Guest Post | Photographed in the Writer’s Room @rararesources

Starting off the week with a guest post from author Michelle L. E. Price.

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Photographed in the Writer’s Room
Michelle L. E. Price

Former TV star Brandi Tyler’s big screen debut crashed and burned amid rumors of an affair with her married co-star… Now, she wants nothing more than to quietly slink away from Hollywood. When she’s offered an opportunity to get out of town and work on a project involving the photographer that launched her career, it seems like the perfect escape! Unfortunately for Brandi, her famous face makes hiding out even a huge city like Houston a little tricky. 

When the celebrated photographer’s son offers to let her use his home for privacy, it seems like everything is falling into place. Little does she know that Michael Ames a gorgeous best selling author, and he comes with the package! As Brandi makes her way through old photographs and new scandals, Michael struggles with his next project, and they both fight the growing attraction between them. 

Maybe a posse of new girlfriends, some Texas-sized boozy brunches, and a little private time in the writer’s room will help this leading lady find her path back onscreen. And, if she can just picture it, maybe this time she’ll even find love?

Amazon UK | Goodreads | Amazon US

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Writing About Writers

My latest book, Photographed in the Writer’s Room, is the second the Writer’s Room series. And, in this series, I gave myself the unusual task of writing about writers. 

Kinda meta, right?

I think I was initially drawn to the idea, because somewhere in the back of my mind I had an old mantra that I learned when I was back in journalism school: “Write what you know.” As a new author, that seemed like a brilliant bit of advice.

But, of course, I had to go and completely ruin that idea by writing about writers who are so different from me, whose careers are so far removed from my own, that I ultimately had to do more research about the writers than I did for anything else in the entire series! 

Oops. So much for writing what I know.

Turns out, there are a lot more kinds of writers than I had imagined. And frankly, most of their jobs are a lot more difficult than mine! For example, in my first book Hidden in the Writer’s Room, the writer that I created was a screenwriter and show runner for a hit TV series. Ryder Christensen’s office was actually the writer’s room for a snarky, office-place comedy filmed in Hollywood. So, you know, none of that is exactly in my wheelhouse as a suburban mom writer of romcom. To get the details right, I had to research how television studios work, how writing teams develop scripts, how the filming and sets are run, when and how actors see their written roles, how voice over work is handled… I even had to learn how to actually write a script myself.

While it definitely helped to be an author myself when it came time to get inside Ryder head (massive insecurities and inexplicable neurosis, anyone?), I sure didn’t know how he’d handle being interviewed by mass media or how he’d react to working with The Talent. I guess that is where the fiction part comes in.

With the second book in the series, Photographed in the Writer’s Room, I ran into some of the same issues. I did manage to stick a little closer to home – this time my writer was at least a novelist, albeit a prolific New York Times best-selling author. What made Michael challenging to write (besides his adorable crush on my main character, of course), was that he was going through the tortuous process of having to adapt his writing for film. As an author, I literally – not figuratively – begin sweating even contemplating that! It was a completely new kind of writing, one I’m grateful isn’t likely to be in my future. This time, my researched involved understanding how writers like John Grisham, Steven King, J.K Rowling and Stephanie Meyers have their work adapted successfully for film and television. (Spoiler alert – most of them don’t want to be involved in the actual writing either.)

It’s been bizarre writing about writers, but I don’t think I’m quite done yet. 

Besides my current work in progress – the next book in my Writer’s Room series that will feature a journalist – I’m convinced that some of the Indy authors that I’ve met and those that I follow on Instagram and Twitter deserve to be written about. They are fascinating! I’m pretty sure that writers are some of the craziest characters around (pun only very slightly intended).

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Born in Montreal but raised in New England, author Michelle L. E. Price has been writing as long as anyone can remember. An avid reader who was on the verge of losing her mind as a mom to two small children, Michelle began writing her first book, Hidden in the Writer’s Room, as an escape… at least her characters would do exactly what she told them to do and she could always count on a happily ever after ending. She also enjoys wine, re-watching 90’s sitcoms and occasionally running, but heavily relies on writing to stay sane. Michelle is a firm believer that laughter and love are the best parts of life.

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