Guest Post: Stephanie Beck with bonus excerpt

Tweet

Today I have Stephanie Beck on the blog. She is going to be telling us a little about building a story. So sit back, relax and enjoy this read.

Building a story—A lot like any craft, only without the sticky fingers.

I’ve been writing romance since I was fifteen years old. I love the way a story can come together using brain power, a notebook and a pen. Adding in new details and feeling an idea come to life make writing an amazing way to pass the time. I also like to consider myself as a crafty person. I enjoy scrapbooking, knitting and baking, but nothing gets me going like writing.


Who needs stickers when you can have two (or more) amazing people come to life on a page in front of you? After crafting a person from the toes up, knowing their ins and outs and giving them the motivation to continue on, putting stickers around pictures is tame.


Yarn is nice, but tying a plot together by the skin of your teeth, making it just this side of possible while still cultivating the sureealness of new love beats the heck out of any scarf.
Making a cake or tart gives pleasure not only to the one who eats it, but also to the one who makes it. Sharing sweetness is something that makes each of us better. But when that cake is gone...it’s gone. Until the ingredients are replenished and the time is found to mix and bake, only crumbs remain. Writing and plotting are never ending (curses to writer’s block). The ideas of a writer can feed their reader without the calories.


As far as creative outlets go, I’ve got my poison of choice, but like any good crafter, I find joy in simply creating something new and lovely or functional. Where do you land in creating? A writer? A crafter? A knitter? A baker?

Cross-Stitch and Brimstone by Stephanie Beck
Blurb:
A cross-stitch witch? Marc doesn’t know if there is such a thing, but for his long-lost love, he’s willing to believe.
Marc kills demons. While he doesn’t love it, he’s happy to do his job, keeping people safe and destroying the brethren of the demons who stole his human life.
Beth lives quietly, content to stitch her samplers and fancywork in an era she wasn’t born to but is magically destined to live through.
A late-night visit changes both Marc and Beth’s worlds, reuniting them after over a hundred years, long after their love affair ended tragically during the Civil War. Back together, the two must decide what their future holds as they battle the real threat—a demon with a bad case of rose envy.

Excerpt:
The cat hissed again, and Beth sighed. "Fine, I’ll let you out, you stinking beast," she muttered, going to the side door that released to the wraparound porch she loved. "Go on now, and don’t you— Who’s there?"
The figure at her front door, only three feet away from her, froze. It was the middle of the night, so she’d long ago turned off the porch light. Terror welled. Her longevity was a given, but she was still as easily broken as any human woman under five feet tall and just as susceptible to villains of the night.
"Elisabeth?"
The figure turned with her name on his lips. That voice. It sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it. She flipped on the light switch for the hall behind her, but it didn’t help much, not until he came into the light.
"Marcato? But...how...how?"
She ran for him, the three steps taking only a heartbeat before she launched into his arms. He felt just the same as when she’d given him one final embrace before he’d gone off to fight with his brothers so long ago. How she’d loved her soldier boy, though before the war he’d been sweet and gentle, a young man on his way to the seminary to be a preacher.
She ran her fingers down his face, the same face she remembered in her dreams. Not so often anymore, but there was no way she could have forgotten about him. Not him.

Places to buy:
Breathless Press: http://www.breathlesspress.org/Book/315
Amazon: HERE

Finally, to stay up to date with Stephanie, here is her website: http://www.stephaniebeck.net/