Rose City Romance Writers

Roses & Emeralds

2011-11-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

If this were Twitter, I'd say RCRW was all over ECWC this year. But it is Blogger, so I can type as much as I want!

With more than a dozen Rose City Romance Writers members attending the Emerald City Writers Conference in Bellevue, WA this year, the conference felt even cozier than usual. In every class I was able to spy a local lovely, and finding someone to sit with at meals was a no brainer since we comandeered two tables!

I gushed about the conference on my blog, so I won't double that here. I just wanted an opportunity to share some pictures of the babes of RCRW.

And to share some gift basket news. Did you know that Cherry Adair had a hand in making RCRW more beautiful? All three of her fabulous decorating baskets went to RCRW members -- Laurel, Nancy & moi!

And to give a special congrats to Cherry Adair Finish the Damn Book Challenge winners Mae Penn & Mary Oldham. Mary was even lucky enough to win Cherry's personal insudtry professional matchmaking skills. She'll hear back on that...today. (whistling)

Workshop Notes :: Writing Sex with Deilah Marvelle

2011-11-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

What really makes for an interesting sex scene is delving into your character in a way you don’t in the rest of the narrative. We are different people when the clothes come off. What changes when you are stripped down to basics?
• Have a plan with your love scene. What are you digging for in that love scene – kinky, steamy, rough, soft, emotional, make-up…what?
• Do a sexual arc for your characters. This is reflected in love scenes. Who are they and how do they relate to their partner.
• Be original. Don’t worry about writing the perfect love scene. They don’t always need a bed, to be completely naked.
• Use the language the character would use. Just because they are having sex, doesn’t mean they have a different background
• The end result is not the climax itself, but what the reader takes away from the scene once the climax is over.

When a love scene is written really well, you learn something about the characters. In a love scene you should be exchanging something unexpected between the characters. Some kind of revelation. Doesn’t have to be huge, something a reader would miss if they skim the scene.

Dialogue in a sex scene has one person – to express mutual desire and affection. Talk, look, be dirty. Humor is always helpful, makes things pop.

Less is sometimes more, especially when it comes to dialogue in a love sceen. You Tarzan, me Jane applies. Centers on looks, desires, feelings.

Erotic Inspirations – erotic photography (these images are from Duclerck free erotic magazine)

Love scenes should be a 3some not a 2some the writer should be that involved

Be a sensualist, find your inner French girl, slow your thoughts down and bring out those moments, make it special.

RCRW Spring Intensive Tentative Schedule

2011-11-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

SPRING INTENSIVE :: March 30-April 1

Red Lion Inn at the Quay Vancouver, WA

Friday Night

6-7:30 Pitch Practice (25 words or less)
7:45-9 Industry Professionals Panel (moderated by Jenna Bayley-Burke, send questions in advance)

Saturday

7-8:30 Breakfast
7:30-9 Storyboarding Your Career with Su Lute
9-11 Speed Dating : Pitching
9-11 Workshops (to be announced)
11-12 E-publishing Panel (moderated by Cassiel Knight)
12-1:30 Lunch
1:30-3 Query Workshop with Lauren Ruth
3-4 Spotlight : Entangled Publishing
4-530 Larry Brooks, part 1
5:30-7 Dinner (on your own)
7-9 Industry Professionals Roundtable

Sunday

7-8 Breakfast
8-9:30 Legalese for Writers, part 1 with Kohel Haver
9:30-11 Larry Brooks, part 2
11-12 Self-publishing Panel
12-1:30 Lunch
1:30-3 Legalese for Writers, part 2

Agents
Natalie Lakosil – Bradford Lit :: She is looking for children’s literature, romance (contemporary, paranormal and historical), upmarket women’s fiction and select nonfiction. Specific likes include historical, multi-cultural, paranormal, sci-fi/fantasy, gritty, thrilling and darker contemporary novels
Amy Boggs – Donald Maas Agency :: She is looking for fantasy and science fiction, especially urban fantasy, paranormal romance, steampunk, YA/children's, and alternate history. She is not looking for thrillers, women's fiction, or picture books.
Lauren Ruth – Bookends :: Lauren is looking for literary fiction, romance, women's fiction, chick lit, young adult, middle grade, mystery, historical fiction, and steampunk.

Editors
Holly Black – St. Martins
Liz Pelletier & Heather Howland – Entangled
Pending Confirmation??

Special Guests
Larry Brooks - StoryFix
Kohel Haver – Attorney
Jon Fine – Amazon

Registration opens January 1, $150 members, $200 members

Thought To Plot Sunday

2011-09-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Mary Buckham joined RCRW for another day to shed some light on the secrets of characterization and plotting. We all had fun with it, especially the assignments.

We started with ennegrams. I love using them when creating characters. I have an abbreviated method for character charts I call point-and-click characterization -- ennegrams, archetypes, astrology and sex. What more do you need?

Learning the ennegrams of our chaptermates had everyone laughing. Guess who is a one? You know, the perfectionist? Why, that's our Jessie who organized the whole weekend.

Knowing our ennegram type helps us learn our default personality type for characters, and what to look for when comments on our story come back saying our heroine is acting out of character - it's probably when she's reacting as we would, not as she would.

Next, we moved on to character traits. We saw how using unexpected traits made for more rounded characters. Mary taught us not to write default characterization, more dimensional characters are what editors are looking for when they say they want the same, but different.

Character traits for career choices

COP -- controlling, helper, jaded, dominant, observant

FACTORY WORKER -- exacting, reliable, disenchanted
EXOTIC DANCER -- exhibitionist, confident, resourceful

What if they are spun around, and we change the assumed gender of the character?
female COP -- exhibitionist, confident, resourceful

female FACTORY WORKER -- controlling, helper, jaded, dominant, observant

male EXOTIC DANCER -- exacting, reliable, disenchanted

TOTALLY different characters come to mind, and they are much more interesting than before.

To explore character traits, we wrote five character traits of our hero or heroine...these were collected and doled out. We took the traits provided and then expanded on them. And then we passed it to the left and did it again. This really opened up personalities.

Here's mine

busy > hyperactive > high achiever
responsibile > stodgy > reliable
determined > stubborn > persistent
adventurous > reckless > curious
charming > manipulative > self-assured

Not every suggestion works, but it does help brighten the picture of your character.

After lunch, the conversation turned from characters to plot structure. As a proud non-plotter, I mainly listened. One thing I was able to see yesterday was that I naturally work in scene and structure. I didn't understand it twenty-four hours ago, but was able to find the elements easily in the story I'd brought to analyze.

We worked through goals and turning points, fears and black moments. Nancy CB was ultra brave and offered up her story for examples. I suppose she can say it was all the gypsy fortune tellers fault :)

The best part of the whole weekend was getting to reconnect with chapter-mates. We really do have a special group. I can't wait to do it again!

Break Into Fiction Workshop

2011-09-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

Each year, the romance community rallies around Brenda Novak's auction to raise money for juvenile diabetes research. RCRW was luck enough to win the auction for a two-day workshop from Break Into Fiction authors Dianna Love & Mary Buckham.

Everyone showed up on time (this is HUGE for RCRW) to enjoy the treats Jessie arranged for us. Coffe, juice, pastires, bagels, fruit & yogurt. YUM! We are so motivated my food.

Then it was time to get down to business. Here are the gist of my notes.

BREAK INTO FICTION Power Writing Day with Dianna Love & Mary Buckham

Opening Hooks :: What makes this book break out and intrigue readers? Readers resonate to different hooks. The more hooks you incorporate, the more likely you are to draw a reader in. Action, surprise, raising a question, introducing a new element.

Use hooks in the opening sentence, end of opening paragraph, end of first page, end of third page, end of 3rd chapter, opening a chapter, beginning of every scene, final sentence (when writing a series).

An editor/agent tends to read the first 3 pages and if they like it, they’ll flip to the synopsis to make sure your story is solid. If they like that, they’ll read the 3 chapters.

If you are targeting an agent, editor, line, read books by newer authors to see what hooks work for them.

SCENE ANALYSIS

SCENES are units of action and emotion that stamp indelibly upon one’s awareness. A scene as a unit of conflict, of struggle, lived through by the character and the reader. Multiple points of view dilutes the emotion of the character.

Thank ACTION. The sequel, which is also an element of pacing, is the REACTION

3 functions of a scene

• Move your character toward their goal or show how the goal has changed

• Bring the character into greater conflict

• Strengthens or changes motivation

We spend our whole lives trying to tone down conflict – make the kids and the husband and boss are all happy. If you do that in a novel, nothing is going to happen. To avoid that, you work with scenes, conflict on the page. If your scene is not functioning, it is not working hard enough.

Dwight Swain’s Scene Advice :: Establish a goal that is clear for the character and thus for the reader. Each scene begins with a goal, then comes conflict.

Conflict is what creates the tension on the pages. Great conflict happens when the stakes are high, when the forces of opposition are equal.

When goal meets conflict what must happen next is a DISASTER or COMPLICATION. The STORY QUESTION

SEQUELS : Sequels are the reaction to the preceding scene. They create breathing space.

3 parts of a sequel

• Reaction

• dilemma

• decision

Clarify motivation for your character, and thus for your reader. Sequel clarifies the motivation for the reader.

SETTING

Use settings to make your sentences do more than one thing. Relate your character to the setting. It can be more than just the description of a place.

Use setting ::
• to share backstory

• in an action sequence

• as a segue in a scene

• to show characterization

• to impact pacing

• to create sensory detail*

• to show emotion

• to create complication

Make setting work hard by ::

1. Add one or more of the 5 senses

2. Add an emotion or reaction

3. Use action in this setting

4. Introduce new information

5. Slip in some backstory

Author Marketing 101

2011-04-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

with C Morgan Kennedy & Therese Patrick

aka Cheryl & Mary...

Marketing doesn't have to be expensive - use low cost and no-cost methods
Marketing isn't a time suck if you focus - spend 10% of your writing time on marketing
Marketing is the bridge between media & money
Platform means nothing if you don't reach out from it

Readers do not identify with author angst
YA readers do not care about menopausal meanderings

PERSONA - what your interests are and how you are engaging your readers.

WEBSITE - youre reception area & your shopping cart for readers

EXERCISE 1
What do you write?
Who is your audience?
What is their natural habitat?

EXERCISE 2
What images come to mind
3-5 images
3-5 colors

EXERCISE 3
Think about who you want to be...

EXERCISE 4
How do you want to be perceived by your audience?

DO NOT AIR YOUR DIRTY LAUNDRY.

Be sure that what you put out there is something you can hold true to over the long term, and in social situations.

Seamless self promotion -> you are your biggest fan

Point-of-Purpose Marketing - How you encourage readers to buy at signings and events. pop-up displays, chocolate, props to incite conversation

Pull Marketing - pull people towards your books and events. (visiting blogs, blogging)

Push Marketing - focus on connections with readers & their desire to be entertained and informed about your book, or topics in your books (website, social networking)

Aside from Sarah - if anyone wants their left book pierced, go to Keepsake Tatoo in Astoria and ask for her son

QueryFest

2011-04-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

Brave souls passed their queries to Kim, who read them aloud. The editors and agents raised their hand at the point they would have stopped reading, and once the letter was over, they explained what would make them stop.

Some hints ::

Don't tell if a character is witty or sassy, let the writing show that.
Focus on the story, not on why you are qualified to write it
Keep it short, all of the editors requested a story but said the query for it was too long
Bring your voice to the query
Tell why you chose to submit to this editor/agent, show that you'vedone your research
A hook at the beginning is good, but keep it short.
Don't highlight too much tragedy or chiche
Avoid being repetitive
Shorter is better
Proofread! Typos are careless.

Keep it to the HOOK the BOOK and the COOK. 3 paragraphs, in and out. Never more than 5 lines per paragraph.

Agent / Editor Panel

2011-04-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

Amanda Bergeron, Avon/HarperCollins

Tracy Martin, HQN

Leis Pederson, Berkley

Abigail Koons, Park Literary

Alexandra Machinst, Janklow & Nesbit

Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman

What can agents do for epub contracts?

Alexandra - I don't know why an author would agent for category or epub.

How long does an author have to get an agent if a publishing contract is pending?

Amanda - You don't need an agent if a contract is pending.

Leis - You don't need one, but there is a limited window. If you have an agent interested, give them a call, but don't start querying and wait.

What's up with the paranormal market?
Leis - We like it, world building is everything
Amanda - Vampires do well for us. Create a world readers want to come back to. Would love a great distopian romance ala Hunger Games.
Barbara - Matched & Withered are great examples of distopian romance.
T.M. - Romance is key, no matter how great your world building is.

What about turn-of-the-century settings?
Alexandra - the market craves mediocrity in certain genres - paranormal, regency. If you write a book that is better than everything else out there, it will work.
Barbara - If you are doing something well, there is always room

What is your agenting style?
Barbara - 2% intelligence and 98% balls.
Alexandra - Micromanager. Not afraid to tell authors to go in another direction.
Abigail - Knocking on every single door until my knuckles bleed. Career clients only, not one book authors.

What are your pet peeves?
Amanda - misunderstanding in place of conflict are just lazy. There is always a better way.
Abigail & Barbara - rape, especially when it is used as lazy character development
Tracy - love at first sight. Find a better way.

What do you see as the future of epublishing and your role in it?
Barbara - agents should be in career management and know what is coming in the industry. There is room for everything. The delivery system is changing.
Abigail - It's a big deal and only going to get bigger. At the London Bookfair last week we learned 38% of Johnathan Franzen's sales were ebook last year.
Alexandra - the future of genre fiction is in epress. People consume too much of it for mass market to keep up.

Should I put a story up on Amazon myself?
Tracy - If you put it up and it does poorly, has discouraging sales numbers, a publisher will consider that. On the flip side if you do well, you might need a publisher.

What is going on with Steampunk?
Tracy - It's a little niche right now, a genre that hasn't quite solidified.
Amanda - we just bought 3 novellas from Zoe Archer for Avon Impulse
Leis - it is gaining attenion and doing well for us, especially Meljean Brook

What do you think about authors writing in multiple genres?
Barbara - It had better be good. You must do it all well, and distinctly.
Leis - be sure you can handle the workload.

How should we pitch a query or series?
Alexandra - I hope this will be the first in a series. Be willing to amend or bend to the market.
Abigail - Be sure the first book stands on its own.

What is 'a huge push' behind an author from a publisher?
Tracy - ex. Sophie Littlefield. When a publisher is excited about a book, they can put extra publicity money with bookbuyers. It's just an extra effort - like ebook or anthology offeres, art might spend more time on a cover (embossing or foil), co-op placement in bookstores (new author tables, romance tables). Bookclub picks. Amazon has a great co-op program.

What is the future of romantic suspense?
Leis - Every subgenre has it's ups and downs. It has to be strong and special. We just acquired an erotic r/s.
Alexandra - Never found one I've wanted to represent in four years of looking
Tracy - It's hard to write suspense well. People want to read sexy femaile detectives (think Castle). We'd love to find someone good and fill the gap in the market
Amanda - We're looking for more military/special ops r/s
Abigail - with TV getting more r/s,w e're getting smarter harder to fool us

Secrets from the session...

Barbara Poelle is a Miss Marple & Angela Landsbury fanatic
The entire panel loves Downton Abbey
Make your action start on page 1
Barbara & Abigail would love to find a female Christopher Moore
Contradiction is the name of the game
Alexandra - I hate the word sassy, it makes bile come into my mouth

Rountable with Barbara Poelle

2011-04-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

AGENT MATCHMAKING

"Being a writer is about being able to craft beautiful prose, not pitching."

Barbara Poelle hates pitch sessions as much as authors do! Instead of speed dating, she let us chat her up for an hour. I expected a group date.

Instead, it became an agent matchmaking session! We could ask questions about anything - career, a specific story, industry trends, epublishing...

If you're writing historical fiction, be sure to check out the contest Irene Goodman is hosting on the agency website.

She suggested reading in your genre - as much as you write. So, write 2000 words, read 2000 words.

Speed Date Pitching

2011-04-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

I've never been speed dating, so found this version quite interesting. Kim handed us all 3 blue tickets and we lined up for the chance to spend 5 minutes with the industry gurus.

After sitting down and convincing the editor or agent that our story was the next best thing, we surrendered a ticket and went on to our next 'date'. After three dates...if we still wanted more action, we could get more tickets and move to the back of the line.

These dates weren't just for selling a book. Many of our members took the opportunity to discuss the industry and career strategy.

While speed dating did have an element of hurry up and wait, everyone said they really appreciated the relaxed atmosphere and having enough time with the gurus to have an actual conversation.

Plus - there were LOTS of requests. I see a string of sales in the future for RCRW!

Storyboarding Your Career with Su Lute

2011-04-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

RCRW member extraodinaire Su Lute led the group in crafting a story board for their career aspirations. She shared her personal example and then encouraged everyone to get busy on their own, using pictures from magazines.

The Scene @ The Spring Intensive

2011-04-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

Craft books on sale - half price!

Industry Q&A with Alexandra Machinist & Abigail Koons

2011-04-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

STEPS ALONG THE WAY FROM ‘THE END’ TO ‘ON SALE’

I don’t take on anything that I don’t think has the potential for tremendous success – Alexandra Machinist

A great idea is different than a great book. – Abigail Koons

Don’t start querying until the book is finished.
Critique and contest for feedback and to get used to sharing your work
Then, when polished and perfect, begin the query process
Research which agents would be best for your book – AgentQuery, Writers Market
Every agent is different, just like every writer is different.
Don’t blanket query. Take the time to make the query specific to the agent and their requests and guidelines.
Make it a little Hollywood, high concept – Tomb Raider meets the DaVinci Code

You can’t disguise bad writing – Abigail Koons

I can decide if I like a book in the first ten pages – Alexandra Machinist

When an agent requests your work, be clear on what they are requesting. Not all agents require an exclusive.
Make sure the agent is the right fit for you!
Check the contract/agency agreement, Make sure you’re not signing on for indentured servitude!
If possible, have a lawyer look over it.
You do not pay an agent. They get paid when you get paid.
15% is the industry standard, be wary if they want more or less
20-25% is the standard for foreign & media rights, which they can sell separately
The manuscript is polished & submitted. It takes between a week and six months to sell a book.
If no one bids, discuss the next step with your agent – rewrite, set aside
Make sure your agent knows the personal tastes of the editors in the industry so your book has the best chance.

Alex flashes her gorgeous YSL bling

There might be one offer or multiple

I have stupid faith in my own taste - Alexandra Machinist

You’ll begin negotiating the contract. You can usually separate foreign rights and have your agent sell them separately
25% of net on ebooks is the industry standard, no one seems to be budging right now
An option clause is standard, but how much flexibility is negotiable – full book, partial, synopsis

The changing market of erights is evolving the publishing model. Publishers have been redoing their boilerplate contracts.
Editors always want changes. There will be an editorial letter and a marked up mss. You do the edits..and wait.
Advances are often split, a percentage at signing, delivery, acceptance and publication
Take control of your own publicity. Social media is part of your job. Balance your time between promotion and writing.
Your book comes out…
Be sure you are appealing outside of the romance writing community
Each book has to be better than the last

Rose City Romance Writers 10th Annual Romance Readers Luncheon

2010-03-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

The Rose City Romance Writers are proud to host the 10th Annual Romance Readers Luncheon on Saturday, April 17, 2010 from 9 am to 2 pm. This year's guest speaker is bestselling author of classic romance and modern women's fiction, Jane Porter. Jane's presentation, entitled Be The Hero of Your Own Story, is sure to inspire.

Join Us at the Governor Hotel in Portland for good food, great romance authors, and a gift basket raffle like none other. 2010
Cost: $40.00

Some of the authors attending include :
•Amanda Forester
•Anthea Lawson
•Catherine Cade
•Christina Crooks
•Christine Young
•Courtney Milan
•Delilah Marvelle
•Eilis Flynn
•Elisabeth Naughton
•Erica Ridley
•Genene Valleau
•Gerri Russell
•Gina Robinson
•Hanna Rhys-Barnes
•Jami Davenport
•Jean Johnson
•Jenna Bayley-Burke
•Jessa Slade
•Kimberly Fisk
•Kristina McMorris
•Kaylin McFarren
•Lacy Danes
•Linda Wisdom
•Lisa Hendrix
•Lucy Monroe
•Maisey Yates
•Margaret Mallory
•Marianne Stillings
•Mary Vine
•Meljean Brook
•Minnette Meador
•PJ Alderman
•Paty Jager
•Terri Reed
•Terry MacLaughlin
•Theresa Meyers
•Wendy Warren

Sound like fun? Register Now!

For more information, please check out the Rose City Romance Writers website.

Blatant Self-Promotion II

2010-02-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

I missed my 2/13 date so I'm jumping in - Happy late Valentine's Day to everyone!

Learn more about Holly's Pledge here!

It’s so exciting to have a new release this Friday at Ellora’s Cave. That whole having-a-baby thing took me out of circulation for a while, but I’m thrilled to follow up my October 2008 ménage Cherokee’s Playmates with a novel-length paranormal ménage tale, Holly’s Pledge. One of Cherokee’s lovers is Dylan Bowles. This is his sister Holly’s tale. She’s been a minor character in the first two Men of Myth series and now it’s time she gets some epic loving of her own! The series adventure continues in this story, but it can be read alone. Go to Ellora's Cave now to view the official excerpt! I'll post another on my blog later in the week and my newsletter will have the page one excerpt on release day!

Holly's Pledge
By: Anh Leod

Book 3 in the Men of Myth series.

Glaukos, a legendary Greek warrior, hunts for an ancient killer in modern-day Los Angeles, but finds a desirable beauty instead. Meanwhile, Greg Levendakis fantasizes about a curvy redhead instead of his girlfriend. It turns out both men want the same woman.

Holly Bowles wants a boyfriend and thinks she’s found one in Greg, but he’s unavailable. Luckily, there’s another man right around the corner. Sparks fly when she spends the night in Glaukos’ arms, but he has been given only thirty days to live in the mortal realm.

Greg breaks it off with his girlfriend and sets out to make Holly his own. He hopes he hasn’t waited too long. It’s a good thing he believes if you love someone, you take the threesome, because that’s just where he ends up—in bed with both Holly and her mysterious new lover.

Note: For complete enjoyment, we recommend reading the Men of Myth books in order. The order is Claudia’s Pleasure, Cherokee’s Playmates, Holly’s Pledge.

Anh's website

BLATANT SELF-PROMOTION

2010-01-28T01:57:00.001-08:00

Posted by: Genene Valleau

Current project: promotion for A VALENTINE'S ANTHOLOGY

Status: Almost here!

A blog is a terrible thing to waste...and it's my scheduled day to post, so I'm going to invite all of you who might be in the Salem, Oregon area on Valentine's Day to join me and fellow authors Christine Young and C. L. Kraemer for a Book Launch Party!

We'll be at the Willamette Humane Society at 4246 Turner Road SE in Salem to celebrate the release of A VALENTINE'S ANTHOLOGY in both electronic and print formats. This anthology contains a Civil War story from Christine Young, a faerie story from C.L. Kraemer, and my first published romantic comedy.

We're celebrating at the animal shelter because a "write-in" part for each of these stories--similar to a cameo appearance on TV--was auctioned off at a fundraiser for the shelter. There will be free refreshments, door prize drawings every 15 minutes, a grand prize drawing, and lots of wonderful pets looking for forever homes. Linda Hamer, who won the write-in parts, will be our special guest, and $1.00 from the sale of each print book will be donated to the shelter. I hope some of you can join us on February 14!

HOLIDAY WRAP-UP

2009-12-27T02:06:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Genene Valleau

Project: Nine-book series; planning promo for February release

Status: Going well!

Well, December 25 is past, and Christmas is supposed to be over. However, I still have presents to wrap and deliver.

I also have excuses, including: I took on more work than I usually do during the holidays. I was waiting for checks that still haven't arrived. I couldn't believe it was time for Christmas again--didn't we just celebrate that holiday?

However, the fact remains that I simply did not get my holiday act together this year.

I wasn't in a "bah, humbug" mood. My focus was just elsewhere--like finishing up rough outlines for a series of nine books that I'm working on, and launching promotion for a February anthology that includes a romantic comedy novella I wrote.

I don't even plan to set goals for the new year like I do many times in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. Perhaps because I'm finishing up projects and already have a direction set for the first part of 2010.

How about the rest of you? Did you celebrate the holidays with enthusiasm? Are you in the throes of goal setting? Or are you on a more mellow track like I am?

Holiday Gifts for the Writer

2009-12-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

Heather Hiestand/Anh Leod
Currently working on: middle grade girl-focused multi-cultural paranormal, second book in the series. Anyone know a good agent?
Mood: enthusiastic

Note: Anh Leod's most popular story is now available in a print anthology from Ellora's Cave! Even Naughtier Nuptials

These are some of the things it would be great for any writer to receive this holiday season:

1. Chocolate - of course
2. Homemade baked goods - why not?
3. An eating and exercise strategy for this season - see above
4. Inspiration
5. Healthy necks, arms, shoulders, wrists, hands and back
6. The ability to analyze books without losing enjoyment of them
7. Creativity
8. A good babysitter, whether for child, spouse, parent or pet
9. Good critique partners and/or beta readers
10. Fans
11. Reading time
12. Characters that fascinate, a plot that wows
13. Good editing skills
14. Writing time

I wish you all of these things and a happy, productive 2010!

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

2009-11-27T04:20:00.000-08:00

Posted by: Genene Valleau

Current project: Nine-book series

Status: Progressing nicely!

Even though it seems Thanksgiving only receives slight notice as our society rushes toward Christmas, it is a time for me to pause and list some of the things that fill me with gratitude. I have a long list, even in this chaotic economic time. Here is a sampling--some of them serious, some of them silly--that hopefully will bring a smile or a nod to you.

-- My house is warm and mostly dry--except for the window I forgot to caulk when we were remodeling.

-- My sons are alive and mostly well after health crises for both of them in late summer.

-- I can see that darn blinking cursor, and most of the time there are words beside it.

-- I have a steady source of income and other jobs that add to it.

-- My dogs adore me--as long as meals are on time--and love to cuddle.

-- I have the power to heal and sometimes I quit whining long enough to use it.

-- My car is paid for and my bills are up to date.

-- Flowers are still blooming in my yard and the sun still shines between rain storms long enough to get out and enjoy them.

-- I can walk, I can run--though kinda slowly--and I can laugh.

-- My grandkids take time out from their video games to play cards or board games with me.

-- My kids sometimes call just to say hello.

-- My "work" is things I love to do.

-- I have yummy food to eat and not all of it is chocolate.

-- The piles of laundry on my dining room table are clean and dry.

-- The lights still come on when I flip the switch and the thermostat on the furnace works.

-- The dishes are washed and the dusting can wait another few days.

-- I have a whirlpool tub in my beautifully remodeled bathroom.

-- After 14 years, one of my animal companions transitioned without assistance. His physical presence will be terribly missed, but he is free from the constraints of a physical body that no longer served his beautiful spirit.

-- I can write, I can see, I can feel, I can love.

AND...other writers who take the time to support each other and to share their thoughts. Please share one or two of your own special items of gratitude if you are so inclined and aren't too exhausted from shopping. :)

Watch for my soon-to-be-updated Web site at www.genenevalleau.com and the release of CHASING RAINBOWS, a romantic comedy novella, in "A Valentine's Anthology," February 2010.

Eat Your Peas; or, How the Dog Ate Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T11:14:00.000-08:00

This is Frankie- newest member of our family. He is a perfect gentleman cat who has completely won over the unhappy Jinx by being so nice, so social, so friendly, and always giving her whatever she wants. Now he comes and gets her and they go out and play together. And to think, I went looking for an entirely different kind of cat! He has almost perfect brown spirals on his sides. I wish I could get a picture of his beautiful pale blue eyes but they just won't photograph well.

But back to my story.

I grew up int the late 1950's when moms like mine were terrific cooks. My mom completely lived for holidays when she could cook her wonderful turkey and dressing and all the trimmings. Naturally we lived for the, too

We had a wonderful dog, too, a Weimaraner named Greta, who Dad had gone all the way to Minnesota from Illinois to get, back when they were very rare. And she was perfectly trained when it came to family meals. Never begged or snitched anything.

One year a friend of my father's promised to bring us a wild goose from his hunting trip. Mom had never cooked a goose before, but she got out all of her cookbooks and even bought a new one, and she pored over them until she had a plan. A menu that had us all but drooling in expectation.

We all had to clean the thing- and we did it outside because cleaning fowl is a stinky business. But Mom did all the cooking. I was only allowed to do the extra things like setting the perfect table, sometimes peeling vegetables. It was a really big goose for a large family, and the preparations took all day long, but the final result was a beautiful sight. And the house filled with wonderful aromas that were different from anything we'd ever had before.

And so we gathered, all seven of us, and took our seats, napkins in our laps, ready for the best treat ever. Greta was probably salivating too, although none of us noticed her at the time. All we could think of was digging in. Dad carved. We passed our plates for the tantalizing meat. We passed around the dishes of vegetables, dressing, cranberry sauce, Mom's unforgettable Thanksgiving rolls. We said grace.

Then, like the big family we were, we dove in, all at once.

The first mouthful. In unison a huge groan of disgust roared forth. Shock registered on everyone's faces as we all looked at each other. Even Mom.How could anything that smelled and looked so fabulous taste so horrible? The most disgusting thing I think I've ever eaten! It was like biting and chewing a whole garlic clove all at once.

Poor Mom! "But I followed the recipe to the letter!" she said. I knew, because I'd read them with her, and she had done everything exactly as the cookbook said. It wasn't spoiled. It just tasted like pure wild garlic and onions. And the stuffing, my favorite part, was completely ruined by the giblets in it.

Dad did his best to console her, and even apologized. He'd heard sometimes wild geese feed on wild garlic, and it must have just recently had a lot of it. Mom thought maybe wild geese had to be cooked differently, but she hadn't found any recipes for game, so she'd used what she had. And we all agreed Mom was the best cook ever, so it couldn't be her fault.

So what were we going to do with the bird? Should we feed it to the dog? Greta sat a bit too near to the table for proper dog manners, her tail thumping wildly on the hard floor as we discussed the possibility.

Dad got up and took a slice of goose and laid it in Greta's dish. Sometimes we called her Hoover because of how she ate, sucking up food like a vacuum cleaner. We nearly changed her name for the way this piece went down.

And so Greta was taken out to her enclosure with a nice dog-sized helping of wild Thanksgiving goose, and we had vegetables for our Thanksgiving meal. And pie. The pie was great.

"Eat your peas," Mom said, like she always did. "There are children starving in China." I never quite understood that and quietly wondered if somehow those poor kids might like wild goose. But I always loved my vegetables and never failed to eat them. That year I was more grateful for them than ever.

And for a week after, nobody wanted Greta's attention because she smelled like garlic all over.

WARNING: Family In Need of Cat!

2009-11-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows a writer must have a cat. Even Hemingway did. He had his multi-toed kitty when he lived in Key West. And now the entire area is populated with polydactyl kitties which are known as- you guessed it- Hemingways.

After old Shadow died at age 19 in May, we kind of had a hard time thinking about another cat. Jinx has done her best to take care of all three of us, but it's pretty clear she needs another cat. Even though she and Shadow never got along, yet!

Let's face it, there's an empty place in the household. Shadow, like the ones we've lost before, will never be forgotten, but the empty spot needs filling. Usually, though, when we are n need of a cat, the cat finds us. But it hasn't happened this time. And so we've started looking. Amazing how helpful the internet is, even for kitty searches.

The hard part is, we're particular. We can't afford a special needs kitty, and we're not up to losing another kitty anytime soon if we can help it, so a senior kitty isn't a good idea either. Can't do de-clawed kitties or others that have to be kept in because Jinx is used to going and coming during the day. Any kitty must get along well with other cats, not be too shy or too aggressive, and since Jinx will likely be a little jealous, it must stand up for itself.

Oh, and with lovely indoor manners too, please.

And we'd like to not have a black cat this time, just because we've had so many in the last ten years or so. And my son gets the final choice because ultimately it's his kitty. Although we've discovered it's really the cats who make that particular choice. And we like them active, funny, talkative. Loving, affectionate, alert, loving, affectionate, loving, affectionate...

Lap cats. Computer cats. Cats that chase laser dots. But please, we'd like to not be gifted with any more birds, mice or baby snakes...

NaNo Virgin

2009-11-03T14:24:00.000-08:00

For the first time in my writing career, I'm a National Novel Writing Month entrant. Yes I have joined the hundreds of thousands who every November try to write a novel in thirty days. Many

NaNo attempts fall by the wayside, but many "Win" as well, by making it to the 50,000 word goal by November 30th. Many of the "winners" never see the light of publishing day, but some do. Her Cinderella Complex by our own Jenna Bayley-Burke started out as a NaNo winner.

The whole purpose of NaNo is to, as NYT best selling author Cherry Adair would say, "Just write the d!@# book!"

So I am going to write the book. In book 3 of my Scorpion Moon Trilogy, Until the End of Time. The actions of the hero from Book 1, my debut novel, Widow's Peak, come back to haunt him. Here's a sneak peak at things to come:

Avice climbed the stairs to answer the knock at the door of the only place she’d known as home since she’d come to England. In this busy market town Damien had allowed her to make a home. Though they lived on the ground floor of the tower, he had made it into a palace almost matching the grandeur of the King’s suite, three stories above.

She liked their rooms better than the King’s suite. The space at the base of the tower was much bigger than the room at the top of the stairs. They could have an anteroom, where the King had only a bed chamber.

She pulled back the bolt and opened the door, but what she saw was wrong.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.

Nothing would have made her ready to see Damian cradled in the arms of his best friend. It should have been the other way around.

Nothing would have prepared her for the red staining his tunic. She had just brought it from the laundress this morning.

Nothing should have kept her from crumpling to the floor in anguish. This should never have happened. He was…too good.

But she was prepared. Damian had told her a thousand times exactly what to do should this moment ever occur. And she would follow his commands to the letter.

Without a word she stepped aside and he carried Damien’s body down the stairs.

Damien’s friend—Damien’s student—Damien’s finest student followed her to the bed chamber. Set his body on their bed. The bed they had shared with Damien for five years. The bed where, tonight, she had planned to tell him.

He had accused her of getting fat. She had always been slender. He liked her that way. Tonight she would have said, “I am not getting fat Damien, I am getting ready to welcome your son.” She had hoped it would give him reason to consider retiring. He had money enough to live comfortably for the rest of his life. The masters had seen to that.

He stood back looking as if he had lost his way, swaying to and fro as though might fall dead as well. This thief who had stolen her life.

He handed her the key, the key Damian always wore around his neck, and she noticed the blood oozing from his arm.

She clutched the key tightly in her hand, wishing she could plunge it into his heart like he had plunged the knife into her beloved.

Could she kill him? Probably not. Damian had trained him. And if he was good enough to kill Damian, he could easily kill her, even in his current condition.

She placed the key in the wooden box atop the ornately carved cupboard standing next to the bed. Damien had had it sent over from outremer just because she said she missed the one she had in her old room. There was probably not another like it in all of England.

She pulled a roll of thinly stripped linen from the cupboard. Led the thief to the anteroom table. Poured the cup of whiskey she would have served to Damien.

He drank and she poured another, then unable to stand his presence any longer, she picked up the bowl and went to the cistern for water.

The faint scent of roses filled her nose as she crossed the yard, but the promise of their full bloom smelled salty, like the blood of her beloved that somewhere stained the ground. She faltered, nearly broke and cried as her reflection glared back at her in the moonlit pool.

Not yet. She must get through this. Everything now depended on her. Her ability to survive, the life of her child, the lives of a hundred men, all depended on her.

One despondent, forlorn spy.

I better get back to writing or I'll never get done by the 30th.

Hanna Rhys Barnes

Widow's Peak - Available Now in Print & E-book Formats From The Wild Rose Press

www.thewildrosepress.com

http://hannarhysbarnes.blogspot.com

www.hannarhys.com

SLIDING IN AN EXCERPT

2009-10-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Genene Valleau

Current project: Nine-book series

Mood: Productive

I wanted to slide in one more excerpt on the blog; this one from the first chapter of my novella that will be released as part of an anthology in February 2010 by Rogue Phoenix Press. This story is a romantic comedy, which is a departure from my other releases, which have been more dramatic action romances. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

Ka-boom! The blast shattered the settling peace of dusk as Marissa Madison pulled into the circular drive. Rissa threw open the car door and sprinted toward the gray stone house.

"Please, no blood this time," she whispered as her feet hit the rough-hewn steps leading up to the broad double doors.

A bespectacled man stepped through the doorway amid a confetti shower of envelopes and leaflets. His silvery hair stood in startled spikes around a balding pate as if it too had been a victim of the explosion.

"Too much torque in the mail conveyor," he muttered with a frown.

"Please turn it off, Uncle Horace!"

"Right." The old man disappeared back into the house. Within moments, the clanking stopped and silence fell over the rolling hills once again.

Just another normal day, Rissa thought, as she surveyed the day's mail scattered in gay abandon across the landscape.

The sullen gray sky rumbled ominously and tossed a few raindrops against her face. Rissa grabbed a check out of the privet hedge, an overdue bill off the bird bath, a shampoo sample from the branches of the azaleas, and a plain brown envelope from the lawn.

I hope I didn't miss anything important. Rissa scanned the inner courtyard once more. Lightening crackled across the sky, hurrying her steps back to the navy blue sedan to grab her briefcase and a bag of groceries. She closed the heavy wooden door behind her as a gust of wind pushed fat, sloppy raindrops against the mullioned windows.

Maybe Uncle Horace should invent a mail dryer instead of a mail conveyer. Rissa dropped the soggy mail on a cherry wood table as she stepped out of her shoes. With the bag of groceries balanced on one hip, she padded barefoot toward the kitchen. A tall figure in a sweeping lavender print dress stood at the sink.

"I couldn't tell if the grocery list said chips or cheese, so I got both." As Rissa moved closer, the person she thought was her aunt turned toward her. She shrieked and dropped the groceries. "Ryan!"

Rissa's twin brother grinned at her from beneath the purple feathers of one of her aunt's collection of hats.

"Do I want to know what's going on?" Rissa asked warily.

"I'm going to a Valentine's party tonight," Ryan replied.

"Dressed as Aunt Madelaine?" Rissa retrieved a head of lettuce and a package of marshmallow pinwheel cookies from the marbled tiles.

"It's a great way to pick up women." Ryan bent down and caught an escaping tomato. "You'd be amazed at what they tell dear Aunt Mads."

"You've done this before?"

"Sure. Madelaine thinks it's a hoot."

"Where is Madelaine anyway?" Rissa pushed aside a stack of unwashed dishes to set the tattered grocery bag on the counter.

Ryan shrugged. "She's been gone all day. By the way, I left your food in the microwave since I knew you'd be late."

Rissa opened the microwave and poked at the still-warm entree.

"It's beef tips over rice--one of your favorites."

"Thanks." Rissa glanced over her shoulder. With the hat pulled low across his face, Ryan bore an uncanny resemblance to their tall, raw-boned aunt. She couldn't resist one jibe. "You'll make someone a wonderful wife some day."

Ryan fisted a hand on one hip and struck a pose until Rissa chuckled.

"Come with me," Ryan urged. "When was the last time you went out?"

"Thanks, but I'm tired."

"You work too hard."

The truth of her brother's statement stirred a wistfulness in Rissa, which she quickly pushed away.

"I think Madelaine might have a special surprise planned for tonight." Ryan grinned wickedly.

"What are you scheming now?" Rissa frowned at her brother.

"Guess you'll have to come with me to find out."

"Oh, no. I'm not falling for that trick. I'm going to eat this gourmet dinner you so thoughtfully prepared and go to bed."

Ryan shrugged, and Madelaine's lavender feather boa slid off his shoulder. "Well, you can read about it in the morning paper anyway."

Rissa's fingers gripped the plate holding her dinner. Ryan was baiting her. That was all. He wouldn't really do anything too foolish.

The muffled thud of the front door echoed her brother's departure.

He'll go to the Pink Flamingo, have a few drinks, pick up another blonde, and come home just before my alarm clock goes off, Rissa told herself. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Of course, she never would have guessed that Ryan dressed up as their aunt, either--and apparently got away with it.

"No, I am not going to follow him." Rissa marched to the kitchen table, pulled out a chair, and spread a napkin across her lap. She even lifted a bite of food to her mouth.

"Oh, bother and damnation." She set her fork carefully back on her plate. What if her brother really did something spectacularly stupid? Rissa would have to pick up the pieces anyway. She might as well stop the disaster before it got started.

***

VISIT my Web site: www.genenevalleau.com

Busy month in Writer-land

2009-10-13T20:27:00.001-07:00

Posted by: Heather Hiestand/Anh Leod
Currently working on: Holly's Pledge
Mood: cautiously optimistic

This has been a busy month in writer-land, as you can probably tell by the dearth of blogs here this month. Heck, I couldn't even get past my first sentence without interruptions. But writers with more interesting lives and cash flows than mine have been up north in King County at a writer's conference this weekend, and my fellow Ellora's Cave/Cerridwen (coasting through another interruption here) authors have been at the first annual publisher-focused conference over the past weekend. Some people probably even made it to the Portland RWA chapter meeting. I was home alone with the baby as usual, though I did get my 500 words written at least. We lead busy lives.

After writing almost nothing over the previous year, I find myself almost finished with a book. I'm on the last chapter of the first draft, though more than half the book is in third draft. It's a wonderful feeling, but also terrifying because in the last year I lost my editor and will be submitting to someone new. So cross your fingers for me next month as I submit this project.

I've also been dealing with the frustration of knowing I have to turn down an unsuitable contract offer. It doesn't fit my schedule or my career, but it is so hard for a writer to turn down any contract, particularly when much of the material is already completed. But, we have to be brave and in charge and know what is best for us. What do we want for our career? What will build our names? What is likely to be bad time wasted after good? Particularly in the small press/e-press world that I dwell in, the latter question is of vital importance.

Everything is a balancing act, in our lives and careers. Make good choices!

2009-10-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

This morning, I woke up feeling renewed. At last fall has arrived in the Rose City. My favorite time of year. Cool and rainy. For the last few weeks, the change has been threatening to happen, but finally on Tuesday, the change took hold.Outside my window, green leaves are starting to turn yellow and red. Birds are starting to fatten up for flights south. And today a hummingbird came to drink at my fountain.

This fall is extra special for me. On September 23^rd, my debut novel, Widow’s Peak, was released in both Print and E-book Formats from The Wild Rose Press.

Here’s an excerpt:

Morning sun streamed in through the open windows as Amye sat next to the young man’s bed, silently reading her book of poetry. The small volume was the last gift Thomas gave her before leaving for Outremer. He must have spent a fortune to have a cleric copy the poems and bind the pages together in the leather cover. The parchment corners were worn smooth from the many times she had read through it. Amye did not know all of the men who penned the words, but they ardently expressed the love that she and Thomas had shared.

In the few moments he was conscious, the young stranger seemed to be in some pain. She had worried when he became fevered in his sleep, but now his deep full breaths told her he rested comfortably. He was quite handsome, almost angelic looking. The two-day growth of beard covering his swarthy face matched the dark curly hair that fell just to his shoulders.

She had ordered him brought to a guest room where she and Sela had washed his body, and then Amye dressed his wounds with healing ointments. It was then she noticed the tattoo.

A crescent moon, the mark of the Saracens.

The same mark Sir Edward had carried when he brought her Thomas’ ring. Only this moon surrounded a symbol she had never seen before. A scripted letter M with an arrow at the end. What were the two men doing in that tree?

It had been obvious to her from the first he was no knight. His body was well muscled but lean, rather than bulky. And unlike a knight, his hands were smooth with only small calluses on the fingertips. The belongings on the horse they found confirmed him as a troubadour.

Though they had never really met, she remembered seeing him at summer court one year. His bags held a book of songs and some scraps of parchment on which had been penned some verses of lyric poetry. Also, a beautiful psaltery carefully wrapped in a black velvet sack. The finely made stringed instrument must have cost a king’s ransom. The clothing he carried was of the highest fashion. He must have been on his way to one of the courts to the south. Entertainers of his quality hardly ever stopped this far north.

“My Lady, where am I?” The quiet, deep voice startled her from her musings, and she looked into stunning green eyes. She’d not noticed the vibrancy of their color before. But as he peered straight at her, Amye’s heart began to pound so hard she thought it might leap from her chest. She took a deep breath as she stood and the beating slowed.

“You are awake. This bodes well.” She put down the book and moved toward the bed. “I am Lady Amye de Barnard. You fell from my tree and were brought to the castle so I might tend your injury.”

“I thank you, my Lady Barnard, for your aid. I am Alain de la Vierre. Most call me Laine.”

“Yes, I know.”

The troubadour looked at her askance.

Amye walked over to the bedside table and held up his book of songs. “I beg your pardon, but I had to search your things. I could not have a thief or a rogue loose in my home. I have charges to consider.”

“And how, my lady, can you tell I am not a rogue?” He arched a brow to emphasize his question.

“A rogue would not write in such a civilized manner. That aside, I have seen you at King Henry’s court. You are a very fine court troubadour. You must sing for us when you recover.” Amye felt a heated blush rise to her cheeks as a smile spread across his face.

“At your leisure, my lady.” He tried to sit up but with a slight touch, she pushed him back against the pillow.

“Stay. You are still too weak. You have been unconscious for more than two days. I worried your injury might be too great for you to recover.” A sharp breath as he grasped at his side made Amye fold back the bed cover to check the cause of his discomfort.

“Your wound was quite severe, so I thought it best to close it. I need to see to your stitches.”

Surprise crossed his face. Though obviously still in pain, he smiled. “It seems I was most fortunate to fall from your tree and not some other.”

Amye picked up a cup from the bedside table and held it to his lips. “Drink. This should help ease the pain.”

He drank until she pulled it away. “My lady, does the king know you have such a fine brew wife. He would surely steal her away. I have never tasted such a fine ale in all my years. This house does boast a most delicious drink.”

“Thank you.” She helped him sit up so she could unwrap the binding. “You lost a bit of blood and though I could find no broken bones, there might be a more severe internal injury.” She removed the sticky brown moss she used to draw the bad humors from wounds and inspected the neat row of stitching underneath. Careful not to separate the newly healing wound, Amye pressed two fingers to the surrounding skin. It was cool to the touch, not hot as it had been when she had first stitched it closed. “‘Tis healing nicely. I think we might do without the poultice now.” She covered the wound with a clean cloth and rewound the binding around his chest.

“Are you hungry?” She helped him lie back, and he let out a deep breath once he rested on the bed. “I shall send for some gruel. I think you could stomach that now.”

“My lady, might I meet your lord to thank him for saving my life?”

“Master de la Vierre, there is no lord at Edensmouth. My husband died in Outremer, eight years ago.”

I finally get to harvest the fruits of my labors. Widow's Peak is now available at Amazon.com, Barnesand noble.com, and thewildrosepress.com.

Stop by my website at www.hannarhys.com and sign up for my quarterly newsletter for a chance to win a free copy of Widow’s Peak as well as a chance to win one of two beautiful art pieces in my Super Contest.

Hanna Rhys Barnes is one of those people with an evenly balanced right and left brain. She has a BA in English, but recently finished her final year as a high school math teacher. She loves to cook and was a pastry chef in a former life.

A member of RWA’s national organization and of several local chapters, she currently lives and works in Portland, OR, but occasionally visits her retirement ranchette outside of Kingman, AZ

Hanna’s Debut Novel, Widow’s Peak, is currently available from The Wild Rose Press. She is currently working on Book 2 in the series, Kissed By A Rose.

SEDUCED BY SHADOWS is out there!

2009-10-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Jessa Slade
Currently working on: Celebrating!
Mood: Celebratory!

It's finally here! The release month of my first published book. Almost a hundred rejections over more than ten years on nearly a million final draft words -- rounded to the nearest heartache. When I say "finally!" I'm serious.

Rumor has it, my hero Ferris Archer has been seen racing half nekkid around bookshelves in a Books-A-Million in the Nashville area. That's the site of next year's national RWA conference, so I think it's an auspicious sign. I am tempted to set up camp in my local bookstore and wait, but I wouldn't wish to importune.

Someone asked me the other day how it feels to have a dream come true. But does it count as a dream if it takes so much work? I don't work very hard in my dreams, unless I'm running away from monsters. Not that hard work alone counts for much either. There's that pesky luck/fate/serendipity to take into account too.

So let's see, the formula I followed to get this far:
Hard work + a million words X 10 years / 100 rejections + (100% persistence/x% luck) = Book

Yeah, that doesn't seem likely, does it? Maybe I'm still dreaming. Well, don't wake me up.

SEDUCED BY SHADOWS is available (or will be next week!) at all major bookstores and online.

Read Chapter 1 on my website and check out my "Possession Prize Pack" giveaway for the month of October, or read the prequel short story introducing the world of the Marked Souls at Borders online.

Excerpt month: SEDUCED BY SHADOWS

2009-09-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Jessa Slade

Currently working on: Kicking Book 1 out of the nest. Fly, little Book 1, fly!
Mood: Giddy

October is the release (finally!) of my first book, SEDUCED BY SHADOWS, Book 1 in a new urban fantasy romance series, The Marked Souls, from Signet Eclipse.

Maybe a good way to introduce you to the story is to give you the scene where the hero and heroine meet for the first time. Can you see the spark that will lead to them falling in love? (Hopefully that's the moment you'll fall in love too!)
________________________

With the traffic of Upper Wacker behind her, Sera started over the bridge, ducking her head against the wind hissing across the black water.

A quarter of the way across, she noticed the man alone in the middle of the bridge.

If she hadn’t been so wrapped up in her own thoughts, she would have seen him earlier. The matte black trench coat silhouetted his height against the slash of silvery night sky. He stood braced against the wind tugging at the hem of his coat.

Born and raised in the city, she had a healthy respect for and no unreasonable fear of downtown dangers. She worked—until recently, of course—in a job with late hours in sometimes sketchy neighborhoods and had had her car broken into only twice. Even with a cane that marked her as easy pickings, she knew her trigger finger on the can of mace was limber enough.

Still, something about the man slowed her steps and ramped up her pulse.

She couldn’t cross the street. She had less faith in traffic’s ability to avoid her than in her own ability to avoid trouble. And running only invited chasing.

She unzipped the side pocket of her bag where she kept the mace. Hell, if he had a mugging in mind, she could toss out the prescription bottle, and any self-respecting junkie would follow it into the river.

Despite her inner bravado, her limping steps ground to a halt.

He stood with his face half turned to the sky, heedless of the wind that couldn’t ruffle his close-cropped hair. Sera expected dark shades and a lot of bling, but when he finally glanced down at her, the only spark came from the violet reflections glancing off his eyes.

Not that there were any purple lights around them—just maybe some chance fusion of red brake lights and the blue-tinged streetlamps. . . .

If she was mugged, she didn’t want her description to the police to gush about the hypnotic violet lights in his dark eyes. She’d have to remember the hard edge of his jaw and the width of shoulders below the mandarin collar of his coat, which tapered to lean hips.

She jerked her gaze back to his.

He frowned in a thoughtful, not-menacing way, at least no more menacing than was necessitated by the austere cast to his features. “This, I did not expect.”

She’d be able to ID him by his voice, if nothing else—dark and rough, with a hint of mostly forgotten Southern sweetness, like pralines carelessly heated past caramelizing to burned ruination.

He drew himself up, and she thought darting into traffic might not be completely unreasonable.

“If I told you something bad was right here, right now,” he asked, “would you listen to me?”

Sera thrust her hand into her bag. “I’d tell it to back off.” The mace canister felt sleek and cold and ridiculously tiny when she held it out in front of her.

The man tilted his head. “It won’t be stopped that way. Only you can deny it.”

“Consider yourself denied.”

Violet flashed again in his deep-set eyes. “I am not the threat.”

“See, that’s what all the homicidal schizophrenics say.”

Amusement curved his full lips in a way that made her finger tighten on the trigger.

Danger, danger.
__________________________

You can read all of Chapter 1 at my website.

Excerpt Month - IMMORTAL OUTLAW

2009-09-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Immortal Outlaw

When the sun goes down, the beast comes out.

For centuries he’s hidden in the woods. Now a maid has come to lead him out...

It’s been four centuries since Steinarr the Proud was cursed by a wicked sorceress—along with the rest of his Viking crew—to live for eternity as half man, half beast. By day Steinarr is like any other man—by night he is a lion. He has taken refuge in the woods of Nottinghamshire, England, and there he encounters two young travelers, Robin and Marian.

Painfully aware of the danger he presents when the moon rises, Steinarr initially refuses to help them search for the key to Robin's inheritance. Then a kiss from Marian awakens his desire. Driven to protect the maid he so desperately wants to possess, Steinarr joins their quest…while the sorceress Cwen gathers her dark magic to destroy them.

As a legend spreads of an outlaw in the woods, their band is joined by others. But it is Steinarr who has the most to gain and the most to lose—if he is ever to be free of the curse and free to love as a man…

Please enjoy this brief excerpt from Chapter 2 of Immortal Outlaw:

_____

It was amazing every beast in the forest wasn’t ringing their camp, thought Steinarr as he rode back the next morning. The aroma of toasting bread and cheese permeated the still air, and if he could smell it as a man, every creature within a league certainly had the scent. And it did smell wondrous good. By the time he reached the cave, his mouth was watering so much, he could barely order young Robin to finish loading up the rouncey.

“And good morning to you, too, my lord,” said Marian, handing him some bread and cheese without waiting for him to ask. She stood watching, bemused, as he gobbled it down and took a second piece. As the sharpness of his hunger eased, he looked around. “Are you two ready to go?”

“We will be, by the time you finish.” She grabbed the pail and dumped water over the dying fire. A cloud of steam boiled up, forcing Steinarr to step back. As it cleared, he saw her heading into the woods.

“Where are you going?” he called.

“The bushes, my lord, now that it is light. Unless you suggest I avoid them all day as well?” She glanced over her shoulder, giving him a bland gaze that made the blood rise in his neck. “Though God’s truth, I hope you do not, because I fear I could not manage it.”

She sailed off before he could form an answer, and behind him, the boy chuckled. “See? She does have a way of making a man realize he has no wits at all.”

A man? This puppy fancied himself a man? Keeping his opinions of Robin and his cousin to himself with difficulty, Steinarr set about saddling the stallion, carefully lining up the thickest parts of the pad to protect the raw place on the animal’s withers. Robin finished loading the rouncey and moved on to the mare, and by the time Marian reappeared, all three horses were ready. She grabbed her bundle and put its tie-rope over her shoulder as Robin swung up on the mare. He reached down to help her. “Up you come, Maud.”

She gave him a look that would curdle milk. “I think, Robin, that I will have better luck if you move her next to the boulder.”

“No need.” Steinarr stepped around the stallion, laced his fingers together, and stooped down. “Here.”

“Thank you, my lord.” As she raised her foot, her bundle slipped, pulling her off balance. She reached out to steady herself.

The sudden contact made Steinarr glance up. She was right there, so close he could feel her breath on his face, her hand gripping his shoulder as though she were comforting him. And, oh, how he needed the kind of comfort she could offer. Needed softness and smooth skin and the warmth of another human body. Needed a woman. This woman. Now. Her eyes, level with his because of the way he was bent, widened, and suddenly he was floating in their green depths, cool as a woodland pool on a summer’s day. All he had to do was drown himself in that pool, in her, and it would all be washed away, all the empty years. As if in a dream, he swayed toward her.

Somewhere far above, Robin cleared his throat. Marian blinked and jerked her hand away, and the connection between them snapped like spider silk. A sudden loneliness welled up at the loss, so thick it made Steinarr’s chest ache. He swallowed it back and worked to make his voice sound normal. “Let us try that again.”

She nodded, and he handed her up onto the mare without further trouble, though a pang of unreasoned envy twisted through him as she wrapped her arms around the boy’s waist. Steinarr let one hand linger on her foot, using that last fragment of contact, of warmth, to steady himself as he turned his attention to Robin, “I intend to move quickly. Keep up.”

_____

See the Video and read more of Immortal Outlaw at lisahendrix.com

2009-09-22T21:35:00.001-07:00

Compromising Positions is one of the 5 giveaways today! Check it out.

Writeminded

Excerpt Month: Cards Never Lie

2009-09-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Cards Never Lie

CHAPTER ONE

Melanie Vanderpool stroked her fingers across the tarot cards stacked before her.

Madame Lois nodded, her rainbow-colored earrings tinkling with the motion. “Offer your question to the cards, my dear.”

Melanie forced herself to stop fidgeting in the metal fold-up chair. This little store alcove tucked away on funky Roosevelt Avenue was a great place to start her new wild life, right? Okay, cards, come on, show me this soul mate Mom always promised was coming my way.

She removed her fingers from the cards. Across from her, Madame Lois took a deep, theatrical breath and pulled off the top six cards. She spread them into a circle facing her on the hot pink silk scarf covering a fold-up card table and studied the spread for a very long moment, saying nothing.

“What is it?” Melanie attempted to view the cards upside down. Her voice rose in a squeak as she noticed a card with a large horned figure and smaller, chained and horned figures below. “The devil? What does that mean?” She wanted the wild side, not the dark side!

The psychic took another deep breath, this one not so theatrical. “The Devil is your soul mate.”

Melanie sat back in her chair, clutching the seat with suddenly cold hands. “Ha ha. Very funny. How do I get my money back?”

2008 Print Release - Cards Never Lie by Heather Hiestand

Excerpt Month :: Par For The Course

2009-09-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

Giving him just enough rope…to tie her up in knots.

PAR FOR THE COURSE

© 2008 Jenna Bayley-Burke

There’s something wildly enchanting about the columnist who arrives at Ben Cannon’s golf resort. He’s felt this magnetic pull only once before, for a bespectacled brunette back in college. That woman was nothing like this platinum blonde from New York—confident, poised…and hitting on him like crazy. Is she really interested in him, or merely seeking fodder for her Dating Diva column?

Just one wrong move from Ben, one more disappointment, and Jillian will finally be able to stop obsessing about her college crush, leave town, and get on with her life. Except the more rope she gives him to hang himself, the more he ties her up in knots. Every move he makes is the right one, both in bed and out of it.

Shaken to her college-nerd core, Jillian begins to wonder if giving him a taste of love-’em-and-leave-’em is what she wants after all.

Warning: Fore! This title contains explicit sex, and a love story hazardous to your hankie supply. Oh, and exploding toads.

Enjoy the following excerpt for Par for the Course:

“I’m not doing very well, am I?” Jillian huffed in frustration and stared at the scenery. No wonder people paid to walk around the grounds all day. Too bad they had to keep whacking a little ball all over the place.

“Sometimes people have beginner’s luck and get hooked forever.” Ben walked up to her. Between the beauty of the course and the gorgeous man before her, how could she possibly concentrate on learning to play some stupid game with too many rules? “Other times it grows on you. You can’t get intimidated and give up.”

“Don’t you think I’d learn faster with a ball?”

“You don’t get a ball until I’m sure you can hit it. Once you understand the set-up and swing, you’ll be able to hit great shots. No one is a good golfer on the first day.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Jilly stared down at the club in her hands and imagined the clock face, exactly like he’d told her. Repeatedly. Left thumb at one o’clock, club in her fingers not her palm. Right hand over left, right thumb at eleven o’clock. The hand-over-hand position wouldn’t be blatantly sexual to anyone else. A normal person who could keep their mind on trying to learn, and not trying to imagine what Ben Cannon hid in his pants.

“Much better.” Ben’s deep voice rolled through her, her nerves vibrating from head to toes. He’d moved closer, but she didn’t trust herself to check where. “Stay relaxed, you’re tensing up again.”

Easier said than done when your fantasy man is within kissing distance. Taking a deep breath, Jillian moved her feet shoulder-width apart. She tried to soften her knees, keeping her body weight distributed evenly. She remembered every word he’d said all day, why couldn’t her body just obey?

“Don’t grip the club too tight. Stay relaxed.” All at once he was behind her, around her. Jillian froze the moment in her mind as his hands covered hers, making her oh so grateful she hadn’t dug the pink glove out of her bag. Jillian’s blood swirled, circling to where his fingers covered her hands. Her body reacted instinctively to his hold. Maybe if she—

“Stick your butt out, tilt your pelvis forward.”

If only his mind were in the gutter with hers. Jillian bit back a groan and did as she was told.

“Let your arms hang straight, relaxed, natural.”

She felt herself relaxing into him, but she didn’t care. It felt natural, and since that’s what he was going for, she didn’t want to disappoint him. His body tensed against hers, straightening and backing away. She froze in position. Had he read her mind?

“Let’s try that swing again. Start small, remember L to L.” Jillian cleared her head and tried to follow instruction as best she could.

“The shaft and your left arm make an L on the back swing, that’s it. And you make a backward L on the follow-through. Good.”

Her body relaxed into the momentum of the action, but Jilly dared not disengage her brain. She’d done that around him once, one too many times.

“Keep your feet planted, Jillian. Keep going, back and forth, until it feels natural. That’s it.”

She tried to concentrate on the motion, biting back the giggle threatening to erupt. Back and forth, until it feels natural. Did he know he sounded like a sex instruction manual?

“Back and forth. Feel your body react to the motion.”

She would love to do just that. Her body primed itself, reacting to his words. Jilly willed herself to focus on swinging the damned club, not picturing Ben Cannon wielding his.

“The ball simply gets in the way of the club. The motion is what’s important.”

Jilly thudded her club against the ground as hard as she could. “I need to hit something. Now.”

...want more...

Samhain Website excerpt
Click here for a special blog-only excerpt!

Beginnings: The Edge of Honor

2009-09-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

AUTHOR: Minnette Meador
MOOD: Frantic but getting better
WORKING ON: Keenan's Dilemma

I think this is still my favorite openings of all my novels. From The Edge of Honor. Enjoy! Minnette :o)

THE EDGE OF HONOR
historical romance
by Minnette Meador

CHAPTER ONE
The ex-centurion knew if the Romans caught him, he was dead. Marius felt the horse strain under his thighs. The animal’s head split the air in front of them. Wind roared, mingling with the pounding of Marius’ heart and the jolting rumble of hooves against the forest floor. Blood flowed from a throbbing wound on his shoulder and spattered behind him, staining the horse’s rump. He tightened his grip on the reins, bowing his head low over the animal’s neck. The smell of horseflesh was stringent in his nose.

A grim thought flashed through his mind. He may never hold Delia again. Marius’ throat tightened. He dug his heels into Brutus and forced him to move faster. He would make it up to the horse later, if he survived.

The forest blurred around him. Brown, green, branches growing like twisted mirages charging at him out of the foggy morning. He dodged them, sometimes successfully–sometimes not. His head and good shoulder ached where they sliced him. The movement of the horse’s massive leg muscles deadened his thighs, making it difficult to manipulate the beast. Despite the speed, Brutus knew his master well and needed little guidance. Marius missed the Roman armor he had worn for twenty-five years, but the Celtic clothes gave him more freedom to manage the animal. He was slowly adjusting to being a citizen—very slowly.

Risking another glimpse over his shoulder, Marius saw nothing but the trees receding. The sound of jangling Roman horse tack, the shouts of Latin curses, and the frustrated bellows of General Suetonius had also faded. If he was lucky, the soldiers followed him into the woods, giving the refugees a chance to escape the blades or manacles of the governor’s revenge. A wave of satisfaction sent a bemused smile across his face knowing they had once again out maneuvered the general. Except for the unexpected pila that grazed his arm, he had done well. If they did not catch him, he would count this a success.

When it was safe, Marius stopped and examined the wound, wincing when the gap opened a little wider beneath his fingers. It would need a surgeon’s needle to close it properly. Delia was going to be furious. He could almost hear her voice; Not ONLY have your ruined the shirt I made for you, but they could have killed you. You have to be more careful! I will not raise this child on my own. Do you understand me?

Even seven months pregnant, Delia was still a fortune of fire, a passion of untamed spirit. Marius sighed. This would not improve her mood and another fight was inevitable. He sometimes forgot Delia was a Briton queen and leader of the Corieltauvi tribe. This always made their relationship interesting.

“You are going to have to be faster than that, liberatio.”

Marius drew his sword, forcing Brutus to rear onto his back legs when the voice bounced against the trees to his right. The armored figure emerged from the forest with seven Roman soldiers at his back. Marius swore.

Excerpt Month: MY FAVORITE OPENING

2009-09-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

AUTHOR: DELLE JACOBS
MOOD: Upbeat and Energetic
WORKING ON (Playing with): A new novella outline, Captain Jack is Back (a highly sensual humorous paranormal Regency (How's that for crossing genre lines?)

This month we're trying something different on our blog: Excerpts from our books.

We're still working on the design and format, so since I'm the first one up I thought I'd just pick a topic. The most suitable one for opening up a new topic is Favorite Openers. I have several favorites but most of them are a it too long for this purpose. So I thought of LADY WICKED because I like the way this little piece ends.

***

LADY WICKED
March 1817, Derbyshire, England

He'd have to marry the richest heiress in England if he meant to salvage this crumbling pile of rocks.

Turning about in the flagstone courtyard of the long-deserted hall, Thomas Loudon Steynes, Viscount Savoury, surveyed the wreckage of time and realized how badly he had deluded himself. He was not usually a man to laugh aloud, but, standing among ruins as worthless as his corrupt soul and impoverished pocket, this time he did. God would not create an heiress foolish enough to accept the Savoury heir and his decrepit inheritance.

His intention to make himself over into a country gentleman was equally as hopeless. But Savoury had run out of options. So, sneering at himself, he swung into the saddle of his grey gelding and rode out through the gatehouse to accomplish the impossible anyway. What else, after all, did he have to do with his life?

Descending off the rise, Savoury crossed the stone bridge into the blanket of chilly fog and followed a puddled lane toward Lower Steyner. As he neared the village, the sound of voices, like a child's counting rhyme, floated through the still air. He stiffened in his saddle, his ears straining at the strange sound.

"Lady Wicked, Lady Wicked. . ." The singsong words drifted, broken, through the fog. How odd. He must be hearing it wrong.

Ahead, around the curve of the road. A chant. No, it was a taunt, for cruelty punctuated the words. "Wicked, wicked, Lady Wicked. . ."

The sound dissolved to a muddle again.

Savoury nudged Orion to pick up the pace. Rounding the bend approaching the village, he spotted a group of boys hopping about like marionettes, jeering a woman in a green pelisse, who walked toward the village, her bonneted head held high.

The hairs on Savoury's neck bristled. Peasants did not wear pelisses. But surely they did not dare harass a gentlewoman. He rode closer. So intent were the urchins in their game of mocking, the clopping of Orion's hooves went unnoticed.

The lady kept walking, her body, posture, even her large straw bonnet, pointed toward the lane before her.

"You're so wicked, Lady Wicked. . ."

One gangly boy scooped up a lump of mud. She ducked as he pitched, but the clod caught her in the chest. Her market basket fell and she bent to retrieve it. Screeching gleefully, two smaller boys joined in, pelting her with clods and sticks.

Devil it! Savoury spurred his horse, shouting as he rode down on the ragged little mob. The rascals squealed and scattered, heels flying. A smaller boy wavered between fighting and fleeing. With a wild swing, he lobbed his rock, then bolted. As the rock struck her head, the woman cried out, staggered back, then crumpled to the lane like a discarded nightshirt. She lay still, her bonnet twisted over her face. Dark hair tumbled and splayed over shoulders and dirt.

"Little demons!" Savoury shouted. His heart pounding, he leapt down from Orion, ran the last few steps and dropped to his knees beside the limp figure.

"I have you, ma'am," he said, forcing calm into his voice as he sheltered her in his arms. "Don't be afraid. They're gone."

Savoury pushed back her ruined bonnet. Her hand trembled, then her arm. Whimpering, she turned her head, black lashes fluttering. The cloud of dark hair fell away, unveiling pallid skin. He jerked back, almost dropping her. "Lady Wyckham!"

Green eyes blinked suddenly wide, as if he had shoved hartshorn beneath her nose.
Bedamned if he hadn't rescued his own nemesis.

***

This story is not currently available, but I promise to rectify that problem very soon. In the meantime, bot APHRODITE'S BREW and SINS OF THE HEART are available through Samhain, Amazon, and I believe Powell's will have them at the booksigning in September.

A POTPOURRI OF RESEARCH

2009-08-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Genene Valleau

Current project: Nine-book contemporary romance series

Mood: Optimistic

For me, research is a potpourri of methods that includes interviews, reading books, visits, and searching the Internet as well as my life experiences. It's fun and easy to get caught up in--as others have mentioned.

I'm working on a nine-book contemporary romance series, so have the careers, hobbies and backgrounds of nine heroes and heroines to research.

Several of the heroes are in law enforcement, so the Citizen Police Academy I attended will provide much of the background material for these characters. I've also printed Minnette Meador's recent interviews with Portland police detectives for additional information.

Since each of these heroes has a different speciality, I'll search out LEA personnel in those areas to interview.

The heroes will also differ in which agency they work for: State Police, big city police department, and rural sheriff's department. I'll do more research on the Internet to get a general feel for how each of those law enforcement agencies work.

I also have a bookshelf of books relating to police procedures, the "language" of law enforcement, and anecdotal stories from real police cases.

I'll do similar research for the careers, hobbies and lifestyles of the other characters, as well as draw on my life experiences. For instance, one of my heroines is a social worker. I spent twenty years working for a social service agency, so have a lot of background in that area.

While much of my research is done before I do the bulk of my writing, other interesting tidbits will come up as I write that I will also research.

Yes, research can be fun and addictive. However, for me that's balanced with the excitement of actually telling the story. That means I don't get stuck in research, but I do have a good time on that part of the writing journey!

Dog Days

2009-08-25T05:40:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Lisa Hendrix

Current Project: IMMORTAL CHAMPION

Mood: Twitterific.

I love research. If I were ever to stop writing, it would be to do research professionally. So rather than just talking about research, I though I'd do some and put in all the links so you can follow along. Right now, this is just an intellectual exercise and I have no intention of using what I find. But then again, one of the Vikings in my Immortal Brotherhood is a war-dog...

It's been a long, hot summer here in the Pacific NW, the kind of weather Grammie used to call the dog days of Summer. So I decided to see what's up with that term.

According to my research source of first resort, Wikipedia, 'the phrase Dog Days or "the dog days of summer", Latin: Caniculae or Caniculares dies, refers to the hottest, most sultry days of summer.' I never stop with Wiki, btw, but it's a good start, and there are usually outside links at the bottom of each article. In this case, none of the links were all that useful, but one was to another Wiki page, and from *that* one, I found something good.

Some people assume the name comes from the way dogs lay about in the summer heat. The Oxford American Dictionary on my Mac even references that in the secondary definition, "a period of inactivity or sluggishness." But it turns out the ancients were thinking not of the family pet, but of the Dog Star, Sirius, named for the dog-headed Egyptian god

Osirus (not Harry Potter's godfather) . It was an important star because its annual conjunction with the Sun coincided with the critical Nile floods. Sirius also happens to be the brightest star in the heavens, so bright that the Romans actually believed it added to the summer heat, which reinforced the association of Dog Days and heat. (Curious About Astronomy)

Traditionally the Dog Days are the 20 days before and after the Sun/Sirius conjunction. Nowadays, that's roughly from July 5 to August 10 (northern hemisphere), but because of astronomical precession, it's changed over the years; in ancient times, it was somewhat later, more like mid/late-July to early September. (Wilstar). Whenever the Dog Days fell, however, they were thought to be foul times, "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies" (Clavis Calendarium, 1813, as quoted on Wiki). Up north in Sweden and Finland, they call this part of summer "the rotting time" because the food spoiled in the heat.

The term Dog Days has been used as a movie title, the name of a band, several song titles, and even a kid's book. Dicken's referenced them (as a single word, oddly enough) in describing Scrooge in A Christmas Carol,

He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.

Finally, while poking around, I found a little video called "Dog Days" by Florence and the Machine. Unfortunately, Flo disabled embedding, so you'll have to go look here.

So there you have an example of how I wander, finding odd bits and pieces here and there. And I never even got past the first page of Google search on this. Imagine if I'd really been serious (serious...snort) about the whole thing and you'll get a hint at why I turn out books so flippin' slowly.

So ultimately, this is about procrastination. Useful, intellectually stimulating procrastination, but procrastination nonetheless.

What's your favorite way to "work" without actually doing the work?

Research?

2009-08-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Heather Hiestand

Currently Working on: Holly's Pledge, the third story in my Anh Leod series at Ellora's Cave. First there was Claudia, then Cherokee, now Holly!

Mood: Frustrated and nervous about the lack of income entering my bank account. I hate this economy!

As we all know, I haven't been writing much lately. In fact, as I dusted off my files for Holly's Pledge this week, I discovered I hadn't done any writing since January. Some editing, yes, but no writing. I'm not sure I've gone this long without writing since the mid 1990s!

The series I'm working on right now, like all of my Anh Leod titles, has some Greek mythology in it. One book I use for ideas is Classical Mythology by Stephen Harris and Gloria Platzner. I also use the internet a lot. The hero of my current book is the son of King Minos, who I was making up until I realized there was a developed mythology around Minos to the extent of naming all of his myth-y children, so I had to look up enough info to have a starting point.

I also read a lot of fashion magazines because this series is set in Los Angeles. Because I haven't been there for a while, I look up real estate sites and other websites to get places and houses to use in the books.

That's it for now. Baby Andy woke up from his five minute nap and is crying loudly!

RESEARCH JUNKIE - WHEN IS ENOUGH, ENOUGH?

2009-08-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Minnette Meador
Currently working on: Keenan's Dilemma, The Bell Stalker, Starsight III
Mood: Frenzied, Frustrated, and Fabulous… not necessarily in that order

Cave dwelling writers like myself get very few opportunities to stumble out into the world and have their own rollicking adventures. Most of my excitement happens between my ears. Though I loved doing research for general reasons, when I originally started writing historicals I dreaded the thought of slogging through ancient reference books, thousands upon thousands of Internet references, and dusty old museums. I wanted to just write. When one of those same old museums turned me onto a hunky martial artist who also happened to be a Roman scholar and specialized in choreographing battle scenes, I got hooked. This whole research thing started to satisfy a craving I didn’t know I had; I was an adrenalin… ehm, research junkie!

A couple of months ago, I was able to do an in-depth interview with a lieutenant from the Portland Police East Precinct and go for a ride along. It was an amazing experience and I filled pages of my novel with gusto. Then last week, to satisfy requirements for my newest project (or so I said), I interviewed one of the two lead detectives of the Homicide Division in Portland. OMG! I’m now scheduling another ride along… this time on a Friday or Saturday night. Like I said, research junkie.

All of that begs the question: When is enough, enough? How much research do you do? Do you feel you do too little or too much? What extent are you willing to go to “get the facts straight?”

For me personally, I always think truth is more bazaar than fiction. I won’t relate to you some of the stories the detective at Homicide told me. Suffice it to say that even in my wildest dreams… What these interviews do for me is give me a point of reference in reality, a flavor or voice I hadn’t even thought of before that lends credence to the story, even if I don’t use it all. After all, I do have a literary license to uphold. I could get kicked out of the bar if I don’t use it, right?

So my advice? Let yourself experience the world. Make a call. Send an email. Contact people in the world that do the things you write about. Reality, in my humble opinion, never ceases to amaze. From one research junkie to another. :o)

Minnette Meador
www.minnettemeador.com
http://minnettemeador.blogspot.com

A Promotional Fairy Tale

2009-07-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Jessa Slade
Currently working on: Promoting, marketing and publicizing SEDUCED BY SHADOWS
Mood: Like a cheap whore in flipflops on a rainy Tuesday night... Why? You lookin' for a date?

Once upon a time, there were three pigs who moved to a new half built-out subdivision. Due to a lingering recession that caused a drop in property values, zoning ordinances and building codes were a bit lax. The first pig built a house made of straw and set up a home office for his freelance marketing work.

Reader Wolf, who is always hungry, came along and ate the pig and his house. She found the experience a bit dry. She wondered, idly, what sort of idiot builds a house made of straw.

The second pig built a house made of marshmallow and opened a garage/shop with his promotions company.

Reader Wolf came along and ate the pig and his house. She found the experience to be a bit too sickeningly sweet. She wondered, rather queasily, what sort of idiot builds a house made of marshmallow.

The third pig built a house made of bacon and ran his publicity department from the basement.

Reader Wolf came along and ate the pig and his house. It tasted pretty good, but she thought it was kind of sick, a pig living in a bacon house.

At least she wasn't hungry. For the moment.

The End

SHARE YOUR UNIQUE PROMOTION IDEAS

2009-07-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Genene Valleau
Current project: Brainstorming for nine-book series
Mood: Focused on projects

My apologies for posting late! I thought today was the 26th and I had one more day before I was scheduled to post. Obviously, time is flying by for me--and I am having fun!

I'm in an off-promotion time since my last book was released in February 2009 and the next one will be released in February 2010. However, I'm still doing "maintenance" promotion and collecting ideas for the next release.

A comment I've seen come up several times lately is that traffic on blogs and other Internet avenues has fallen off, along with the question "Are authors just promoting to other authors?" I don't have the answer to this.

However, what I have been thinking about a lot is UNIQUE ways to promote my books. For example, one of my releases has been described as a "feel good Christmas story." That gives me a clue that I need to come up with a unique package to promote that book again this holiday season--on the Internet, in person and through whatever other avenues come up.

My February 2010 release is part of an anthology with two other authors and includes a "walk-on" character (like cameos in the movies) that was auctioned off as part of a fundraiser for the local humane society. We're already talking to the humane society about having a launch party at the animal shelter. So there are all kinds of promotional possibilities for that book!

Also, since I love giving away goodies, I'm sure I'll have a contest or two up and running later this year.

As Lisa mentioned in her previous post, I'm curious what appeals to readers (and we know that authors are also some of the most dedicated readers). In addition to a good story, is there anything that entices you to buy a book? A bonus gift? A free short story? A chance to win contest goodies? What's the most unique promotion you've done, heard of or seen? I'd love to hear your suggestions while I'm in the planning stages for upcoming promotion!

Ballyhoo

2009-07-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Lisa Hendrix

Current project: IMMORTAL CHAMPION

Mood: Is overheated a mood?

It seems we're writing about promotion this month. Promo is a favorite topic of authors, though most of us would rather it wasn't even on our radar. But the realities of the publishing industry dictate that we must be all over it, doing blog tours, running contests, buying appropriate ads, visiting chat rooms, doing more blogs, getting bookmarks and bookplates done, arranging for tchotchkes imprinted with our names and websites, posting book trailers, more blogs, blah, blah, blah.

But are you really interested? I mean, this particular blog is supposed to be reader-oriented, and I keep asking myself why readers would be interested in what we writers have to do to promote. I mean, I'm only interested because I have to be, but why would you care?

Readers, after all, love the books, not the hoops we authors have to jump through to get ourselves noticed. Readers are happy to enjoy the story and leave the boring or agonizing bits to those of us who can't avoid them. If you're one of those readers, thank you. You are our life-blood -- not just the money part but the emotional part. You're the person who pats us on the head and says, "Yes, honey. You wrote a book. And I read it."

And occasionally, you're the person who says, "Let me make you a book trailer." Fran Lee is a writer, but she was wearing her reader hat when I met her online at a chat recently and she offered to do not one but two book videos for me. Here's what she came up with for IMMORTAL OUTLAW -- my very first book video and one little bit of promo I'm thrilled to be able to share here for the very first time:

Thank you so much, Fran. And thank you to all those who've bought books this month. I love you.

Now, you readers, come out of lurk to tell us what you would like to read about here on the blog. Do you have questions? Do you want recipes? A hunk of the week? Think of your favorite author blog and tell us what keeps you going back to it? Or have we been doing just fine all along? We're all ears.

(The video Fran did for Immortal Warrior is here.)

My 2nd Baby

2009-07-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Currently Working on: Promo for the release of STOLEN HEAT...NEXT TUESDAY!

Mood: Getting excited, nervous, but ready for the book to be OUT.

R-day is coming. Next Tuesday my second book, STOLEN HEAT, releases. I've been through this before. I know all about the "process". And yet, with Release Day looming, I have the same jittery feelings I had seven months ago when STOLEN FURY hit store shelves. I thought I would be more relaxed this time around, but obviously I'm not.

"Release day" is such a strange concept, don't you think? STOLEN HEAT's "street date" is Tuesday, July 28, 2009, but it's been 'In Stock' on Amazon for over a week, and I've heard from booksellers in Australia who tell me the book is "Already selling well". I'll admit I don't entirely understand the concept of "Street date or "Release Day" - if a box of books comes in it's the bookseller's decision whether to set it out early or not. Obviously, all sales count toward our sell-through numbers, but I've been told by other authors that books sold before Release Day don't count toward list calculations, so authors are technically at a disadvantage if a bookseller is so excited about their book they want to get it out as soon as possible. Does that seem strange to anyone else?

Of course, that's only one part of this whole biz that confuses me, but it's the one first and foremost in my mind today as I look ahead to release week. I imagine the way I'm feeling now is much like a parent feels when they send their baby off to college or out into the world. You hope and pray you've done all you can to make them the best they can be. Because from here on out, their life is out of your hands.

I'm sure my anxiety will only peak in the next few days. Like I said, I've been through this before, but it doesn't make it any less exciting. I have a gift certificate for a massage, which my hubby gave me for Mother's Day that I never got to use, so I'm thinking Tuesday would be a good day to cash it in. Do something relaxing. Take my mind off "R-Day". Ease the jitters.

Um...yeah, right.

How about you? If you're a writer, what do you do to ease your stress on Release Day, or do you not get nervous when your books are released? (If you don't get nervous I wanna know your secret!) If you're a reader, how do you deal with stress and anxiety over something big you're looking forward to?

Oh, and before I forget...in case you haven't heard (and how couldn't you???) I'm giving away some BIG BIG prizes in anticipation of STOLEN HEAT's release. Click the widget below or go to STOLEN HEAT CONTEST to enter for your chance to win a $100 VISA giftcard and a whole host of daily prizes!

The best promo

2009-07-13T17:19:00.001-07:00

Heather Hiestand

Currently Working on: Keeping Baby Andy out of the hospital. He was just released for the second time today. I'm trying to Twitter about our life now - I'm at Heather's Twitter.

Mood: Relieved he's home.

The best promo I know is simply to keep the releases coming. Or, even better, make someone else do it. I just sold 20 copies of an oldish Anh Leod novel because it's part of the Hunters For Hire series at Ellora's Cave (multi-author series) and someone had a new release. Pretty cool, if you ask me!

I haven't written much for nine months, and have finished nothing. Maybe if Andy can stay home I can start finding time to work again (are you laughing yet, Jenna?).

Meanwhile, here's a fresh poem. Because I actually started as a poet.

Second Draft
By Heather Hiestand

The horses were talking-
A coffee klatch.
As I drove through the rain
It’s surgery again.

Just yesterday we were dancing
To your first country song.
Pretty Taylor Swift was singing low;
We were twirling enough to know.

And now we’re drinking coffee made by nurses
Up a hill I hate to drive.
I’m wondering why the storybooks
Have only secret messages inside.

Still, the horses were talking.
Was it about you?
Spinning through your dreams
Waiting for me to come through.

The Price of Promotion

2009-07-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

Working on: ...I keep using my write time to look for houses

Waiting on: word on the uber-classic romance I gave my ultra-modern editor (insert nail biting here)

Mood: exhausted and praying the house I want has a clean mold test!

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Writing is a solitary job. When writers do go out into the world, it's usually to mix with other authors who won't call the loony bin when you talk about your hidden werewolf baby (thanks Lynn) or call the cops when you say you need a way to kill someone with a knife and not let it get too bloody (thanks Connie).

But sitting at home with your laptop doesn't sell books. (DARN!) Sometimes you can get by with ads and word of mouth, sometimes you have to be more active and haunt readers on blogs, forums, yahoo groups, myspace, twitter, facebook...

You can promo to the point where writing takes a back seat. No one is happy when that goes down. It's important to find a balance between flashing your book and letting it fade away. If anyone figures it out let me know. In the meantime, here's the top 10 list of free promo I use whenever I have a new release.

1. Yahoo groups
2. Getting your friends to blog your book (thanks, Romance Divas!!)
3. Contest / giveaways
4. Book reviews -- these trickle in slowly but they always make my day
5. Author interviews
6. Free Reads -- nothing is better than the Romance Divas ebook challenge
7. Online chats -- these are so hit or miss, though the CoffeeTime Romance one I did had great people.
8. Reader groups (Manic Readers, The Romance Studio)
9. Forums
10. Guest blogging

PROMO? Is It Worth It?

2009-07-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

Delle Jacobs
Currently Working on: Damned and Dangerous (that vampire story I said I'd never go back to) and some final drafts of other stories, and getting ready to announce the winners of the Royal Ascot, and...

Mood: Mood? Who has time for moods?

I remember back in the Dark Ages of computers (when screens were blue with white letters, graphics non-existent, and I had no idea what a modem was) that I decided to take that big leap of faith and go back to writing. I'd been mildly successful back when I was just out of my teens with two confession stories, but they weren't satisfying to me. I had tried a couple of times to write a novel, mostly fantasies or harrowing adventures. I didn't know what I wanted to write, or what I wanted to write didn't seem to have a market.

(Yes, that's me, back in the Good Old Days, dictating my novel to my personal secretary. He was... very good...)

My very first romance was a Western/Indian story, written journal style, using Word Star. I actually found some of that recently, and it wasn't bad. It just didn't fit the genre. But I became persuaded that, yes, I could write a full length novel, and yes, I might even have a chance of selling it.

That was 1993. Who knew then I would one day have a laptop that fit in my purse, with more than a hundred thousand times the storage space of that clunky hand-built computer? Back then, if we entered a contest, we'd gotten word of it from a flyer mailed out to local chapters. We copied off the instructions so the flyer could remain available to other chapter members. There was an internet. Some of us had actually seen it.

(Below, two of my favorite promoters and authors, Sandy Blair and Jo Beverley, in 2005 at the RWA Literacy Booksigning.)

Back in those days I envisioned myself writing my book and shipping it off to editors, who would snap it up of course. I knew I'd have to do an edit or two, and there would be galleys. Then my book would come out and, once it was launched with champagne, I'd do a book-signing tour or two, and go back to finishing up the next book, which I'd sell and promote in the same highly successful way. Oh, and I'd have business cards, of course. They'd say in a quiet, understated way that I was a professional, a serious author.

It might actually have been like that once. But a few ambitious and enterprising authors discovered Promotion. Bookmarks. Mailing lists. Postcards, Christmas letters, and whirlwinds of booksigning tours. And not just a review or two. Reviewers were in newsapers all over the country, and authors tried to target them all.

Now, even that sounds completely obsolete, doesn't it? The internet moved into our lives, and authors found new and exciting ways to get our books noticed. We had to have a website. Yahoo lists. Then Yahoo newsletters. Blogs came in, and social network sites. Ebooks, which started out so small and insignificant, expanded, with more and more distributors every year. Kindle and Sony revolutionized the very thing we'd thought had revolutionized the publishing industry. Online reviewers almost completely replaced print reviewers, and multiplied into the thousands.

And then there are conferences where we don't just promote, we shmooze and network, and give impressive workshops. We know, of course, that nobody loves- or buys- more books than romance writers. And awards? If we think we have a chance, we go for it.

(Me, making like an author and winning the Golden Heart in 2005.)

Now we do blog tours, trading places on blogs all over the internet. We post our promo on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and about a hundred writer-and-reader-related sites. We buy space for our tower and banner ads and make videos, but magazine and newspaper ads and even space on TV and the movie theaters.

We have contests with fantastic prizes. We do key chains, hats, pens in all colors, shapes and sizes. Erasers, candy-- heck, I've even seen paper cut and pinned to look like an old-fashioned baby diaper. If it can be made, some author has done it.

Considering what we put out in time, money and inventiveness, we ought to be rich. Filthy rich. But there's a problem. The market is saturated. No, let's correct that. The market is super-saturated. While I've always supported ebooks, I have to say the ebook industry has allowed many more authors to get published than the print industry could have supported. And most of those books are now going into print, as well. And everybody is promoting. Aggressively.

(Kalen Hughes, who not only writes fabulous, sexy Regency Historicals, but also has her own interesting ways to promote, is giving a workshop on Regency undergarments to the Beau Monde Conference.)

I wonder, do authors spend more on promotion than they'll ever make with a book? I'm sure some do. I'm still trying to figure out what really works for me, and it seems every time I think I've got it nailed, it stops working and I have to get creative again. And I admit I'm a graphic arts junkie. I love creating promo material almost as much as writing.

But: It is worth it? I think I see at least fifty pieces of promo for other authors' books every day. I can't possibly visit all their blogs or watch all their videos, or read their excerpts and reviews. And I sure can't read all their books. So what makes me think I will do any better with my enthusiastic, carefully crafted promo?

How many people will see my banner ad and think my book is just so intresting they have to buy it? How many will win a prize and so decide to buy the book? Do people read reviews, and from them decide to buy? What does it take? And more worrisome, what will it take tomorrow?

What sells books? And does it still work? Or are we so inundated with promo that our proposed audience is too numb to buy? Like a lot of other authors, I keep asking, wasn't I supposed to be a writer? Might is possibly be better if I spent all that promo time turning out new books? There is, after all, nothing that sells books better than a fabulously written book. Unless maybe key chains...

I'd love to hear what you think.

Face to Face...Soul to Soul...

2009-07-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Minnette Meador
Currently Working On: Keenan's Dilemma
Mood: Philosophical

This last weekend, many of us attended the First Annual Northwest Book Festival, an event put on my Dr. Veronica Esagui and her crew to support local authors, including small press, large press, and self/independently published authors. They worked selflessly and I'm certain put more than a few bucks into the event. The day was beautiful, there were over 40 authors there, and advertisements had gone out to simply everyone! Yet, attendance that day was very poor, despite Veronica's best efforts to get people to the event. Some of us still did ok that day and we had a blast just visiting with the other authors, sharing stories, and just hanging out with each other. It was a great opportunity to meet and greet, if nothing else.

Around 3pm, a man came up to our table (I was thrilled to be sitting with the incomparable Lisa Hendrix and Delilah Marvelle) and said he had just come from an event in West Linn; a cancer run. They had ordered 2000 hamburgers, water, all the accouterments needed for the the run.

Six people showed up...six...

This got me to thinking; why don't we attend outside events anymore? I'm just as guilty as the next person; my life is too busy, I have too many other things going on, it's all I can do to keep up with the schedule I have, etc., etc., etc. When was the last time I mixed with humanity, face to face, soul to soul in something other than my own signings or commitments? It's a sad state of affairs when I have more virtual friends than I have real ones. Egad!

We may be spreading out internationally via the Internet, but we're shrinking away from our local worlds. I remember a day when a weekly concert in the park or an event at the downtown library was something people really looked forward to. Attendance at those events were staggering. I used to attend at least one event a week somewhere in Portland, sometimes even two or three. A reading, a play, an art opening, a concert in the park. But not anymore...

What about you? When was the last time you went to an event and met strangers? How often do you attend community activities? Do you feel like you have more virtual friends than real ones these day?

I for one am making an Independence Day resolution; I am going to try much harder to become more involved with my community by attending local events, rubbing elbows with complete strangers, and working more diligently to support the local arts by attending readings, art shows, community literary events, and causes I support. Don't know how well I'll do, but at least I'm going to try. If you'd like to join me, then let's break out the paper and see what's cooking...you never know; maybe if we go, so will others...and they'll invite their friends, and their friends will invite their friends...

So what's on your events calendar this week?

Why I read

2009-06-29T00:34:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Jessa Slade

Currently working on: The last 48 hours of Book 2 revisions -- hooah!

Mood: Utterly sugared out

Once upon a time...

I love those words. They launch me in ways and to places few other words can. The promise embedded in those words makes me ignore family members, eschew sleep, even -- gasp! -- sign off Twitter.

It's not just that a good book takes me away from real life. I actually like real life quite fine. But I find reading a good book is like looking out at bright sun on the ocean. The world seems so vast and sparkling that even when I look down again, that perspective, those sparkles, stay in my eyes, changing the way I see the world at my feet.

Once upon a time...

Those words are also why I write.

I haven't quite launched into the wide open ocean yet. In fact, I'm still sort of floundering around with water wings. But I have my maps and a compass that points... Well, anyway, I have maps. I'm eager to walk new shores, meet the natives (who hopefully go easy on the spears), maybe unearth some treasure. I imagine I'll get lost a time or two, maybe sail off an edge occasionally. It happens to all of us.

And it makes a better story, you know. Which is why I write.

Once upon a time...

THE WEATHER WAS PERFECT AND SO WAS THE COMPANY OF OTHER AUTHORS!

2009-06-28T22:33:00.001-07:00

Posted by: Genene Valleau
Working on: Final edits of a novella, CHASING RAINBOWS
Mood: Joyful!

Since I totally spaced blogging on Saturday, the day of the 1st Annual NW Book Festival, this will be a short post. The festival was fun; the weather was pretty much perfect and I had a wonderful time talking to others who were there. It was great to see some fellow RCRW authors--both signing books and who stopped by to say hello.

Many thanks to Veronica Esagui, who coordinated the event and to Minnette Meador, who did a wonderful job of getting our romance group organized. Also, thanks to the authors who attended and those who stopped by to say hello and offer support!

If I had remembered to take my camera, I could have shared some pictures. Hopefully, others who were there will share photos on the loop or here on the blog.

Summertime Blues

2009-06-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Lisa Hendrix

Currently Celebrating: Release of IMMORTAL OUTLAW

Mood: Overheated

I'm happy, really. IMMORTAL OUTLAW is out and doing well, everyone in the family's healthy, it's all good. And yet, there they are. The Summertime Blues. To quote Eddie Cochrane:

I'm gonna raise a fuss, I'm gonna raise a holler

About a workin' all summer just to try to earn a dollar

I'm with Eddie. In my mind, summer is not for work. I was raised by parents who believed that summers were for sleeping in late, spending afternoons in a hammock under a tree with a large iced tea, and passing the evenings in a cool, still house with friends so good that no one has to talk, listening to the crickets.

Somehow writing doesn't fit into that idyllic scenario. It's hard to write in a hammock. The angle's wrong, and the heat from a laptop makes you want to throw yourself into an ice bucket. Writing is brain work, and summer is a season that relaxes a brain so much as to make it useless. I know this, I plan every year to have my ducks lined up in nice, tidy rows so that I can have the summer free, and still I once more find myself working my tuchas off (tuchas, that's Yiddish for "ever-expanding rear"), polishing off a proposal I should have had in ages ago, and setting myself up to have to work seriously all summer long.

And it's not just writing that lines up to steal my summer: I just completed a blog tour and with all the other promotion I've been trying to squeeze in, summer is a third over and I have yet to enjoy more than five minutes of it. Latter parts of the summer will involve repeated trips to Portland and Seattle for signings—like the this Saturday's NW Book Festival—and to do college stuff for my son. [Speaking of which, which of the Jesuit Fathers of Seattle U decided it was smart to force families to waste money and time to travel to Seattle in the middle of July for a 2-day freshman orientation instead of just having them show up 2-days early in September? May I watch while he scourges himself for idiocy, please? Pretty please?]

Worst of all is the knowledge that it my own blasted spring fever procrastination that put my in this fix, and that is going to force me to dig deep for enough discipline to stay in and get the writing done. No summer for Lisa. //Whine//

All is not midnight darkness, however. There are a few rays of hope. The 4th of July is coming up, and that's a guaranteed break complete with fireworks and watermelon. Then there will be the occasional weekend at my mother-in-law's. She has a house in the Hood River Valley that comes complete with cherry orchard, that hammock I crave, and a porch swing that looks out toward Mt. Hood from like, 3 ft away.

Very cool. And one of those trips to Portland will include at least a few hours at the Oregon Zoo, and I may work in Woodland Park or Point Defiance, too, while I'm in Seattle. Zoos are one of my favorite summertime indulgences, and have been for years: I've been to 12 major zoos in the US (13 if you count Disney World's Animal Kingdom), plus the Ueno Park Zoo in Tokyo. Toss all those beasts together with the Norwegian fisheries prof I worked for, and you'll find a good deal of the basis for the Immortal Brotherhood series. Zoos have enabled me to see and hear lions in full morning roar, twice--quite useful when I needed to describe what Marian heard during the nights, when Steinarr never seemed to be around...

Somewhere in the midst of summer, we'll also work in a long weekend at the beach. Nothing refreshes, relaxes, utterly re-sets me like ocean air and sandy socks and those long, amazing Oregon beaches. And each time I return from one of these summer interludes, I'll be that much more ready to make myself sit down. Once I'm down, of course, its fun, just like it is in the winter. It's just a matter of getting the tuchas down in the seat.

So yes, I'll get the writing done, and I'll love it, and with any luck, so will my editor.

I just had to whine a little first, but I'm all better now. See, there is a cure for the Summertime Blues.

Lisa

--------

Lisa Hendrix

IMMORTAL OUTLAW (June 2009)

4-1/2 Stars, Top Pick and K.I.S.S. Hero Award from RT

Buy Immortal Outlaw at Amazon

The 1st ANNUAL NW BOOK FESTIVAL

2009-06-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

Where: 21860 Willamette Dr, West Linn, OR
When: Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Time: 10:00-4:00pm
Admission: Free

Meet over 40 award-winning and critically acclaimed NW authors.

21 selected authors' speaking schedule 10:15 - 3:45pm
10:15 - Ron Lovell - Mystery - Turning Facts into fiction
10:30 - Bob Wilson - Weight Management/ Holistic Weight Loss
10:45 - Patricia H Rushford - Mystery/Non Fiction/ Self-help
11:00 - Paty Jager - Western Contemporary Romance
11:15 - Earlene Grey - Tea Poetry
11:30 - Laurence Overmire (Sci-fi poetry) - Report from X Star 10
11:45 - Ann Amies - Children books/Illustrations
12:00 - Genene Valleau (Rock Stars Heroes) - Stories/statistics
12:15 - Arlene Sachitano (Mystery) - Quilting with a Thread of Murder
12:30 - Alan Lohner/Jason Savage (Inspirational Books)
12:45 - Jean Braden (Historical/ Adventure/ Memoirs) - The writing process
1:00 - Amalie J Rush Hill (Metaphysical Science Fiction) - Readings
1:15 - Veronica Esagui, DC (Scoliosis/health) - Diagnosis and Treatment
1:30 - David Ash (Humorous Haiku Gift Books) - Readings
1:45 - Rachael Law Schuetz - Children
2:00 - Dan Raphael - Poetry
2:15 - Howard Franklin - Travel
2:30 - Joan Maiers - Poetry
2:45 - Ken Reger/Ruby Allen - Psychology/Romance novel
3:00 - Suzanne Jauchius - Memoir
3:15 - Keely Alexandra - Children books
3:30 - SharonMartini - Children Books/Illustrator

Why Write? Suzanne Macpherson

2009-06-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

I tried to quit, really I did. I tried to become a gardener, but my soil is just so unforgiving. I tried to become a housewife but I’m very, very bad at it. Just when you get everything cleaned up it all goes to hell in a hand basket again. What kind of a job is that? Where is the THE END part? Hey, I was taking a self-inflicted break from the relentless deadline and crazy market trends, and maybe a permanent one! I thought about getting a secretarial job. The part where I can type 2000 words a minute with the UPS man standing in the hallway waiting for my manuscript was a big asset. I’m a cheery person, I’m computer hardwired, I could learn Microsoft Access! But hmm would I be able to steal some writing time? I considered a job at a storage facility. Lots of down time and maybe even some story lines from the contents of abandon storage units?

One day I said to myself, what if I just wrote whatever came out of me instead of manually twisting and forcing my muse into the current "Hunt for High Concept” shape?
So I sat down and just let her rip. I even sat down at a computer that wasn’t my normal computer. Change of scenery. I got eight pages of really amazing stuff. I won't tell you how long it stayed at eight pages, and how excited I got a couple of agents about those eight pages. But the rest of the story hadn't evolved yet. My imagination sparked like a flint- but the twigs weren’t quite dry enough yet. I had to keep trying to twist things up into pretzel shapes.
The Summer of 2009 will go down as the summer I packed my virtual suitcase full of research and inspiration and moved into the hotel Kathryn. Kathryn is the main character in the young adult trilogy I have been crafting for two years. Some of you might know my muse. Her name is Maggie Grover. By sheer chance (ha ha) we connected last fall. Sometimes you need an expert like Maggie to get the flint to ignite all the way. There is nothing that woman does not know about Scottish/English/Roman history. Turns out we were on a bigger journey than just books, and we’ve opened up our lives to all kinds of amazing adventures. Scotland and England here we come!
Birthing the full concepts for these three books was like well, birthing another kid, and I’ve had four already. If you count my seven other books, that makes eleven! I can honestly say it was a c-section too, because I had to cut all the self-doubt and old negatives out of my head to get this train on its track. (talk about your mixed metaphors!)
So. I admit it. I’m a writer. Well, we all knew that, didn’t we. I watched Wonder Boys yesterday. (I love Toby Maguire btw) There was a line from the crusty old writer/ professor where they asked him why he wrote the book he wrote ( the one that flew into the river) and he said. . .
“Because I couldn’t stop.”

The last shot...for now!

2009-06-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

Status: At the hospital, but baby Andy is in deep sleep so I got to pull out my laptop for a few minutes. Only 3 days behind in email!

Writing: Good grief, no. But if the baby comes home next week, maybe I'll have time in July!

But still...I had one last release a bit ago, the last story I finished before all the craziness began, and it's up for something this weekend. If you want to vote, here is the info:

Playing Lycan Games from Scarlet Rose is up for "best read of the week" at Whipped Cream erotic romance reviews.

Voting runs from Saturday, 6/13, through Sunday, 6/14). The link is here:

http://www.longandshortreviews.com/WC/recentrev.htm

Please vote if you have time!

Heather Hiestand/Anh Leod
www.anhleod.com

Vote here

RESUSCITATING THE MUSE

2009-06-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Lately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I’ve been in a funk as far as writing goes. I literally have to drag myself to MS Word to get myself going. Facebook and Twitter call to me, emails beckon, and I know I’m in trouble when “Relax this Spring, knowing where your credit lies” sounds more appealing to me than going back to my book. This is the life of a writer. It’s fraught with danger and not for the faint of heart.

PROCRASTINATION is defined as: to defer action; delay: to put off till another day or time. That’s been me in a nutshell, put off. Now some may say with my husband sick, I have a great excuse. Problem is that’s not what my muse is saying. She’s calling me a lazy sod who better get off her butt or she’ll give me a reason to regret it.

So, okay. It’s time to revisit why I write. Maybe that will get the spark going on this bonfire:

WHY I WRITE:

1. To get the demons out of my head before they really start running things.

2. To legally torture people who are not actually alive. To do so on living people would be wrong, right?

3. To feel that adrenalin rush every time the Muse shouts into my ear, keep going…keep going…

4. To give my fingers a daily work out and my brain a little calisthenics (that’s exercise to you young whipper snappers).

5. To be amazed every time someone actually likes what I write. It’s like, My God, they bought it. I can’t believe I got away with it.

6. To leave my mark, however small, upon a world that has been nurturing me from day one. After all, it’s where I keep my stuff.

7. To give my children and their children a legacy, something they can be proud of.

So, how about you. Why do you write? What helps you to drag yourself back to the keyboard, typewriter, or pencil and paper day after day?

Well, that did it for me. I’m revved up now. Watch out world…Mimi’s back in town!

Minnette Meador
www.minnettemeador.com
http://minnettemeador.blogspot.com
2008 Releases: Starsight, Vol. I, Starsight, Vol. II, The Centurion & The Queen The Edge of Honor, A Cup of Comfort for Single Mothers
2009 Releases: A Boy & His Wizard
2010 Releases:Starsight III: The Restless Seed, Starsight Prequel: The God Wars, A Boy & His Lizard
Other Releases: The Gladiator Prince - TBA, Keenan's Dilemma - TBA

Anatomy: Even squishier than you'd think

2009-05-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Jessa Slade

Currently working on: Revising Book 2

Mood: Working on revising that too

Anybody who had to dissect a pig heart in junior high knew relationships were gonna be a bitch. Turns out, all those grade school years of perfect paper hearts and somewhat less pefect but much sweeter Red Dye #5 frosting outlines at Valentine's Day were a lie. Hearts are actually fibrous, misshapen lumps of flesh, working way too hard and prone to far too much damage.

On the plus side, you could do fascinating things to them with a sharp scalpel and an electrode.

Lest that come across as budding psychopathology, let me assure you it was excellent advance training for a one-day romance writer. (Yes, I realize the jump from psycho to romance writer is shorter than a hopscotch square.) Not only is writing a book often a messy and blood-soaked affair, but add the element of a love story and the potential for arterial spray grows exponentially.

As a romance writer currently in revisions on my second book, I feel (or so I grandiosely imagine) all the pressure of a cardiac surgeon with the patient coding on the operating table beneath my hands. I've got a perfectly good body lying here -- the bones of story structure are solid, the muscles of the plot are well toned, the skin of words holds everything in place. Rather attractively, if I do say so myself.

And yet, without that beating heart...

Fortunately, I learned the second part of the anatomy lesson from Frankenstein, who taught us all you need is a little sizzle and you can light up that corpse to sing and dance. Sure, you still get that whole running amok thing to deal with, and then the villagers coming with torches, but you do what you must for the story.

So like any scientist, you can study. You can assemble all the requisite pieces. (And Eye-gor was right; an Abbey Normal brain is perfectly fine.) Go ahead and lay them out on that clean white paper. Then pull down your goggles and fire up the electricity.

Lab whites look a lot like writers' jammies if you squint.

ANATOMY OF A BOOK

2009-05-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Genene Valleau
Current project: Final edits to novella, CHASING RAINBOWS
Mood: Pleased with the progress

What goes into writing a book? Those who know the way I write will tell you it's easel-sized sheets of paper covering the walls of my office, which are in turn covered with color-coded stickies and notes made with highlighters that show plot, subplots, and characters arcs. There will also be pictures of the characters and their homes and/or items that represent pieces of their lives. (I'm reposting a photo of one of my walls for those of you who haven't seen it before. These sheets are in the beginning stages--no scene notes or plotting points yet. :)

This is in addition to character charts, scene sheets and folders of research notes. And I've also started drafting covers of each book.

Guess I don't need to confess that I'm a detailed plotter.

Some writers "stew and brew" in their heads (to borrow a phrase from another writer). But this part of the process works better for me if I put it on paper.

For me, plotting doesn't take the fun out of discovering a story. It simply gives me an itinerary to get from The Beginning to The End without losing my way in The Middle. I still find interesting side roads to explore along the way and the characters still surprise me with unexpected revelations.

These surprises mean that I generally replot about three-quarters of the way through a story to be sure I haven't dropped the thread of a subplot or left a secondary character in limbo or left out any of those critical pieces of a book described by others in blog posts earlier this month.

This "second plotting" also gives me a process to be sure I'm building the tension to the black moment before the hero and heroine earn their happily-ever-after ending.

What happens to all those easel-sized plotting sheets after a story is finished? No, I don't frame them or carefully preserve them for coming generations. Their purpose is completed and their essence now lives in the pages of the finished story. So they quietly get recycled and make way for a New Beginning: the plotting sheets of the next story.

Anatomy of a Book

2009-05-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Lisa Hendrix

Currently Working On: Immortal Champion (tentative title)

Mood: Spring Fever (is that a mood or a state of being?)

My collection of writing books outnumbers my husband's sailing books and my son's Star Wars books combined. I've completed seven novels of 100,000+ words each, attended approximately ten RWA National conferences and even more regional conferences, and sat through all three delicious days of Robert McKee's seminar. I have even given workshops on various aspects of constructing a novel. I can explain scene and sequel, tell you all about goal/motivation/conflict, and construct a storyboard that would make Blake Snyder weep with joy.

That doesn't mean I find it easy to build a book.

It's hard. I agonize over the right viewpoint character, the right tone, the right starting place for each book, chapter, and scene. It takes me months of noodling around to get everything in place, ready to go, and more months of writing and polishing before I'm anything close to happy. It's hard labor. Come to think of it, it takes me just about the same amount of time to produce a book as it does to produce a kid.

So I'm sitting here trying to come up with the one, most important thing all those books have taught me about the anatomy of a book, so that I can write about it. And you know what?

There isn't one thing. It's all important. Setting. Plot. Characterization. Scene & Sequel. Beats. Transitions. Language. Story arc. All of it. Think of them as the organs, sinew, brains, and bones of a book. Without everything in place, the body--the novel--just won't work as well, or won't work at all. As writers, we have to juggle all of it to build a complete, functioning, living novel.

And that's why I ended up with all those books: not one of them--not even Snyders' Save the Cat or McKee's Story, good as they are--explains all of it. There is no Grey's Anatomy for books. However, if you mix those two together, add a measure of Jack Bickham, and toss in a little Dwight Swain, a soupçon of Donald Maass, and a dash of Chris Vogler, you'll have a pretty good approximation.

And a way better picture of the anatomy of a book than I can manage here.

What are your favorite writing books?

More than the bones

2009-05-16T10:41:00.001-07:00

Posted By: Pauline Trent
Working On: Final edits
Mood: Hello...final edits!

We are taught from our earliest English classes - every story needs a beginning, middle and end. Jenna talked about a house or structure. I, like Delle and so many others, think of my stories as bodies. Another friend of mine considers his stories hamburgers. I can’t tell you how many times he and I have been fleshing out a story and he has said “okay, let’s add the lettuce and tomatoes” or I’ve gotten a call with the message “I just put the bun on another one.”

For some writers, finding the beginning, middle and end is a process in and of itself. For others, those are the easy parts. The basic story is just there, full-blown, in their heads one day, with only the transitional scenes left to discover. For some authors, it’s a blend of the two. An author I know tends to find the beginning and middle easily but struggles more with the last two paragraphs of all his works than any other part of it. It’s The End, one of the big three. I get it. Who the hell wants to eat a bun and call it a burger?

For me, though, the transitional scenes that tie the big scenes together are how I know if I like an author or not. Leave them out, all I have are a series of vignettes. Have too many of them and the story gets lost. Make them too pointless, no matter how much exposition I get or character development I get, I’m bored and the story is no further ahead than it was ten pages ago.

As an author, I spend more time on my transitional scenes than the big scenes. I know what absolutely must happen to move the story forward, to keep my readers interested and invested in this story. While I won’t say writing those are easy, I will say they are the scenes that come the easiest. But those transitional scenes…the sinew that run through the muscle, the decorative touches, the fresh ground pepper and cheese, choose your metaphor because whatever you call them, they are what make writing the challenge and such frustrating fun. Striking the balance between enough transition and flow, and pages upon pages of dialogue over dinner (my own personal weakness) is vital to the success of any novel.

Just as that hamburger needs flavor, a story needs more than a beginning, middle and end. But just as too much seasoning destroys your lunch, too much filler will destroy your story. And I just put a bun on that one.

~ Pauline

Inside the Outsides

2009-05-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

Jenna Bayley-Burke
Working on: MayNoWriMo...but I just started today
Waiting on: word on the twice re-worked partial and the shelved full
Mood: exhausted and excited for someone to buy my house!
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It's nearly impossible to think of anything else when you're prepping your house for sale. Everything that makes a house a home must be packed up and shipped off to storage. What's left must be perfectly arranged so a buyer can see themselves in what was once your home. The house stops being yours, and now belongs to the potential buyer.

Kind of like writing a book. We can draft just about anything we like, waxing poetic for pages about scenery and devoting paragraphs to hammering home that our heroine is royally pissed off. And then comes the edit. Everything that isn't absolutely necesary is deleted so that it is your character who comes through, not the author. It's a slippery slope between a character driven story and distinctive author voice.

Stories, like houses, have a structure you have to work with. Knock down a load bearing wall or remove a critical plot point and your in for a mess of trouble. Structure helps an author weave a stroy together, and it can also be a personal undoing.

My latest erotica release, Starting Over by Jenna Allen, needed to go to an emotionally dark place; a black moment I found a bit too terrifying to look at two years ago after losing three family members in six weeks. I couldn't handle the story, and so it sat contracted, yet unfinished.

I considered changing the plot, using a suspence track to keep it from going places I wasn't comfortable with, but the story deserved better than a plot device. Eventually, a year later, I forced myself to face those demons and finish it. It only came out this week, but so far it's had truly touching reader feedback. From men.

Men read romance, and men read erotica. And it seems you can sneak up on them and slap them in the face with raw emotion when they least expect it. Good to know, since my insides are all over that story.

The Anatomy of a Book: The Embryo

2009-05-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

DELLE JACOBS
STILL WORKING ON: Final polish of SIREN
MOOD: Typical Wednesday- not quite there, not quite gone

Our theme for the month: "The Anatomy of a Book". Kind of a hard subject. I've been thinking of it like anatomy of a body. The original, real, Gray's Anatomy is a textbook, not a TV show, organized by bodily systems, like the skeleton, circulatory system, respiratory system, etc. The various organs are included, but more important is how they work together. I thought perhaps authors might like to pick a specific part of a book, and maybe relate it to a body system, or specific organ, but it's up to each of us to decide how we want to proceed, I guess.

I'm going to start with the beginning, the core- the Embryo. In a human embryo, all the basics that will one day become the functioning human being are present, but not all the pieces of the basics are there. There's a brain- or a brain stem at least, but not enough cells and neurons to function on a cognitive level. A primitive heart beats and what will become functioning lungs are beginning to develop. The embryo also has some vestigial organs, like the remnants of a tail, that will disappear before birth.

To me, stories begin like this. It's the point at which two ideas or thoughts collide that begins the story. Before that point, the ideas are like the sperm and the egg, both with potential, but not until they join does the potential move forward to begin development into the eventual baby.

All stories must begin with ideas, but the ideas can be of many different forms. I find for me, I've often begun with the question, "What if...?" But it seems to me all the what-ifs have also been asked before by other authors. They don't have a lot of power on their own. Interesting, but by themselves just swimming around, not doing much. But when something else comes along, perhaps an unusual character, perhaps a setting, or more likely an unusual motivation, and the two ideas collide, that's the point at when my story suddenly takes on life.

I've just finished reading a book by my friend Anna Campbell, Tempt the Devil. While the story has its uniqueness, it's not all that far afield from most historical romances. Yet the sexual tension is just plain explosive, and kept the book all but flipping the pages for me. What was its power? Two very controlling people attempting to control the relationship and dominate the other? We've seen that before. Being the arrogant rake of a duke and the infamous courtesan who captivates all her lovers just sort of fits. In fact, it sounds almost ordinary, doesn't it?

Well, it's not. The question I think Anna must have asked herself was "Why?" Motivation, in other words. It's not enough that two people want to just control each other. It's not enough that they each wanted to be on top. It's more primal than that: they both wanted desperately not to be on bottom.

There's where you start to get into the pain. Why not be on bottom? A truly strong person can risk vulnerability. What then makes these two people so desperate to not be vulnerable, to give the appearance of strength when they really are so very wounded that they fear they will disintegrate under the control of another?

Anna found her answer, and I'm not telling you what it is. But she created an extremely powerful conflict by throwing together two passionate characters whose very essence depended on what the other could not give up.

That's the embryo. Two ideas that collided and joined to create the beginning and growth of life of the story. Some people talk of theme and premise, and core beliefs- and lots of other things. I've never been too big on most of those because they're too abstract. But it's really the same thing, just viewed from a different perspective.

You might have a theme, or premise, and start with that. For example, my first thought on LOKI'S DAUGHTERS, written a number of years ago, was a question, "Is there really any transgression that cannot be forgiven?" The answer that seemed to come to me was a plot that was far too dark for the market. I still would not write that story today. But then I watched a dear friend who was just beginning her fourth out of what became five battles with cancer. One theme for her life kept coming at me over and over: "Never give up. Hang on just a little longer because you never know what the next minute will bring."

When those two ideas collided, a unique story emerged, and a unique heroine who could never give up her battle to save her people, inspired by the Viking boy who had at the last minute hidden her in her attempt to escape his rapacious uncle. And then years later when everything looked so bleak, he returned. But what his people had done to hers was unforgivable. Or was it?

From those basic specks of ideas the story grew, and strongly motivated characters emerged. As in Anna's story, I had found motivations that upped the ante beyond simple wants and needs to those that meant the life or death of the very essence of my hero and heroine. The embryo grew to fruition and became one of my all time favorite books.

The Riddle of the Seventh Debut

2009-05-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Delle Jacobs
Working on: Final Polish of my Sensual Historical Sea Fantasy, SIREN, to send to my editor next week
Mood: Just a little bit overwhelmed- Too darn much to do!

Funny thing, huh, how my seventh published novel could be my debut? Or maybe it's my seventh debut? Is that something like my seventh time as a virgin? I's true. Really! According to RWA, I didn't become a publisher author until I sold my sixth book because the first five had the wrong publisher. But wait- what happened to the sixth one? Here's the scoop:

SINS OF THE HEART, a.k.a. LADY SCANDALOUS, was actually the first novel sold to an RWA-recognized publisher. But when Samhain also agreed to take on APHRODITE'S BREW, we switched the two around, and brought it out first. So there you have it: My seventh time is really the first!

And here's the video to show you that first time is a wild, adventurous, steamy one.

Oh, and don't forget to enter my contest! It's really easy. Just drop by my blog ( http://dellejacobs.blogspot.com )and tell us a little bit about your Most Beautiful Place on Earth, or send me ( delle@dellejacobs.com) a picture to post and you'll have a chance to win a fabulous prizeworth $50-75 from my Most Beautiful Place, Hawaii.

May RCRW Author Releases

2009-05-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sins of the Heart by Delle Jacobs

Sunrise on the Coast of Cornwall: Two ladies, one spyglass- Two naked men dashing into the surf.

Par for the Course by Jenna Bayley-Burke

Warning :: Fore! This title contains explicit sex, and a love story hazardous to your hankie supply. Oh, and exploding toads.

Starting Over by Jenna Allen

The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers by Angie Fox

Chasing trends

2009-04-29T00:21:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Jessa Slade

Currently working on: Book 2 of The Marked Souls

Mood: Vengeful

I think watching a puppy chase its tail is just adorable and hilarious. Watching -- hell, being a desperate writer chasing trends -- less adorable and hilarious though equally futile and exhausting.

But writing the book of your heart when publishing is a cold, hard (much like frozen corn dog) numbers business is as likely to give you a coronary as a contract. So what's the desperate writer to do? Write to the market or wait for the market?

Let's contemplate some options.

1. Go ahead and be an ambulance chaser.
What? You're too proud to pit-bull-clamp your teeth around the tires of the NYC-bound bus and hang on for the ride? Trends change as speedily as anything on the freeway of the publishing world, so you'll have to be quick and agile to be a trend-chaser. It's funny how some genre writers sneer at those writing to trend with as much exposed fang as lit writers flash at genre writers. Sure, chasing a trend is likely to get you smashed into pulp -- but pulp fiction, though it was never meant to last, has a long, lusty history, and that's nothing to sneer at.

2. Don't chase; stalk.
For some, channeling your inner songbird-killer is the way to go. Chasing implies a lot a running around. Stalking is more deliberate and thoughtful. Is there something in the trend that appeals to you? How can you tweak the trend to make it your own? Or never mind tweaking. Snare that trend, tear it apart, and find your future in its rearranged guts.

3. Refuse to pursue.
If all this trending has your creative impulses warring like cats and dogs, you could just sit this round out, flying high above it all. Trends and tastes change. Maybe from your vantage point, you'll lead the next charge. Or the one after that.

Because the constant in all three approaches? You keep writing something. All the business discussion that goes on -- trends, marketing, changes in technology, consolidation of publishing houses, yada -- is irrelevant if you don't have a story. And if it's a good story, you'll make all of the rest irrelevant.

WHO'S TO SAY WHAT'S A TREND?

2009-04-27T00:10:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Genene Valleau
Current project: edits on a novella
Mood: Happy and productive (just not necessarily on writing!)

Me writing about trends is quite laughable. For as long as I can remember--and that's a very long time--I've been out of step. The only girl in a household of brothers and male cousins. The only female in cheerleading tryouts who didn't wear a short skirt. One of three people on the planet who have never watched reality TV.

All this doesn't mean I haven't yearned to be "like everyone else" at times nor did it keep me from making some dumb mistakes because I wanted to fit in.

However, I've never really anguished over whether to write to trends. Or maybe that's because I write fairly slow and realized by the time I finished a book, the "current" writing trend would be a tattered paperback selling for ten cents at a garage sale.

I gravitate more toward classics that don't go out of style: jeans and comfy shoes, suit jackets and tailored shirts, stories of people who overcome emotional trauma on the way to their happily-ever-after.

Interestingly enough, I've become bolder as I've gotten older. My suit jackets aren't all neutral colors. The heroes in my stories don't always have six-pack abs.

And I've met more people who don't follow trends, which may be a trend in itself. Though all people may have some experiences in common such as birth, death and paying taxes--we are all individuals with different tastes in all areas of our lives, including reading.

What a boon for writers! E-book publishers especially seem to be open to stories that don't fit neatly into one category or subgenre. I like the idea that there may be a market for stories like Minnette's "romantic paranormal sci-fi fantasy comedy children's book where the protagonist is a wizard, the bad guy is a gun-toting detective, and the heroine captains a spaceship full of six-year-olds who talk to dead people." (See Minnette Meador's post on April 9.)

What's the most out-of-the-ordinary story you've ever read or imagined writing?

Who knows? Maybe someday I'll write an autobiography about an old lady who wears purple and red and writes trend-setting stories in a dozen new sub-genres that sell at auction for millions of dollars. :)

Trend, Schmend

2009-04-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Lisa Hendrix

Currently working on: IMMORTAL CHAMPION

Mood: Waxing philosophical (because it's better than waxing the floor)

Trend-setting in fashion has never been my thing. For that matter, neither has trend-following, at least not in a timely manner. Back in my HS and college days, if I started wearing something, you could be pretty sure the trend was already over. I was fortunate enough to make a friend or two along the way who could point me in the right direction

and keep me from looking like a total dufus, but through most of my life I've avoided the whole problem by keeping to classic styles: blazers, skirt or pants, turtlenecks or oxford shirts. Toss in the occasional tailored dress—when I can find one with a waist that falls somewhere near mine instead of 5 inches too high—and you've got my closet. [Wishing I look like The Hepburn...]

And yet in books, I've too often found myself trend-watching. I think the tendency comes out of my first sale. I was finishing up a medieval just as the bottom fell out of the medieval market. Then I had a chance at an editor appointment. The house had just launched a new line of western-set historicals, and I realized that the idea I had for a second medieval would work just as well in the American west. So I pitched that one and ended up selling it to that editor. I wrote another western, then faded away just as that particular trend (and my editor) did.

When I came back, my new editor was looking for contemporaries and paranormals. I had a couple of ideas floating around in the back of my head, so I wrote one of the latter (paranormal light, really) and then a couple of the former. And then I had family issues that took me away from writing again.

And came back to another new editor.

This time, I had an idea—a dream, really— that had nothing to do with what anyone was looking for. I LOVED this idea and the even bigger idea that grew out of it, and that's what I pitched, and the stars or the Muses or something were with me—or perhaps it was just my clear enthusiasm—and my editor loved it too. As it happens, the idea touched on a trend that was current (paranormal) and on one that was due to come back and now has actually started to burgeon (historicals/medievals) to come

up with a "paranormal historical romance." And for once I was out ahead of a trend. Not setting it, perhaps, but not tagging along like your little sister, either. At any rate, I wasn't trend-hunting, 'cause if I had been, I would undoubtedly have been the last onboard, just as I was the last girl in high school to put on hot pants. (Stop snickering, ladies. I only weighed 120 pounds back then...) [Anyone recognize Jo Ann Pflug, aka Lt. Dish from *M*A*S*H*?]

So what do you take away from this? I don't know. It wouldn't be "Write to trend." That first sale (Hostage Heart) came from an idea that I already had, and I merely tailored it to the trend. And it's not like a forced myself to write something I didn't like. I read westerns and still do, and the next one came to me easily (Drifter's Moon).

But it also wouldn't be "Never write to trend." I generated the ideas for the next books (Razzle Dazzle, To Marry an Irish Rogue, and Runaway Bay) specifically because my editor was looking for those kinds of book. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy writing them. Those ideas came to me just as easily and flowed with just as much joy as that very first unsold medieval. I always have a dozen or more sets of characters rolling around in my skull anyway, so it's easy to coax one or two up to the front to meet a need. Right now, I could easily drift off course on my Immortal Brotherhood series and write something utterly different. But I won't.

I guess the message is "Write the book you WANT to write." If your idea is unique and "weird" and a "tough sell" but you love it and can't imagine writing anything else, write it. You probably have equal shots at being the one to set the trend or nose diving into the tank of anonymity. That's the risk you take. On the other hand, if you have a a couple of ideas that are equally attractive and one just happens to suit the trending market and you want to have a better chance at selling...well, why not write that one? Just don't write a book you have no desire to write solely because it's a trend. Unless, of course, you need the money and already have the sure sale. Or if...

Oh, what the heck. Be bold. Write what you want, for whatever reason you want. Plenty of people have supported their families by writing a combination of books of the moment and books of their heart. Just ask Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.

It's your life and your business. You get to run it how you want. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

[Think these Harajuku Girls worry about trends? Or do they just want to have fun?]

—————

BTW, the result of that dream I mentioned is The Immortal Brotherhood series, Book 2 of which, IMMORTAL OUTLAW, is coming out in about 5 weeks. Excerpt goes up today at lisahendrix.com. Pop on over for a peek.

Sometimes You're In...Sometimes You're Out

2009-04-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Maggie Jaimeson
Currently working on: still working on that YA paranormal
Mood: Exhausted. Who knew how many boxes it really takes to pack up a house?
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As the famous Heidi Klum gives her Auf Wiedersehen to each new Project Runway contestant, I find that analyzing fiction trends--just like fashion trends--is a waste of time. No one knows what will catch next, what will be the craze. Just make your own way and write the best story you can.

Does anyone remember this outfit that Chery wore to the 1987 Oscars? Really, what was she thinking. Now Chery is known to be "outside the box" but that hair is not her best feature.

I've been around for a while and the one thing I know for sure about fiction trends is that once anyone can identify a trend, it is already saturated, overbought, and about to end. So, I don't try to catch the trend or write to a trend. I think it's most important that you write what you love, write what calls to you, and then write again. It all comes around. If this isn't your trend year, just wait--like the weather--it will change again soon.

As this is posted I will be following a moving van to my new home in the California Redwoods. Believe me this part of California is not a trend setter. Instead they've been quietly waiting for everyone to catch up to small town living, ecological awareness, and green living. So, my final word is don't waste time looking for the trend. Just make your own. Everyone will eventually catch up.

Back to my favorite fashion faux pas. It goes to show that even those who may be considered "trendy" get it wrong.

Here's Penelope Cruz at the 2007 Oscars. I did wonder if she turned around, would her entire backside be bare? Really, is this a dress?

Finally, Anna Wintour--the editor of Vogue--really should know better. Do you think that giant seashells on your hips is doing you any favors. Even if you are a skinny minnie.

Good thing I can't afford designer clothes. I'm sure I couldn't begin to compete with these outfits. Hmmm...I am planning to be at RWA in Nashville in 2010. I always did like Minnie Pearl's look. Maybe I'll come up with an out-of-the-box dress for the next Rita ceremony.

Happy Writing!

Up Against the Trends

2009-04-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Pauline Trent
Currently working on: meeting a tight deadline
Mood: a little stressed but motivated and happy

I started writing this post over a week ago. It's still not where I want it to be, what I want it to be. Trends (and writing about them, apparently) aren't my strong suit. See, I am incredibly stylish. I'm not the least bit trendy. Every so often, my style comes around the circle and ends up the mainstream trend. I always enjoy this moment because it means I can stock up and get the clothes, jewelry, accessories, colors that I love, easily. No more scrounging in clearance bins or the backrooms of tiny boutiques (although that is fun) or being asked to pay three times as much for something. Then, eventually, the trend will move on and I will still be stylish. Just not trendy. Because that's how it works. The trend builds, the trend rides the wave, the trend wanes and the trend dies off...until the circle starts over again - and that which was passe becomes edgy becomes retro becomes ... trendy.

The same thing happens with writing. I don't set out to write a contemporary romance or a fiction with strong romantic elements or a romantic suspense. I have stories in my head and I write them. Sometimes, it hits: I've gotten a lot of really good response from people who are growing tired of paranormal and suspense romances. Sometimes, it misses: I've gotten some pretty negative emails because it was just a sweet story without anything paranormal or suspenseful.

My first novel that I ever submitted had an interracial couple. It is languishing on a dusty bookshelf somewhere in an office in NY because (aside from the fact that it wasn't very good, honestly) they weren't sure what to do with an interracial couple. Which imprint should it be published under? Was it this or was it that? Now, when I tell that story, people look at me like I'm crazy because romance readers hardly bat an eye at interracial couples any longer. Just enough time has passed for it to go from confusing and radical to an acceptable trend/subgenre.

Apparently chick lit is dead, paranormal is on the wane, and erotica is on the rise.* To a certain degree, I care. We should all care. This is a business and we are business people within it. To a certain degree, I don't care. The stories in my head are the stories in my head. Sure, I may shuffle the order in which I write the stories based on the trends and how they are flowing but you know what? They'll each get written. Eventually and in time.

There's an old phrase: Talent will out. It means that someone who works and hones the craft, learns it well and sticks to it will achieve success. It also means if we write badly to hit a trend, our readers will know it. But if we write well and just not quit, our readers will find us, regardless of trends. And who knows, if we write well enough and consistently enough, maybe we will end up setting the trend and causing the circle to come back around.

~ Pauline

* I make no claims that this is totally accurate. It was told to me by one person in the industry during one conversation. Thus, the word "apparently" at the beginning of the sentence. ;)

Hello From Heather Hiestand/Anh Leod

2009-04-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who has emailed, prayed or worried about my son Andy in the past five weeks. It has been the roller coaster you've always heard about with premature births. If you can avoid emergency c-sections at 25 weeks, I highly recommend it!

The picture of Andy above is a couple of weeks old. That's as organized as I can get right now! I do have one picture that makes it evident he looks just like my husband...except I think he has my stubborn chin. Since all his nurses describe him as "feisty" I'm reasonably certain I'm right about that chin.

For those of you who were wondering about my recent releases, Ex Factor came out a couple of months ago - amazing how fast time has passed. Buy Ex Factor. Also, Amazon just loaded Cards Never Lie's print version, or you can get it at the Jasmine Jade site, or at Barnes and Noble.

Thank you for your support. I'm at the hospital with my son seven days a week, but hopefully he'll come home this summer and eventually I can bring him into a meeting to meet y'all. Until then, happy writing!

Dancing With Trends

2009-04-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Jenna Bayley-Burke
Currently working on: getting the house sale-ready
Waiting on: word on the twice re-worked partial

Mood: exhausted and tired of being sick
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Writing is a labor of love. It can be lots of fun, but it is also loads of work. Your heart must be in it, or it really shows in the writing. However, as authors we need to sell what we write, and to do that we must create a story our publisher reads and sees great sales numbers adding up. Often, that means a book that takes advantage of what is hot in the market.

Unfortunately, writing to market is a double edged sword. By the time your book is finished, the market migt be saturated with the type of story you've created. With this uncertain economy, romance is one of the genres expected to stay strong. There are rumors inspirational and historical will be the next romance market boom. Why? Faith that the world will improve, and pure escapism.

The biggest 'trend' in romance novels seems to be ebooks. Not just ebook publishers putting out more stories, but traditional publishers making the ebook transition. While audio book sales are dipping, and adult mass market is flatlining, ebooks are on the rise. Oprah and Martha Stewart's on air praise of the Kindle can't hurt. Neither can the new focus on living a less cluttered life. You can compress an entire bookshelf onto a flash drive. No one can see your book addiction. Not that I'd know ANYTHING about that.

One of my publishers puts novels out in ebook form first, so I'm covered on the ebook front. As to the subgenre trends, I can't write to either of them. I'm holding on that Dear Authors' Save The Contemporary campaign generates sales for what I write. It all comes back around. :)

The Schizophrenic Muse

2009-04-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Minnette Meador
Current Project: Keenan's Dilemma - Paranormal Comedy
Current Mood: Frantic - Three Deadlines Looming and Three Months Behind ~yikes~

I have been blessed (cursed?) with a bi-polar/schizophrenic Muse. Among her personalities is a six year old named Anna, a crusty old has-been wizard named Nebuchadnezzar, a horny little vixen we like to refer to as Musan, and a died in the wool fifty something romantic named Belle who loves hunks, kick ass heroines, and Rome. In the wings, also shouting for attention, are a rumpled sleuth, a ray gun totting alien, a "ghost" writer, and several others whom I haven't met yet. ~Sigh~ It is very difficult to keep them all fed.

Currently, I'm working with my little vixen and the "ghost" writer. These two really don't get along. They bicker constantly and give me such a headache. One takes my libido out for a ride and wants me to write about nothing but sex, sex, sex. It's exhausting! The other just keeps me scared to death. It's an interesting dichotomy.

I get asked a lot why I write in so many genres and my stock answer is usually because I read so many genres. I've never met a genre (or sub-genre) I didn't like.

So, what about you? Here's an opportunity for my lovely Rose City Romance Writer community to answer a few questions about the venerable Muse and all her personalities:

1. Do you find yourself fighting off the Schizophrenic Muse?
2. If not, how do you cope with all the personalities?
3. Do you change your name for each genre or do you keep your name on all of it?

So far, (~fingers crossed~ ~lucky dance~ ~positive thoughts~) my Muse only lets one or two personalities out at a time. I'm waiting for the day when I write a romantic paranormal sci-fi fantasy comedy children's book where the protagonist is a wizard, the bad guy is a gun totting detective, and the heroine captains a spaceship full of six year olds who talk to dead people. Now, there's a sub-genre for you! :)

Minnette Meador
www.minnettemeador.com
http://minnettemeador.blogspot.com
2008 Releases: Starsight, Vol. I, Starsight, Vol. II, The Centurion & The Queen
The Edge of Honor, A Cup of Comfort for Single Mothers
2009 Releases: A Boy & His Wizard
2010 Releases: Starsight III: The Restless Seed, Starsight Prequel: The God Wars,
A Boy & His Lizard
Other Releases:The Gladiator Prince - TBA, Keenan's Dilemma - TBA

Jumping In and Out of Boxes

2009-04-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

I always did love a great romance. I like them just as straight romances, but truthfully I've always craved something more. Being, for most of my childhood, the only girl among a bunch of boys, I always found jeans better than flouncy skirts and a hike through the woods or a night skating on the ice lots more fun than dressing up in the vintage clothes my my girlfriend's attic.

Going to a movie meant cowboys, Indians, or creatures from black lagoons and far away planets. My reading fiction was filled with drama from ancient times and mystery and suspense. Daphne du Maurier was a favorite. And I remember Lorna Doone and King Solomon's Mines which had been written long before my adolescence, but were the stories that first completely encompassed me to the point where I forgot even the bed beneath me as I read.

One scandalous mistake...
And she's caught in a sea battle
Off the Coast of France...

So that was what I wanted to write. But full of earth-shaking, heart-wrenching romance, too. Too bad for me. Nobody wanted to buy it. "Too hard to slot," was what a certain male editor told me years ago when I sent him my Early Victorian Romantic Suspense Adventure. It was called A Tiger Purring, and he lied when he said it showed promise for future stories. But it was still the kind of story I really wanted to write.

I think I've written some straight historical romances. Mostly, that is. But Every one I can think of has crossed the line into another genre at least a little bit. Some. of course, we expect to have other elements, like the Westerns- they've got to have adventure. Regencies and comedy are always a great match. But for a number of years, the "Rules", a.k.a. "what sells", were severely limited. The historical genre became fixated on England to the point where the hero and heroine almost didn't dare set foot on a boat in the English Channel. And heaven forbid that either of them might not be English. Regencies, of course were not supposed to have any sex in them, and even when I re-wrote mine without the sex, I was told they were too steamy. So I've been out of the box for the last sixteen years, no matter what I tried.

"But I thought I could trust him..."

But now, I think the boxes are opening up (please understand I'm not sure about anything contemporary since I only read that when a friend writes it and have never written it.) It seems to me the book that cracked open the door to Paranormal Historical was Karen Harbaugh's The Vampire Viscount. I remember a conversation with her editor Hilary Ross who told me she'd told Karen, "don't expect it to sell because Regency readers want their Regencies to be Regencies." She told me how shocked she was that the book flew off the shelves and went into a second printing when Regencies almost never went to a second round.

Maybe the traditional Regency had to die, as far as major publishers were concerned, before things could open up- I'm not sure. But the Historical has really changed in the last few years. True, a lot still follow the standard plot and conventions, with only a sprinkling of a suspense or adventure plot. But there are series in which multiple heroes are involved with the heroine. There are seriously heavy paranormals full of vampires and werewolves, dragons and demons. Some writers are attempting to stretch the constricting bands of adventure and head for foreign soil or find heavy involvement in traditionally male fictional activity, like smuggling and battles, or politics, although adventure seems for some reason to catch far less reflective shine than paranormal stories. After all, pirates are not exactly new stuff in fiction.

The difficulty is still how to catch the editors eye and lure her into your world. Your lure has to be pretty shiny, and gleam like none she's ever seen before. You need a shiny new hook. Instead of yellow feathers and bright red paint, all of which are discouragingly familiar to her, you need something she's never seen on a lure before. Baubles. Bangles. Beads. Translucent whrly-gigs that spin in the water and catch even the gleam from distant stars to reflect into her eyes.

When you're attempting to cross genre boundaries in Historicals, you're still running a risk. But it's a little easier now- or a little harder, depending on your perspective. The thing is, the mix you're making is itself the risk, but it's also your hook. When you're laying out your concept to the editor, the wheels in her head are spinning and the question she's posing to herself is, how intriguing is this concept? Can she make it play into a whole story without losing that basic lure?

If you've just told her your hero is a werewolf-vampire who spends his moonlight hours as a fry cook working for his abusive demon step-father, I think you've lost her. That's just a bunch of hooky elements strung together, but in a way the de-sizzled all of them. What are you missing? hold on, I think I've said this before. There is, in fact, nothing new in any of what I'm saying, as you can see in these old re-colored engravings. Same old ideas, but making them new.

Your story needs what all stories need, goal, motivation and conflict. When you're mixing a romance with a traditionally male genre such as adventure, science fiction or mystery, you may have a good, easily discernible dividing line between the two. Romance tends to be told more in terms of internal conflict, while adventurous genres tend to have more external plot lines. Not entirely, for either of them, but focus tends to be that way.

"Come to me, John Wall"

In my current WIP, my heroine has escaped from Napoleonic France where her secret politics made her a criminal. The last thing she wants to do is go back there. So obviously, what's going to happen? She has to go back and risk her life. Although that's an emotional thing- her life is threatened, that's really external plot. It's the adventure and the suspense all rolled into one. But on a romantic level, the man who rescued her is her exact opposite. She is everything he detests, but he has so recently been jilted by the "perfect woman" that he's in no mood at all to allow her any room. She'd like to hate him, but it's just not working out that way (the romance plot) and she doesn't dare tell him the real truth, because of the external plot. And so the two plots tangle back and forth, each enriching the other.

"Fire on my home town, will you? Take that!"

I've done a lot of the same thing in my medieval paranormal, juxtaposing the strongly male warrior plot with the female emotional tangle. And by thinking of them as male and female, I'm having an easier time of making them intertwine efffectively.

And not only has that been effective for the plot line, it's helped in my decription to editors, who love the contrast of elements.

Well, we'll see if it works when it comes time to actually sell the stories.

Thoroughly Compromised!

2009-04-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

Compromising Positions by Jenna Bayley-Burke

Falling in love is the last thing on his busy agenda…but compromising positions can lead just about anywhere.

David Strong knows how to do a lot of things—run an international fitness company, finesse stock portfolios and stay out of emotional entanglements. That is, until he gets tangled up with Sophie Delfino and her Sensational Sex workout. He’s supposed to help her demonstrate Kama Sutra positions for her couples’ yoga class. The rigorous postures require more than just physical control. And his co-instructor unexpectedly tests his control to the limit.

Sophie’s been fantasizing about David since her teens, but she never dreamed she’d actually be expected to run through her intimate desires—with an audience! The class is very professional, tame even—or it would be, if she’d been in any of the positions before. But she hasn’t—except in her wildest fantasies about David. Sophie knows she wants David in every way, and she’s flexible enough to use whatever she has to get him.

David can’t afford any unexpected distractions. Besides the sensual positions he has to endure without embarrassing himself in public, there’s an embezzler stealing from his company. And then there’s Sophie—who is well on her way to stealing his well-guarded heart.

Warning: This is one exercise program you won’t need to consult your doctor before beginning…unless he’s hot and available for house calls. The Kama Sutra isn’t for the prudish or faint of heart, and neither is this story.

Read An Excerpt Online

Blog Exclusive Excerpt

April RCRW Author Releases

2009-04-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Lisa Jackson
Malice
...he sees his dead wife everywhere...

New Orleans detective Rick Bentz's wife died 12 years ago in a horrible car wreck, but lately he's begun to wonder who was behind the wheel that fatal night. He doesn't dare share his suspicions with his new wife for fear she'll think he's losing his mind...but then the murders start.

Nancy Bush
Unseen
...the deadliest enemies are unseen...
Gemma wakes ina hospital room unable to remember anything from the last three days. But detective Will Tanninger seems convinced she's responsible for a fatal hit-and-run involving a serial predator. Now someone lurks at the fringe of her consciousness...a threat she can't quite see.

Upcoming Events - April

2009-04-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

Friday April 3, 2009
Time: 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Pauline Trent at Vancouver First Friday

210 W Evergreen Blvd (inside the Marketplace Bldg), Vancouver, WA 98660
Pauline Trent will be signing her book, FALLING IN LOVE, at Marketplace Books during Vancouver's First Friday. A free, fun, and culturally stimulating evening of wine, hors d'oeuvres, and downtown Vancouver's public art.

Saturday April 11, 2009
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

RCRW chapter meeting & workshop

HT123, Portland Community College Sylvania Campus

workshop :: Contest Slut or Contest Courtesan- Puttin' Out for Love or Money presented by --

Darcy Burke, a 2008 Golden Heart and Maggie Finalist, made writing historical romance a priority three years ago. She's entered two novels in thirteen contests. One of those novels was a complete contest failure,while the other finaled four times, including one first place finish and two second places.

A four time finalist and first place winner of two contests, Kim Wollenburg enjoys all aspects of entering contests – the good, the bad and the ugly and believes contests are like life – with the ability to thrill, inspire and wound.

Jessica Davidson’s first novel – Seduced By Shadows which comes out in October from NAL Signet Eclipse under her pen name Jessa Slade – was the grand prize winner of the 2007 Golden Rose. Needless to say, she’s a big proponent of winning writing contests despite her talent for splitting contest judges down the middle – figuratively, not literally.

A 2007 and 2008 Golden Heart finalist, Kristina McMorris writes contemporary and historical women's fiction. Since delving into fiction writing three years ago, she has won 1st place in nine national literary contests and placed in nine others.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Readers Luncheon
Time: 10am - 2pm

(Doors Open at 9:30 am)
with keynote speaker, award-winning author Lucy Monroe
Join Us at the Governor Hotel for great food, many romance authors, and baskets galore.
All profits go to Portland Literacy Council.
Cost: $35

Attending Authors