you as a
writer, as well as insights into our new collaborative undertaking, the Captain’s
Point Stories series!
Links
and Contact Information:
CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/4253341
On
Twitter: @CharlotteKent20
@JulietteHill1
@Annie_Acorn
By
Email: charlottekentromances@gmail.com
onevintageheart@gmail.com (Juliette
Hill)
annieacorn11@gmail.com (Anne Acorn)
Websites/Blogs: www.annieacorn.com
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