Guest Post by Catherine Bybee on “The Hardest Part” + Giveaway

I’d like to welcome Catherine Bybee back to Reading Reality! She’s here today to talk about the first book in a new series (and today’s featured review) Doing It Over, the first book in her new Most Likely To series. (I keep thinking of it as the River Bend series). As you can tell from my review, I loved the book. I first got hooked on Catherine’s writing with her Highland Time Travel series, and her contemporary romances are every bit as much fun. If you like small-town contemporary romances you’ll love Doing It Over. And for Robyn Carr fans, think of River Bend as being just down the road from Thunder Point, an absolutely marvelous place to be.

The Hardest Part of Writing Doing it Over
By Catherine Bybee

Doing it Over is the first book in a new series. As if you didn’t know rolls eyes. That said, the hardest part came not from my characters, or even the plot… it came from the fictitious town I created and the world I painted.

World building isn’t just for paranormal romance. While I have written both, a contemporary world can be just as challenging, if not more so, than that with vampires and magic. In worlds where things are completely made up the reader simply accepts certain things as facts. Vampires need blood to survive. Werewolves need a full moon to change. If I say a wolf can only mate with a virgin… boom, the reader believes it. But boy…get the landscape wrong in a contemporary romance and readers will call you on that shit! Doesn’t matter that I’m making up my town…if I place it on a road someone has traveled, said reader will happily point out that there is no River Bend on the coast of Oregon. rolls eyes

World building is more than landscape. It’s a town, and the morals of those in the town…it’s time, and weather and time of year. It’s the financial crust of the character…are they rich, is there a matriarch in the family… clergy? It’s education and jobs. It’s all the extra characters that make the story full.

A new series, and especially the first book in the series, sets the stage for every book to come.

The hero and heroine are not the hard part…the love story…the plot…the twists and turns. No… easy for me. It’s the stage that is set that is always a challenge to weave into the pages.

Enjoy Doing it Over
Happy Reading
Catherine

About the Author:

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee was raised in Washington State, but after graduating high school, she moved to Southern California in hopes of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned the Weekday Brides Series and the Not Quite Series. Bybee lives with her two teenage sons in Southern California.CONTACT LINKS:
www.catherinebybee.com
catherinebybee@yahoo.com
catherinebybee.blogspot.com
facebook.com/AuthorCatherineBybee
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