Friday Funny

This one doesn't really need any intro... :)

One Final Amore & More!

This Saturday, February 28th, I'm moderating the final library panel talk of Amore and More! Authors Denise Agnew, Elaine Charton and Michael Charton will talk about how romance is everywhere and has been with us throughout history. Find out why romance books endure. All genres--mystery, westerns, main stream, paranormal, suspense, inspirational--have opportunities for romantic threads.

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.

Tipsy Tuesday

The query letter. Something looked upon with dread by many authors--how much information do you include, and what makes up that information? How long should it be? And just how critical is it?

Well, I think we can all agree that a query letter is extremely important--it's your introduction to an agent or editor and can open the door. Or not. So, how do you craft the best letter possible?

As difficult as it sounds (and it is), you want the letter to reflect your voice. For example, if you write with humor, make sure that's in the letter. But not too much, or you may misrepresent the book.

Give a decent one or two paragraph description of the story--the basic plot and character growth pieces.

If you have writing credentials or background/expertise that's relevant, include that information as well. But don't go overboard--keep in mind the agent isn't selling (and the editor isn't buying) you. They're selling (or buying) your book. So that's what you want to sell.

Good luck!

Man Meat Monday

La Fiesta de los Vaqueros is still going strong, so in celebration...



Giddyup!

Friday Funny

And yet another Super Bowl commercial -- from Hulu.com:

LOLLOL Ouch! I think I need to go to the LMAO Clinic... *G*

New Covers

Available now for preorder at Amazon and Borders.com, and coming to a bookstore in August:


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 shoudl run away...



And coming this October:


Wanna know where the real wild things are...and what they like to do there?

City of the Dead: Dori Falcon is a witch with a plan: get to New Orleans, locate her missing brother, and recover the Eye of Bastet, a mysterious and powerful amulet. Her plan never included falling for sexy Cajun cop Jake Boudreau; but without his help, she may never find the demon who has her brother, and the key to her family's survival.


Aren't they gorgeous? The guys as well as the covers. *G*

Tipsy Tuesday

Jerry D. Simmons is a former editor for Random House and has a valuable FREE service he offers to writers -- the sharing of information. At his website Nothing Binding, he also offers free networking opportunities in addition to a lot more.

In his most recent newsletter he had some thoughts about mistakes writers make with point of view. I want to paraphrase a bit of that here.

First of all, you need to choose to write in someone's POV. As soon as you write a line (or more) in what's referred to as the omniscient POV, it yanks the reader right out of the story unless it's done very, very well. On the flip side of that, don't write in everyone's POV. We don't really need to know what the grocery clerk is thinking while the hero is weeping as he buys a frozen pizza and ice cream. (Just kidding. You'd better not have your hero crying over something so trivial.) *G*

When you're in a character's POV, you don't need to use things like "he thought" or "she wondered". (I'm guilty of this, I admit. It's very easy to do.) If the thought is clearly written, you don't need the tags.

And you also need to make sure you remain true to your character when you're in POV. I would describe my home town one way; the hero of my current WIP, a British cop, would describe it completely different, because his eye would be drawn to different things than mine. Plus he's male, and I'm not. That makes a difference, as you all know.

For more great information from Jerry, check out his blog.

Man Meat Monday

Still getting ready for Rodeo Days...


Yeehaaaaaw!!

Friday Funny

Superbowl Sunday is notorious for bringing us the best TV commercials, and this year was no different.

This one is in my top 5:

ROFLMAO. Ooops...


Happy Friday the 13th!

New Review for DARING THE MOON

From Kara at the World According to Books: "Daring the Moon is an evocative story that will have you on a roller coaster ride of emotions - passion that will scorch you - and suspense that will keep you sitting on the edge of your seat. It is a fast-paced book that draws you in from the first paragraph to the last. Sherrill Quinn's werewolves give a new twist to the old legends. Her writing is deliciously descriptive and her characters are engaging... It is definitely on my reread shelf for those nights that I want to curl up in a blanket and get lost in a world of intrigue, breathtaking passion, and yummy alpha werewolves."

Full review: http://worldaccordingtobooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/daring-moon-sherrill-quinn.html


Daring the Moon - available now at a bookstore near you or online at Borders.com, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million!

Tipsy Tuesday

Good writing versus bad. It's like art--you may not be an expert, but you know good art (or writing) when you see it.

In a recent interview with USA Weekend, Stephen King said about JK Rowling (Harry Potter) and Stephanie Meyer (Twilight): "Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good."

But then King recalls that when his mom was alive, she read all the Erle Stanley Gardner books, the Perry Mason mysteries, obsessively when he was growing up. "He was a terrible writer, too, but he was very successful," King says. "Somebody who’s a terrific writer who’s been very, very successful is Jodi Picoult. You’ve got Dean Koontz, who can write like hell. And then sometimes he’s just awful. It varies. James Patterson is a terrible writer but he’s very very successful. People are attracted by the stories, by the pace and in the case of Stephenie Meyer, it’s very clear that she’s writing to a whole generation of girls and opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because they’re not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet."

So, does it matter if you're a bad writer or a good one, if what people are attracted to are the stories? Do you think Stephanie Meyer isn't laughing all the way to the bank, regardless of of how you feel about her writing?

In my opinion, yes it does matter. You're doing your readers a disservice if you're not learning (and applying what you've learned) how to properly structure a sentence, how to plot (and plot well), how to create vibrant, motivated characters, etc. I will tell you right now that I haven't read Meyer's books, or Rowling's, either, so I'm not going to debate whether either is good or bad. They have each managed to reach out and strike a chord with readers, in different ways. And, I guess, at the end of the day, that's what every author's looking to do.

Some just do it better than others.

Man Meat Monday

Just gearing up for Rodeo Days coming here at the end of the month...



Howwwwwdyyyy!

Friday Funny

Some of the things I get via email from one of my cousins are just priceless. This is one of them...


All hair removal methods have tricked women with their promises of easy, painless removal - The Epilady, scissors, razors, Nair and now...the wax. Read on.

My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours:

Maybe I should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet. So I headed to the site of my demise: the bathroom. It was one of those cold wax kits.

No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand, they get warm and you peel them apart and press them to your leg (or wherever else) and you pull the hair right off.

No muss, no fuss.

How hard can it be? I mean, I'm not a genius, but I am mechanically inclined enough to figure this out.

(YA THINK!?!)

So I pull one of the thin strips out. Its two strip s facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together, my genius kicks in so I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees.

("Cold" wax, yeah...right!) I lay the strip across my thigh.

Hold the skin around it tight and pull.

It works!

OK, so it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't too bad.

I can do this!

Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am She-rah, fighter of all wayward body hair and maker of smooth skin extraordinaire.

With my next wax strip I move north.

After checking on the kids, I sneak back into the bathroom, for the ultimate hair fighting championship.

I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet.

Using the same procedure, I apply the wax strip across the right side of my bikini line, covering the right half of my hoo-ha and stretching down to the inside of my butt cheek (it was a long strip) I inhale deeply and brace myself....RRRRIIIPPP!!!!

I'm blind!!! Blinded from pain!!!! .... OH MY GAWD!!!!!!!!!

Vision returning, I notice that I've only managed to pull off half the strip.

CRAP! Another deep breath and RIPP! Everything is spinning and spotted. I think I may pass out...must stay conscious...must stay conscious.

Do I hear crashing drums??? Breathe, breathe...OK, back to normal.

I want to see my trophy - a wax covered strip, the one that has caused me so much pain, with my hairy pelt sticking to it.

I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair. I hold up the strip.

There's no hair on it.

Where is the hair??? Wait an effin' minute...WHERE IS THE WAX???

Slowly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet.

I see the hair. The hair that should be on the strip...It's not! I touch. I am touching wax.

I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair.

Then I make the next BIG mistake...remember my foot is still propped upon the toilet? I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down.

Sealed shut! My butt is sealed shut.

Sealed shut!

I penguin walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do and think to myself "Please don't let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off!" What can I do to melt the wax?

Hot water!! Hot water melts wax!! I'll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in; immerse the wax-covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off, right??? WRONG!!!!

I get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit.

Now, the only thing worse than having your nether regions glued together, is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub...in scalding hot water.

Which, by the way, doesn't melt cold wax.

So, now I'm stuck to the bottom of the tub as though I had cemented myself to the porcelain!! God bless the man who had convinced me a few months ago to have a phone put in the bathroom!!!!!

I call my friend, thinking surely she has waxed before and has some secret of how to get me undone.

It's a very good conversation starter. "So, my butt and hoo-ha are glued together to the bottom of the tub!"

There is a slight pause.

She doesn't know any secret tricks for removal but she does try to hide her laughter from me.

She wants to know exactly where the wax is located. "Are we talking cheeks or hole or hoo-ha?"

She's laughing out loud by now...I can hear her.

I give her the run down and she suggests I call the number on the side of the box.

YEAH!!!!! Right!! I should be the joke of someone else's night, while we go through various solutions.

I resort to trying to scrape the wax off with a razor nothing feels better than to have your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in super hot water and then dry-shaving the sticky wax off!!

By now the brain is not working, dignity has taken a major hike and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need Post-Traumatic Stress counseling for this event.

My friend is still talking with me when I finally see my saving grace--the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax.

What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and OH MY GOD!!!!!!!

The scream probably woke the kids and scared the dickens out of my friend. It's sooo painful, but I really don't care.

"IT WORKS!! IT WORKS!!"

I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up.

I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair....THE HAIR IS STILL THERE.......ALL OF IT!

So I recklessly shave it off. Heck, I'm numb by now. Nothing hurts.

I could have amputated my own leg at this point.

Next week I'm going to try hair color...



ROFLMAO!!

New Review for WICKED OMEN

From Joyfully Reviewed:

I must say, Sherrill Quinn hooked me right from the glossary in the beginning of the book. Ms. Quinn’s “godkin,” or vampires, are something fresh and completely different from “usual” vampire fare (if there is such a thing). Wicked Omen was fast-paced, fun, and—dare I say?—wicked. Both Nikolaos and Kalla are strong, determined characters with good hearts, common sense, and a desire to understand one another despite the Spartans and Messenians being enemies. Together they steamed up the page and I devoured the tale, eager to see how they could overcome all the obstacles in their path to find happiness...Wicked Omen was extremely entertaining and I hope to read more of Ms. Quinn’s work.

You can read the full review here.

To read an excerpt or buy, click here.

Tipsy Tuesday

One thing that many writers don't think about (and very shy writers don't like to think about) is that--sooner or later--you'll have to speak in public.

*Horror!*

When you make promotional efforts, it's less about promoting your book(s) and more about promoting yourself, whether you realize it or not. Because you want people to keep buying your books each time a new one releases. While a lot can be done online through readers loops, that's still a relatively small group of people you're reaching. You also need to be prepared to do some face-to-face promotion. And if you can do it as part of a group, it's easier.

I had my panel discussion as part of the Pima County Library's Amore and More group of talks this past Saturday. I had some pre-meeting jitters (I always do), but once we got started (and I went first--best to get it out of the way!) the nerves faded. We had a brilliant time.

My tip for today--don't shy away from these opportunities. While you may never completely get over your fears, it does get easier the more you do it.

Man Meat Monday

Tucson's Rodeo Days are coming later this month. In celebration...


Save a horse; ride a cowboy!