“Southerners Are Born Storytellers” RPLA Showcase: Bette Lee Crosby

Career writer Bette Lee Crosby knows a thing or two about telling stories in the South. After all, three of her eighteen novels have hit the USA Today bestseller list. Telling great stories while serving great food is a Southern tradition. Bette taps into her regional roots to enthrall readers with her characters. And one very special canine character took the stage in The Summer of New Beginnings, the First Place winner for Women’s Fiction in the 2018 Royal Palm Literary Awards. The book was also a runner-up for Published Book of the Year. Bette talks relating to her characters and the importance of editing on this week’s RPLA Showcase.

Bette’s Writing Journey

Mine is a journey that has indeed traveled a crooked road. I studied to be an artist and went to work designing soft-goods packaging. When told to “make up” some sell copy for the back of a pantyhose package, the die was cast. Once I began to write I moved into marketing and given my love of reading and the fact that Southerners are born storytellers, it was only a matter of time before I gravitated to fiction. Early on I won the National League of American Pen Women Fiction Award for an unpublished manuscript and never stopped to look back.

The Winning Entry, The Summer of New Beginnings

Logline: One fateful summer Meghan Briggs rescues a dog and two sisters learn that together a family can make miracles happen.

I have loved a rescue dog with all my heart, so I was driven to write a story about the relationship between a young woman and the dog she saves. There are a number of similarities in my life and this story, which made it so relatable. Meghan is a daddy’s girl, just as I was, and after she loses her dad, it is the dog who comforts her. Also like me, she has a fun-loving sister with a penchant for picking the wrong guy. What makes the story unique is when her sister gives birth to a baby born deaf. It is the dog who ultimately brings the sisters together, and leads them to an understanding of the baby’s problem. The turnaround is that the dog Meghan saves ultimately saves her and her family.

Read an excerpt from The Summer of New Beginnings here.

Two Truths and a Lie, Writer’s Edition

Never try to edit your own work.

Write in a genre or category that is selling well right now.

Understand your characters thoroughly.

The lie? Write in a genre or category that is selling well right now. First of all, what sells now may be completely out of fashion by the time you complete your work. Also, it is far more important to hold onto your own voice and you own originality. Dare to be different, trend followers will fall by the wayside as trends change. Find your niche and work at making it genuinely your own.

Never try to edit your own work. This is true, no matter how good a writer you are, you will be blind to your own mistakes. A professional editor is well worth the cost, even if it means going without lunch for a month. Also, Understand your characters thoroughly, their likes, dislikes, fears, hopes, dreams, and motivations. No matter how good your storyline is, if you do not know your characters they will come across as shallow and unbelievable.

Other Works by Bette

I currently have a backlist of 18 novels, including three that have hit the USA Bestseller List. Those three are Spare Change, Book One of the Wyattsville Series, The Twelfth Child, Book One of the Serendipity Series, and Cracks in the Sidewalk, a stand-alone novel. I also have The Memory House Series, a collection of five novels touched with a bit of magical realism.

Coming Next from this Author

This past October, I released the second Magnolia Grove Book, A Year of Extraordinary Moments. This novel is the sequel to this year’s Women’s Fiction Royal Palm Literary Award Winner, The Summer of New Beginnings.

In the spring of 2019, Lake Union Publishing, an Amazon Imprint, will publish my stand-alone novel Emily, Gone. I am super excited about this novel and because of its intensity and depth of character, I think it may be one of the best I have ever done.

Connect with Bette

You can learn more about me at my website: www.betteleecrosby.com or follow me on BookBub to see what I am reading and recommending. To keep up with special sales and new releases, follow me on Amazon. And if you are looking to chat or join in some of the fun promotions and special events, find me on Facebook.

More About RPLA

The Royal Palm Literary Awards competition is a service of the Florida Writers Association established to recognize excellence in members’ published and unpublished works while providing objective and constructive written assessments for all entrants. Judges include literary agents, publishers, film producers, current or retired professors, teachers, librarians, editors, bestselling and award-winning authors, and journalists from across the nation. Entries are scored against the criteria set by RPLA using rubrics tailored to each genre. Winners are announced at the annual FWA conference during the RPLA awards banquet. To learn more about RPLA, click here for the guidelines.