Meet Beautiful Singles

by Maggie Marr

I am kicking off the new cycle at the Girlfriends Book Club and our topic is location. How do we choose where our books are set? Or does the setting choose us? How does setting impact character? These are brilliant questions developed by Sylvie Fox and Laura Spinella and Saralee Rosenberg.

Take a look at my books. All but one are set in Los Angeles. The sole book set outside Los Angeles in Powder Springs, Colorado, a Rocky Mountain town, is Courting Trouble.

My books are not just set in Los Angeles but they are located in the small, industry town that is Hollywood. While Hollywood is a geographical place in Los Angeles, the geographical place is not to what I refer when I write that my books are set in Hollywood. I am referring to an Industry located within Los Angeles but with outposts throughout the world. I am referring to movie-making, TV making, script-writing, directing, producing, and all the executive functions that go with those endeavors.


Hollywood, that small town within a big city informs my characters, their personalities, their decisions, goals, motivations, and conflicts.





Today, Broken Glamour the second book in my Glamour Series publishes. This is the love story of Amanda Sterling and Ryan Sinclair. Amanda grew up in Hollywood, was raised by one of the premiere families in the Industry, while Ryan broke into the Business due to his talent as an actor. I loved writing this book. I loved how tortured Ryan was because of his addictions and how lost Amanda was because of being ousted from her prime spot as part of Hollywood royalty.


Amanda Legend may loathe the entertainment world, but she understands the rules. She also knows Ryan Sinclair, understands alcoholics (she grew up around a few) and now, after being banished from her posh lifestyle, needs a paycheck to get to New York. Amanda accepts the job as sober companion to Ryan Sinclair for his first film post rehab. But Amanda must learn to ignore her attraction to Ryan, because falling for a guy like him would pull her back into a world she desperately wants to escape. 

Amanda and Ryan's love story shows how two emotionally damaged people can take a chance and allow love to grow. This was a story I was drawn to write because of the characters, but these characters were created by their environment. A place that I love and call home: Hollywood.

Leave a comment and tell me one of your favorite places whether it be on a map or not. Random.org will select a winner and they will receive a digital copy of Broken Glamour.

Maggie Marr is an author, attorney, and producer. She began her Hollywood adventure pushing the mail cart at ICM where she became a motion picture literary agent. Maggie is the author of the beloved Hollywood Girls Club Series which includes Hollywood Girls Club, Secrets of The Hollywood Girls Club, and Hollywood Hit. The Glamour Series is her new adult contemporary romance series. Hard Glamour published January 2014 and Broken Glamour released today! She has written for TV and film and ghost-written for celebrities. Look for her May 2014 release, book 2 in the Eligible Billionaires Series; One Night For Love, book 1 Can't Buy Me Love is available now. You can find Maggie on facebook and twitter.
http://amzn.to/1gOX0wm

by Maggie Marr

Tonight, as I write this, I am exhausted. Whipped. Tired. A half centimeter to the left of drained. I have 66 pages to edit on my latest book and it is 11:08 pm. I usually get up at 4 am to write and go to bed by 9, but tonight, well tonight was family night. Plus a few documents for clients hit my inbox. Documents that had to be turned around by tomorrow. Thus my late night and perhaps my fatigue.

But fatigue is not an excuse to not write. Neither is exhaustion, jobs, children, in-laws, graduations, vacations, husbands, parents or [insert ANY excuse here]. I will give illness a pass as long as you're sporting a fever. Really there is no valid excuse not to make your fingers do the tippity-tappity dance across the keyboard. None. Nada. You either want to finish the manuscript or you don't. You either sit your ass in the chair or you don't. You either work harder for the win than the next person or you don't.

These are simple facts. They are so basic they remind me of 2 + 2 = 4. And yet these are facts that I attempt to avoid ALL THE TIME. My attempt is due to FEAR. Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of exposure. Fear of ... who the hell knows what else, but fear. Fear is a four letter word, and I love most four-letter words. I have the mouth of a well-educated sailor. But the word F-E-A-R well that one scares the heck out of me.

My fear is a conundrum and the way I tame that fear is counterintuitive. I must surrender to my fear. I accept that fear is part of my process and sometimes, fear is even my friend.

My process usually involves the following:

1. Think of FABULOUS title.

2. Hear voices of characters. Learn names.

3. Begin first draft.

4. Have no idea how to get from middle of Act 2 to beginning of Act 3.
    4.5 Pull out hair.
    4.6 Gnash teeth.
    4.7 Pace, eat potato chips, watch trashy TV, sometimes forget to shower.

5. Finish first draft.

6. Realize fabulous title is NOT fabulous. Rename project.

7. Put book away and vow only 2 weeks!

8. 2 weeks becomes 3 weeks.

9. 3 weeks becomes...OH SHIT I HAVE A DEADLINE.

10. Pull out book. Read.

11. See 4.5-4.7

12. Begin NEVER ENDING REWRITE THAT I WILL DIE TRYING TO DO.

13. See 4.5-4.7

14. Edit horrible book.

15. Send to editor.

16. Reread and love.

17. 24 hours later reread and hate.

18. More passes. More edits. Again can NOT find solution to end of 2nd act beginning of 3rd act problem that at this point may or may not exist. Who knows??

19. Loathe this project.

20. New project, new characters whisper love-nothings in my ear (Worthless Whores! (please see above reference to Sailor Swearing)) as I grow weary of current project. 

21. Finally send off book.

22. See 4.5-4.7

23. Feel brief, ever-fleeting sense of accomplishment.

24. Begin new project. See 1

25. Reminisce about project when book pubs. 

And yet, I LOVE THIS JOB. Crazy? Well, yes. Of course. Who willingly does the above over and over and over again (now more than 10 times). No one is forcing me to write -- well except those characters in my head whispering to me. I've tried to stop writing, but they continue to whisper.

All through the above there is FEAR and LOVE. I live that battle day in and day out. Every day. I give love the advantage by telling myself there is no excuse, by forcing my butt into the chair, by truly enjoying my characters and my stories and this brilliant beautiful gift that whatever Force runs this universe gave me. A gift, of which I am not yet worthy, nor is my craft good enough to do justice. I ask myself, who am I to turn my back on such a gift? What hubris to let my petty human FEAR destroy this gift and win out over LOVE.

No, not I. I will not fail in this fight, even when it involves bags and bags of potato chips. Yes, I will sacrifice my thighs for my art. I will get through 1-25 over and over and over again and I will always break through to the other side.


Broken Glamour, a project that I love and now fondly remember.


Maggie Marr is an author and attorney. The Glamour Series is her latest new adult contemporary romance series. Hard Glamour published January 2014 and Broken Glamour publishes spring 2014. She is also the author of the Hollywood Girls Club Series, Courting Trouble, and Can't Buy Me Love. Please click here to get Maggie's newsletter. She won't get spammy, but she will give one lucky subscriber a gift every time she sends a newsletter. Maggie lives and works in Los Angeles.