Grand Central Café

Research is Hell...Okay. No, It's Not.

2010-06-02T22:36:00.001-07:00

I just got back from a trip to England and Ireland. All right. I'll be honest. I would have gone no matter what. But this time I got a chance to research my new series, Drake's Rakes(why yes, that is the cover to the first book, BARELY A LADY, my July release).

What did I do in England? I walked. To be specific, I walked Mayfair and St. James. I had a backpack and my computer, my camera, a notebook and a cache of coins with which to buy myself a gin and tonic at select pubs, and I set off to walk the streets my characters walked. I peeked in windows and counted doors, I read all those cute blue plaques that denoted what famous historical person resided or visited or spoke of what building, and I sat on a sidewalk with my gin and tonic when I couldn't squeeze my way through all the London marathoners who were sidling up to the pubs(of course I picked the day that every public park was closed so people could limp and frown past with numbers pasted to their backs). I even rode a double decker so I could look down on the city my characters walked. And then when I was finished in London, I did the same thing in the Cotswolds(well, except for the double-decker. Precious few of those in Stow-in-the-Wold).

It's how I research. Oh, I read the books. I studied the colored plates and maps and the details of uniforms and pelisses and high perch phaetons. But if I really want to understand my characters' universe, I need to see it and hear it and smell it myself. If I want my heroine, Olivia Grace to walk Curzon Street, I need to walk it so I can see how it meanders uphill toward Hyde Park. I need to walk into Berry Brothers where the famous scale still resides that held Brummel and Poodle Byng. I need to know how to get to St. George's and what it feels like to sit in the park at the center of Grosvenor Square. What was it like to stroll up St. James(and you really do stroll UP St. James)?

I need to meander over the gentle hills of the Cotswolds and see how the buildings really do glow that buttery yellow in Burford and Bourton-on-the-Water. I need to sit in the pubs where centuries of people have sat, where the fires warmed the rooms and the floors soaked up the spills. It's like when I sit there I can actually hear what went on, and pass it on into my own books.

You see, I'm a global learner. Information just doesn't connect unless I can take it in through all of my senses. And if I'm quiet, I can hear the voices of the people who have been there before me, I can smell the fire that warmed the rooms and smell the ale that spilled on the wood floor. I can see the teams of horses swinging through the archway out onto the street and feel the shock of cold air as the door opens on the handsome loner, who is pulling off his driving gloves and removing his curly beaver hat as he steps into the crowded room.

But that book hasn't happened yet. Right now it's summer and Waterloo looms. I just wish I'd had the chance to walk the battlefield before I wrote about it. But I don't get always get the chance to do my favorite research. Which I why I took advantage of it when I could and spent time in England. I'll take any help in making my stories and characters more real. Even if I have to suffer through a wonderful trip to England in the spring.

Tax Day

2010-04-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Gah!! Tax day! I must confess that I actually mailed my taxes off yesterday (go me!), so I don't have to stand in the long post office lines today. If you've got a visit to the post office in your future, you do have my sympathy.

But, hey, once you get your taxes finished, I think you need to reward yourself. And what better reward is there than a good book? Books are my favorite rewards--and they also help me deal with stress (ahem, like the stress that comes during tax time). Books are the friends who are always there when I need them. No stress, no hassle--just my guaranteed happy ending.

What's your favorite reward? Or, what do you use to help you deal with stress? Books and chocolate? Sweet, sweet chocolate. Or do you like to head to the movies and enjoy a few hours of visual escapism? Tell me...what's your pleasure poison?

Thanks!

Cynthia Eden

www.cynthiaeden.com

DEADLY FEAR--Available 08/01/2010 from Grand Central Publishing (Forever)

Boxes and unpacking and free books, oh my!

2010-03-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I've mentioned on here before, but The Professor and I have been building a house the better part of the last six months. Okay we've been paying to have a house built, we never even lifted so much as a hammer. But this past week it was done and we closed and the U-haul came and now we live in a veritable maze of boxes.

The unpacking is going fairly well, but I don't seem to be making much of a dent. There are still so many boxes and Rubbermaid crates to go through. But one thing I have found are all my author's copies and well, I think it's time to get rid of some. So if you're interested then all you need to do is make a comment here and you might win an autographed copy of a book from my backlist. I'll pick 5 winners. Okay we need a topic, comment and tell me about your favorite or least favorite movie and what your favorite TV show is right now.

In addition to this spontaneous contest, I'm also running a Spring Fling contest with Fresh Fiction.

In the meantime, please allow me to share the first review for DESIRE ME.

"I did not just read this story, I inhaled it in one sitting. Danger, mystery, romance, suspense, and history all blend together with a healthy dose of the Atlantis legend. The result is a book destined for your Keeper shelf. Robyn DeHart has written a treasure trove of trouble that will have you reading at top speed!" ~ Huntress Reviews

Conference On My Mind

2010-03-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

Hi, everyone! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend.

As I write this post, I am in serious writing conference mode. This year, I'm the conference chair of my local RWA chapter's Silken Sands Conference (it's a conference at the beach--score!). I've been to lots of conferences--big and small, and I always enjoy the energy level at these events.

Some other things I enjoy?

Well, I love hearing from the agents and editors--it's always great to get an inside scoop on the industry and find out what's hot right now in the publishing world.

I love meeting other writers and learning about their writing process. (It seems like we all do things a bit differently.)

I love meeting readers at the booksigning events. Total thrill for me!

I love the workshops because I always feel like I learn something new.

Ah, yeah, I enjoy the conferences.

What about you? Have you ever been a conference (either a reader-focused one or a writer-focused one)? And what did you like about the event?

Thanks!

Cynthia Eden
www.cynthiaeden.com
DEADLY FEAR--Available 08/2010

Laurel McKee Winner!

2010-03-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

The winner of a signed copy of Countess of Scandal is--Meljprincess! Please send your snail mail address to me at LaurelMckee7551 AT yahoo.com

Laurel McKee Talks St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-05T00:56:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Newbie author (to Grand Central, anyway!) popping in to say hey. Last month was meant to be my blog debut here, but, well, life had other plans. I'm so happy to join you here for March, though, since one of my favorite holidays is coming up--St. Patrick's Day!

I grew up in a very Irish family where St. Patrick's Day was a big, fun deal every year. At my grandparents' house, they would hang out a big Irish flag (sort of like the giant Greek flag on the garage door in My Big Fat Greek Wedding), my grandmother would make bangers and mash and shepherd's pie along with soda bread, and the grown-ups would drink Guinness and hard apple cider while the Chieftains were on the CD player. Now I usually make it to a parade of some sort and a local pub (where I'm now allowed to drink Guinness myself, though I still really like the ginger beer of my childhood!). In my Daughters of Erin series about the Blacknall sisters and their heroes in late 18th/early 19th century Ireland (book one, Countess of Scandal, which is set around the Uprising of 1798, came out last month!), no one has a St. Patrick's Day party. I'm kinda sad about that, but we can have our own party right here!

St. Patrick's Day is a national holiday in Ireland (a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a public holiday in the Republic), and strangely it's also a national holiday in Montserrat. Here it's just widely celebrated, though not "official" (I heard Australia has a big party that day, too!). It's officially a feast day celebrating Ireland's patron saint (St. Patrick, AD 385-461). It's a holy day of obligation for Catholics in Ireland, and usually falls during Lent (though if it falls on a Friday, the obligation to abstain from eating meat doesn't apply--lucky for all that corned beef and cabbage!).

St. Patrick's Day was an exclusively religious holiday in Ireland until it became a Public Holiday in 1903 (along with a law requiring pubs to close on March 17--boo! This was repealed in the 1970s). The first parade in the Irish Free State was in 1931, and in 1997, in an effort to use St. Patrick's Day to better showcase Irish culture, the first St. Patrick's Day Festival was held. By 2006 it was 5 days long, with over 675,000 at the 2009 parade.

In the US, the Irish Society of Boston held the first parade here on March 17, 1737. New York City's famous parade began in 1762. In 1780, General Washington allowed his troops a holiday on March 17 "as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence." Other early parades in the US include New Orleans (of course! Always on board with a party) in 1809, Savannah in 1813, and Philadelphia in 1771. Today St. Patrick's Day is widely celebrated by Irish and non-Irish alike, with hige parades in places like Seattle, Indianapolis, Chicago, and many, many others. Do you have one in your town?

How do you celebrate the holiday??? (To one commenter on today's post I'll give a copy of Countess of Scandal to celebrate the Month of Being Irish! And be sure and visit my website for more info on the "The Daughters of Erin"...)

Sneak peek of Desire Me

2010-02-22T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here it is, the first official excerpt from Desire Me, in a bookstore near you this June!

Max moved farther into the room. He wasn't even certain what he searched for specifically. But Sabine Tobias must know something about Atlantis. Why else would she be so secretive about her desire for his map?

He knew there were other people, besides himself, who sought the lost land. Some searched for treasure, as it was said that Poseidon had built the entire central palace out of gold. Some searched for ancient texts with secrets to medical cures because Atlanteans were rumored to have advancements in all areas of science. Still others sought the fountain of youth or healing waters that were rumored to be flowing through the canals in Atlantis.

Max, though, wanted it all. He wanted to find the actual city. Just as Pompeii had been lost beneath mounds of ash, so he believed Atlantis survived beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. He was not foolish enough to believe it would have remained unscathed. Water erosion certainly would have altered much of the rumored land. But something existed below the surface, and he intended to find it.

He couldn’t resist pursuing the possibility that there was a new clue. Especially not when it came wrapped in the tantalizing package that was Ms. Tobias.

He crept forward to better examine the items on the shelves. Along with dried herbs and oils, he found lanolin and glycerin and all other manner of ingredients. A basket of ribbons sat next to the empty jars.

What was the crème Cassandra had purchased? Some fashion of smoothing crème. And Sabine wanted his map. She too sought treasure, though of a different sort. She was after the fountain of youth, that had to be why she’d come in search of him.

He continued sifting through the shelves, but there were no secret texts or books or anything that would hint at what Sabine might know of the map.

Thus far his search had been futile. He should probably turn and leave. Chances were if Sabine had something to hide, she kept it upstairs in the living quarters and he couldn’t risk sneaking up there. But he’d never been able to walk away from a worthy puzzle, and it would seem that Sabine Tobias might be the most interesting mystery he’d come across in a long while.

He took steps toward the front of the shop. Perhaps there would be something hiding in those cupboards. The floor creaked beneath his weight. He stilled. There was yet another noise.

The doorknob jiggled from behind him. Someone else was trying to get in. Perhaps Miss Tobias returning home late from another game of chance? Quickly Max moved to the other side of the stairwell and hid in the narrow cubby beneath.

The door jerked open, and two men lumbered in. Max could hear a third voice outside the door. Three men, one outside to keep watch. Sabine Tobias' shop was certainly gaining in popularity. What a pity he hadn’t thought to bring along a couple of thugs himself. Max withdrew further into the shadows.

If he hadn't been certain before that Sabine Tobias was hiding something, now it seemed quite evident. From beneath the stairwell, Max couldn't see much of what the men were doing, but he could make out a few words of their hurried whispers. They didn't sound educated, and they didn't seem to know specifically what they were searching for. They'd obviously been hired to break into the shop. In Max’s experience, “employees” of that nature were highly unreliable. They took no personal interest in their assignments and generally proved to be rather unmotivated. Not to mention a bit dim. No doubt their search would not be thorough.

Max settled his back against the wall, prepared to simply wait them out. However, when the stairs above him shifted slightly, Max moved to the edge of the cubby to get a better glimpse. Delicate, pale ankles attached to feminine bare feet crept down the steps.

Bloody hell! Miss Tobias. Did the woman have no sense at all? What was she doing sneaking down to investigate? Surely she did not intend to fight off would-be thieves in nothing more than her nightrail.

He craned his neck, looking for the thugs in the unlit store room. Thank goodness, they were busy rifling through the cupboards. He positioned himself, and once the lady came within reach, he clamped a hand across her mouth and pulled her into his hiding place. Her muffled protests were punctuated by those delicate feet kicking into his shins. He stifled a groan of his own.

He turned her around to face him, careful not to uncover her mouth. Sabine Tobias stared up at him, her eyes wide and angry. He frowned at her, then leaned close to her ear.

"Kick me again, love, and I'll let the wastrels get you," he warned in a whisper.

Like what you've read? Well, you're in luck. One lucky reader will win an autographed advanced reading copy of Desire Me. All you have to do is tell me what Seduce Me is nominated for. (hint the answer is somewhere on my website....)

Happy (late) Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T06:42:00.000-08:00

Did you have a great Valentine's Day? Did you get flowers, chocolate, or maybe a card that made you teary? :-)

I got one of my absolute favorite gifts--a bookstore gift card! Oh, sweet, sweet gift card!

Now, I get the chance to head out and find some great reads. Some wonderful happy endings that will make me smile for days.

I've been working on the page proofs for my first Grand Central release (DEADLY FEAR, available 07/27/2010), and as soon as I finish, I'll use that gift card to buy me some reward books. Because, yes, I believe in the reward system. As soon as I finish a project, I always reward myself by reading great books.

So tell me, what should I read? I'll be finished with the page proofs tomorrow and I can't wait to hit the bookstore. Give me some book recommendations!

And happy (late) Valentine's Day!

Cynthia Eden
www.cynthiaeden.com
DEADLY FEAR--Available 7/27/10
Face your fears.

Feelin' Good

2010-02-02T22:38:00.000-08:00

There's a song I've always loved called Feeling Good. I first heard Sammy Davis Jr cover it(yes, I am giving away my age) when I was a teenager. It's about changing, about starting again. The refrain goes as follows:

It's a new dawn

It's a new day

It's a new life for me

Feelin' good.

Kind of says everything about my first blog for Grand Central Cafe. Anybody who recognizes my name might know I've written a few forensic suspenses, some short stories and one romantic fantasy with Jen Cruise and Anne Stuart. If you know I also have a pseudonym, Kathleen Korbel, you'll know that I've also spent the better part of twenty years in contemporary romance, romantic suspense and again, romantic fantasy. Now, it seems, I'm moving off into another new direction. I'm wading right into historic romance.

It isn't a new story in publishing. We're always reinventing ourselves. Our muses have been known to skip around like toddlers in a park. Muses are like that. Certainly mine is. It might be because I'm a trauma nurse. We tend to be impatient and restless. It might be because I have ADD. It might be because I've always read every genre and wanted to write in them all. I guess it was only a matter of time before I stepped back in time.

So how did I arrive here? To tell the truth, I've been flirting with it forever. I love historical romance. I love the challenge of writing what is reallly a modern heroine within the limits of historical constraints. Okay, I even like the clothes. And my favorite period has always been the Regency era. Not just the Georgette Heyer and Austen Regency, the Richard Sharpe and Horatio Hornblower Regency. It's actually how I discovered the period. I'm from a family of 10, 7 of us men. I never knew who Shirley Temple was til she was a delegat to the UN. On the other hand, I know every movie John Wayne died in. So, yes, I love a little action. A bit of battle, a nefarious spy or two, a race against time. My problem was that I stunk at research.

It's only taken me twenty years to figure it out. Not only that, I learned to travel for research. Okay, maybe it's an excuse. But tell me what other job would encourage me to ride elephants in India and track fairies in Ireland. I can't think of anything I enjoy more, except writing the stories those experiences inspired.

So here I am, and my first book for Grand Central comes out in July. Entitled BARELY A LADY, it begins the DRAKE"S RAKES series with the story of Olivia Grace, who stumbles over her estranged husband on the battlefield of Waterloo...in an enemy uniform. After that, things get complicated. Yes, there is a battle, and there are nefarious spies, and a couple who has been apart for four years, but never really stopped loving each other. It's about survival and loyalty and okay, it's about the undying passion one man has for the woman he loved. It moves from Waterloo to the ballrooms of Mayfair, and introduces some of my favorite characters I've ever written. And it has given me an excuse to return to England and Ireland this spring, and hopefully, soon, India, where I plan to climb the Himalayas and discover more characters.

So it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me, and yes. I'm feeling good. As for the photo, you're just going to have to settle for that until I can get my cover up. But I figure that if you aren't already in love with Regency adventure, Sean Bean should get you there.

Dreams, dreams, glorious dreams...

2010-01-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

I want to write a book!

I can't remember the statistics now, but I heard once that the proportion between people who want to write a book and people who actually do is microscopically small. I looked for numbers on-line, but all I could find were advertisements for ghost writing and websites offering to show you how to write a book in 3 months. As soon as you start telling people that you are a writer (published or not) people say to you, like the cashier at Wal-Mart, "Oh, I've always wanted to write a book." I always find this odd because for me if you want to write a book, you generally end up on a journey to eventually writing one. I've never not wanted to be a writer, so it's just part of me. But this statement that comes from random people would be like me, upon meeting a doctor saying, "Oh, I've always wanted to be a doctor."

So why is writing so different? Why do we all feel as if we can all be writers simply by the act of writing? All good questions, and I'm not sure I know the answers, but I can give you my take on things. I think people assume that simply because they've been reading books their whole lives that they could put one together. I know that when I sat down and started my first book, I just started making stuff up. (which I realize is what you do with any sort of fiction, but there are times when it feels more like you're making stuff up and the rest of the time it feels as if you're telling a story – big difference) It didn't take me long to figure out, I had no idea what I was doing.

There is a great deal of talent involved with telling a good story and creating believable and memorable characters, but more than talent, there is hard work. And just as watching the Discovery Health Network doesn't prepare me to do surgery on your appendix, being a life-long reader doesn't prepare you to write a book. At least not entirely. Writing requires learning and honing just as any other profession. But once people realize this, the majority abandon their dreams of writing.

Sounds sad, but in reality, it mostly means they were just nice thoughts about wanting to be a writer, you know like, "Wouldn’t it be cool if I were a rodeo clown." But most people don't actually become rodeo clowns. Not to disrespect any rodeo clowns who might be reading this blog. But when it comes down to it, you have to want this so badly that you'll put up with a lot to achieve it. No different than my husband working his tail off to earn his Ph.D – hard work and perseverance.

But for those of you who haven't walked away, who have been bit by the writing bug and can't seem to shake the little critter loose, I say to you... Don't give up. Don't be afraid to want it all. Don't be afraid to reach for the stars. (Que: Disney music) Excuse my sappiness, but it's true. And frankly, it's really better advice for the non-writers out there. Chances are if you're on this journey, at whatever stage, you're a big dreamer. And I don't mean that in the, "If you actually think Johnny Depp is going to leave his wife for you…keep dreaming, sister!" I mean simply that, for whatever reason, being a writer seems as attainable to you as being an attorney or a school teacher. It might not always feel like this on the outside, but on the inside, it's all there. And the majority of people are not like this. Which is sad.

Case in point. One of the things that surprised me the most when I first sold was the reactions of non-writers. They were simply astounded that I'd had a dream and actually worked it into reality. They would say, "Wow, you've always wanted it and you just worked hard until you got there." Up until this point, I'd never really considered any other way. I guess I just had good parents because being an author never seemed like an unreachable goal. There were times along the journey where I was uncertain of whether or not I would succeed. I even quit twice (for one day each), but it never occurred to me that this was about dreaming big. It never occurred to me that wanting to be an author was like wanting to be the lead singer of a rock band. To me, that sounds far-fetched, yet some people achieve it because we do, in fact, have rock bands.

(The other thing that surprised me, and still does, was to have someone, upon learning that I'm an author, ask, "Where can I find your books?" To which I always want to give them a snarky reply. Seriously, where do you buy your books? But that's neither here nor there.)

Okay, now I'm just rambling. Blame it on the fact that I've been up since 4:15am and can't seem to go back to sleep. I just love mornings like this! In any case, I hope this makes some sense.

So what are your big dreams? (and did you see that beautiful cover at the top of the post? isn't it so pretty?)

New Girl, Checking In...

2010-01-14T19:04:00.001-08:00

Hi, everyone! My name is Cynthia Eden, and I'm the new girl. :-)

I currently write paranormal romances for Kensington Brava, but this August, I'll be taking the leap into romantic suspense with Grand Central Publishing. And--look! I've got my first romantic suspense cover! (Love it, btw.)

I'm used to writing about monsters--the creatures that can haunt our nightmares. But, for this book, the monster isn't a vampire or a demon. He's a serial killer. And, for me, it's those real-life monsters--those bad guys who *could* live down the street from you--well, those are the truly scary ones.

In DEADLY FEAR, my villain uses fear to torture his prey. He makes them face their worst fears, and they usually don't survive that face-off.

Do you have any deep, dark fears? Or perhaps some not-so-dark fears? Tell me about them. I'll pick one commenter to win an Cynthia Eden book of her/his choice.

And, in case you were curious about DEADLY FEAR, here's the blurb for the book:

TWO BRILLIANT AGENTS

FBI Special Agent Monica Davenport has made a career out of profiling serial killers. But getting inside the twisted minds of the cruel and the sadistic has taken its toll: She’s walled herself off from the world. Yet Monica can’t ignore fellow agent Luke Dante, the only man who ever broke through her defenses.

ONE DREAM TEAM

Luke has the unique ability to put victims at ease…professionally, he and Monica made a perfect team. Now they’re reunited to catch a murderer who uses his victims’ deepest, darkest fears for sport - but their investigative skills aren’t enough. Luke and Monica will have to face the secrets from their past, the ones that terrify them the most, if they are to have a future together.

But can they catch a killer whose weapon is…DEADLY FEAR

***

Happy Reading!

Cynthia Eden

www.cynthiaeden.com

ETERNAL HUNTER--available now from Kensington Brava

Giveaways Galore

2009-12-08T13:15:00.000-08:00

It's the season of giving, right? I'm in the spirit, and it seems like lots of my Grand Central Cafe blog sisters are too. ;-) Check out our websites over the next few months, and you'll find lots of fun contests and great giveaways. As for me, I'd love to chat with you on Facebook and Twitter (where I also do sporadic giveaways), and please check out the "Bonus Features" page at my website, where you'll find lots of cool stuff being given away over the holidays. I also have an ongoing freebies promotion--right now I'm sending out signed bookplates, bookmarks and other goodies from romance authors.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Jennifer Haymore
Wickedly Seductive Historical Romance
www.jenniferhaymore.com

Christmas is a-coming

2009-11-28T10:20:00.000-08:00

And we won't even talk about who's getting fat. Hint: It ain't the goose!

I don't know about you, but I'm one of those people who groan when the stores break out the holiday decorations on, like, the day after Hallowe'en. I look the other way at the frosted Christmas trees, and flinch at the sight of people stringing lights on their houses on Thanksgiving weekend.

My husband calls me a grinch. I prefer the term "non-commercialist." But then, last year, while I was writing my All About Us series, it just so happened that I wanted to do a Christmas story, and oops, the publishing schedule dictated that it would come out in September--a full month before those department stores put up their decorations!

Hoist with my own petard, I was. So I had to embrace my inner elf and just run with it. But I have to confess, researching Scottish Christmas traditions (this book is set in the character's Scottish castle) kind of put me in the spirit. Because under all the tinsel and the piped-in Christmas carols lies what it's really all about: family, close friends, hospitality, and--let's not forget--the birth of the baby that started it all.

So, while we're on the subject and you're digesting your Thanksgiving leftovers, what are the Christmas traditions at your house? Put up a comfy chair, have a glass of eggnog, and let's talk!

Shelley

http://www.shelleyadina.com

Baking mishaps with Robyn DeHart

2009-11-24T06:33:00.000-08:00

Normally I'm the baker in the family when it comes to holiday feasts. Several years ago my husband and I flew back to Texas for Christmas and we got in late. I had sent my mom the shopping list for the ingredients I need and she assured me that she’d purchased everything necessary for pumpkin pie and pecan pie. So it’s Christmas day, mid-morning, and I’m all set to make my pies. I go to the fridge and the crusts she has have expired. Um…there’s nothing but Walgreens open on Christmas day and they don’t sell pie crusts. I can make them from scratch, but you need shortening for that and well, we didn’t have any of that either. So I opted for graham cracker crusts – not standard at our house for pies, but hey, I can improvise.

With the pumpkin pies done, I began on the pecan pie. Measure the Karo syrup, melt the butter, pour in the butter, look at the recipe again. OHMYGOSH! That was supposed to be 1 cup of sugar, NOT one cup of butter – I only needed 3 tablespoons of butter. Panic, scoop out as much butter as possible and figure hey, this is how great recipes are created. And it’s butter, how bad could that be? So I add the rest of the ingredients, then pour it into the chilled graham cracker crust, only this 9 inch pie plate is either mislabeled or something else because the pie overflows all over the table. So I salvage most of the pie and pour it back into the mixing bowl and try to recreate the crust in a larger pie plate. At this point, it’s just become hysterical and I’m convinced this is going to be the worst pecan pie in history, but I persevere cause that’s what I do.

So the pie is successfully in the reconstructed crust and I throw it in the over. It didn’t much look like pecan pie and it had a rather sticky consistency, but according to my family it was the best pecan pie they’d ever had – although being the smart alecks that they are, they referred to it as the butter pie. I can’t imagine that I can recreate this recipe, but perhaps I’ll give it a try someday.

But as I reflected on this amusing and frustrating experience, I saw the glaring parallel to my writing process. I read something recently where one famous author said that a writer learns to write a book by writing it. To which another author replied that unfortunately writing that book doesn’t prepare you to write the next book. So the fact that I’ve made a million pies didn’t necessarily mean that I could successfully bake another one. Consequently, just because I’ve written books before doesn’t mean that I know what I’m doing when I start on the next book. I generally make one blunder after another while I write my first draft, but at the end of my frustrating and (somewhat) amusing process I end up with a book that hopefully readers will connect with.

So how about you? Ever made a big cooking blunder? Did it come out okay or did you make a big stinky mess?

Happy Thanksgiving and be sure you enter my huge holiday contest.

The Name Game by Annie Solomon

2009-10-16T09:36:00.001-07:00

Wow--I was embarrassed to see my last post still up there. My transitional whining phase is so yesterday I have to replace it with something else.

So...how about...names. There's a topic we can all enjoy.

As a writer I'm a big collector of names. I've gone to cemeteries and written down those belonging to the long deceased. I've been to charity galas and VFW halls and added the names of donors and veterans to my lists. When I travel I like to look at the exits along the highway--the rivers, the bridges, the roads. In fact, the name of the town in my latest book, One Deadly Sin, came from a street sign near my house--Redbud Street.

One of the games I like to play with names is to imagine you're the creator of a whole new town. Maybe it's on the moon or maybe it's an evil new development where bucolic forests once stood. Or maybe it's the bright alteration of a once thriving small town or metropolis. Wherever it is, you have the privilege--no, the honor--of naming the town after yourself. So, what's it gonna be?

If I'm in charge I could name my town Annievllle. Or Annietown. Annieton. Annyton. There--Annyton. New York still retains its early Dutch influence with many place names containing the word "kill"--creek or river. So...Anniekill? How's that for a writer of romantic suspense?

Or I could go with Solomon's Ridge. (This would be in the foothills of the Appalachians or the Smokies). Or there's always Solomon City or Port Solomon (that sounds very South Pacific to me). How about Soloville--the new community on the dark side of the moon.

If we took some of the other writers on the blog and turned their names into towns, what would it be? Susieville? Crandaltown? Elizabeth Hoyt is easy--there must already be a lot of Elizabethtowns around. But what about Hoyt? Hoyt City?

Given the chance, what would you name your town?

What Next and Other Observations On the Writing Life by Annie Solomon

2009-09-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

I'm in transition. And since Robyn deHart is madly working on her deadline, I have plenty of time to step in here.

Unfortunately.

This transition period is difficult. My last book, One Deadly Sin, came out in May. Meanwhile, I finished my latest--whose working title is Two Lethal Lies--and sent it to my agent to read. She got back to me a few days ago with basically no changes. I get nervous when someone reads my manuscript and tells me it's great. Weird, huh? Does anyone else feel the same? If she had told me the first hundred pages need a total revision I would have accepted that. I'd feel awful, but happy in a way. At least I knew she actually read it...

So now my "masterpiece" is ready for the editor. I'm delaying, making sure it's exactly how I want it. But basically I'm done.

Now what?

I've been floating around, thinking about the next book. I have a few foamy ideas, but I can't seem to corral them enough to get them on paper. So I play lots of freecell and solitaire (do you know how many versions of that game there are? I think I've played every one). I've blogged, guest blogged, and commented. I've updated my website 500 times. I watch TV. I'm trying to read--3 books so far. A record for me these last few years.

In a word (or two), I'm at loose ends.

I know the way to success is to have several projects going on at once. One publisher for the fall book, another one for the spring. A YA here, a single title there. I can't seem to manage that.

I wonder if this is true for everyone, not just writers. Project managers, copywriters, film makers, research scientists--where are you?

Those of you out there (writers or not) who go from one thing to the other seamlessly and without bumps--how do you do it? Got any tips? Rituals? Spells? Send them my way.

BOOKLOVERS UNITE!

2009-09-12T23:47:00.001-07:00

It’s a sad day for Benjamin Franklin.

Along with inventing bifocals, the Franklin stove, and the first fire department, Benjamin Franklin formed the first public lending library in America, in the city of Philadelphia.

Today it was announced that as of October 2, 2009, the Free Library of Philadelphia will be closing all of its branches due to lack of funding by the State Legislature.

Not only will there be no lending libraries, but all the programs operating through the library system will be discontinued. These included children’s after-school programs, computer classes, GED, ABE and ESL programs, and library visits to schools, day care centers, and senior centers.

I think this sets a very dangerous precedent. It’s a slap in the face of literacy, as well as a grave insult to one of our Founding Fathers. So even though I don’t live in Philadelphia, as a lover of books, I’m going to see what I can do about it.

If you’d like to read more information and take up the fight with me, start here:
http://www.library.phila.gov

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

End of Summer

2009-09-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

It's over. Labor Day was yesterday, and now I think (even though the literal seasonal calendar may disagree) we're into fall. School has started and before we know it, it'll be getting cooler and the holidays will be here!

The summer started off with a bang for me, when my first book, A HINT OF WICKED, was released. The months of June, July, and August were a giant whirlwind, and the summer ended for us with a Labor Day baseball tournament. It was in San Diego, which, as far as I'm concerned, is the city with the all-time nicest weather of anywhere! Our boys lost in the semifinals, too, in the kind of close game that leaves you going, "Oh, if only xxx had caught that ball, or if yyy made it to first before he was thrown out..."

This summer I will always remember for the release of A HINT OF WICKED, but I will also bring home fond memories of baseball, baseball, and more baseball (my son was on a championship team and we were at tournaments almost every weekend, along with practice every single day!).

I have definitely learned to enjoy the game, that's for sure! I do love watching my son play.

How about you? What is your fondest memory of this summer?

Jennifer Haymore
www.jenniferhaymore.com

Elizabeth Discusses Honesty in Reading

2009-09-01T14:55:00.001-07:00

Oh, hello. Apparently it's my day to post, which I nearly forgot, but most fortuitously remembered in time.

*ahem*

So let's discuss reading lists, shall we?

Recently someone (who was obviously procrastinating that day) posted on one of my writing loops with a link to NPR's favorite beach reads. Apparently NPR had some kind of online poll for the 100 best beach reads ever. The top pick was a Harry Potter book, which quite makes sense to me, but after that the list became rather dicey. I remember Anna Karenina was number 42.

Yup. Anna Karenina.

Some other picks were: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Old Man and the Sea, and Lolita. Now far be it for me to be judgemental, but I think some of the people who took this poll are big fat LIARS. Who in the world would take Lolita to the beach? (Note: I'm not knocking any of these classics, but come on, haven't you read something more recently?) It's as if they couldn't think of a book--any book--so they had to fall back on their high school (or in the case of Lolita, college) reading lists.

Sigh. I've thought about this list and I've come to the conclusion that either a) these people are fibbing about what they like to read, or b) they aren't reading at all, or c) they really are reading Lolita at the beach.

I'm not betting on c. So in the interest of Honesty in Reading I've decided to list what I'm reading. Let's see, the last three books I read were:

Flat-Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy
A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore
and
Ghost Hunter by Jayne Castle

The next three books I'll read (probably--they're on my bedside table anyway) are:

Hard and Fast by Erin McCarthy (I'm on a roll!)
Death Angel by Linda Howard
and
Storm of Visions by Christina Dodd

And--special bonus!--if I were going to take a book to the beach and assuming I'd read it before (thus qualifying it for best beach book ever) I'd take:

Shield's Lady by Jayne Ann Krentz

Unless I brought Linda Howard's Mr. Perfect. Or Jim Butcher's Summer Knight. Or Julia Quinn's Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. Actually, if you gave me enough time, I bet I could come up with at least a hundred books I'd bring to the beach before I took Anna Karenina.

Cheers!

Elizabeth Hoyt

Sneak peek of under the covers

2009-08-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

SEDUCE ME hit stores July 28th and so far I’m getting great feedback from reviewers and readers alike. I normally reveal my Under the Covers feature on my website, but I wanted my blog friends to get a sneak peek at the behind the scenes.

Seduce Me is the launch book for my Legend Hunters series, an idea I had about a hero-centered series of treasure hunters and would-be archaeologists. They are the men of Solomon’s, a gentleman’s club devoted to those who chase myths. And when I was brainstorming the series and coming up with the myths I wanted to write about, the first idea I had was, of course, Pandora’s Box. I’ve always been interested in Greek mythology and this one in particular is fascinating. And it’s always had sexy connotations evoking the very image of forbidden fruit. So when it came time to write the first book in the series, Pandora was the way to go.
I certainly took some literary license with the story though and came up with my own mythology equipped with a curse. Have to keep those characters up to their necks in danger. Speaking of characters, let’s meet my inspiration behind my cast.

Heroine: Esme Worthington Inspiration – English actress Eva Green who you might remember as the Bond girl in Casino Royale. I needed a picture that captured Esme’s sassiness, but girlish beauty.

Hero: Fielding Grey Inspiration – Paul Blackthorne. This shot captured the intensity of Fielding yet you catch a glimpse of the pain he’s carrying. Love those eyes!

Villain: David Grey aka “The Raven”

Inspiration – Alan Rickman. Because who else do you go to for a truly nasty villain who actually has some sex appeal. When I wrote the Raven’s dialogue I could hear Rickman’s methodical cadence in my head. He was a perfect fit!

And here was my inspiration for The Raven's two goons:

Thatcher (L) and Waters (R)

Being a big fan of movies, especially action adventure movies I wanted to capture that feel in the Legend Hunters books. So within the pages of Seduce Me hopefully you’ll feel whisked away on a grand adventure and when you close the book you’ll reach for your phone to call Steven Spielberg and say, “hey Steve, have I got a story for you!”

So what are your favorite action adventure movies? Could you watch The Mummy and The Goonies and Indiana Jones over and over again? And how do you feel about authors revealing their character inspiration? Does it ruin your own mental picture of the characters?

*this blog content originally posted on www.JauntyQuills.com

Before Harry Potter

2009-08-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

Remember that great teacher you had in third grade who made knowledge come alive for you? I think the special books of your childhood can be like that, too. Maybe they're stories you discover at a sensitive time of your life. Maybe they're answers to emotional questions or triggers to complex thought. Maybe you're caught up in the lyrical quality of the writing, the historical context, or the way the book keeps you on the edge of your seat. Maybe they're inspirational. Or maybe they're just a rollicking good time.

Whatever it is, there's no question that our favorite books as children can wield a great influence over the rest of our lives, especially if we're writers.

So with that in mind, here's the list of my five favorite childhood reads:

HALF MAGIC by Edward Eager

The troop of siblings and friends tromping through Edward Eager's books had a retro feel and down-to-earth reality as they bickered and experimented and reasoned their way through adventures by whatever magic talisman they'd discovered this time. I spent hours imagining what wishes I'd make with such a talisman.

JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH by Roald Dahl

It was thrilling to watch James break free of his sheltered life into a world that rivaled Oz and Wonderland. I especially liked all the anthropomorphic animals (though I'm sure I didn't know that word then!).

THE HARDY BOYS by Franklin W. Dixon (actually 17 different men and women!)

I didn't care for Nancy Drew, but Frank and Joe were so clever and playful, I used to wish they were my older brothers. The vocabulary was very adult, and the stories were exciting and full of cliffhangers.

A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle

This book had everything...fellowship, adventure, great love, crushing fear, hard-won triumph. Best of all, the heroes of the story were nerds like me.

THE STORY OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS by Howard Pyle

The nobility and honor of the real and magical characters in this four-book series--Arthur, Guinevere, Launcelot, Galahad, Gawaine, Merlin, Pellinore, Tristram, Nymue...were inspiring. I used to sigh over the dramatic pen-and-ink drawings, too. I'm sure these books are what fired my affection for knights in shining armor.

So how about you? What were your favorite childhood books?

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

On Procrastination

2009-08-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

I am the Queen of Procrastination. There are so many ways to do it! Perhaps worst of all, much of this procrastination can be done in the name of “promo” or “research,” making it so easy to rationalize the time that’s sunk (er, I mean, spent). And that time commitment can be absolutely enormous! In fact, I think between promotion and research, I could make “procrastination” a full-time job!

First and foremost, I know my number one priority is to write the best book I can. But once that book is written, I need to promote it. I need to research the next one. I need to continually work on improving my craft.

Here are some of the ways I engage in “productive procrastination”:

(1) Researching and Improving Writing Skills

*reading fiction

*reading non-fiction

*browsing google books

*conferences

*Romance Writers of America monthly local chapter meetings

*Specialty groups (mainly historical) chat lists

*Keeping apprised of the state of romance and of technology in publishing

*Critique groups – returning critiques and beta reads that others have done for me

*Mentoring new writers

(2) Social Groups and Promotion

*Group blogs (I’m a member of the Dangerous Women group along with several other Forever authors)

*Guest blogging (how can I say no?)

*Interviews

*Appearances and book signings

*Reader chat groups (for Dangerous Women and others)

*Twitter (you can find me here on Twitter!)

*Facebook (you can find me here on Facebook!)

*Emailing readers

*Snail mailing readers

*Coming up with new ideas for contests and managing them (I'm running a great contest for writers right now over on my Dawn Halliday site!)

*Responding to blogs

*Updating my website, keeping it fresh and current

*Writing groups-the social aspect

*Writing newsletters

All of this is important, right? I do think, in this day and age, most of it is necessary. And sometimes it can be a really fun diversion from the comparative loneliness of writing. But as a writer with a young family, it can be an incredible challenge at times to balance it all. I’m definitely trying, but sometimes I think there needs to be two of me to get it all done!

What are some of the ways YOU procrastinate?

Jennifer
www.jenniferhaymore.com

My TV debut.

2009-08-05T07:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry I'm late posting this blog, but I was busy with my television debut. Ho-hum. No big deal....

HA! Who am I kidding? It was the most fun I've had in ages. Well, maybe not fun, exactly. Let's just say, I'm relieved it's over. Here's what happened...

I arrived at the local Philadelphia NBC station at the appointed time. (Okay, I was 20 minutes early and had to sit in the car a bit. Hey, I was anxious.)

I was properly attired. (Except that they told me not to put on make-up. When I got there, another "guest" was in FULL make-up. She said, "Oh, I'd NEVER let anyone else do my make-up. And sometimes they run late, and they can't make you up at all." Oooops...)

I was calm and collected. (...while I frantically tried to look cool slathering myself with make-up in a tiny mirror in the "green room.)

Soon, it was my turn to go on. (OH MY GOD SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!)

I had an thrilling and informative interview with the host. ( I don't remember a single thing I said. Please, God, tell me I didn't curse.)

I went home to watch myself with my lovely, supportive family. (My son pointed out that my bra strap had been showing the whole time.)

Have you ever been on TV? Do you ever buy books because you've seen authors on TV? Can you bring me a tall, stiff drink? Here's the show:

The allure of the romance...

2009-07-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from the annual RWA National Conference and it's always so very cool to be surrounded by that many other fans of romance. The literacy signing is exceptionally cool as we get to meet many of you, our readers. We so appreciate your kind words. After a week with fellow romance lovers I'm left wondering what it is that keeps us returning to both reading and writing romance.

The allure of the happy ending is, indeed, great, and many of us read romances exclusively because of this very element. But I think at the heart of things, romance is a bit more and the real reason we all cuddle up with our favorite heroes and heroines (either writing or reading) is all of the stuff that actually leads to the happy ending. The enduring power of love is nothing short of awe-inspiring. I'd like to think that most of us have felt it in our own lives. But even before that, you can know, believe in your heart of hearts that it's out there. This, too, is a great pull to the genre. Yet it's still not quite what I want to put my finger on though.

There is a key difference between villains and heroes - heroes must grow and change, but villains don't have to. This is, I believe, the true draw of romance. Most of us are eternal optimists, we like to believe that no matter how the day goes, in the end all will be well. We know the world doesn't always work that way, but we still wake up the next morning hoping for the same thing. In the romance world, everyday doesn't always end pleasant, but we know it's coming. The characters we read/write about are flawed and they have fears and dreams and secret desires – all attributes that you and I have – and like real people when the going gets tough, our characters (eventually) face those fears and make big, scary decisions. They grow and they change and they overcome. They walk through fire and they come out on the other side stronger and more able. They tackle their big issue and they resolve it before they get their happy ending, so we know that happiness will endure past the last page of the book. It's this what gives us the real hope? Seeing people overcome adversity and pain and fears. Isn't that we all want in our own lives? To overcome and battle our own demons? And triumph! Yes, yes, this really is the happy ending. Were it not for the growth and the change, then the happy ending in the relationship would be a bit watered down and unsatisfying.

So three cheers for our strong characters, they do what a lot of characters in other books do not. They win and they are better people in the end.

You can read about my own strong characters overcoming their own challenges on July 28th when Seduce Me hits bookstores everywhere. Be sure to check out my website, www.RobynDeHart.com for the latest reviews and an excerpt.

The Highland Lass's Border Laird in a Kilt

2009-07-12T09:05:00.001-07:00

I can plot every intimate detail of a hero and heroine’s adventure. I can whip out snappy dialogue and describe times and places I’ve never been. My words can keep readers up all night, make them giggle, make them sigh. In a pinch, I can even come up with catchy marketing phrases for bookmarks and promotion.

Just please don’t ask me to come up with TITLES for my books!

That’s my Achilles’ heel. (Hey--“Achilles’ Heel”? Wouldn’t that make a great romance title?) See what I mean?

My latest manuscript, a historical set in the time of Mary Queen of Scots, is in final revisions, and it’s still going by “Book Number 1 of 2.”

Ideally, the title for this book should reflect:
1) It’s Scottish
2) It’s a romance
3) It’s different from every other Scottish romance you’ve read

But the telltale Scots-indicator words--“Highland,” “Kilt” and “Border”--have been done to death (not to mention that my story takes place in the Lowlands, in the time before kilts).

This suggestion, by the way, was sent to me by my father, who thinks my problem is HILARIOUS...

My husband thinks I should just change what I write, since a lot of the titles I’ve come up with sound like military action novels:

Tempered Steel
In Harm’s Way
Undaunted
By Honor Bound

You can see my dilemma. So how about it? Does anyone have any spectacular titles for a romance featuring a kick-arse Scots lass and her English hero?

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

Romance Writers of America (and Washington, D.C), Here I Come!

2009-07-08T22:42:00.001-07:00

In just four days' time, I'm headed across the country to Washington D.C., where I'm going to the Romance Writers of America National Conference for the first time as a "real, published author," and I'm going to be meeting (and signing A HINT OF WICKED!) with a group of amazing Grand Central authors.

I'm also in the middle of a deadline, and apparently I'm getting page proofs in the mail, which I'll be working on on the airplane. I have nothing to wear (will the clothes I wore last year still fit?), and I have no idea about shoes...or even transportation from the airport... Yikes! Time is short--I'd better get on all that.

I'm going to be the nervous nelly newbie, I just know it. I'm generally a pretty shy person, and I'm super quiet in groups. When someone asks me something and everyone turns and looks at me, waiting for the answer, I tend to turn beet red. But I'm so excited, and so thrilled to be going! AND I feel so honored to be a one of the Grand Central Romance writers, because truly, some of my favorite authors write for this house. Is it possible to be a giggling fangirl and part of the group at the same time? Guess I'll find out!

If you're coming to DC, please stop by and say hi (I'm likely to be the blonde wallflower in ill-fitting clothing and mismatched shoes hiding in the corner), but if not, I'll be Twittering from the conference, so come on over & check out my updates (I'm @jenniferhaymore over on Twitter and Jennifer Haymore on Facebook).

Okay, off to sort through my closet in a last lame attempt to find something to wear. I have no time left to shop at this point! See you soon, everyone!

Jennifer
www.jenniferhaymore.com

The Biggest Author Signing of the Year!

2009-07-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not the biggest of the year, but certainly a gosh-darn large one. The author signing I'm talking about is RWA's "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing in Washington D.C. How big is it? Dude! Over 500 romance authors will be there! Here's the info:

2009 RWA "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing

Wednesday, July 15th

5:30-7:30

Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Exhibit Hall

The best part of this signing? Not only wlll you get a chance to meet and chat with your favorite authors, but all proceeds from the autographing go to literacy charities. For a list of the 500-plus who will attend, go to RWA's website, but here are some of the Grand Central Publishing authors who will be attending (and if I miss anyone, please add your name in the comments section.):

Sherrill Bodine

Shannon K. Butcher

Susan Crandall

Robyn DeHart

Lilli Feisty

Jennifer Haymore

Rita Herron

Diana Holquist

Elizabeth Hoyt (and Julia Harper)

Carolyn Jewel

Marliss Melton

Andrea Pickens

Karen Rose

Michelle Rowen

Kelley St. John

I hope we see you there!

Elizabeth Hoyt

www.elizabethhoyt.com

www.juliaharper.com

For your viewing pleasure...

2009-06-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

I am in a place we writers fondly call "deadline hell" it's those last few days/hours before a book is due when we haven't washed our hair, done dishes or left the house and instead we sit at our desks working until our fingers (and perhaps eyeballs) begin to bleed. It's a scary place, though probably more for our families than ourselves. We're used to it, we've been here before, it's familiar (though the panic always feels new and different) and we're just working as fast as we can to get out.

Normally I'm not an end of the wire kind of writer. I like to turn things in early, not weeks early necessarily, but at least a few days. It makes me happy to beat my deadline, as it were. But with this one, that's simply not possible. You see in the midst of writing this book we were packing our house and putting it on the market and then moving across the country. And did I mention that for the time being (while we're waiting for said house to sell) we're living with my parents? It's just temporary, but needless to say, things have been hectic and disorganized. So I'm running behind on my normal writing schedule.

All this to say I'm cheating and not really blogging today and instead sharing with all of you my gorgeous book trailer. Seduce Me hits stores July 28th!

Yo-ho! Yo-ho! A pirate's life...

2009-06-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

Piracy is the hot topic on a lot of romance writer bulletin boards lately, and I don’t mean the kind where swashbuckling knaves make off with feisty heroines.

With books available in electronic format, it’s easy to share files, swap novels, and basically steal content without authors receiving a cent for their work.

Well, as you might imagine, though there are some authors who figure it’s no big deal, a lot of authors are up in arms over this, mad as hell at the pirates who are rampantly ripping them off.

I have a different attitude. I think it’s important that authors get paid for their work, but I think the bill should fall, not on the consumer, but on the internet providers who charge for the availability of this content in the first place. Would you pay $30 a month for your internet service if it DIDN’T come with any intellectual property? Think about it. No music. No video clips. No newspaper articles. Nothing that was created from the brains of artists, musicians, journalists, authors? Not even the photos I’ve included in this blog entry?

I don’t want to bore anyone with the details, but for decades, the music industry has had a brilliant model for this in ASCAP and BMI. These performance rights organizations charge nightclubs, restaurants, theaters--any venue where music is delivered to the consumer--a fee for that right, which they then distribute to the creators of the music, based on a sampling of what songs are being played.

Why can’t we do that with books? The internet providers pay a small fee for the content they’re delivering (research says that approximately $5 per month per IP address would be sufficient), and consumers can then enjoy unlimited downloads of any creative content they want! It’s sort of like cable TV or an all-you-can-eat buffet. An independent writer’s organization then does a sampling of what’s being downloaded and pays authors and publishers according to what books are most popular.

With that model, the current pirate sites would become amazing resources for distribution and the authors’ and publishers’ best friends!

Arrrrrrrgh...

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

Suffering from Chicken-Without-A-Head Syndrome

2009-06-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

Wow...is summer actually here? The weather here certainly wouldn't attest to that! It's cool and gloomy, and it has been for weeks. Here in California, we call it June Gloom, but I wish it would dry up and warm up. Summer is my favorite season, and I want it now!

My first book for Grand Central, A HINT OF WICKED, released on June 1. My kids got out of school on June 5. My son's baseball team had playoffs the week of May 30-June 7. June 7 was my daughter's preschool graduation performance. I'm giving presentations to two different RWA groups on the second weekend of June. I'm at the tail end of a blog tour. My column in my RWA chapter's newsletter was due last night. My critique partner is on a tight deadline and I'm trying to help her. My kids' new school needs about 100 pages of paperwork turned in to them by Wednesday. My mom is in town, and my grandmother is ill. I have edits due on book two by June 20...

See what I mean? I'm suffering from too much to do, too little time. One of my friends just gave me a card that said, "I know 100 languages, but I don't know how to say no in any of them..." So true. I'm so bad at saying no. But I've already said yes, and now I can't renege! I have to get all this stuff done.

I know I'm not the only one who's busy. Almost everyone I know is in the midst of a million things to do. It seems that being over-extended is a common ailment in this day and age.

I'm looking forward to June 20. I'll turn in my edits, and then I'll have a few days to recover & enjoy summer before I'm on to the next thing. And hopefully this June Gloom will have disappeared...

What about you? Are you busy too? How do you manage it so that you find some time to enjoy life in the midst of all the craziness?

Jennifer
www.jenniferhaymore.com

In Praise of Public Libraries

2009-06-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

So I was recently at the RT Book Reviews Convention mongo author booksigning and a reader came up to me and told me she'd read all of my books and loved them. Believe it or not, authors really enjoy hearing this kind of thing so I beamed at her and said something like, "I'm so glad!" Then she turned a little red, sidled closer, and said that she'd gotten my books from her local public library in the tones most would use to confess to a mass murder. I probably would've laughed at that point, but the reader was explaining why she had to use the public library--her husband had been laid off--so I was serious as I told her how sorry I was to hear that.

Then I said something like this:

Listen, there's no reason you should ever apologize for checking a book out from the local public library. Yeah, I may not have made my 8% royalty on that particular book at that particular time, but the public library did pay for it with your (and my!) tax dollars. Libraries in America account for a huge percentage of the books sold. Many readers "test" new authors at the library and, if the author proves to be good, buy her next book new. I figure it's a win-win situation.

Besides, if I'd condemned that reader for using her public library, I'd be a hypocrite. I love the public library! Every time my family has moved one of the first things I do is find out where the local library is and go get a card. Linda Howard, Amanda Quick, and Elizabeth Lowell are just a few of the authors I discovered by reading dog-eared copies of their backlist (and subsequently buying new.) Using the public library when your personal finances are tight just makes sense.

Now, here's something else I told that reader at the RT bookfair: if you do use your local library, make a point of requesting your favorite authors' new books. Why? Sadly, libraries' budgets are getting pretty tight. They may not buy an author if they don't know there's interest in her books--this particularly pertains to new authors who don't have a following yet. I have to confess that I always felt awkward requesting a romance book at my local library, despite my librarian's urging. I figured, who was I to decided what the library should buy? Well, I was a romance reader who'd been reading the genre for 25+ years (at that time) that's who. Duh! I had (and I bet you have) a really good idea of who the hot romance authors were, authors that other romance readers would like to read as well. And although I loved my local librarian, she didn't read romance (though her SF/F section rocked.)

So remember: use the public library with pride--it's once of the best benefits of living in the USA--and be sure and request authors you enjoy.

Go forth and read!

Elizabeth Hoyt
www.elizabethhoyt.com
www.juliaharper.com

A writer's career path

2009-05-28T15:12:00.000-07:00

So far this year I've had four requests from high school students to do a career interview. You know, what classes do you need to be successful in your career, what kind of degree, skills, personality traits, and so on.

This time, I got to the question, "What is the career path like (entry level to advanced)?" and I stalled. If you're a programmer or a social worker, this is fairly clear. But the writer's career path? Mine has been as different as I am from Diana or Elizabeth or anyone else who posts on the Cafe. But . . . I had to answer the question. So here's what I wrote:

Form-letter rejection.

Rejection with personal note.

Rejection with offer to revise and resubmit.

Request for partial.

Request for full manuscript.

Rejection.

Start over.

Request for full manuscript.

Rewrite manuscript.

Offer on manuscript.

Multi-page revision letter.

Book is produced and published.

Start on second book.

Get better offer, with better terms and more money.

Reviews come in for first book. They’re mixed—good and awful.

Six months to write second book, wondering if the awful reviews were right and you really have no talent.

Turn in second book. Goes to production and is published.

Orders are better.

Start on third book.

Offer for third book in a multi-book deal.

Reviews come in for second book. Fewer awful ones. Some really good ones. Maybe you can do this after all.

Am I having a career now?

Back to third book. Screw the reviews—it’s the writing that really matters.

Shelley

http://www.shelleyadina.com

Mother's Day Gift of Laughter

2009-05-12T07:04:00.000-07:00

This had me laughing so hard that I had to play it three times just to hear all the lyrics. It’s Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg with their "moms," and it's as wickedly funny as their first video. I hope you enjoy it, too:

Is there nothing sexier than a guy who can make you laugh?

I’ve met my share of tall, dark, and handsomes, but if they don’t have a sense of humor, especially about themselves, they really don’t rate very high on the appeal meter.

What about you? Do you prefer six-packs abs or belly laughs?

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

Jennifer Haymore Intro, Plus Contest & Freebies

2009-05-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

I’m Jennifer Haymore, a brand new Grand Central author, and I’m way beyond excited to be here! My first book from Grand Central will be releasing in just a few weeks!

A HINT OF WICKED is the story of Sophie, the Duchess of Calton, who loses her beloved husband at the battle of Waterloo. Pregnant and alone, she picks up the pieces and learns to be independent and strong, and years later, she falls in love again. A few months into her second marriage, her first husband returns. Both men want her; she’s in love with both. It’s a tangle of emotions and passions complicated by a sinister threat to all their lives.

The heroine of A HINT OF WICKED, Sophie, is a mother—and for the years preceding the opening of the book, she was a single mother. Sophie’s daughter and stepson significantly affect the decisions she makes. In fact, one of the pivotal questions in the book for Sophie is whether it will be best to raise her daughter with the family she’s known all her life, or with her biological father whom she’s never known.

Kind of reminds me of my own life, and how my kids are behind all the decisions I make, throughout my day, every day...and night. Cast in point: I was up late last night, and I abruptly woke up late this morning from a nightmare about my kids starving at school. I ran downstairs, and not only did I find their lunches sitting untouched in the fridge, I discovered they’d gone to school without their homework. Gah! I was furious (and my husband can attest to that fact after the fuming phone call he received from me at 8:06 a.m.). Seriously, without mothers fretting about lunches and homework and the like, there would be a lot of starving kids and angry teachers in this world!

Grand Central just sent me a boxful of copies of A HINT OF WICKED. To celebrate receiving final copies of the book, and Mother’s Day, I’m giving away a new copy of A HINT OF WICKED to someone who signs up to receive a set of freebies (free promotional items from me and five other authors). You can find more info about this contest at my blog, and if you’re too late for the book contest, you can still sign up for a packet of freebies here.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, EVERYONE!

Jennifer
www.jenniferhaymore.com

Elizabeth on Fairy Tales

2009-05-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

I've got a new book out today--To Beguile a Beast--which is based on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale (bet you didn't see that one coming!)

I'm often asked why I'm so interested (read: obsessed) with fairy tales. Ususally I respond with a well reasoned "Erm..." But today I thought I'd give a shot at a slightly more eloquent answer. So here goes:

Fairy tales, myths, and legends are storytelling at its most basic. There's no room for character development. Dialogue, setting, and description are all usually very sketchy. What remains are stories in which the fat has been removed; underneath are bare, beautiful bones in which it’s easy to trace motif, themes, and morality—especially morality.

I like to use fairy tales in my books to highlight or reflect what's going on in the main story. In To Beguile a Beast the fairy tale is a version of "Beauty and the Beast" but with a twist--the "beast" is a woman...and the hero has a few surprises of his own.

I hope you enjoy it!

Elizabeth Hoyt
www.elizabethhoyt.com

Meet the Legend Hunters...

2009-04-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

The release date for Seduce Me is getting closer and I'm getting so excited. Frankly I don't think I was this excited when my first book came out. The Legend Hunters represent an idea I've had for a long while and could certainly be considered the book of my heart - well, in this case series of my heart. For those of you familiar with my Avon books know that I tend to write characters that have jobs, or at the very least very time consuming hobbies. While I enjoy reading books with wealthy aristocratic characters who go to balls and soirees and country house parties, my characters simply won't comply with that lifestyle. At least not for long periods of time.

Now as of right now only three of these guys have scheduled books, but hopefully I'll get to write all six of their stories. But I just couldn't keep them all to myself any longer, so without further ado, behold my Legend Hunters...

Fielding

Max

Marcus

Nick

Graeme

Justin

So now that you've gotten a peek at my guys, what about you? What do you look for in a good hero? Tall, dark and handsome? Witty, arrogant and bold? What makes a keeper hero for you?

Inspiration Where You Find It

2009-04-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

The most common question I'm asked as a writer (besides my booksigning favorite--where is the bathroom?) is where do you get your ideas? My first thought is always, where could I NOT get ideas? They're everywhere!

I trip over small inspirations in the world around me, often in the most unexpected places.

Sometimes it's a work of art, like this one, where I found the passion I needed for my artist hero.

Sometimes it's a scrap of conversation I overhear or a compelling news story, like the cave-in from which one of my short stories was born.

Sometimes it's a stirring piece of music, like "Last of the Mohicans."

Sometimes it's the local history I discover on vacation, like the lacemaking ladies who shared their craft with me in a medieval church in England, inspiring my heroine's pastime.

Sometimes it's a hero photo.

I have a t-shirt from a Dallas writer's group that says, "Beware: What you do may end up in my next book." They're not kidding.

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

Congratulations to the Grand Central 2009 RITA Finalists!

2009-03-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

With links to their books if you wanna check 'em out before the award ceremony!

Big congrats, ladies!!

2009 RITA Finalists for Contemporary Single Title Romance

Out of Time by Samantha Graves
Grand Central Publishing, Forever (ISBN: 0446618373)
Frances Jalet-Miller, editor

Tall Tales and Wedding Veils by Jane Graves
Grand Central Publishing, Forever (ISBN: 978-0-446-61787-1)
Michele Bidelspach, editor

Your Roots Are Showing by Elise Chidley
Grand Central Publishing, 5 Spot (ISBN: 978-0-446-17814-3)
Alex Logan, editor

2009 RITA Finalists for Historical Romance

To Seduce a Sinner by Elizabeth Hoyt
Grand Central Publishing, Forever (ISBN: 0446406929)
Amy Pierpont, editor

2009 RITA Finalists for Romantic Suspense

Scream for Me by Karen Rose
Grand Central Publishing, Vision (ISBN: 0446509205)
Karen Kosztolnyik, editor

2009 RITA Finalists for Best First Book

Your Roots Are Showing by Elise Chidley
Grand Central Publishing, 5 Spot (ISBN: 978-0-446-17814-3)
Alex Logan, editor

Most embarrassing moment

2009-03-22T02:37:00.000-07:00

You know those mortifying moments we have on occasion? The one where you walk out of the bathroom with your dress tucked into your underwear (I'd say pantyhose, but as a rule, writers don't tend to wear hose). Or when you send a snarky email to your friend only to realize you've hit reply all. Terrible, sickening moments to be true, but for me, not the most embarassing. No, that came a couple of years ago on the tail end of a wretched deadline that had me not only hopped up on pain pills (long story) but a little less smart than I normally am. Okay stupid, I was sleep deprived and frankly stupid for a little while.

I had gone to the UPS store the day before to overnight my manuscript to my editor and I was relaxing and enjoying a morning of waking up and not having to work on that blasted book. And then my doorbell rang. I'm fairly certain I was still injured and I had to limp to the door and I know I was expecting author copies from a different book and instead find a big envelope. A big envelope that looks suspiciously like the one I mailed the other book off in. Hmmmm….scan addresses, Oh crap! Wave frantically to UPS man, who waves back, I wave more, I'm not friendly Mr. UPS man so I'm not just waving good morning, please stop. He stops, jumps out and comes over to me. Did I mention I was wearing pink PJ’s with little rubber duckys and bars of soap on them? And I say rather sheepishly, “Um, I think I might have put the addresses in the wrong places cause this is supposed to be in New York this morning, I mailed this yesterday. Not to myself though.” And he just looks at me like I’m a complete moron, then goes back to his truck to get a new form. He fills it out (because he obviously didn’t trust me to do it) but tells me as he’s doing it. “The sender goes here,” and he points, “and the recipient goes here.” Well, yes, I see that now. I still think it was the people at the UPS store – maybe she pointed to the wrong ones. Or maybe I just can’t read anymore. Needless to say, I had to e-mail my editor and say, I know I told you it would be there a day early, but I lied cause I overnighted it to myself first.

Not exactly the way I'd suggest instilling confidence in your editor about your professionalism. And I suppose a good thing came out of that foolish mistake. Now when my writer friends are struggling with a mistake they've made, I remind them of this little faux pas and they chuckle and realize that yes, mine was worse, I'm still reigning champ of the stupid.

So how about you? What's your most embarrassing moment?

ps. the first excerpt for Seduce Me is up on my website as is a contest for March and April with a great prize. www.RobynDeHart.com

Feedin' the Muse

2009-03-12T03:52:00.000-07:00

Sure, as a writer, I use my imagination a lot. I'm always inventing characters, making up plots, crafting dialogue. As an historical author, I sometimes even create entire towns, castles, sieges.

But none of it would resonate with readers if it didn't have a ring of truth to it. All the research in the library can't substitute for real-world experience. That's why I'm delighted to be traveling in the U.K. this month!

I'm in Dublin for the first time, soaking up the moody skies, the lilting accents, the moss-covered stones, and the twinkly-eyed, dark-haired wee folk. I peered at the ancient Book of Kells yesterday, and today I'm walking the winding streets to Dublin Castle. Tomorrow I'll catch the ferry across the chill North Sea to England.

Some of it I'll capture in photos. Some of it I'll record in notes. But most of it I'll retain as an indescribable impression that I can call upon when I'm setting a scene or describing a person. It's that spark that brings a story to life.

So what's this photo? That's me...um...doing research.

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

Do you twitter? Do I have to, twoo? by Diana Holquist

2009-03-03T14:46:00.000-08:00

So, the next big thing is Twitter.

Do you tweet?

Did I really just type that?

Do I have to tweet? Twhat?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Introducing Robyn DeHart

2009-02-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

This sort of feels like the first day of school when you get nervous about what to wear and whether or not people will like your new shoes. I'm new around here. Megan and Samantha graciously made room for me over there, it's a tight squeeze, but we managed.

I'm not new to the romance world, I published 4 historical romances with Avon Books, but I am new to Grand Central. My first book with them, SEDUCE ME, comes out August 1st. I can't wait. This is a series I've wanted to do a while now and I couldn't be more excited about my Legend Hunters.

So here's a little preview of what's coming to a bookstore near you this summer.

The men of Solomon's meet in secret, their very existence only a rumor among the best of Victorian society. They are treasure hunters, men of wealth and title, seekers of myths and legends. And no legend is as alluring as the tale of Pandora's Box...

Fielding Grey is a treasure seeker with a taste for danger and experienced women. His latest mission: wrest Pandora's fabled box from a notorious criminal mastermind. Not in the job description: save an innocent damsel in distress.

A bookish miss, Esme Worthington has favored dusty tomes over society balls, and thrilled tales over flirtations. But when two scoundrels break into her home, she is thrust into a real-life adventure. Pursued and suddenly possessing the forbidden box, Esme can't resist peeking inside. Under the spell of Pandora's seductive curse, she's soon offering herself to Fielding--body and soul. With her reluctant rescuer determined to resist her charms, can the two outwit an enemy who will stop at nothing to seize their precious prize?

Check my website www.RobynDeHart.com for more information an upcoming excerpts and contest.

BuddyPoke

2009-02-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

My name is Sarah McKerrigan, and I'm an avatar-holic.

I blame my kids. They showed me this neat feature on MySpace called BuddyPoke. You create your own character from various physical features, and you can change the hairstyle, clothing, facial expression, and even the activities you want to have your avatar doing. You can then "poke" other MySpace buddies who have the same application, giving them a hug, dancing with them, going to the movies together, etc.

Some people choose to make their avatars fantasy-based. You can be a zombie. You can have a pet dinosaur. You can fight with a sword.

Mine is reality-based. And here's the sad part. I change her clothes to match mine every day. I know it's silly. Even my kids think I'm nuts.

Why this fascination? Maybe I didn't get to play with enough paper dolls when I was little. Or maybe I'm still addicted to dress-up. Or maybe it was the Barbie doll incident...(cue flashback music)

My mom never let me have a Barbie, because she thought they were too sexist. My little brother, however, got to have a G.I. Joe. When he got tired of playing with it, we cut the bright orange hair off of a Troll doll and glued it on Joe's head, and my mom made an evening dress for our new G.I. Josephine. True story. So it's sexist to have a Barbie, but it's cool to have a cross-dressing G.I. Joe. O-kay...

Whatever the reason, I'm absolutely obsessed with my avatar.

On the other hand, maybe it's not so crazy. After all, it's just an artistic manifestation of the kind of detailed world-building and character-dressing that authors do through the written word, right? That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Hmm...I wonder if I could use my BuddyPoke avatar for my author photo...

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

I lost a friend: when a beloved blog jumps the shark.

2009-02-03T05:24:00.000-08:00

I lost a friend and boy am I glad.

Whew.

See, I never really met this friend. She was (is) a blogger. And I was addicted to her. I would check out her blog, oh, say, 257 times a day. She was smart, funny, fearless--everything I love in a friend.

In the beginning, I would step in and join the party with my witty, insightful comments.

But I stopped that pretty quickly, as I realized that while I liked my friend, I didn't like the folks she hung out with. Oh, they were nice enough at first. But soon, they became sycophants (definition of sycophants: toadies, suck-ups, yes-women...). If my friend didn't like a book, they flamed the book in the comments. Even if they hadn't read it. If my friend said, "the sky is green," well, then, that sky was green. They started all using the same phrases as her. It started getting, well, icky. Uncomfortable. It started getting very high-school.

But my friend was still funny and smart, so I hung around, quietly wondering if anyone else noticed that while the blog used to be pure, now it was getting awfully, well, commercial.

Is that the definition of a blog jumping the shark--when they sell ads? Can an honest reviewer sell ads or is that a conflict of interest? Are there any ethical, moral limits in book-reviewing blog-land?

Then, my friend joined forces with another group of bloggers, and these folks I just couldn't stand. It was like the cheerleaders joining with the, er, what other group is popular in high school? Gosh it's been a while...

...anyway, you know what I mean.

I just didn't get it. Did my friend really like these "new" girls? Did she really want to associate with them? Did I? How could this be about anything but power? (And by power, of course, I mean web-hits, and by web-hits, of course I mean ad sales.)

No way.

I was done. Out.

Like all those who find themselves suddenly friendless, I had lots of free time. I'd find myself staring at the computer screen, not knowing where to go.

So I'd write. Work on my manuscript. You know, get stuff done.

Sure, I felt lonely. How pathetic is that? But then I realized that like losing all friends who aren't really friends, losing these folks was a blessing. I realized how poisoned the environment had become on those blogs, yet how badly I still yearned to be part of it, even if I knew it was out of control and not good anymore.

Ever lose a "friend" like this? Was it good in the end? Bad? What's the definition of a blog "jumping the shark" for you? Do blogs jump the shark, or is there a better phrase for when good blogs go bad? Wanna be my new friend....?

Belize Navidad

2009-01-14T17:06:00.000-08:00

There are a few unspoken rules about traditional historical romance. One of them has to do with setting. Readers have comfort zones when it comes to history. Medieval stories almost always take place somewhere in Britain. Preferred American time periods are the Revolution, the Civil War, and the Old West. Regencies must, of course, take place in England, with very few exceptions, and only those of which the ton approves. It's very hard to generate interest in a romance set in ancient Egypt, 1900s Germany, or medieval Australia, which is kind of a shame.

It's not that I get bored with writing Scottish medievals. I have a thousand stories in my head about that time and place, begging to be told, and I'll write them as long as readers keep wanting to hear them. But once in a while I'd like to expand my borders. And sometimes I think readers would like to expand theirs as well.

I just got back (which is why my blog is late) from a wonderful "Christmas" trip to Belize with my family!

We clambered over crumbling Mayan ruins...

hiked through jungle foliage dripping with warm rain, delved into a cathedral of a cave carved out by a river...

and snorkeled along a reef swarming with stingrays and bejeweled with hundreds of tropical fish...

We absorbed the unique flavors of rice and beans, plantains, chocolate, and Marie Sharp's hot sauce, and listened to the odd patois of island, Mexican, and British cultures over the top of chirruping frogs and birdsong. My daughter and I were even treated to a romance novel cover when our young boat captain bravely steered our craft through a sudden storm!

Alas, none of those impressions will make it into a historical romance. For now, Belize is beyond the comfort zone. But I hope one day that readers will start to broaden their horizons and come along on adventures that take them further from home!

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

A New Year's resolution!

2009-01-02T12:17:00.001-08:00

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to do more good deeds for those in need. With that in mind, I thought I’d get in the spirit of things by reaching out to our friend Diana, who could use a little guidance in . . . hot men. Now, a number of our fellow authors have already enlightened her on the subject of actors. But I thought she might appreciate seeing that athletes are definitely worth a look. Or two.

Without further ado, Diana (and everyone else) feast your eyes on a few of the studs who can be found on the playing fields and pools around the world. (Sort of makes you want to take gym class again!) Above is the glorious David Beckham, a soccer star from England. (Seeing as Diane didn't know Hugh Jackman, I decided I better clue her on on "Becks")

This hunk is Camilo Vilegas, a pro golfer from Columbia.

Adam Scott is also a golfer. he's from Australia.

Moving on to tennis, this is Juan Carlos Ferrara from Spain.

These next two water babies are Michael Phelps (heard of him, Diana?) And Ian Thorpe, the "Thorpedo" from Australia.

Oh, here we are back to tennis, with another sweet Spaniard, Rafael Nadal.
And last but not least, is Anton Apolo Ohno, ice skater and dancer

So, that's my good deed to start off the year. I am feeling very virtuous . . . well, maybe virtuous is not quite the right word, but you get the idea.

Enjoy!
Andrea

The important stuff

2008-12-29T21:23:00.000-08:00

So, I was aimlessly cruising the blogosphere when I happened on an addictive little app called Wordle. You enter a bunch of text, say, a journal entry, the back-cover copy of your latest book, your shopping list, or just a list of pressing things on your mind (I just looked over those pictures of Jared and Jensen below and that totally made a list of its own) ... where was I?

Oh yeah--the Wordle I created for my YA series. Is this fun or what? (Click on it to see the large version.)

Shelley
http://www.shelleyadina.com

The "Straight" PETE video

2008-12-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

So here's the "straight" video for FOR THE LOVE OF PETE. Note the lovely male model we found! I have no idea who he is, but I feel he does personify my hero who is known as "Lips of Sin" for about half the book:

So what do you think? Silly video starring my brother-in-law, Charles (who works for Borders gift cards! YAY, CHARLES!) or mysterious male model video? If I was as technically ept as Diana I'd post one of those nifty poll thingys. But since I'm not, we'll just have to settle for voting in the comments box.

Cheers!
Elizabeth Hoyt
www.elizabethhoyt.com
Sometimes also known as
Julia Harper
www.juliaharper.com

Tu-re-lu-re-lu Pat-a-pat-a-pan

2008-12-12T00:05:00.000-08:00

Do you hum along with the holiday music in the malls? I do. It's probably the only thing that saves my sanity as I'm shoved through throngs of shoppers on the edge of panic. The great thing about Christmas carols is you usually know the melody and most of the words, unlike Kanye West's latest offering.

I don't like ALL Christmas songs. "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" puts me to sleep. "O Little Town of Bethlehem"? Meh. The whip cracks in "Sleigh Ride" make me cringe, and "White Christmas" always sounds racist to me. "Feliz Navidad" is frustrating, because I can never seem to sing past the first line. And I can't hear "don we now our gay apparel" without envisioning assless chaps.

How about you? What's your favorite carol? Do you chime in at the top of your lungs, or are you tone-challenged?

This year, my musician husband has been off the road for the month of December, so our house has been filled with more music than usual. In fact, we've put together a holiday CD to send out as our Christmas card.

So here's a gift from my family to yours, "The Coventry Carol," orchestrated and played in a traditional medieval style by my husband, Richard, and sung by my daughter, Brynna, and myself:

Click here to hear or download Coventry_Carol.mp3
And okay, I'll play. Here's my donation to the beefcake gallery:

It's surprising how few images there are of our favorite hunks in Santa garb. I guess it's not easy to be sexy in a bulky red coat with fluffy white fur!

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

As Long As We're Voting. . .

2008-12-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

Got no beef with all the beefcake posted here, but in an effort to continue this educational drift, (and to avoid doing what I should be doing, namely working on my next oeuvre) and to make sure my fave gets mentioned, here's a shout out to the underknown Ben Browder of sadly cancelled Farscape.

As you can see, he also looks good fully clothed.

Not to mention in full John Crichton regalia with Claudia Brown as his love and soul-mate Aeryn Sun.

Sigh. Nothing like leather...

I know most of you probably never heard of them, but these are two of the most romantic characters ever created. Every romance reader should check them out on DVD.

Supernaturally delicious

2008-12-09T08:39:00.001-08:00

In hopes of continuing Diana's education on hot men who may have escaped her attention, today I would like to present the Winchester brothers from the CW's SUPERNATURAL. The show follows Dean (as played by Jensen Ackles*) and Sam (as played by Jared Padalecki**) as they travel across the United States fighting the things that go bump in the night.

Sam and Dean can be summed up in two words:

HOT and NESS.

That's HOTNESS. If we want to put it together.

Plus, SUPERNATURAL gets bonus marks for actually being an AWESOME show now in its fourth, and so far, BEST season.

Bask in the pretty.............

JENSEN.....

and JARED....

Yes. They will do very nicely, thank you.

You're welcome, Diana! We're here to help!!

Michelle

www.michellerowen.com

--
* Jensen is the mental image I used of Quinn, the hero of my book LADY & THE VAMP. Raowrrr!!
** Jared would be perfect as my frequently appearing werewolf, Barkley, in several of my vampire books. Grrrr-owwlll!

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE vid

2008-12-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

No, really, it's different than the first one!

And Bonus Content for Diana's continuing education:

That's DANIEL CRAIG, Diana!

It's all about the scroll-down, baby.

xxoo,
Julia Harper
www.juliaharper.com
www.elizabethhoyt.com

HUGH? HUGH WHO?

2008-12-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

So, in the middle of the night a terrible thought occurred to me. Not only has Diana Holquist admitted publicly to not knowing who HUGH JACKMAN is (see post below), but in the process she's revealed that she's missed some of the great cinema of the last few years. How, for instance, could she've seen X-MEN 1, 2, or 3 without finding out who Hugh is? She couldn't've.

Oh, Diana!

Therefore, I've put together a little primer for Diana. Diana? Are you reading this? Pay close attention:

One of Hugh's early works was of course in the iconoclastic PAPERBACK HERO in which Hugh plays a truckdriver who writes romance novels. Really.

Hugh continued with his realist portrayal of Every Man with SWORDFISH in which he played a computer expert. In a towel.

What? Don't all the computer nerds you know look like Hugh?

Then Hugh made s stunning artistic choice by taking the role of Wolverine in X-MEN.

Note the subtle use of body oil to highlight Hugh's impressive biceps!

In between various X-MEN Hugh played the title role in VAN HELSING. While not a critical success, VAN HELSING did include Hugh's now signature scene in which all his clothes are torn off except for a wee bit fabric around his loins. Rhoar! Unfortunately I couldn't find a photo of his signature scene from VAN HELSING, so we'll just have to make do with a fully-clothed Hugh:

Currently, Hugh is starring in AUSTRALIA, which I haven't seen. But judging from this pic I found Hugh rides a horsey and has a really big whip!

Also, I believe Nicole Kidman stars in the movie. Whatever. What inquiring minds really want to know is this: will Hugh have his signature scene in AUSTRALIA?

Cheers!
Elizabeth Hoyt
www.elizabethhoyt.com
www.juliaharper.com

Hugh who? The Sexiest Man Alive 2008. Really? by Diana Holquist

2008-11-24T08:01:00.000-08:00

My friend Julie James and I happen to be a little obsessed by People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. And why not? After all, we both wrote books about him.

But who exactly were we thinking of when we were writing? Hugh Jackman?

Disclosure: When People magazine picked Mr. Jackman as Sexiest Man Alive 2008, I didn't even know who he was. Do you know who he is? Do you think he's the one? Here's the poll we've been conducting of romance readers for the last few weeks. I ask again, Hugh who? The man barely registered. Is there something different about romance readers? Why Gerard Butler? And by such a huge margin? Vote in the poll and let me know what you think.

At Your Service

2008-11-12T07:03:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time at a booksigning, a woman came up to me, star-struck and shaking, to ask if she could have a picture with me, a "famous author." To put her at ease, I made small talk and asked her what she did for a living. She said she was an emergency nurse. I felt about two inches tall.

As a writer, sometimes I feel like I don't have a "decent" job. I'm certainly not offering as vital a service to the world as, say, a policeman, or a farmer, or that emergency nurse. I'm not saving lives, feeding the homeless, or contributing to world peace. I don't fix cars, teach Kindergarten, or even clean your house.

What I do--play with make-believe characters in my head and write down their fictional adventures--sometimes seems completely self-indulgent and unimportant to me, fluffy and meaningless and irrelevant.

And yet...

Every now and then, I get a letter from a fan, telling me how one of my books kept her up all night or made her laugh out loud or touched her heart. It's then I realize I AM providing a valuable service.

Sometimes I'm the romantic escape for a lonely soul. Sometimes I'm the sliver of sunshine through prison bars. Sometimes I'm the relief from a day of suffering or distraction from a night of sleeplessness. Sometimes I'm simply the promise of a happy ending.

Perhaps the most touching story a reader ever told me was that when her mother lay dying in the hospital, the last book she chose to read was mine, because it transported her far away from her pain. Stories like that make me realize the true power and significance of what I do.

So while I can't do your taxes, I won't walk your dog, and I'm not going to invent a cure for cancer any time soon, if your heart needs healing, I'm here for you.

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

In which Carolyn Shows How to Solve Everything

2008-11-10T21:46:00.000-08:00

Today (November 10) is my little brother's birthday. Happy Birthday, Geoff!

And here is my gift to you all in three parts. (Like Caesar and that thing with Gaul):

The funniest series of book reviews EVER (except for one grump):

Regarding this book, Energy Technologies. Please, after you pull yourself up off the floor when you see the price, do read the reviews. Then come back here and finish reading my blog post and tell me how much you laughed or something so I don't feel like a total loser.

Now seriously, is the price of a mass market paperback like any of those fine books along the sidebar there, including, I might add, My Wicked Enemy which yours truly wrote, really all that much? I think the answer is no, it's actually not all that much. Why, a mass market paperback is a deal and a half! Puts things in perspective, eh?

Are you not feeling renewed in your faith in humankind after reading those reviews (except for the Grumpy Student). Because this totally made my day.

Funniest Twilight Review

There was a second bit of humor I chanced across today. This: the best review of the Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series EVER. NOTE: if you don't like strong language, then you might want to skip this review, although for something on attrition.org it's pretty mild.

Funniest Deal with the Devil

But wait! There's more! People, today was a trifecta of humor brought to you by the best web comic around (IMHO, okay?) xkcd.com:

ohmygod. I am such a geek.

OK, so maybe I didn't solve everything. I can't afford Energy Technologies but maybe you, or someone you know, can. And then you'll solve a lot of stuff. Or maybe have a DIY nuclear rector in your backyard.

Right. You're free to go. If, when you do, you decide to pick up a book by one of the fine authors of Grand Central Publishing on the way, that would pretty darn cool of you. And really, who doesn't want to be cool? If you're cool, what else do you need?

See? I did solve everything.

Elizabeth gives away booklets & Julia debuts a video

2008-11-02T10:50:00.000-08:00

So, my newest book, To Seduce a Sinner is out. It's a YELLOW book, which *ahem!* I notice our Blogonatrix has failed to post on the sidebar. This is what it looks like:

And the stepback is even more lovely, involving as it does Mr. Nathan Kamp in near-nude glory. Personally, I'd buy the book just for the stepback.

In celebration of the release of To Seduce a Sinner, I'm giving away a FREE booklet on my website. One side is the first chapter of my January 2009 Julia Harper book, For the Love of Pete and the other side is the first chapter of an all-new, never-before-seen Elizabeth Hoyt novella, The Ice Princess, which features reader favorite Coral Smythe (Aphrodite in The Raven Prince.) Each month in 2009 I intend to post a new, FREE chapter of The Ice Princess on my website. I hope you'll enjoy it!

Meanwhile, here's a video for For the Love of Pete. Remember: we're working with a limited budget.

Cheers!
Elizabeth Hoyt
www.elizabethhoyt.com
Julia Harper
www.juliaharper.com

Winner of FOREVER MY LADY

2008-11-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

The winner of Jeff Rivera's book is

Laurie

Congrats! Please contact me with your mailing address at michelle@michellerowen.com and I'll pass it along to Jeff!

Win a copy of FOREVER MY LADY

2008-10-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

The Grand Central Café welcomes author Jeff Rivera today for a short Q&A about his new romantic release FOREVER MY LADY.

For the chance to WIN A COPY of this book, please leave a comment below and a winner will be randomly chosen on Friday, October 31st.

Welcome Jeff!

For those who have not read Forever My Lady, what's it about?

It's my first novel, and it was originally self-published when I was lucky enough to get Grand Central to publish it. It tells the story of a kid who's only dream in life is live the rest of his life with his childhood sweetheart. She sticks with him even when lands himself in prison boot camp and promises to stay with him no matter what. The only thing that gets him through the experience is the hope that he'll change his life around marry her when he gets out. Only he discovers from a friend that she's planning on marrying someone else.

One of your characters is a drill instructor, yet you were able to make it a little different than what we typically read about. Why did you do this?

Yes, Senior Jackson. I wanted with all my characters to have some depth. I didn't want a drill instructor who was just yelling and screaming all the time. I wanted someone who had heart but guided the boot camp trainees with a metal glove at the same time. I would say, the drill instructor is based on my friend Doug who was a boot camp drill instructor and my own father.

One of your antagonists is actually a racist but you came up with a twist on him too. What made you come up with it?

Again, I didn't want just these stereotypical characters. So I thought to myself what is the last thing you'd expect from a racist? Then it came as an ah-ha moment. I think people are shocked when they find out about his secret past.

Where can we pick up Forever My Lady?

You can get a copy at Amazon.com, your local bookstore (don't forget to support the indies) and of course, my website: www.JeffRivera.com

Raindrops on Roses

2008-10-15T09:06:00.002-07:00

I just came from Anna Campbell's website, and she has a section on "favorite things." It inspired me to write about some of mine.

I realized a few weeks ago that when I go shopping and there's a row of, say, tank tops, in a thousand different colors, my hand always veers toward either the green or the pink ones. So...there they are, my favorite colors.

I'm in a restaurant looking over the menu. Lots of good crunchy salads and broiled chicken breasts. But my eyes keep straying to the mashed potatoes. The French fries. The homemade potatoe chips. What does that tell you?

I've got Pandora on. I can listen to any one of a hundred artists and/or music types. But I keep clicking on that Nightnoise station. And I'm not Irish. I swear....

So let's see. If all is right with the world, I should be eating a plate of crisp, salty fries, wearing a pink and green tank top, and listening to Nightnoise or some other celtic music.

Oh, and I should be doing all of this sitting on my beachfront veranda (which, of course, I don't own) watching the waves pound the shore.

Yeah, that's the ticket... My favorite things.
Now it's your turn. What are some of your faves?

Elizabeth's New Photos!

2008-10-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

OMG! I had to wait an entire WEEK to see my new author photos! (I know: ten years ago that would've been fast...or am I dating myself here?) Anyway, here they are:

You're probably looking at them and wondering why I need two photos since there's only one of me. The short answer is that I had trouble making up my mind--and it wasn't like any of the people I asked for input helped. I'd narrowed down the hundred or so photos the photographer took to 24 and these are some of the comments I got from family and (supposed) friends:

You look tired

I hate the red outfit.

There's a flower growing out of your head.

I hate the blue outfit.

Wow! Your make-up looks great! (This was said in such tones of surprise that it immediately made me suspicious of what my make-up normally looks like.)

Wow! Your hair looks great! (Ditto. Have you any idea how time consuming straightening hair is? Huh? Do you? And it's not like I'm a teenager and care any more...)

That's the spaniel pose. (This from my agent about the last pose. In an act of defiant passive-aggressiveness I got the spaniel pose anyway.)

Phew! Thank goodness that's over for at least the next five years!

So, your thoughts? Hate the red outfit? Hate the blue outfit? And what about that spaniel pose?

Cheers!
Elizabeth Hoyt
www.elizabethhoyt.com
www.juliaharper.com

Woman to Woman

2008-10-11T23:12:00.000-07:00

Just between us, you know you get a little smile on your face when you see a woman with a sword. It's a visible manifestation of what we all know to be true--women are strong. Okay, maybe we don't cross blades with the crooked mechanic who wants to replace our transmission. But we can stand up for ourselves. After all, we have the babies. We nurse the hurts. We hold the family together. We even live longer than men.

I love strong heroines. I write about damsels in shining armor, ladies who swing swords, maids who aren't afraid to confront danger, knock out the bad guys, and even give the hero a good thwack on the back of the head when he needs it.

So I must be one tough, in-your-face, take-no-prisoners chick, right? Hardly. Neither are most of my readers. In real life, I generally prefer flight to fight. My idea of personal strength is not bursting into tears over a bad review.

So what makes us so fond of wenches wielding weapons?

I'm no psychologist, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with feeling vicariously victorious as the fearless heroine takes on challenges and enemies that would have us mere mortals cowering in the corner. We fight alongside the kick-butt femme fatale--celebrating as she knees her sexist boss in the groin, crowing as she trips the nasty villainess, cheering as she drops the wife-beater with a mean right hook. She rushes in where the rest of us fear to tread.

Well, I'd like to believe I'm doing more for shrinking violets than just entertaining them. I hope my books inspire and energize readers to discover their own inner strength, to release that brave woman inside them, to find the courage to face at least one small fear in their own lives.

With that in mind, here's my challenge to all of you:

Vote.

Yes, vote.

Some of our very brave sisters fought and suffered and died so that we'd have the right to an opinion and a voice. If your one act of courage is to arrive late for work so you can vote, do it. If it's driving in the rain-slick streets to get to the polls, do it. If it's defying your overbearing husband's ill-informed advice and canceling out his vote, do it. Show your strength. Honor the sacrifice of an army of real-life heroines and VOTE!

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

Oh Woe is Me Plus Rant Alert!!

2008-10-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

I live a bit out in the boonies where we can't see the road from the house. Not the way boonies, and every year the not-boonies creeps a little closer and our view is slightly more house filled. So far, there's still 30,000 acres of dairy behind us. Really, it's lovely. If I look out the window of my room, I see the Koi pond, walnut trees, oak trees and the sheep if they happen to be wandering by.

The downside to this is that there is no cable or DSL at our house. Some of our neighbors closer to the road have it, we don't. Comcast wants $22,000 to bring cable up our driveway. No, I did not make up that number. That's what they want. Gasp, choke wheeze We do not have cable and won't be getting broadband anytime soon, let me tell you.

I swear, I'm working up to my rant. Stay with me, I'm pretty much done setting the scene. (never do this is a novel, people stop reading.)

Anyhow, a while back, I signed us up for satellite which is kind of like dial up after a double espresso. It's not fast by any means, but it's better than dial up. Well last Wednesday, the satellite modem went on the fritz. We (I do mean we because we ended up tag teaming them. Two of us on two different phone lines...) spent a hellish 3 hours on the phone trying to get someone to not put us on hold, disconnect us, transfer us to the wrong person or -- Is any of this sounding familiar? Because I am willing to bet you have your own Customer Support Nightmare story. We finally were somehow mistakenly transferred to someone who could help. It was agreed the modem was not functioning. A service call was arranged for today (Friday, Oct 10) to replace the non-functioning modem.

I left work early so I could be home for the tech guy with the replacement modem. He was there right on time. Yay! A little later, I saw him sitting on the floor talking on the phone and doing whatever. He comes out and says to me,

"Your modem isn't working."

To which I say, "Well, yeah. It's not working. That's why you're here. With the new one."

"Nobody told me that. I don't have a modem with me, but I ordered one for you. It'll probably be here next week. Maybe Wednesday."

If you want to imagine me trying not to blow my top, go right ahead. I didn't lose it for the most part. I just noted that every nerve in my body was shouting at me He's lying! I just knew it. But I told the nice man in the nicest possible voice that my time and his had just been completely wasted. Off he went.

Since this is a Customer Support event, there was no way ever that this was going to actually involve customer support, I figured I'd make the calls now as opposed to later in the week when I was really upset that nobody had done anything. I called the tech service company who told me that no one told them they needed to replace a modem.

Carolyn's thoughts on this: They're a TECH SERVICE company. They only get called when all the stupid first level stuff like resets, unplugging and plugging back in fails to work. By then it's 80% sure to be hardware related. The other 20%, by, the way, is moron related. Like, Oh, I didn't know it had to be plugged in! Why yes, the lights do come on when it's plugged in. So, why the heck wouldn't they have some replacement modems along just in case?

Whatever. The tech company said they were ordering a modem for me and would come out when it arrived. No problem. They were happy to help me with my service issue and was there anything else they could do to help me?

Fact: When dealing with Customer Service, never trust the left hand when there's a right hand involved. Or vice versa.

I called the satellite company to relay to them that somebody somewhere was an idiot and it wasn't me. In the nicest possible way, seriously. That call included this gem of an exchange:

"Have you unplugged---"

To which I say, "We already did all that. You told us Wednesday that the modem doesn't work. That's why you sent the tech guy. He was just here, and he said the modem doesn't work. I'm confident the modem, in fact, does not work."

"Is there power to the modem?"

I am now thinking to myself I need to lie and say no. But I didn't'.

"Well, we can't send you a replacement modem if there's power to the modem."

"You're saying that even though the modem doesn't work, you can't send us one that does?"

"That's right."

Go ahead and imagine me blowing my top. It will be amusing for us all. Only I didn't. Props for Carolyn! I slowly worked around the absurdity of it all without actually destroying her carefully constructed bubble of a world in which all logic and rationality is sucked out a black hole, and she put me on hold (cold shivers down your back? Mine too.)

Aside: Think of the potential profits to be had under such a scheme. People pay $80 a month for equipment that does not work and cannot be replaced with something that does work. It's brilliant. If only more customers were actually idiots, they'd be sitting pretty darn pretty.

Sometime later, I had to race into the other room to pick up on another phone because the battery was running out on the cordless. A million years later, she came back and told me that the Tech company knew they didn't have any modems but came anyway. And as a special service for me, at no additional charge, when the modems arrive, they will replace ours. Sometime next week probably.

So, who's the liar here? (And let's all agree it's not me, okay?) The Tech Service company or the Satellite company? Right, it doesn't matter.

This post is coming to you at the speed of dial up. Let me just assure you that about 70% of the internet is inaccessible via dial up.

Also, to make this vaguely writing related, I was trying to write while I was on hold, so now my neck and shoulder hurt.

Please comment to make me feel better. Feel free to share your Service call nightmares.

Elizabeth's Great Photo Shoot

2008-10-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

So apparently no one can recognize me from my author photo. Perhaps it's because I don't normally wear gobs of make-up or have a fixed smile on my face. Perhaps it's because my hair has mysteriously become more blond as I've aged (that's the story I told Mr. Hoyt anyway, and so far he believes it.)

In any case, not having a recognizable author photo has been kind of low on my list of priorities. After all, author photos tend to be expensive and--more importantly--require a whole day to get done. But my agent has reminded me on a regular basis (note that I don't use the word "nagged") that perhaps I really ought to get a new photo.

And then Diana Holquist went and got a gorgeous author photo in which she looks like a 1940s starlet lounging around her MGM set home, thus blowing my excuse that we busy authors just don't have the time for nice photos.

Thanks, Diana.

So today I'm wasting the entire day in getting my photo taken. Last night I painted my super short nails whilst watching RUN FATBOY RUN (a thoroughly enjoyable movie.) My choices were: black nail polish or clear final coat (my children are teenagers.) I went with the clear even though black nails might lend a certain air of mystery to a historical romance novelist. Today at 10:30 I'm off to get my hair "done" which I believe will envolve draconian straightening and lots of hairspray. At 1:45 it's make-up at the one Merle Norman shop in town (I'm the most nervous about that one) and then at 3:00 is the actual photo shoot.

So wish me luck. At the end of the day, hopefully I WON'T look like this:

Cheers!
Elizabeth Hoyt
www.elizabethhoyt.com
www.juliaharper.com

Dancing at the finish line

2008-09-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

I love writing. But more than that, I love having written.

Case in point: On Saturday I finished Tidings of Great Boys, book five in my six-book "All About Us" YA series. I typed THE END, had a little cry from sheer relief, and then leaped to my feet and did a Snoopy dance all around the living room. Because for writers, there's nothing quite like that feeling of accomplishment when you finish a book. That end-of-the-road, boy-I'm-glad-to-be-here feeling that makes you want to get up and shake it with more abandon than you ever would on a dance floor, LOL!

How do we celebrate the big accomplishments? Back in caveman days, they'd bag that mastodon and come back to camp and barbecue it, then have a celebration dance, right? A person gets married, they dance. A company has a good year, they throw a Christmas party and dance. Ya gotta love the human impulse to lift those knees and wave those arms in a way that says, "Woohoo! We did it!"

So I figure I'm not just being a loon and embarrassing the neighbors because I forgot to close the drapes. I'm carrying on a human impulse that has been part of our DNA for millennia.

That's my novel, and I'm sticking to it.

Shelley Adina
http://www.shelleyadina.com

Hooked on Books

2008-09-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

I did some major reading over the past few months, and thought I'd see how my reading list stacks up to yours!

From the library: I caught up on Tess Gerritsen. Haven't yet caught up on Amanda Quick and Lee Child but am working on it. I also discovered Anne Perry.

I've become a fan of: Joanna Bourne, Karin Tabke, Deanna Raybourn, and Ariana Franklin.

I found I still love: Lori Handeland, Isabel Sharpe, Karen Rose, Elizabeth Holt and Susan Crandall.

Currently on the iPod: World Without End by Ken Follett, and all three books of Nora Roberts' In The Garden trilogy. Does anyone else have an iPod that doesn't have music on it? Honest, all that's on mine are audio books.

Bought last night: The Edge of Desire by Stephanie Laurens, and Seduction of a Proper Gentleman by Victoria Alexander.

My to-be-read pile isn't any smaller than it was at the beginning of summer. Read a few books, add a few more!

So where does my list (this is partial, btw) coincide with yours? Or what book or authors have you read lately that you'd like to recommend?

Shari Anton

MAGIC IN HIS KISS, Available Now

www.sharianton.com

Powers of Observation

2008-09-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

Every time I hear the phrase--a writer's eye for details--I cringe. I'm the person who can drive past a weathered four-story building on my daily trip to the gym and say, how long has THAT been there? I'm always losing my car in parking lots. I can re-watch movies I saw years ago, because I don't remember how they ended. Last week, I spent hours perusing masterpieces in a museum I've been to before.

My husband, on the other hand, whose interest in writing tends toward writing code for computer programs, recollects in minute detail every stage on which he's performed in the last 10 years, knows where he left a specific cable in a garage full of wires, and can play "name that cityscape."

I'm not alone. My good friend and fellow author, Lauren Royal, suffers from the same affliction. When we attend conferences or writer's retreats together, it's like the blind leading the blind as we lose ourselves in the hotel hallways or on the cruise ship. Lauren can't remember what waitresses look like. I don't recall if I've heard the speaker before. Neither of us know which way's north.

So how do we detail-challenged authors manage to write?

I think romance writers may not necessarily have an eye for PHYSICAL details, but we have great powers of EMOTIONAL observation. I may not be able to picture the restaurant I went to for my 30th birthday, but I remember distinctly the warmth of being surrounded by friends and family. I don't know which football game it was, but I remember the way I choked up when my kids played "The Star-Spangled Banner." I can't recall my sixth-grade classmates, but I remember the horrible humiliation of being picked last for the softball team. I have trouble envisioning the face of my first high school crush, but I'll never forget the dizzying passion of falling in love. I don't remember the details of giving birth--what was in the room, the color of the curtains, what I talked about for 18 hours--but I clearly recall the utter joy of holding my new baby in my arms.

Emotion, after all, is what's most important in a romance. The details I can invent. (But believe me, I'd never invent a manor for the hero that had the convoluted blueprint of some of the hotels I've been in!)

So how are your powers of observation? Does anyone share my curse? Give me the...details.

Oh, one more thing...If you get a moment, please go here to vote for my Danger's Kiss book trailer (voting is the dark box in the upper left): http://thenewcoveytrailerawards.blogspot.com

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

Parlez vous Sheep? Plus a contest thingee.

2008-09-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much French I've forgotten since college yet at the same time it's surprising how much I recall. I would not be helpless in France. Or Quebec, for that matter, which is kind of reassuring. Except tout les monde would have to speak very sloooowwwly for me.

Besides English and slowly spoken French, I also speak dog and cat and possibly some peacock. The first two are rather useful. When my dog Fudge (aka The Fudgester, Fudgie or Speed Brick) barks and turns in a circle he's either thrilled I'm home, begging for a snack or needs to go outside.

If my cat Jasper (aka Jazzman or Devil Cat) knocks stuff off shelves he's either hungry and there's no food, someone has not cleaned the kitty litter or he's retaliating for some slight. Like I didn't let him out to cherchez les femmes or something. (Actually, he's had the operation, you know, and he isn't allowed outside because cats are, I am sorry to say, eliminating ground nesting birds at an alarming rate. Indeed, in the county where I live, Meadowlarks are now rare.) But sometimes he glares at me before he does something evil or even just because. Then at night he sleeps under the covers against my stomach and all is forgiven. He also MUST be in the same room I am. He's 17 now and slowing down a bit.

When the peacock imitates a child in distress it means he's lonely and is hoping some hot feathered babe will pay him a call. The picture, by the way, is of Angus. He just showed up one day and hung around for the good company I guess. He actually did have some girlfriends for a while, until we noticed the result was more peafowl. Then we ran around like um, idiots, trying to catch baby peafowl and give them away. Lots of takers!

This is Thirsty. She was a bummer lamb, meaning her mother wouldn't take her for whatever reason and so lived in our kitchen and/or utility room until we were sure should would live. Then she lived on the deck for a while and then when she was strong enough and big enough, out into the field. For such a sick lamb at the start she was often very Thirsty. Thirsty is now the Alpha Ewe. That's usually the one smart enough to know who's passing out the good food and when so she's always first in line and the other sheep follow like, er, sheep, in case there's leftovers. Her primary word is, no surprise, Baaa. When she was still bottle-fed she would run up and down the fence bleating about being thirsty.

Lastly, this is Mel The Rooster. He is mean. Which you can probably tell if you study the picture a bit. Whoever's getting the eggs better watch their feet, because he pecks. You better believe he was thinking about pecking my feet when I took that picture. But I'm faster than I look and my camera has a telephoto lens. He has a lot of girlfriends who provide eggs.

So, now you've met some of the menagerie where I live. Do you have a menagerie of your own or maybe just a pet or two? Tell me about one or some in the comments and I'll send one commenter a signed copy of My Wicked Enemy. Amusing gets points. You could lie if you want, or talk about the pony you wanted but never got. Comment away! Please.

When Your Characters Come to Life. Literally. By Diana Holquist

2008-09-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

Imagine my surprise when I got a letter a few weeks ago from Josh Toby. For those of you who've read Sexiest Man Alive, you know that Josh Toby is, well, the sexiest man alive. (See towel man on left.)

He's a character in my book. I made him up.

Or did I?

Seems there's another Josh Toby, a doctor in Texas, a real Josh Toby. Here's part of the letter he sent me:

"Dear Ms. Holquist: I feel compelled to contact you after it has come to my attention that your recent work, Sexiest Man Alive, has been based on my life."

Indeed.

He included proof of his claim, including a picture of himself, a copy of his drivers license, and other documents that show he has the same name, is the same age, and matches the general description of the Josh Toby in the book. Although, as he says, "I would have chosen to include more action sequences/love scenes."

Luckily, he said he'd forego any legal action in exchange for a signed copy of the book and first rights of refusal to "play Josh Toby in the motion picture or Broadway production."

You got it, Josh.

I'd post his picture here, as he is indeed quite adorable. But he is, after all, a doctor, and I don't want to get him in any trouble for moonlighting as a fictional character in my book.

Now, with Hungry for More hitting the shelves this week, I wonder, will a James LaChance appear out of the woodwork? And will he be able to cook? And will he find me, and demand restitution?

I sure do hope so. I'd love to meet him, too.

Have you ever had a "character" contact you? Have you ever been a character in someone's book? I think it would freak me out to read about a Diana Holquist. But maybe not....if she were as young and thin and breathtaking as me. (Cough, cough...)

Have a great week, everyone!

--Diana

Hungry for More, in stores now!

Visit my website to win free chocolate in my Happy Endings contest.

And the winner is....

2008-09-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

No, you don't win the guy. I just though you could use some eye candy.

The winner of the $25 online gift certificate to either Barnes and Noble or Amazon, your choice is.....drumroll....

Penney!

To claim your prize, email me at Loriwilde@aol.com.

Thanks for participating everyone. I have a lot more contests like this one, exclusively for members of the WildeWomenVIP Lounge. To sign up just go to www.loriwilde.com. For the last month we've been having bi-weekly drawings giving away the free books I got at the RWA conference. There's still a ton of books left so if you want in on the freebies, join the Wilde Women Today. (PS--we have another grab the widget contest going on over there as well.)

Lori

Mad Men & Those Who Love Them

2008-08-27T23:48:00.000-07:00

Just got back from St. Louis where I was visiting my daughter. We watched 6 episodes of Mad Men together. I gotta say I was resistant to watching at all. As a child of the 60s, I have a natural aversion to the Eisenhower era. The repression of true feeling in exchange for surface politeness, the stark gender roles, the cramped, narrow space of ordinary lives. Who wants to revisit that?

But I found myself hooked after reading that the show's creator wanted to write about a time period on the verge of profound change. And I began to see the world of the show as presented in the first season as the "ordinary world" of the Hero's Journey. In order to experience the change, we, the reader/viewer, have to experience what's being changed. Interesting how shaping stories into books shapes the way I look at all story-telling.

Anyway, by the time I finished the first 6 episodes, the nominal hero of the show, intensely handsome advertising Creative Director Don Draper, has heard the distant sound of his call to action. Oh, he's still sleeping with his beatnik mistress, still falling hard for his Jewish client, and still married to his Grace Kelly doll of a wife, but he's also reading Frank O'Hara.

Interesting to see it all unfold, especially in light of the current historic election. Women in the show are definitely second-class citizens given little respect, and the only people of color run the elevators, clean house, or wait tables. Seems like so much has changed. Has it?

Anyone else out there watching this show? What do you think...of the era, the writing, the story-telling?

Win a $25.00 gift certificate

2008-08-24T09:59:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, wanna chance to win an online $25.00 gift certificate to either Barnes and Noble or Amazon? All you have to do to be entered in the drawing is to watch this widget created by our very own Grand Central author Jane Graves. She's started a widget making business. Visit her website @ widgetwise.com. She's so creative she can even track the number of times the widget gets passed around. So grab it for a chance to win big!

Just post here that you snagged it and passed it on through email to your family and friends or you posted it on your own blog or you put it on your myspace or facebook page or you downloaded to your own desktop. There's all kinds of places where you can share it. I'll give you guys a week and then on September 1, I'll have a drawing from everyone who participated. Thanks so much!

Gold Medals and Writing

2008-08-21T17:07:00.000-07:00

I was sitting around the other day watching some of the Olympic swimming events with a few jocks friends. As Michael Phelps (the Nora Roberts of the aquatic world) cruised to yet another world record, I couldn’t help but mention that I, too, had a win at our romance writers “Olympics—aka the RWA Conference in San Francisco, which took place at the beginning of August. (Okay, okay, a little shameless plugging that my book, The Spy Wore Silk was voted Best Historical Mystery/Romantic Suspense in the Daphne Du Maurier Awards. Now, Diana Holquist (congrats, Diana) and her trash-talking RITA finalists have way more to brag about—I mean, the RITAs are our Academy Awards. But hey, my heroine got to be in a video with Sexy Man. )

But I digress. Back to the spirit of competition . . . My athlete friends all shook their heads and said they found the idea of judging one book against another way too subjective. They much preferred the absolutes of athletic performance—the fastest time, the most points—where the winner was defined by a clock or a scoreboard, not some personal preference. I pointed out that sports like gymnastics, skating and diving were judged subjectively. But they countered that no, each routine of move had a clearly defined technique that a trained eye could see, so the scores were based on a set standard . . . in theory, at least.

In any case, it got me to thinking about writing “gold medals” and the spirit of competition in writing. Why do awards matter to those of us who pursue “intellectual” rather than physical endeavors? Well, probably for the same reason that athletes take satisfaction in the recognition of their accomplishments. Like long distance runners and swimmers, we spend hours in training—grueling sessions where we work on technique, and form. That daily grind is a lonely, demanding challenge, with no bright lights or cheering crowds. It takes discipline and determination to persevere. At times, we doubt our abilities, and feel that we will never be able to reach the finish line in decent form.

It’s easy to feel isolated and lose perspective on how we are doing—are our efforts any good? Are all our training efforts paying off? I think that both athletes and writers ask themselves the same questions. So when we writers screw up our courage and enter competitions, it’s probably for much the same reasons. We have to believe in ourselves, but hey, for one brief shining moment it’s nice to have others give cheer.

What do you think about literary awards? Love them? Hate them? Think they are meaningless?

Those Brits!

2008-08-12T08:45:00.000-07:00

Isn’t the English language fun? What began as a blend of Latin, French, and Germanic has grown to over 600,000 words, and Americans add several thousand each year with our penchant for adopting foreign phrases, embracing technology, and inventing slang.

English hands writers a vast palette with which to paint subtle shades of meaning, to create colorful nuance, rich expression...and comic misinterpretation--especially if you’re talking about BRITISH English.

To illustrate, here’s a collection of amusing signs from my past trips to England. Sometimes it’s hard to believe we Americans speak the same language!

Cruelty to animals? Is this anything like cow tipping?

Oh the humanity!

Soothing music? Aromatherapy? Meditation?

Paint with an attitude!

And here’s a sign from the Tower of London...

I’d like to think this was just tidy graffiti, but I’m afraid it’s a street name.

But perhaps the funniest wording I’ve ever seen on an English sign was one in Jamaica that said, DRIVE SLOWLY--SLEEPING POLICEMEN. The “sleeping policemen” were slow bumps in the road!

Know of any others?

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

Where's the Line? Is it Here or Over There? Let's Find Out!

2008-08-10T20:39:00.000-07:00

Let's talk deleted scenes. I've noticed that authors often post scenes that didn't make it into their books. Heck, I've done that myself. Now, most of the time, my deleted scenes get deleted for the very good reason that they weren't the sharpest knife in the drawer of novel chapters. So, off with their papery little heads. It's a bloodless coup, not that it doesn't hurt me.

Poor chapter, I thought it was going to work out, but I'm sorry. I couldn't make you what you deserved and I swear this hurts me more than it hurts you.

Whack!

Off the chapter goes into my deleted chapters folder.

But sometimes I delete a chapter because I was taking a risk. Just how far can I go? I think to myself. Let's find out! And I write the chapter. And then my editor either blinks or doesn't at all.

For example, in A Darker Crimson I wrote a scene in which my vampire hero has sex with the human heroine whilst he is possessed by a demon. Oddly enough I wasn't worried about that scene at all. In retrospect, I should have been, but I was more worried about the scene in which my heroine has sex with a demon under the influence of an arcane demonic bond; they're both having sex without their full free will. My editor didn't say a word about that scene. But he did want me to change the possession sex scene. So, all right! I did post the deleted scene to my website and at least some people said they liked that better than the one I wrote in it's place. But, my editor was right in his objections, which, actually had less to do with sex during demonic possession and more to do with my heroine's personal agency.

In My Wicked Enemy (on sale now!!) one of my revision requests was this:

No penis touching

By now you've wondered WTF? A novel that falls on the hot side of the romance spectrum often has lots of penis touching. Good golly! Was Carolyn asked to deprive her poor hero? No. The touching involved occurred between my hero and a male secondary character who happened to be on a bed (no, they weren't doing that, not exactly anyway) with the heroine.

In my final manuscript, there was male to male penis touching, which I edited out on request and I do think the scene as rewritten was very good and still resonated with a touch of oh my gosh! Are they going to---?

So, what do you-all think about a scene like that? Would it bother you in a Romance novel? I'm curious to know what you think.

Music To My Ears

2008-07-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

I had one of the most thrilling experiences of my writing life a few weeks ago. I went to New York to sit in on a session for my first audio book, BLACKOUT. Having a book on tape has been a dream of mine from the beginning of my career. I was over the moon when I learned Recorded Books had optioned BLACKOUT. Being the little groupie that I am, I hightailed it to NY to see what recording a book is like. In a word (well, two)--way cool.

Hey--here's me with RB Production Head, Claudia Howard.

The RB studio is in a neat part of town—just off Union Square. It sits above Strand Books, one of the all-time great used bookstores on the planet.

The office is a mix of blond woods, steel and brick, very open and airy until you get to the studio corridors, where steel door after steel door leads into individual studios. Ours was small, with barely enough room for myself, Michele Bidelspach, my editor, and Peggy Boelke, the GCP sub-rights person who sold BLACKOUT to Recorded Books. And, of course, our engineer, Abigail McCue, who sat behind a computer with an underlined copy of my book in front of her. Across from Abby in a soundprood booth sat the reader, Carol Mondo. Carol is a New York actress and vocal coach whose smoky voice was perfect for my story of a woman whose whole life is one big black hole. We listened to Carol bring my book to life, watched the sounds imprint on the computer like a strong heartbeat on a wide EKG machine, and after a while, I got completely engrossed—as if I’d never written the words or heard the story before.

It was an amazing experience, and if you’d like to hear how it all turned out, you can buy or rent the audiobook on CD or tape:
http://recordedbooks.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=rb.search_books&searchtype=title&search_by=title&search_text=Blackout&x=12&y=6

And for more on Recorded Books or Carol Monda, go to www.recordedbooks.com.

Finally, there’ll be more on the whole experience, including more details and pictures, at my website: www.anniesolomon.net.

Happy listening!

Setting Sail

2008-07-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

For a few more days, this is my home away from home. We're aboard the Diamond Princess, sailing south along the coast of Alaska. No, I'm not about to regale you with our vacation pictures (though I assure you they're spectacular!). What I find absolutely amazing is that I can write this blog while sipping on a Mocha and watching mountains pass by the large windows in the Internet Cafe.

This might not seem magical to anyone under 30 or so who has grown up with more technology than I ever dreamed of as a kid. Heck, I can remember when my parents thought they'd gone overboard (partial pun intended :)) when they bought our first color tv. And I thought I was going overboard when I got my first cell phone. I still can't use all of it's features. Never did learn how to text.

That doesn't mean I don't like my gadgets! Like the My Book I received for Christmas on which I have my entire computer backed up and is currently sitting in the safe at home. I adore my digital camera. I can take hundreds of pictures and only keep the ones I want, like the adorable harbor seal we saw this morning while sitting on our stateroom's balcony having our morning coffee.

And now I've just wasted a few of my minutes looking at a waterfall instead of paying attention -- so I'll get to the point.

Not so long ago it wasn't possible to communicate so easily if you weren't near your landline at home. Now I know several people who've given up their landlines and use cell phones exclusively. I would never have been able to talk to you while on vacation (and maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing :)). Technology has changed our lives whether we wanted it to or not.

What can you do now that you couldn't do just a few years ago and wonder how you ever managed?

Waving from Alaska, on the way to Juneau!!

Shari

http://www.sharianton.com/
www.myspace.com/sharianton

Note: I wrote the above while aboard ship, but I couldn't post it. I'm assuming a problem existed between the ship's satellite internet server and Blogger. I guess there are still things we can't do when we want to, and maybe that's not a bad thing :).

Release week

2008-07-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

There are few times during the journey of a writer when everything is wonderful. The sun shines just a little brighter. The wine tastes just a little sweeter. And all is well with the world. That, my friend, is release week.

Imagine this: You've been home all summer with the kids. You've cleaned up after them, tried to keep them entertained, paid them to be good, and done your very best to make them right. And then school starts. You know that first blissful day after you wave them off to school? That, is what release week is like.

Some writers write fast, and they get to enjoy this more often than I do. But I'm not a speedy writer so about once a year, I get to wave my baby off to big world.

So…introducing OUT OF TIME by Samantha Graves available August 1st. If you read Sight Unseen (April 2007), you'll be happy to see Paulie is back and Raven's sister, Jillian, gets her story told.

Order from Amazon
Order from BAM
Order from BN.com
Order from Borders

In Australia: Rendezvous Books

SHE’S THE KEY

Museum curator Jillian Talbot has the gift of psychic “Sight”, but she never expects it to land her in the middle of a battle for money and power between murderous underground elements. The object of their greed: an ancient crystal lens that can unlock mysteries from the past…but only for someone with the Sight. To stay alive, Jillian must seek the help of a cynical tomb raider, but is he worthy of her trust?

HE'S IN TOO DEEP

Tombraider Simon Bonner wants out of the looting game…until the crystal lens lands on his doorstep. The crystal’s secret is locked inside the eyes of straight-laced Jillian who still believes in doing the right thing. As she and Simon track the mystery deep into Mexico, their desire to stay alive and growing passion for each other makes every move a dance with danger.

OUT OF TIME

Tomorrow could be history.

Read Chapter One

Check out the new video

Romantic Times magazine: 4 1/2 stars!

Graves is back and hotter than ever in a thrilling new novel that combines romance, adventure, and prophecy. Intriguing characters with dubious motives keep the plot lively as a treacherous treasure hunt unfolds. Sexy, dangerous, and compelling pretty much sum up this thriller!

Romance Reviews

Think Romancing the Stone. Think Indiana Jones. Think of heavy passion and dangerous adventure and many characters who all have their own special agenda. This is terrific!

"A clever twist to the paranormal and suspense...Definitely my kind of novel ! ~Heather Graham

Attention book clubs!

You can find discussion questions in the back of the book!

CONTEST! Enter to win a $300 white gold and diamond necklace!

Thanks for helping me get my book off the ground. I wish you a safe and happy summer.

Samantha Graves
www.samanthagraves.com

Trouble in Paradise

2008-07-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

Paradise looks like hell.

My beautiful hometown of Paradise, California, nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, lush with pines and shaded woods ribboned by creeks, is on fire. Ten thousand people, one-third of the population, have been evacuated. Fifty homes have burned down. Smoke hangs heavy in the air, turning the sun a ghoulish orange and choking those who’ve not yet been evicted.

It’s a small town, founded during the Gold Rush. The largest gold nugget ever discovered, a 56-pounder, was unearthed on the ridge. Paradise celebrates Gold Nugget Days every year, and in 1975, I reigned as the Gold Nugget Queen. There’s one high school, one struggling movie theater, no mall. The town had just erected their first stoplight when I moved to L.A. 30 years ago. A lot of people retire in Paradise, because it’s quiet, peaceful, remote. Deer roam through your back yard.

When my husband and I were teenagers, we used to hike on a secluded trail to a secret, magnificent 30-foot waterfall that had pounded a bowl-shaped swimming pool into the granite where we’d go skinny-dipping. It was so magical that I wrote the place into one of my books. I wonder if that spot is burning now.

Nearby is Table Mountain, a perfectly sheared-off plateau where we used to fly kites and peer into the mysterious caves of green serpentine and black obsidian that the Maidu tribe used for arrowheads. I wrote those caves into a book, too. I wonder if the wildflower-studded grasslands surrounding them are scorched.

Winding down the edge of the canyon is a narrow and treacherous road called Honeyrun. My dad used to show me the shadowy corners where Black Bart himself might have waited to jump out in front of the stagecoaches he robbed. Honeyrun has a place in one of my books as well.

The trees will grow back, I know. And for now my family is safe. I’ve invited my mom to drive down and stay with me till the fire subsides--she can breathe fresh L.A. smog instead of eye-smarting smoke! Meanwhile, I’m hoping the wind dies down, the flames let up, and maybe Paradise won’t be lost.

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

Oh, Those Smoldering Eyes

2008-07-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

Obsession

My favorite actor of all time.

The incomparable Jet Li.

I've long been a Martial Arts movie fan. Oh my yes. I took years and years of ballet (obsessively) and then did Martha Graham for three years, so I do believe my appreciation of the Martial Arts stems from knowing just how hard it is to make your body move like that. But there's also the eye candy factor. I know that's so incredibly shallow. I know! And even as I hang my head in shame, I'm peeking. I just love the smoldering heat Jet Li brings to the screen. And when he fights? I'm all squeeee! Look at what he can do, and it's so beautiful! There's really only one reason to watch Lethal Weapon 4. Jet Li steals that film. Steals it right out from under what's his name. Oh, right. Mel Gibson. I almost forgot he was in that movie.

Right. Ahem.

Confession

When I write action heroes, I channel Jet Li, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and others¹. Especially Jet Li in Romeo Must Die, Bodyguard from Beijing (aka The Defender) or Contract Killer. The first half of Romeo Must Die is freaking awesome. Awesome! As with most of his films, the Hong Kong versions are better. The US or UK ones have often been poorly dubbed and edited, with whole sequences missing. It's interesting to get your hands on the various versions. Which I have done for many many of his films. Most actually.

Right. So, anyway, before I leave you with one of my all time favorite fight scenes, excluding the bit from Bodyguard From Beijing (aka The Defender) where he disarms a policeman who has just taunted him (ask me how many times I've watched just that scene, go ahead ask!²) I wanted to say that Xia, who is a major secondary character in My Wicked Enemy and the hero of the book the follows, I had the smoldering Jet Li firmly in mind. But that Kick Ass element of the very best Martial Arts movies is present in all my books.

And now, my second favorite (or maybe third, because there's that scene in Contract Killer...) Jet Li Fight scene. It's from the film Kiss of The Dragon, which, in all honesty is mostly mediocre except for this scene, the other fight scenes, and the scene where he almost takes his shirt off for Bridget Fonda. Sometimes I fast forward... OK, anyway, this scene is particularly notable for the end when the bad guys walk in and get a glimpse of what they're up against. (On, gosh, that is so Xia, I swear it!)

1. Except Chuck Norris. I'm sorry.
2. Oh, all right, I'll tell you. At least 20.

The new RITA Bloopers Reel: Romance Novelists Mess Up

2008-07-07T17:05:00.000-07:00

A while back, a bunch of the RITA Single Title Contemporary finalists got together to make a totally silly video that I hope most of you have seen: Romance Novelists Talk Trash. Today, we finally have the bloopers/cut scenes video together: Romance Novelists Mess Up. Here are both the videos, in case you missed the first one. Enjoy! (Especially Kristan's dog).

GAH!

2008-07-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying to finish a manuscript right now (TO BEGUILE A BEAUTY, which at the moment isn't beguiling at all--HA!) and I spent quite a few hours today writing a scene, only to delete the whole #$%& thing when I realized it was in the wrong POV.

*sigh*

Thus instead of a blog post I have the following:

Originally, I was going to show you my current male-obsession (Jeffrey Donovan from BURN NOTICE) but forget about the guy--isn't that the cutest puppy you've ever seen?!

I feel better already. And as a romance heroine once said, "Tomorrow is another day."

Cheers!
Elizabeth
elizabethhoyt.com

The Great Canadian Book Search

2008-06-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a trip to Canada. Went to Alberta, which, for those in the states, is north of Montana, and for those in Canada…well, you know where Alberta is. Anyway, beautiful place. My brother-in-law has a quarter section (about 160 acres) in Blackfalds, near Red Deer. They have horses and hay fields, a garden and a barn—pretty much everything a city girl fantasizes about when she thinks of the country. The sky there is so low and blue, it seems like you could reach up, grab a cloud, and stuff it in your pocket. You look toward the horizon and way over at the edge of the world you can see the dark mist of rain miles away, while the sun is shining happily overhead.

Anyway, the highlight of the trip—well, there were a lot of highlights, but I’m only telling this one—was a visit to the public library in Red Deer to check my email. Alberta is booming with oil money and Red Deer is busy being prosperous. The library looked well used and maintained. And, get this—it had a café inside. Big digression here—we went to the grocery store and discovered they charge for plastic bags—4 cents a pop. To save the charge you just bring your own bags. Great way to “persuade” folks to conserve on plastic. I have cloth bags but I’m always forgetting to bring them. I’m sure if I had to pay for my plastic, I’d remember to tote my own… Good on ya, Alberta.

Anyway back to my highlight at the library. After I checked my mail, I had some time to wait around for the rest of my group. What else to do but check the romance section, right? Do they even have one? Is it prominent? And most important…do they have my books. Okay, the last is what I really cared about. I mean, doesn’t everyone want to know if their books are available? I can’t pass a bookstore without going in to see. In fact, I got pulled away from numerous bookstores all during the trip (and that means the airport, the mall, as well as the library). Largely because if my books aren’t there, my happy face disappears.

So, dear reader, I’ll bet you’re on the edge of your seat waiting to hear what happened at the library. They were there!

I know it’s kind of corny, but I was thrilled. Happy face intact. I wanted to take a photo but, typically, I left my camera home. So you’ll just have to picture it. Blue sky, fluffy clouds close enough to touch, and me holding my books at the Red Deer Library. Oh, Canada.

Characters Waiting in the Wings

2008-06-16T03:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever read a book and become so intrigued by a secondary character that you wanted to have that character's story in hand Right Now? Have you ever then emailed the author to see if that character gets to be the hero or heroine of her next book?

I can't tell you how often a secondary character intrigues a writer. Sometimes it's darn hard to keep that character from playing too big a part in the book, and long after the book is done that character's own story pesters, nags, nudges, and sometimes finally gets a book of his or her own. That's how series are born!

Such was the case in the Magic trilogy. In Midnight Magic, Gwendolyn had two sisters. As part of the plot, both of those sisters were sent away from home. I kept wondering what happened to them! So Emma's story became reality in Twilight Magic, and Nicole's story is told in Magic In His Kiss (which will be on the shelves in a couple of weeks!).

Confession time. It should come as no surprise that authors are also readers, and we easily get caught up in other authors' stories.

As soon as I finished reading Scream For Me by Karen Rose, I sent her an email telling her I loved the book – then asked her for the stories of two of her secondary characters. She tells me I'll get my way with at least one of them. Made my day!!

So back to my original questions. What's your experience with secondary characters? Is there one in particular whose story you're just dying to read (or write)?

Shari Anton
www.sharianton.com
www.myspace.com/sharianton

First Crushes

2008-06-12T06:36:00.000-07:00

Who was your first crush?

I vividly remember, as a Kindergartner, sitting in front of our black-and-white TV, watching with bated breath as Timmy wrapped his loving arms around Lassie one more time on Sunday night.

I’d sigh and go to bed, wishing Timmy was MY friend.

It wasn’t that he had dimples to die for and a smile a mile wide. It wasn’t that you could lose yourself in his sparkling eyes and sigh when they welled with tears. It wasn’t even the dog--I was a cat person then.

What I adored about him was that after a day of dealing with little five-year-old brats who shoved and yelled and ran around me like rabid monkeys, Timmy was a breath of fresh air--a boy who was calm and nice, smart and expressive, noble and honest, a boy I could relate to, a boy who wouldn’t dream of pulling my pigtails. (Okay, he was also awfully cute.)

I had a major crush on Timmy.

Of course, he was one of many childhood crushes to come: the son of “The Rifleman”... Will from “Lost in Space”... Prince Philip from “Sleeping Beauty”... Michelangelo’s David. (Only a budding writer with a vivid imagination could fall in love with a cartoon and a statue!)

Well, in my wacky world of “there are no coincidences,” I found out not long ago that my neighbor’s sister, Laurie Jacobson, stole Timmy from me. It turns out she married him! Of course, his name isn’t Timmy. It’s Jon Provost. And together they’ve written and just published his biography.

I recently got the opportunity to go to one of their booksignings. Here’s a photo of Jon and me with his book, “Timmy’s in the Well”:"It’s a very revealing and well-written expose of Hollywood in the sixties and what it’s like to grow up a child star. And you know what? “Timmy” is just as engaging in person as he was on the small screen. (It’s just a matter of getting used to the mustache!)

How about you? Who was your first crush? David Cassidy? Michael J. Fox? Justin Timberlake? John Stamos? Confession time!

Sarah McKerrigan...
Stories to keep you up all night!
LADY DANGER - Riding to the rescue April 2006
CAPTIVE HEART - Coming for you October 2006
KNIGHT'S PRIZE - Stealing your heart April 2007
DANGER'S KISS - Flirting with trouble May 2008

I'm Cooking Now!

2008-06-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

This Carolyn Jewel and this is my first ever post to the Grand Central Cafe blog so I'll introduce myself a bit, putting in all the best parts and leaving out the boring parts. (What an amazing coincidence. That's what that I try to do when I write books!) Right. So here we go. In my day job, I'm a MS SQL Server DBA. . . .

Hey!! Wake up!

Ahem. Trying again here. Note to self: leave OUT the boring parts.

My first book for Grand Central Publishing is coming out this August. The title is My Wicked Enemy. So, far I've had one advance review show up, by Terrie Figueroa at Romance Reviews Today and she said, some of the sex scenes should probably come with a warning label, which made me laugh for reasons that would take too long to explain, aside from the obvious of course. So if such scenes bother you, this book may not be your cup of tea. (By the way, in keeping with the cooking theme, sort of, my favorite tea is Murrough's Welsh Brew.)

Over there to the right, if you're reading this at the website, you can see my cover which is pretty hot. Like the sex scenes. LOL. You can Read Chapter one here or read the the entire review over at my blog since, as of this posting, the review (being an advance review and all) isn't yet posted over at Romance Reviews Today.

Quick Introduction to My Wicked Enemy

My Wicked Enemy is about Carson Philips, a woman who grew up not knowing she was a witch or that the man who raised her is a mage (a human with magic). Alvaro Magellan and others like him, kill and/or control demons in order to protect humans. That excuse serves as a convenient cover for things that aren't at all very nice. When Carson finds out what some of those not very nice things are, she runs away. She gets found pretty quickly. By a demon warlord sworn to kill her and Magellan. Uh oh.

That's Nikodemus and Carson on the cover so you can probably guess they don't stay enemies.

An Even Quicker Contest Note

To celebrate the release of My Wicked Enemy, I'm having a Wicked Cool contest, which I would love to have you enter. Catch: you enter by joining my newsletter list, which comes out only when I have news, so it's not like you'd get to read amusing things like this blog post all the time. I know, I know. So disappointing! To make up for that, there will be wicked cool prizes. Now, on to the important stuff!

Achieving Cookie Awesomeness

I like to bake, so I thought I'd give some baking tips that make me look like some kind of super cook, even though I'm not. I love chocolate chip cookies. Looooove them. So does my son, so I like to have them on hand for his lunches. The Toll House cookie recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag is awesome, but there are a few things you can do to ensure cookie awesomeness:

Use butter, not margarine;

The butter should be cold-- and don't over beat it. If you do, the cookies come out looking flat and thin. Voice of experience here;

Use mini chocolate chips instead of the regular size chips;

Take the cookies out of the oven when the tops are still a bit white. This ensures a softer, chewier cookie. If you don't like softer and chewier, then leave them in until the tops are not white, but not burnt either. Cookie disasters, and I've had plenty, are another post altogether. The cookies that looked like fried egg whites, oh, that was just bad and sad.

A Few Extra Things Plus Other Stuff

You can find me at my website but also at My Space. But a really fun place to check out Twitter which seems silly and possibly pointless until you're following a few people, and then you get why it's fun.

I'm following a lot of writers. You can ignore the SQL Server people I follow, unless geeks are your thing. You can also search for people from your home town, say, and follow them. I've met some cool people on Twitter. So join up, drink the Kool-Aid and follow me on Twitter. Tweet, tweet.

And lastly, just because I think these video interviews are hilarious, go check out Author Talk. I'm doing my best to get them to interview me. Jill and Gena. They rock. I'm sure I would rock too, if only they would interview me.

And now, believe it or not, I'm all done for this post. But if you have cookie questions or any other questions, leave a comment. Or send me a tweet. Or whatever. Thanks for reading!

Carolyn Jewel

Billionaire Sheik COP ex-Navy Seal Chef. Or, What is the Sexiest Career? by Diana Holquist

2008-06-03T04:21:00.000-07:00

"Cooking, like making love, is best done right or not at all."

This is the opening statement of James, the chef hero of my new book, Hungry for More.

I tried to use this line on my family last night, hoping to get out of making dinner, and all I got were blank stares and few, "oooh, yucks!" from my kids.

This is just one difference between the real world and romance novels.

But in the romance novel world, as in real life, there are definitely sexier job choices for men: ex-Navy SEAL, COP, sheik, billionaire. So what about a chef? Is it sexy enough for hero status?

When I think about all this, I think about the man I married, who is the love of my life. And yet, he cannot boil water. He also is not an ex-Navy SEAL sheik billionaire. And yet, at this stage in my life, I'd give up that for a man who could cook.

Oh, and fix the car.

Nah, I guess I'll just stick with my professor. We can always walk to the pizza joint.

What's your idea of the sexiest career?

--Diana
Visit my website!

Growing readers for life

2008-05-27T06:26:00.001-07:00

A topic recently came up on another blog from a soon-to-be new mom who was asking about good books for children. Talk about a trip down memory lane.

You see, I started a library of reading books while I was pregnant for my first, and I read to my kids every night from the day they were born. We did this for years and years. They loved bedtime because we'd all cuddle up on our bed in our jammies, and I'd read to them. It was a wonderful way for them to unwind and get ready to sleep. Today, they are 14 and 16 and have an absolute love for reading and books. I may be wrong, but I think this has to do with the bedtime stories. :)

Here's my list of their favorites:

The Poky Little Puppy
Dr. Suess One Fish Two Fish
Dr. Suess Fox in Sox
Dr. Suess Hop on Pop
Dr. Suess The Foot Book
Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
The Shoemaker and the Elves
Tootle
My First Counting Book
Scuffy the Tugboat
Strawberry Shortcake books
Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit
Winnie the Pooh
Rainbow Brite books

I had forgotten how much I loved these stories too, and ended up weeping by the time I finished the list. Okay, except for Fox in Sox, because that one was HARD to read.

If you wish to add to this list, please do so and I'll pass the full list onto the mom-to-be.

Until next time,
Samantha Graves

Transitions Suck...Or Do They?

2008-05-22T03:13:00.000-07:00

I’ve just turned in my next romantic suspense and I’ve hit that always fun phenomena called “Transitioning.” This is the time when I wander around, waiting for revisions, not ready to start a new project but not finished with the old. Sometimes I have a vague idea of what I want to do next, sometimes I don’t have a clue, and once in a blue moon I think I know, hands down, what the next book will be. Which usually means I don’t. But that’s a tale for another time.

Here’s the thing: this Transitioning is hard. For me it involves puttering around, surfing the net--supposedly for book-related research, but usually ending up on YouTube—doing more laundry than I care to, and watching lots of TV. All the while this black cloud--not too dissimilar from that scary smoky thing on Lost--hovers nearby, and from within a wicked witch voice whispers, “you have a proposal deadline, my pretty” over and over. Eventually—like the night before its due (or so it seems)—I manage to grab onto something that becomes, miracle of miracles, my next book. Sometimes a news article catches my attention, sometimes a magazine photo, or a lyric, a snippet of conversation, or, as in the case of my upcoming book, a legend in a tour book. How it all comes together is, well, a mystery, as Thom Stoppard says in Shakespeare in Love. But until it does, there’s always uncertainty. Will it come together? How? When? And that fabulous, panic-tinged question: What if it doesn’t?

I suspect Transitioning is hard no matter who you are or what transition you’re going through. High school to college, single to married, married to children, children to empty nest. So here I am, smack dab in the middle of my Big T. Where are you? And what do you do to make those transitions as smooth and panic-free as possible?

Celebrating Love

2008-05-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh, love. I just rewarded myself for turning in my revised manuscript with an afternoon of watching "Pride and Prejudice" -- the Kiera Knightly, Matthew Macfadyen version. I think I'll make it a sending-in-the-book tradition; my reward at the end of the endless hours working on what I'm always certain will truly be a never-ending novel.

I adore Pride and Prejudice. Naturally, Jane Austen was the master, but I believe this is my favorite.

Could there be a more perfect kiss than the one at the end of that movie? I'm all warm and gooey inside. Too bad the cupboard is bare (also a sending-in-the-book tradition) and I'll be heading out to the grocery store instead of indulging in something totally romantic....

I used to think that no one could beat Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. Man was I wrong. Matthew Macfadyen was magnificent.

So, although I believe this is old territory for this blog, I still love the debate. And I'm in the mood for romance. Everyone log in:

Best movie kiss.

Best Mr. Darcy.

Best romance ever written.

Best romantic movie ever made.

Shari is packing!

2008-05-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not going far this time, and I'm taking the car so packing should be easier.

Early this afternoon, a friend and I are headed north to Green Bay, WI, for the annual WisRWA conference. It's being held in a Raddison Hotel that's adjacent to Onieda Bingo and Casino, so if I'm not where someone thinks I'm supposed to be (naturally, I'll go to several sessions), all they need do is find a certain Hot Penny machine :). Truly, this conference is always wonderful and fun so I'll be hanging out with my chapter members more than with my favorite slots.

Barbara Vey will be there so I'm sure she'll be doing drive-by videos to post all weekend at Beyond Her Blog for you to check out. She also did a lovely blurb on MAGIC IN HIS KISS today. Thank you, Barbara!

Back to packing.

I remembered to put together a basket full of goodies that will be raffled off for charity. It's already in the trunk of the car along with a bag full of stuff I need to take along for the booksigning (books, bookmarks, two pens, Autographed Copy labels). I'm taking along my laptop so I can check email and maybe venture onto several web sites. Into the trunk it goes.

Okay, I had to move the basket (why did I make such a big basket? oh, for charity, right) toward the back of the trunk and tuck the laptop in between the basket and the booksigning bag so I can get the suitcase in there.

The above was the easy part. I'm only going for a weekend, two nights, so I want to take the small suitcase. Except I need to fit in four changes of clothes, two pairs of shoes, plus a bag with all the hair necessities, not to mention a well-equipped toiletries case. Hmmm - sure it'll all fit if I arrange it just right. No problem. And I'll even get it into the trunk and have room to put my friend's stuff in, too.

Sounds organized, doesn't it? Hear me laughing hysterically.

I will forget something. I don't know what yet, won't know until I need "it" that I'll realize I left "it" on the bathroom/kitchen/laundry room counter. Happens to me every time. Over the years I've forgotten makeup, or a curling iron, or deodorant. One year I had to call my husband to find out the details on my flight home because I forgot to take the itinerary with me. The worst, I think, was the trip I forgot to take underwear -- all of it.

In July, we're going on a two week trip to Alaska. The first week is on land at wilderness resorts, and the second is on a cruise ship. Should be interesting because there won't be a handy drug or department store. And don't tell me to make a list. Been there, done that, lost it.

Be honest, now. I know I'm not the only one who does this. Am I? Say it isn't so!!

Shari Anton
MAGIC IN HIS KISS, July 2008
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