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Get my novel for free in the 2011 Read an Ebook Week promotion

R. L. Haines — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:37:00 GMT

The 2011 read an ebook week runs from March 6th to March 12th and I'm making the ebook version of my novel, Wolf at the Threshold, free during that time to help promote worldwide readership of ebooks. The ebook version normally sells for $9.99. Wolf at the Threshold is an action packed historical romance between an Iceni Princess and a Roman officer. Multiple download options are available including Kindle, Sony Reader, Epub, PDF, etc, or you can just download to your computer using HTML or Javascript. Please feel free to tell everyone you know about this promotion but remember, it only lasts a week. You can get your free download here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/18938 with absolutely no catch. Please enjoy a good read on me.

The importance of the 'write' environment

R. L. Haines — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:00:00 GMT

I'd always done my writing using an old desktop computer running windows 98 which resides in a large, oak roll top desk in a quiet corner of an upstairs room in my home. In front of the desk is an incredibly comfortable high backed leather chair. When I sit down and plug my Creative Zen loaded with over 400 various pieces of music into my ears I'm instantly in writing mode and, after quickly reviewing where I left off, am able to proceed with my novel completely disconnected from the rest of the world. This had been my writing mode for years but, instead of just grabbing an occasional hour or two here and there, I wondered if I might be just as productive using my business laptop. After all, I use if for my research and I used it when I edited and reviewed the blocking drafts of Wolf At The Threshold that my publisher sent to me. So I tried an experiment.. My first idea was to sit at my desk and allow the classical music station that we play on the radio in the office to drown out extraneous sounds. Cindi was true to her promise not to disturb me but I found myself frequently drifting back into business mode and wanting to checking my email. Concluding I wasn't going to be able to write in the office, I took my laptop outside and sat in the shade of the umbrella at the table surrounded by hundreds of colorful flowers in my English garden and, entertained by the chirps and squawks of numerous birds frequenting the two feeders, began to write. I managed a paragraph but then found myself watching the birds, delighting in the details of their antics though my writer's eyes and creating stories about them. It then hit me. When I enter writing mode my senses become acute and, if I don't have myself contained and focused, I'm going to drift all over the place. Wonderful for research and inspiration, lousy for production. I needed my writing desk. The words up on the large screen of my obsolete computer and the music from my ear buds enable me to remain completely absorbed in the book I'm writing and, completely disconnected from the world around me, I can be incredibly prolific. Quirky? Perhaps, but I'm quite willing to admit something. I like it. When I settle into my write environment and enter writing mode I am there with my characters, seeing what they see, feeling how they feel and I tap away at the keyboard with absolutely no sense of time. Today I sat like that for over four undisturbed hours and just emerged with a completed chapter, ready for a cup of tea and shocked at where the time went.

On life...my introductory blog

R. L. Haines — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:26:54 GMT

What a wonderful thing life is. Why question existence or attempt to give it purpose; simply enjoy it and pursue your innate drives. Achieve satisfaction by being the best you can be while doing the things that please you or help you capture your dreams. Spend time in the company of other beings whose lives you may enrich and who, in turn, provide pleasure and enrichment for you. Learn. Live. Above all, recognize that you simply "are" a finite part of the infinite "is" and give all life forms due respect; they are living just as you are.

When characters go off script

R. L. Haines — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:05:00 GMT

Being new to writing novels and coming from a business background, it made sense to me to approach writing by first defining my characters and then creating a detailed outline as to what will be happening in each chapter, fully expecting that some scenes might become more involved and either push into subsequent chapters or require new ones to be added. What I wasn't prepared for, however, was that while writing my first book my main characters took the storyline away from me. From somewhere around the middle of Wolf at the Threshold to the end I was excitedly capturing their story rather than writing about them in mine. From then on, when I sat down at my computer it was with curiosity about where they were going to take me as opposed to my taking them along the track I had so diligently prepared. True, we ended up in the right place, but my way we got there was very different from my initial outline. I thought this might have been a quirk, but when I finished chapter 7 and my main character wanted to do something entirely different than what I had planned, I did some more research and had to conclude that this way was better. So chapter 8 became 'off outline,' and left me quite curious as to the events that would take him to the very necessary occurrences somewhere between chapters 11 and 14. I have to admit that its rather exhilarating when my characters become alive like this and I wonder if it is to be one of the ongoing pleasures of being a writer. I certainly hope so.