Guest Post: Karyn Lawrence

I'm joined by Karyn Lawrence today, whose new book, Keep, is available now!

Billionaire CEO Shawn Dunn has plenty of sex, power, and money. A woman turning down his advances? Unfathomable. Yet that’s what she does, again and again.

Kara Hayward is supposed to be off limits. Her sister is hiding from the dangerous assassin she escaped from, and it’s best for everyone if Shawn keeps his distance. Certainly as far as Kara is concerned. Shawn’s only after one thing and then he’ll walk away, just like her ex-husband.

But Shawn has larger desires and he’s used to getting what he wants. He doesn’t care if being together is dangerous. He doesn’t believe that threat to him, or his empire, is real. Right up to the night he has everything taken away.

Available here!

Excerpt

If she weren’t so emotionally and physically exhausted, she’d be immune to him. Maybe immune wasn't the right word. Resistant, perhaps.

They hadn't taken their clothes off. Shawn had barely touched her. And still, the encounter left her desperate and shaky. Filled with need for him. Wanting him. It had easily been the hottest twenty minutes of her life.

Good-looking, her sister had warned her once about Shawn. Not even close. Jason was good-looking in a rough and tough sort of way. Her sister had always liked the bad boys and while Jason, the head of security, looked more conventionally dangerous, Kara knew better. That the taller brother in the suit was cunning and manipulative, making him far, far more dangerous than the one that carried a gun.

About the Author

Karyn Lawrence is an author, graphic designer, and screenwriter. She published a nonfiction book about color guard after an editor discovered her blog, way back in the infancy of the Internet and long before blogging was really a thing.

She has been a screenwriter for more than fifteen years, with rather mild success, and grew tired of her stories only reaching a handful of readers. The decision was made to try fiction in early 2013 and once she figured out how to write internal dialogue again, the prose came fast and furious. She most enjoys writing smexy (smart-sexy) books featuring a lovable SOB hero and a tough-as-nails heroine.

Karyn is a Chicago native who lives in Kentucky with her epic husband and two adorable sons.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karynlawrenceauthor

Twitter: @karynsloan

Website: www.karynlawrence.com

Karyn's giving away a $25 gift card to Amazon, a signed paperback copy of both "Keep" and the first book in the stand-alone series, "Stay", bookmarks from "Stay" and a can kozie with the logo from the fictional beer company that the hero owns in "Keep" (Swag and print book are US only) to a randomly drawn winner. Enter for your chance to win!

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And now a little guest post from Karyn:

How I Fix A Boring But Necessary Scene

There’s no way around it. You’ve got to write that scene that explains something to your reader and it’s a huge, boring exposition dump. Your plot and characters can’t move forward until this information is revealed and you’re backed into a corner. So, you think, let’s write it fast and slog through it, and even as you’re writing it -- you’re bored. Your reader’s going to get bored too, but worse, they might miss out on this important information because they’re not paying attention.

How do you fix or disguise it?

Here’s what works for me. I ask myself, “What’s the most interesting way I can play this scene?” For example, the opening scene of my book “Keep” needed to do a lot. I wanted to introduce my main character as a strong, professional woman who’s succeeding at her job, as well as other backstory information such as she’s tall, emotionally guarded, cool under pressure, and recently divorced.

During the time I was drafting the book, at my day job I was concerned that I was going to have to terminate an employee… and that it might not go well. And since I’ve got that crazy imagination that most writers do, I thought about the worst-case scenario. (It ended up going the opposite direction in real-life, thank god.)

I used it and chose to open with her terminating an employee. As soon as it’s over, she learns that he’s going through a divorce. Already unstable, the firing pushes the employee over the edge and he bursts into the conference room a few minutes later brandishing a gun. That allowed me to show the reader how calmly she talks the employee down, using her own divorce to make him feel that he’s not alone.

Really all this technique boils down to is conflict. If I’ve got a scene where two characters have a conversation, I’m going to turn that into an argument. It’s so much more fun to read (and write) when there’s tension, and your reader doesn’t notice that you’re laying groundwork.

Obviously, with any technique, overuse will ruin it. If your character has to go to the grocery store and you have a robbery in progress, and then that character gets into a car accident on the drive home, and when they arrive the house is on fire… your reader’s not going to be too happy, or able to suspend disbelief.

If you’ve got that one scene that you’re skimming over when editing – that one you know you can’t cut, but hate rereading – ask yourself if you can find a more interesting way to play that scene. It might just end up being one of your favorites to write.