I'm participating in my first panel talk in a public venue today as part of Amore and More! Along with Laurie Schnebly Campbell and Jill Knowles, I'll be talking about how romance novels have changed over the last 20 years and where we see them headed in the future.
I'll also be giving away copies of Daring the Moon. So if you're in/around the Tucson area, please plan on attending. (The panel talk begins at 1:00 p.m.)
Click here for more information.
An extended version of Jack Links' Messin' With Sasquatch commercial:
This Saturday, January 31st, I'm participating in my first panel talk in a public venue as part of Amore and More! Along with Laurie Schnebly Campbell and Jill Knowles, I'll be talking about how romance novels have changed over the last 20 years and where we see them headed in the future.
I'll also be giving away copies of Daring the Moon.
So if you're in/around the Tucson area, please plan on attending. (The panel talk begins at 1:00 p.m.)
Click here for more information.
Literary agent Natasha Kern was the guest speaker at my local RWA chapter meeting on Saturday. I wasn't able to stay for the entire meeting--had to leave before the afternoon session--but she shared something from author Dean Koontz that I want to share here.
Mr. Koontz gave this following characteristics of a novel:
1) The author introduces the hero or heroine who has just been or is about to be plunged into trouble
2) The hero tries to solve the problem and only slides deeper into trouble
3) As the hero tries to climb out of the hole he finds himself in, complications arise, each more terrible than before
4) at last, changed by the awful experiences and by intolerable circumstances, the hero learns something about himself...something of which he was previously ignorant...and understands what he must do to get out of the dangerous situation.
Other pearls of wisdom from Dean Koontz:
"Bunny slippers remind me of who I am. You can't get a swelled head if you wear bunny slippers. You can't lose your sense of perspective and start acting like a star or a rich lady if you keep on wearing bunny slippers. Besides, bunny slippers give me confidence because they're so jaunty. They make a statement; they say, 'Nothing the world does to me can ever get me so far down that I can't be silly and frivolous.' If I died and found myself in Hell, I could endure the place if I had bunny slippers."
"Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those, who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear, which is inherent in a human condition."
"We're not here to leave a mark, bro. Monuments, legacies, marks--that's where we always go wrong. We're here to revel in the world, to soak in the awesomeness of it, to enjoy the ride. The world's maximum perfect as it is, beauty from horizon to horizon. Any mark any of us tries to leave--hell, it's only grafitti. Any mark anyone leaves is no better than vandalism."
Well said, Mr. Koontz.
Amore and More! Romance Writers Tell All
Does a ripped heart trump ripped abs? Discover the mouth-drying, heart-thumping world of the modern romance at one of four Amore and More! writing workshops sponsored by the Pima County Public Library - just in time for Valentine's Day!
These free, two-hour workshops from 1-3 p.m. January 31 at Himmel Park Branch Library, February 14 at Mission Branch Library and February 28 at Nanini Branch Library will whet your appetite for the Tucson Festival of Books in March.
Published authors from the Saguaro Romance Writers, the Tucson Chapter of Romance Writers of America®, share the secrets of the romance novel's sizzle. These award-winning writers give new meaning to that titillating phrase, Snap, Crackle, Pop!
Dip into the world of the sensuous sentence and the vivacious verb and learn what romance writing is all about. Don't forget that romance fiction generated $1.375 billion in sales in 2007!
If you're in or near Tucson, make sure to come to these great workshops! My panel is next Saturday--one week from today! (And yes, I'm already starting to get nervous...) Our topic: It's Not Your Mother's Romance Anymore--learn how romance novels have changed over the years. What are the various sub-genres under the greater romance umbrella? How do they differ from each other? E-books and print formats. And lots more!
Join me and authors Laurie Schnebly Campbell and Jill Knowles on January 31st at 1:00 at the Himmel Park Branch Library.
This post would have been longer, but...
...something has crashed on my computer...
Seducing the Moon, book 2 in my Brava werewolf series, is available now for pre-order at Amazon.com, Borders and Books-A-Million!
Here's the blurb and an unedited excerpt:
It only takes a little moonlight to bring out the primal desire between two lovers...
Declan O'Connell has a history with Pelicia Cobb, but not the kind that's going to help him win her back. It was bad enough that he broke her heart as a gruff ex-commando. Now he's got another side to his personality, a furry, fierce side that goes a little wild under the light of the moon...
Pel wants nothing more than the chance to clean up the mess Declan made of her life--without his interference. But with a sniper taking shots at her on her doorstep, there's no one better to protect her than Declan. And it's hard to ignore all of his deliciousness, especially the way her body responds to his undeniable magnetism. There's no question the rugged Irishman brings out the animal instinct in her—an instinct that propels her toward him, even when she knows she should run away...
According to my latest The Writer magazine, there are some highly touted literary agents/agencies looking for new talent. I've listed just a few, those that I recognize and believe to be reputable:
Donald Maass Literary Agency - represents mostly fiction; no prescriptive nonfiction, picture books, poetry or screenplays. Query with a one-page letter, first five pages of manuscript and SASE. Responds in two weeks. Submission guidelines are online.
The Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency - all types of commercial fiction (thrillers, mysteries, children's, romance, women's fiction, ethnic, science fiction, fantasy, general fiction); literary fiction with strong narrative; and nonfiction (current affairs, health, science, psychology, cookbooks, biography and memoir). No poetry, screenplays or short stories. Accepts unsolicited queries and manuscripts. Submission guidelines are online.
Harvey Klinger, Inc. - Mainstream adult fiction and nonfiction, literary and commercial. Unpublished writers considered. Submission guidelines online.
Natasha Kern Literary Agency - Fiction (historical, contemporary, multicultural, and inspirational); nonfiction (narrative, memoir, body/mind/spirit, health and medicine, inspirational and religious, psychology, relationship and self-help, parenting, animals and nature). Submission guidelines online.
Writers House - Fiction and nonfiction for adult and juvenile books; literary and commercial fiction, women's fiction, science fiction/fantasy, narrative nonfiction, history, memoir, biographies, books on psychology, science, parenting, cookbooks, how-to, self-help, business, finance, young adult and juvenile fiction/nonfiction and picture books. Send query letter of no more than two pages, including credentials, synopsis with SASE. Submission guidelines online. (My agent is with Writers House and I have only great things to say about this agency.)
My own 2 cents: Follow the guidelines. I know many writers who will say, "Hey, even if they don't ask for the first chapter in the initial query, go ahead and send it." My advice--don't. Follow the submission guidelines to the letter. Give them what they ask for and no more. These folks get a lot of queries every day (one part of the article indicated one of these agencies receives 5,000 queries a year.) And if you're submitting to multiple houses (which is perfectly fine in the query process), make sure you mention that in your query letter.
Good hunting!
A little something to heat up your Monday morning. Look at the muscles in his arm... And his back's not bad, either!
Amore and More! Romance Writers Tell All
Does a ripped heart trump ripped abs? Discover the mouth-drying, heart-thumping world of the modern romance at one of four Amore and More! writing workshops sponsored by the Pima County Public Library - just in time for Valentine's Day!
These free, two-hour workshops from 1-3 p.m. January 17 at Dusenberry-River Branch Library, January 31 at Himmel Park Branch Library, February 14 at Mission Branch Library and February 28 at Nanini Branch Library will whet your appetite for the Tucson Festival of Books in March.
Published authors from the Saguaro Romance Writers, the Tucson Chapter of Romance Writers of America®, share the secrets of the romance novel's sizzle. These award-winning writers give new meaning to that titillating phrase, Snap, Crackle, Pop!
Dip into the world of the sensuous sentence and the vivacious verb and learn what romance writing is all about. Don't forget that romance fiction generated $1.375 billion in sales in 2007!
Featured authors include Denise Agnew, Laurie Schnebly Campbell, Elaine Charton, Michael Charton, Georgina Devon, Judy Duarte, Mary Tate Engels, Roz Denny Fox, Patricia Knoll, Jill Knowles, Sherrill Quinn, Vicki Lewis Thompson and Kathleen Wells.
If you're in Tucson, make sure to come to these great workshops! Today you'll have the opportunity to listen to and pick the brains of NYT best seller Vicki Lewis Thompson, Patricia Knoll and Kathleen Wells.
My panel is on January 31st, so mark your calendars now!
From Just Erotic Romance Reviews: "For a quick read and mythology thrown in with a vampire or two, Wicked Omen is the perfect read... The chemistry between Nikolaos and Kalla feels very real and not forced. The suspense was well-written capturing the erotic romance I love to read... Wicked Omen is a great addition to the Dark Pantheon series."
For an excerpt or to buy, click here.
I've blogged about this before, but it bears repeating, I think.
The power of a well-working critique group is valuable beyond belief. At the simplest of levels, this kind of group (or any writing group) provides support. Writing is a solitary endeavor. You don't sit in an office for 8 hours a day surrounded by other people doing the same work. (Usually.) It's just you and your computer, or typewriter, or legal pad. You can whine and moan about how much trouble you're having with your current work-in-progress and find sympathy. (Or a kick in the pants, whichever is needed. Sometimes it's both.) They can point out what you're doing extremely well (and, trust me, you'll need those strokes) as well as what doesn't seem to be working and give you ideas to fix it. A timely word of encouragement can be something you revisit time and again as you struggle over the page.
If you're lucky enough to get a group like mine, they love to brainstorm. And sometimes even part of their critique will get the juices flowing in a different direction. (And sometimes not. If you feel strongly enough about something, don't change it. That's the beauty of this kind of thing. Take what is helpful; discard what isn't.)
I can't recommend getting into a writing group strongly enough. Mine has just started its third year. We lost one member when she moved out of state, but we're still going strong otherwise. It's a great mix--one member has been multi-published in Regency historicals for many years; another has a great science/editorial background; and the third is multi-published in non-fiction work. And there's me. LOL But we gel, and that's what's important.
Decide for yourself if a writing group would work for you.
I'll be over at Sierra Dafoe's place today from 5-9 p.m. EST chatting with readers about DARING THE MOON (and, I daresay, other of my books, too). Come on over!
If you're a regular visitor to my blog (and if you're not you'll soon find out) that I love clever commercials. The Messin' With Sasquatch commercials make me laugh every time. So do most of the Capital One "What's in your wallet?" commercials. This is the most recent one I've seen:
...to check on DARING THE MOON. On last Friday I visited both the Barnes & Noble and the Borders stores on my side of town; yesterday I stopped in at the two stores on the other side of town (just 5-10 minutes from where I work).
I'd forgotten how huge that B&N store is. Wow. But they did have a copy of my book, which I signed, stickered, and replaced on the shelf face-out. See? I'm learning.
Unfortunately, the Borders didn't have any copies of my book--I'm hoping that means that the copies they did have had sold and not that they just didn't buy any.
And...yay! It's Thursday. The day before Friday. I don't know about anyone else, but after having two weeks where I only worked two days each week, this working five days a week thing is crap. Can we please have Christmas and New Year every other month? *G*
I'm also happy to report that DRAGONHEAT, my dragon shifter menage novella at Amber Heat, was the #1 best seller for the fourth quarter! And DRAGONFIRE, it's prequel, managed to hang on in December to be the #10 best seller. W00t!!
Once your book is out in the bookstores, there's at least one thing you can do--visit your local stores and ask the manager if you can sign your books. Readers (some, anyway) may pick up a book they know is a) signed and/or b) by a local author. I visited a Barnes & Noble and a Border on my side of town on Friday, and plan to hit the other stores in town this week. My experience at both stores was polar opposite.
At Borders, I was allowed to sign the copies of DARING THE MOON, and the employee helping me put "autographed" stickers on the covers. Then left. So, me being new to this, I put the books back on the shelf where I'd found them. Spine out. Which meant no one would see that the books were signed. (A friend went in the next day and, er, "rearranged" things so that my books are now face-out. Good friends are worth their weight in gold, I tell ya!)
At B&N, the manager took me to the customer service desk and, while I signed my books, she got on the computer and ordered more. Then, rather than put the books back where I'd found them, she put them on an endcap (which publishers usually have to pay more for). NEXT TO NORA ROBERTS. How cool is that?!?
Sometimes just a little effort on your part can make very positive results happen.
(Also, I discovered that DARING THE MOON is also available at Target.com. So I'll be stopping in at the brick-and-mortar Target to see if they have my book on their shelves.)
It's a rainy, lazy Monday morning. *yawn* I just want to go back to bed...
Although if he was waiting for me, I don't know how much sleeping would actually happen...
2009 is starting out with a bang for me! Available today--Book #2 in my Sassy Devils series at Ellora's Cave:
Sassy Devils, LLC is a conglomerate of good and evil headed up by the Big Guy Himself, controlling all aspects of otherworldly interaction with humankind.
Talon, an Angel of Retribution, is sent to find the leader of the Brotherhood of the Red Claw—an angel who was both friend and mentor—and either return him or pronounce judgment and kill him. Along the way he must fight off gargoyles and protect the human female they’ve targeted.
Raegan Stark, a no-nonsense homicide detective, is stunned to find out that angels are real. As well as arrogant, bad-tempered and sexy as hell. She has to learn to hold her own against this very hot angel while staying one step ahead of their enemies.
Talon finds something he never thought he would—love. And Raegan finds out how bad an angel can be, and just how good bad is!
Click here to read an excerpt or buy.
