Writing After Midnight

It all comes down to midnight..

 
The time-traveling romantic book “Time Between Us” by Tamara Ireland Stone is hitting the shelves this month and I am happy to host a stop on the blog tour. I’ve been reading after midnight for quite a while now and it is great to see how writing after midnight works for this debut author.

Let’s welcome Tamara into this wonderful book world!

Meet Tamara Ireland Stone

Thank you so much for having me on the blog today. I can’t think of a better place for a final stop on this incredible tour!

And how perfect… Reading after midnight. I do a lot of that. I’m not a great sleeper, and I’m often awake between 3:00-4:00 a.m. with nothing but my books to keep me company.
I was frustrated about that for a long time. Until I got an idea for a book of my own.

At first, the idea of writing it down was daunting. I’d always written for myself, but a novel? That was way off in the distance.
But this story wouldn’t leave me alone. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I actually had the two things I needed to write it: Small pockets of time and an iPhone.

This story came to me in short, vivid scenes I could write quickly, and I’d reach for my iPhone—in parking lots. In the carpool line. And frequently, in the middle of the night.

I’d write whenever I was inspired (which was often) and paste those scenes into a larger manuscript at the end of the day. They worked like Legos, snapping together to create something much larger.
I found I could write anywhere, any time I wanted to, because I always had a place to jot down my thoughts. I wrote everything from specific lines to entire scenes in the iPhone’s Notes app.

Here’s an example of a scene I wrote back in December 2010. As you can see from the timestamp, this scene between Anna and Bennett came to me in the middle of the night. It now appears on pages 194-195 in Time Between Us, where it’s been worked and tightened, but the basic structure and flow is still the same.

I also do a lot of editing in the middle of the night, and that’s when I reach for my Kindle.

I use the highlighting tool to mark areas that aren’t working, and I often type entirely new paragraphs in using the tiny keypad and the comments tool. I manually enter those changes in the manuscript when I’m done, which is an arduous process, but it’s valuable because I have another chance to rework each word and each line as I go.

I’m a software and gadget junkie, and honestly, I don’t know if I could be an author if it weren’t for all the tools we have that allow me to write anywhere, any time I want to. I’m pretty sure Time Between Us wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for my iPhone, my Kindle, and a nagging case of insomnia.

I’d love to hear from you. Do you use mobile devices to read or write? Do they work for you?

About Time Between Us

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett’s unique ability to travel through time and space brings him into Anna’s life, and with him, a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, they face the reality that time might knock Bennett back where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question.
Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate—and what consequences they can bear in order to stay together.

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Click on the image to see the wonderful cover in full size.
You can find Anna and Bennett’s playlists here: www.TimeBetweenUs.com
Read my review: Time Between Us

Watch the Book Trailer: