Today it’s my pleasure to welcome author Barbara Ellen Brink back to Thoughts in Progress as the special guest blogger making a stop on her virtual book tour for her latest release.
Barbara’s newest book, CRUSHED, is the second installment in the Fredrickson Winery series. Here is a blurb about CRUSHED: Creating the perfect wine can sometimes be murder...
When Adam Fredrickson shows up at his sister's California winery, footloose and carefree, looking for a temporary job and a chance to play his music, he doesn't expect to find the winery struggling financially, or that the girl next door might just be the girl of his dreams.
Margaret Parker, a single mom, newly hired as Chief winemaker at Fredrickson's, finds her simple world put to the test when her father is unexpectedly released from prison, and the man who got her pregnant at fifteen, shows up from Italy wanting to play daddy nine years too late.
It's crush time at Fredrickson Winery and everyone is working feverously to get the grapes in and ensure a great vintage. No one expects murder to be part of the joyous harvest season.
Barbara has stopped by today to answer some of my questions about her book and her writing.
Mason - Is writing a second book in a series harder or easier than writing the first?
Barbara - CRUSHED, the second book in the Fredrickson Winery series, was actually a little easier to write than ENTANGLED. I already knew most of my characters well, and then I added their siblings and told the new story from their point of view. I tried to maintain the same feel and tone, although CRUSHED is in third person and ENTANGLED is a little more intimate written in first person.
I still had much research to do on wineries and vineyards, especially what goes on during harvest, which is when CRUSHED takes place.
Mason - Has your writing process changed with writing the second book?
Barbara - My writing process changed with CRUSHED only 
because I was trying to stick to a deadline and with ENTANGLED there really was no deadline. I wrote an average of six hours a day for three months to complete it. I’ve been quite a hermit this past winter and since the weather was so awful I didn’t feel that bad about staying in my office working. Now if I had a cozy fireplace in there it would have been even better. But I did maintain a drawer full of chocolate and almonds for those times when writer’s block threatened. That always jump-starts the thought process for me.
Mason - If you could change places with any of your characters for a day, who would it be and why?
Barbara - Sally works in the office at Fredrickson Winery. She has a quirky sense of humor and seems to have a secret life outside of work that I imagine could be very interesting. I especially enjoyed writing the scenes with her even though she isn’t a main character. She still has a substantial, and I think, necessary part to the overall feel of the story.
Mason - What can readers look for next from you?
Barbara - I’m working on a couple of different ideas right now. I want to do one more story in the Fredrickson series as I enjoy the characters and think they probably have more to say. But I need to switch gears for a while. So I am going in a totally different direction this time, although it will still include suspense and probably a good deal of humor.
Would you think badly of me if I say that I’m planning on making a foray into the very full genre of Vampires? I can’t tell you too much about it right now, but suffice it to say, I don’t think anyone has taken the vamps in this direction before.
Barbara, thanks for guest blogging today. It sounds like you have some interesting things in the works. Vampires in a new direction, will be fun to see.
Now for a bit of background on Barbara. Her ENTANGLED was selected as a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writer's contest in 2006 and her novel, SENSE OF DANGER, was a finalist in the 2007 contest. Barbara’s short stories and articles have been published in THEMA Literary Magazine, The Springhill Review, Evangel, Liguorian, and others.
She grew up on a small farm in Washington State, but now lives in the mean “burbs” of Minnesota with her husband and their dogs, Rugby & Willow. You can find her Facebook novelist page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Barbara-Ellen-Brink-Novelist/145508512158754 and she blogs at http://www.barbarasthinline.blogspot.com/ CRUSHED and ENTANGLED can be found at Amazon.
What are your thoughts on writing a series? Do you think it would be harder to write the first or second book? If you’re a reader, which do you enjoy more - a series or a stand alone book?
Barbara’s current release is ENTANGLED. What if you inherited a California winery, fully equip with a house, vineyards, and a sexy blonde lawyer, and not only does it reawaken your worst childhood memories and give you recurring nightmares, but your mother decides you need her and moves in with you indefinitely?
Barbara stops by today to answer some questions about writing and her book.
What inspired you to write this book?
A few years ago I was visiting relatives in Washington State and noticed how many wineries and vineyards had popped up across the countryside. I’d read a number of articles about how popular wine tasting rooms were becoming in numerous states, and wondered what it would be like to own and operate a place like that. I also wanted to deal with repressed memories. I spent much of my childhood in Washington but my memories aren’t so good. Not that they’re repressed--just poor. I found my memories often jogged through things like the smell of apricots ripening on a tree, tumbleweeds blowing in the wind, or the sound of frogs croaking in unison down by the creek. It set my mind spinning this story.
What is your writing schedule like (do you have a certain time or place to write)?
I try to write mornings and afternoons while things are quiet and I’m home alone. The pull of blogs, Facebook, and email sometimes eats up too much of my time, so I have to limit how much I check these things. I have a small office where I write, surrounded by hundreds of hardback novels for inspiration and two lazy dogs to keep me company.
What type of research did you do for your book?
I happily visited a winery or two—just to get the feel for such a place of course. I also had a critique partner who kindly handed over a pile of research she’d done on wineries while living in California. For other aspects of the story I visited the local library and a few interesting winery websites.
What was the hardest/easiest part of writing?
The first one hundred pages are always the easiest for me to 
write. I have this exciting new story idea bursting in my head and I have to get it out on paper (or rather onto my computer screen). The middle is the hardest part for me. I tend to struggle a lot with each sentence as the plot begins to unfold and characters evolve, but later find that some of my best writing is where the biggest struggles were fought.
Writing the story is easy compared with selling the story. Selling the story involves preparing a 2-5 page synopsis once my novel is finished. Condensing down 300-400 pages into a few short paragraphs is excruciating. Then basically shrinking that into ONE solid, exciting paragraph that states the gist of my book for an agent or publisher who will only request a one-page query letter to decide whether they’d even be interested in my story.
What is next for you (a sequel, different characters, different genre)?
I have recently finished another novel that I am querying agents for at this time. It is a suspense/thriller tentatively titled, “INJECTED.” I am also currently working on another story set at the Fredrickson Winery that stands on its own but has many of the same characters as ENTANGLED.
Barbara, thanks for stopping by today and answering questions for me. A story set at a winery sounds intriguing.
Here’s a brief synopsis of her book: ENTANGLED is told in the voice of Billie Fredrickson, a twenty-eight-year-old cynical divorce attorney from Minneapolis who inherits a winery and must decide whether to stay and run it as her uncle wished, or sell out and return home. Billie has every intention to cut and run, but her return to the winery after an absence of twenty years opens up more than the reading of her uncle's will. Childhood memories, long-buried, begin to surface, prompting more questions than anyone is able or willing to answer.
A late night prowler, a break-in at the winery, and an unearthed box of shocking photographs is someone's way of pulling the Welcome mat out from under Billie's feet, but it only makes her dig her heels in deeper. More secrets lie buried beneath Fredrickson Winery's innocent facade and Billie intends to get to the root. In her search for the truth, Billie unintentionally lays bare painful secrets in her mother’s past as well. Can she live with the consequences of full disclosure?
Along the way, Billie’s love of winemaking is awakened, as is an attraction to her uncle’s attorney. But before she can pursue these options, she must learn to see past hurt and regret to hope of the future, like a good wine that stands the test of time. Great wine evokes a sense of place, a connection to our heritage, much as a good story. Billie’s story is about finding that connection, that sense of belonging.
For a little background on Barbara. She’s a freelance writer, supported financially by a loving husband who just happens to have a paying job. She is currently working on another novel in the Fredrickson Winery saga. Her mainstream novel, “TIME IN A BOTTLE,” was selected as a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association 2006 contest and her suspense novel, “SENSE OF DANGER,” was a finalist in 2007. Barbara’s short stories and articles have been published in THEMA Literary Magazine, The Springhill Review, Evangel, Liguorian, and others.
Barbara grew up on a small farm in Washington State, but now lives in the mean “burbs” of Minnesota with her husband and their dogs, Rugby & Willow. With her kids now pushed out of the nest and encouraged to fly, Barbara spends much time writing, motorcycling with her husband in the summer, and hiking through snow with the dogs in the winter.
For more on Barbara and her writing, check out her webpage at http://www.barbaraellenbrink.com or her blog at http://barbarasthinline.blogspot.com
You can also download a sample or purchase ENTANGLED here: http://smashwords.com/books/view/21539 ENTANGLED is also available at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Diesel, Sony, and Kobo
Okay, what are your thoughts on inheriting a winery?
because I was trying to stick to a deadline and with ENTANGLED there really was no deadline. I wrote an average of six hours a day for three months to complete it. I’ve been quite a hermit this past winter and since the weather was so awful I didn’t feel that bad about staying in my office working. Now if I had a cozy fireplace in there it would have been even better. But I did maintain a drawer full of chocolate and almonds for those times when writer’s block threatened. That always jump-starts the thought process for me. 
