Romance In Flight

Blog: About Writing with Guest Blogger Lee-Ann Vinson

2011-12-05T06:32:00.000-08:00

When I was first asked to be a part of the wonderful world of author blogging, I wondered what kind of impact a simple tale about me would have. Would anyone want to read about me? Would anyone care? But then I noticed something. It’s not about me.

As a writer, you work alone. Period. No one can scribe the words for you. Research is typically done via email or Google search. Although you may have family and friends surrounding you, it’s not the same as having other writer’s to communicate with. Sometimes, I feel the need to talk about a particular piece I’m working on. If I happen to be speaking to someone who is not in the field of writing, the reaction I get is usually a glazed over expression with little or no comment in return.

Author sites, especially that of my own publisher, Gypsy Shadow Publishing, have become my “loving-caring-bounce my ideas off of-get help when I ask for it or need it-here have a pat on the back just because we’ve been there and you’re going to be fine” sanctuary. Author blog sites are where I’ve met people whom I consider my friends. They care. There is no judgement. They are my guilty pleasure (along with a nice glass of Cab Sav and a pricey piece of chocolate).

It’s a writer’s life for me. I will never stop creating. It is who I am. And darn it, I love it. So, thank you for telling me to write it better, show instead of tell, and for goodness sake, write it with active verbs! Thank you for telling me I can do it and that I am good enough. Thank you for taking the time to read my work and suggest ways to improve upon it. Thank you for the late night inspirations and early morning pushes to get back in that chair and create.

Writing is so much more than the elusive best-seller (although I wouldn’t say no to seeing my name on one). It’s about the friendship and support you encounter along the way. I am grateful to be a part of such an extensive group of talented, caring individuals.

And now, I get to plug my latest release. See? How wonderful is that?

When Callie takes the red-eye home to surprise her husband for their anniversary, she finds the surprise is on her. She watches as a blonde tart in six-inch heels teeters out from her home and toward a cherry-red Mustang, which is parked in her spot.

Enraged, Callie does the only thing she can do. She drives to her favorite coffee house, scrolls through divorce lawyers who claim to eat cheating husbands for breakfast, and cries. Her only consolation is Christian, a Marine, whom she befriended on a chat site almost a year earlier.

While waiting for her marriage to end, Callie agrees to finally meet Christian in person. She has always been a woman in control, but the mere touch of this man has her begging for more. Christian is only too happy to oblige, leaving Callie agreeing with the motto ‘The Few and The Proud’. She has never experienced a man who could make her see stars, but Christian does his duty, and does it well.

Unhappy circumstances bring them together. A week of sexual bliss makes it impossible for them to part, leaving them to wonder how they can, once again, test the hands of fate.

Thank you so much for hosting us Authors on your blog, Jeanne. You are a great part of that wonderful support system we have all come to rely upon.

Want Callie's Fate all for your very own? go to...
http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Gypsy%20Shadow%20Publishing&mkt=en-ca&setLang=en-CA

http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=Amazon.com&mkt=en-ca&setLang=en-CA

http://bing.search.sympatico.ca/?q=All%20Romance%20ebooks&mkt=en-ca&setLang=en-CA

Blog:Singer Sewing Machines - The First Home Appliance with Linda LaRoque

2011-12-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

Linda LaRoque is a Texas girl, but the first time she got on a horse, it tossed her in the road dislocating her right shoulder. Forty years passed before she got on another, but it was older, slower, and she was wiser. Plus, her students looked on and it was important to save face.

A retired teacher who loves West Texas, its flora and fauna, and its people, Linda’s stories paint pictures of life, love, and learning set against the raw landscape of ranches and rural communities in Texas and the Midwest. She is a member of RWA, her local chapter of HOTRWA, NTRWA and Texas Mountain Trail Writers.

Singer Sewing Machines - The First Home Appliance

Consider the time consuming process of making garments for an entire family by hand, one stitch at a time. And most likely, that sewing took place in the evening when all the chores were done, supper dishes cleaned, and the children in bed. Sitting close to the fire, or possibly a coal oil lamp, she worked away, often into the wee hours.

The first sewing machine was developed by Englishman Thomas Saint in 1791 to work on leather and canvas. It was never built. In 1830 a French Tailor, Barthlemy Thimonnier built a machine and had 80 in his factory where French military uniforms were made. Tailors afraid of losing their livelihood rioted and destroyed the factory.

These early machines used the chain stitch which were not very strong.

In 1833, Walter Hunt developed a lock stitch machine which used an eye-pointed needle, a shuttle, and stitched horizontally. The lock stitch was stronger than the chain stitch. There were problems with the feed. The machine had to be stopped and reset up. Hunt sold the machine without bothering to patent it.

In 1842, John Greenough patented the first sewing machine in America.

Elias Howe patented his machine in 1845. His method was similar to Hunt's. He improved the needle and the material moved vertically. He traveled to England to promote interest in his machine and when he returned he found various people infringing on his patent. In 1854 he won the right to claim royalties from those using his patent ideas. The picture to the right is of Elias Howe's machine. Note the handle used to power the machine.

Isaac Singer, an engineer, thought the rotary sewing machine clumsy and designed the flying shuttle. The needle was mounted vertically and he added a presser foot, a fixed arm to hold the needle, and included a tensioning system. The machine combined elements of previous machines. He patented his machine in 1851. He was unable to patent the treadle as it had been used for some time.

Howe took Singer to court and won. Singer had to pay him a lump sum of $15.00 for each machine produced and Singer took out a license under Howe's patent and paid Howe $15.00 for each additional machine produced.

Before 1990, the idea of women having sewing machines to aid them with their work wasn't well accepted. The feeling was women weren't capable of operating machinery. They were too excitable and not considered to be bright enough.

When it was first suggested Singer design one, his comment was, "You want to do away with the only thing that keeps women quiet - their sewing!" But, ready to make money, he went ahead and designed one that had many features of machines today. The first treadle Singer machine was introduced in 1856. To aid in sales, he used women to demonstrate the machines.

Singer became partners with lawyer, Edward Clark, and thus began the first installment credit plan which made sewing machines available to more women, the ones who couldn't pay cash for them. The year was 1856. They cost $100.00 and for $5.00, a woman could take one home with her that day and start to use it. At that time that amount of money equaled to the price of a car today. Some families went together to buy a machine and shared it.

Women were at last able to make garments much faster than in the past. Ease in piecing quilt squares, mending, and other domestic sewing chores freed women up for other activities. Though men feared they'd spend their free time playing cards, gossiping, or gadding about town, most probably got a little more rest or took part in charitable activities.

References:http://wikipedia.org/wkie/sewing_machine
http://historyofquilts.com/sewmach.html http://dc.about.com/od/photosofmuseums/ig/NMAHPictures/singer_sewing_machine.htm

Thanks for reading. For you ladies out there who sew, thank goodness for Singer and the other individuals who developed sewing machines.

A Marshal of Her Own – Blurb and Excerpt

Blurb:

Despite rumors of “strange doings” at a cabin in Fredericksburg, investigative reporter Dessa Wade books the cottage from which lawyer, Charity Dawson, disappeared in 2008. Dessa is intent on solving the mystery. Instead, she is caught in the mystery that surrounds the cabin and finds herself in 1890 in a shootout between the Faraday Gang and a US Marshal.

Marshal Cole Jeffers doesn’t believe Miss Wade is a time traveler. He admits she’s innocent of being an outlaw, but thinks she knows more about the gang than she’s telling. When she’s kidnapped by Zeke Faraday, Cole is determined to rescue her. He’s longed for a woman of his own, and Dessa Wade just might be the one—if she’ll commit to the past.

Excerpt:

Dessa stood still and watched as they conversed. Something stank to high heaven about this entire situation. Why were the cops chasing robbers on horseback? It’s not like Fredericksburg was that isolated. She glanced at the captured men. The boy moaned, and she made a step to go over and help him. The Marshal spun, and the expression in his eye froze her in place.

“He needs first aid.”

“He’s fine. The Doc will tend to him when we get to the jail.”

“You could at least call 911 and let them patch him up for you.” She nodded to the man lying so still with his eyes closed. “Your other prisoner doesn’t look so good. He’s going to die on you if you don’t start CPR or get him some help.”

“Lady, no one is going to hear a yell from out here. Never heard of any 911 or CPR.” He propped the hand not holding the shotgun on his hip and threw her a disgusted look. “Are you blind? That man is dead, shot through the heart.”

Her head swam for a moment, and she struggled not to give in to the sensation and faint. She drew in deep gulps of air. “Well...well..., what about the coroner and the meat wagon, not to mention the CSI folks? If you don’t get them to record the scene, how are you going to cover your butt? The authorities might say you shot him in cold blood.”

He looked at her like she’d sprouted an extra head. “I don’t know what the hell you are talking about woman. No one will question my authority. I’m the law in this county. Now, be quiet, or I’m going to gag you.”

A Marshal of Her Own will be available now at The Wild Rose Press, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com and other online book stores. It is the sequel to A Law of Her Own available at The Wild Rose Press, Amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble.com and other online book stores. I’m awaiting a release date for A Love of His Own, the third story in the Prairie, Texas series.

My release contest for A Marshal of Her Own began November 9th. I’ll be giving away this vintage rhinestone typewriter pin. To enter the drawing, go to my website or blog and sign up for my newsletter. Don’t forget to verify your email address. If you already receive it, email me at linda@lindalaroque.com with A Marshal of Her Own contest in the subject line. Contest ends December 15, 2011.

Leave me a comment or ask a question today and you’ll be entered into a drawing for an ecopy of A Law of Her Own.

Also, today’s blog post is part of 2 blog tours—this one for A Marshal of Her Own and starting December 4^th, one for Born in Ice. Follow along each day and leave a comment to be entered into the grand prize drawing and learn about my Born in Ice contest.

The Blog Tour schedule will be posted on my blog and website. It will last 25 days and the Grand Prize is a Kindle. Leave a comment each day and your name will be entered 25 times. Pretty good odds, huh?

Thank you for having me on your blog today, Jeanne!

Tomorrow, Dec. 4, begins my promotion of Born in Ice, my futuristic romantic suspense released by Champagne Books. I’ll be on Greta van der Rol’s blog at http://gretavanderrol.net/

My publisher has given me permission to share (over the next 9 days) the prologue and first chapter of Born in Ice. So, stay tuned for a new installment each day.

Happy Reading and Writing!

Linda LaRoque

Writing Romance With a Twist in Time

www.lindalaroque.com

http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tinyman#!/linda.laroque

http://twitter.com/#!/LindaLaRoque

A Minotaur’s Guide to Dating and Finding True Love

2011-11-21T07:29:00.000-08:00

A Minotaur’s Guide to Dating and Finding True Love

Stephanie Draven

I don’t think it was an accident that Anais Nin, famed erotica writer, called her book Seduction of the Minotaur. As it happens, the famed monster of ancient Greek lore has a lot to teach us about dating and finding true love. Certainly, the modern-day minotaur of my own new romance novel, Dark Sins & Desert Sands, knows how to put the moves on my heroine. So, without further ado, here are some things we can all learn from a Minotaur:

Keep the Mystery Alive. The ancient minotaur lived in a dark labyrinth. People get turned around, confused, and never made it out alive. Allegorically makes him the perfect template of the dark and sexy stranger into whose eyes we might fall and get completely lost! If you’re dating, you might want to keep a little aloof and make sure not to reveal all your secrets at once.

Be Bullish On Love. In mythology, the minotaur’s mother was a particularly lusty woman who got it on with a bull. I like to think that he inherited a little of her...shall we say...passion? My minotaur hero isn’t afraid of commitment--it’s the heroine who can’t trust in love. This leads to a very sexy scene in which my hero tells her over and over again, “You love me.” And then he proves it to her. If you go into a dating situation with a cynical attitude, it’s going to be that much harder to find what you’re looking for. So try to infuse everything you do with the confidence that you deserve to be loved and that love will come back to you.

Don’t Be Afraid to Admit That You’re Horny. I always like an alpha hero who knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to ask for it. Ray Stavrakis doesn’t have any trouble accepting either his sexuality or how it tends to manifest itself against the wall, on a train, and in other inappropriate places. Eventually, our heroine finds that when it comes to the man she loves, no place is an inappropriate place. Now, I’m sure the minotaur wouldn’t recommend that you do something with your date that could get you arrested, but he doesn’t advise playing hard to get.

Stephanie Draven is currently a denizen of Baltimore, that city of ravens and purple night skies. She lives there with her favorite nocturnal creatures–three scheming cats and a deliciously wicked husband. And when she is not busy with dark domestic rituals, she writes her books.

Stephanie has always been a storyteller. In elementary school, she channeled Scheherazade, weaving a series of stories to charm children into sitting with her each day at the lunch table. When she was a little older, Stephanie scared all the girls at her sleepovers with ghost stories.

She should have known she was born to hold an audience in her thrall, but Stephanie resisted her writerly urges and graduated from college with a B.A. in Government. Then she went to Law School, where she learned how to convincingly tell the tallest tales of all!

A longtime lover of ancient lore, Stephanie enjoys re-imagining myths for the modern age. She doesn’t believe that true love is ever simple or without struggle so her work tends to explore the sacred within the profane, the light under the loss and the virtue hidden in vice. She counts it amongst her greatest pleasures when, from her books, her readers learn something new about the world or about themselves.

Stephanie also writes historical fiction as Stephanie Dray and has a series of forthcoming novels from Berkley Books featuring Cleopatra’s daughter.
For more about the author and her writing, you can visit her web site by following the link below.
http://stephaniedraven.com/

Book Release

2011-11-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

It is official, Dragon Lover is now available for download at http://www.gypsyshadow.com/JeanneGuzman.html#top
and
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/105272

For eighteen years Kimball Crossley trained for the day she’d come face-to-face with the demon who murdered her parents. Nothing could’ve prepared her for the dragon who would change her life forever.
Dmitri of the Langhier Clan is one of the elite Dragon Hunters. For eighteen years he’s stood against evil, believing he’ll forever be a warrior for his people. That is, until the night he’s confronted with his future.
With whispers of war in the air, can Kimball learn to trust what she’s always hated and accept her love for the Dragon Hunter? Dmitri’s skills as a hunter are superior, but can he accept that women, particularly his woman, can be as strong in mind and body as any well-trained hunter? Can they put aside their differences long enough to save both their worlds?

I am so excited about this release, that I want to share in my joy. Leave a comment and one lucky winner will receive a free download of Dragon Lover to call their very own.

NaNo and the guest Blogger Sidney Bristol

2011-10-24T07:10:00.000-07:00

National Novel Writing Month-the True Madness of it all-with Guest Blogger-Sidney Bristol

For those who don’t know about NaNoWriMo, is one month, 30 days, of sitting in front of your computer and writing. The goal is 50,000 words, unedited, and completely insane writing. In its 13^th year, NaNoWriMo has been the culprit for sleepless nights, over-indulgence of caffeine, and a layer of dust on the stove. It’s madness, I tell you, but don’t take my word for it.

I’ve asked Sidney Bristol, a fellow NaNo inmate, to stop by and answer a few questions that may or may not prompt you to join the insanity.

Sid, When was the first time you sat down and joined NaNoWriMo, and WHY?

Well, I wanted to join NaNo years before I did. My best friend participated when she was in college and told me about it, but it wasn’t until ’09 that I finally joined. I needed something in my life that I loved. I had to retire from roller derby earlier that year because of injuries and family obligations. Faced with way more spare time than I should be allowed, I fell back into doodle writing ideas. I remembered how much I enjoyed writing as a teen. I think I joined in June or July of ’09 and began practicing my writing and sculpting the troll that would be my NaNo ’09 book, which is The Book We Don’t Speak Of.

Aside from Chris Baty—the creator of this craziness—who was your inspiration to keep on the path of 50,000+?

I learned about NaNo thanks to my high school best friend, Zibby. No, that’s not her real name but her nickname that’s still sticking to her all these years later. She did NaNo while in college, and was the person who got me to write in middle school. I honestly started writing because I wanted to be like her. I loved it. When I started NaNo I thought that if she could do it, then I stood a good chance of doing it too.

We all, as in the NaNo inmates, know that the word count average per day is 1667, what was the largest number of word you’ve written in one sitting? And why couldn’t you just get up and shower?

Oh man, I hate answering this question. People always look at my hands to see if I’m sporting double rows of fingers or something. Okay, so my biggest day for totals this last year was November 1^st. I wrote about 5,000 a sitting and it took about three hours. Over the course of the whole day I wrote about 15,000 but the last 10,000 came slower, and I did get up and do other things. The reason I could do that 5K? Every year we have a midnight kick off at an IHOP, no internet so no distractions, and I knew where the story was starting and where it was going. I really had nothing else to do but write, so it did it!

After November 30, what was the first thing you did?

I planned my birthday party week. My friend Suz and I have back to back birthdays that first week in December. As soon as NaNo was over we were trying to contact scalpers for hockey tickets. I don’t think I wrote for a few days.

How many years have you checked in to the NaNo asylum, and how many years did you escape with your hair intact?

I’ve only participated in Nano for two years, but I think they checked me in for life. Something about talking to the voices in my head. I don’t know what that’s about. My hair has fared decently. There was an incident when this lady gave me a twenty-four inch “trim”, but we’re working past that.

Has any of your NaNo Novels been published? If so, would you like to share a little about your work? (web-site, buy link, cover art)

I submitted one of my NaNo projects from last year. Sadly it was rejected. I have hopes of revisiting it and reworking some plot points for my current publisher, Ellora’s Cave. My first release with them has yet to be scheduled, but I’m knee deep in the process.

Have you already planned what you’ll write this year? Or, in the case that we’re already knee deep in the insanity, what’s your word count to date?

I’m a notorious planner. Ask anyone who has seen my laptop what my planning notes look like and they’ll hide. I’m very goal oriented so I like to have concrete plans for what I’m going to write and how things will go. It allows me to gauge what I can do in a given month or year. I had about four or five projects in mind a month ago, and I’ve whittled it down to one. I’ve shied away from writing anything involving roller derby, but I think I’m ready to tackle it. So this year I’ll be writing what I hope is the first book in a new contemporary romance series involving the Derby Dames.

Any last words to someone just pondering stepping into the NaNo Pool?

Have fun. I got into NaNo because I was depressed and unhappy. I challenged myself to not only write, but go to writing events. I’ve met wonderful people, and others who I hope will be life-long friends. NaNo is more than just a writing event, it’s an opportunity to connect and have fun. Don’t forget to write, but have fun!

NaNo and the guest Blogger Trelk

2011-10-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

National Novel Writing Month-the True Madness of it all-with Guest Blogger-Michael, or as he’s known in NaNoland Trelk

I’ve asked Michael, a fellow NaNo inmate, to stop by and answer a few questions that may or may not prompt you to join the insanity.

Michael, when was the first time you sat down and joined NaNoWriMo, and WHY?

It was in 2006 one of my new friends (first semester of college) had been a participant multiple years and she had started to crow about it. Naturally I asked 'Huh?' The moment I knew about this wonderful little rabbit hole I've plunged in headfirst each time. Simply because, well... I've neevr had so much fun as I do when I join up with so many other people to do something utterly psychotic.

Aside from Chris Baty—the creator of this craziness—who was your inspiration to keep on the path of 50,000+?

Honestly there have been a number of people. Jasper Fforde has always been my primary inspiration from the moment I discovered him. His Pep Talk that he gave last year was wonderful. It backs up the first rule of writing: You must write. So I have.

We all, as in the NaNo inmates, know that the word count average per day is 1667, what was the largest number of word you’ve written in one sitting? And why couldn’t you just get up and shower?

Twenty one thousand. Yeah very nearly half of my NaNo word count last year was made up in a single sitting. Why? Because it had to be done. I was ridiculously far behind. If I hadn't managed that I would not have made it to the finish line.

After November 30, what was the first thing you did?

I slept.

How many years have you checked in to the NaNo asylum, and how many years did you escape with your hair intact?

This year would be my fifth year to participate. I don't know that I ever have. The first three years I suppose I did because I didn't make it to the end thus I was obviously not doing enough crazy. Last year though. During my 21k word session I was writing all the way through the night and for about 3 or 4 hours nobody else was on twitter. So using my account and the account I'd made for a character in my previous NaNo I challenged myself to wordwars. Not what I would call sane. I never even managed to win them just kept the other me from winning.

Has any of your NaNo Novels been published? If so, would you like to share a little about your work? (web-site, buy link, cover art)

No. I would love to be able to say otherwise but alas this is not so.

Have you already planned what you’ll write this year? Or, in the case that we’re already knee deep in the insanity, what’s your word count to date?

I never really plan anything out in the typical sense. I've been world building and a bit of character creating. But if I ever touch plot until the minute that NaNo actually starts it'll just drag me down.

Any last words to someone just pondering stepping into the NaNo Pool?

Come on in the waters fine. If you do make sure to go to write ins. That's when it truly becomes apparent that you are not the only crazy one.

Blog:National Novel Writing Month-the True Madness of it all-with Guest Blogger-Dawn Alexander

2011-10-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

I’ve asked Dawn, a fellow NaNo inmate, to stop by and answer a few questions that may or may not prompt you to join the insanity.

Dawn, When was the first time you sat down and joined NaNoWriMo, and WHY?

I found the NaNoWriMo site quite by accident in 2009. I was surfing for writer message boards and happen to find it a few days before November. I signed up under a pseudonym, told NO ONE what I was doing and jumped in.

To my surprise, I LOVED it! I hadn't experienced that kind of support and camaraderie (which I know now is common in the writing community). I finally confessed to my husband what I was doing. He was extremely supportive. I finished with about 54,000 words.

Aside from Chris Baty—the creator of this craziness—who was your inspiration to keep on the path of 50,000+?

I think the inspiration is in the community and in that little word count bar. I love watching that thing move! I am also not a quitter, ever, on anything. So, I had to finish that first year, because, well, I am me. After the first one, I was hooked.

We all, as in the NaNo inmates, know that the word count average per day is 1667, what was the largest number of word you’ve written in one sitting? And why couldn’t you just get up and shower? I'm a quick writer. So, the 1667 word count isn't normally a problem for me. I can't remember the most I have written in one sitting, but I do know I have dedicated a whole day to "All I am going to do is sit here and write."

I think the freedom of the story is what pulls you in. In my case, I can't function without a shower (it is the first thing I do in the morning, no matter what I have planned for the rest of the day). But, I will tell you the dishes piled up, the laundry reached mountainous proportions and the kids got a lot of "just grab a granola bar from the pantry" because I was lost in the story. I wasn't worried about editing. I wasn't concerned that I hadn't chosen the exact word for that sentence. I was laying the foundation, getting the story out and that was all that mattered.

After November 30, what was the first thing you did?

Feel kind of sad that I didn't have an excuse to dedicate at least an hour a day to writing. I know you can still do it on your own, but it isn't the same.

How many years have you checked in to the NaNo asylum, and yow many years did you escape with your hair intact?

This will be my third year . The first year I finished a few days early with a solid amount over 50K. Last year, I had a slow start, but ended with 51,000 words. I'm hoping to go in better prepared this year. Last year, I woke on Nov. 1st and thought, "Um, what was I going to write again?".

Has any of your NaNo Novels been published? If so, would you like to share a little about your work? (web-site, buy link, cover art) Both of my previous NaNo novels are in various states of revision. So, not published yet. Someday. I hope!

Have you already planned what you’ll write this year? Or, in the case that we’re already knee deep in the insanity, what’s your word count to date? I am a die hard pantser (see the question above about last year's novel). But, I'm hoping to at least have the basic plot and character names( those can slow me down considerably if I let them) before Nov. 1st. I know I won't have an outline, story board or synopsis. Those kind of things make my eye start to twitch.

Any last words to someone just pondering stepping into the NaNo Pool?

Come on in! The water feels great and we are a super-friendly group.

Get involved on the NaNo boards. They can be a wealth of information. Last year, I posted: "Okay, so I need to blow up a boat..." and immediately had several responses about the how's and how-no-to's of incinerating a water craft.

You can also have some NaNo buddies on the website. They are great for pushing you when your fingers start to drag.

Do Word Wars. I had a blast doing those on The Night of Writing Dangerously last year.

National Novel Writing Month-the True Madness of it all-with Guest Blogger- Stephanie Ingram

2011-10-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

I’ve asked Stephanie Ingram, a fellow NaNo inmate, to stop by and answer a few questions that may or may not prompt you to join the insanity.

Stephanie, When was the first time you sat down and joined NaNoWriMo, and WHY?

November 2008 was my first year. Before then, I’d never heard of it before. I came across a small blurb about it in a magazine and thought wow, that sounds crazy but kind of fun. I’m always up for a challenge, although at the time I didn’t think there was any way I’d actually complete it. I signed up just days before it started and sat down with much fear and anticipation on day one. I’d always wanted to write a novel but didn’t think this was probably the best way to go about it. Boy, was I in for a fun surprise. ;-)

Aside from Chris Baty—the creator of this craziness—who was your inspiration to keep on the path of 50,000+?

I found the forums on the Nanowrimo site to be a wealth of support and information. I came across a posting for Nanowrimo participants on Twitter and promptly created my own Twitter account where I could connect with other like-minded people. As silly as it may sound, that sense of camaraderie is what kept me going even when I felt like giving up. I posted my word count every day and shared the triumphs and despair with many others across the globe enduring the same seemingly impossible enterprise as me. It gave me a sense of accountability and made me feel less alone in the journey.

We all, as in the NaNo inmates, know that the word count average per day is 1667, what was the largest number of word you’ve written in one sitting? And why couldn’t you just get up and shower?

Actually, I always plan to write at least 1725 words per day so that I can allow myself the day off for Thanksgiving if I don’t happen to finish my 50k before then. I’m not sure what my greatest word count for a single day has been but I know there were many instances when I went well over 3,000 words. Usually those were the moments that I’d almost given up but kept plugging along until I got into a really intense part of my story that surprised even me and I just couldn’t let it go for anything!

After November 30, what was the first thing you did?

Celebrate!

How many years have you checked in to the NaNo asylum, and how many years did you escape with your hair intact?

I’ve participated three years and won all three years. The second year was the most challenging because I had a three month old baby in addition to my older two sons so I was already sleep-deprived as it was. Every year I start out by convincing myself that because of x, y, or z, I’ll never manage to complete the challenge but every year I keep writing and moving forward and I reach ‘the end’. My writing goals have changed over the years and (hopefully) my writing has even improved because of exercises like Nanowrimo. I always manage to surprise myself and I always manage to escape with all my hair intact. J

Has any of your NaNo Novels been published? If so, would you like to share a little about your work? (web-site, buy link, cover art)

In 2010 I expanded a short story into a novel with the help of Nanowrimo. I spent seven months rewriting and editing but earlier this month, I published it and it’s now available in both print and ebook form.

http://www.amazon.com/Between-World-Stephanie-Ingram/dp/1461159571/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316616166&sr=8-1

Have you already planned what you’ll write this year? Or, in the case that we’re already knee deep in the insanity, what’s your word count to date?

Planning would probably make life easier but I’m going out of my way not to plan for Nanowrimo. It makes the adventure more interesting. I might come up with an idea I want to play around with but when I sit down on November 1st, I won’t have much idea where that idea will take me. I write year-round so really, November is just my time to play and have fun with it.

Any last words to someone just pondering stepping into the NaNo Pool?

Don’t think, just jump! The water is warm and the people are friendly. If you’ve always wanted to write a novel then this is the perfect opportunity to sit your butt in the chair and get writing. Just have fun with it! You can always edit later.

Blog: WHY I BECAME A WRITER With Kathryn Meyer Griffith

2011-09-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

As this is her final posting on my blog, I would like to thank Kathryn for bringing her words of wisdom to the world (well, at least my little part of it) It has been an honor hosting you these past weeks. Now, without further ado, part 5 of Kathryn's amazing story.

WHY I BECAME A WRITER

and other Stuff

By Kathryn Meyer Griffith

August 24, 2011

Truthfully, what started me off as an author was simply this: As a child, about eight or nine years old (the same time I began to draw pictures in pencil and years before I began to dream about being a singer with my younger brother Jim), I began reading books, science fiction, historical romances and scary books from the library. I had six brothers and sisters and though I had a loving mother and father, a loving family, there was very little money. I can’t say we were poverty poor, but we were poor at times. Sometimes our meals were scarce and we never had extra money for many toys or outside entertainment. I think in my whole young childhood my father only took us out to eat once. Try paying for seven kids and two adults. So we learned to entertain ourselves. Played outside. Climbed trees and hid in deep dirt gullies. Sang, howled really, outside at night on the swing set.

I loved to read. The library books were free and plentiful. I’d sit on my bed, especially during the long summer days and evenings (after chores were done, of course) and read one amazing book after another. If I was lucky, with a chocolate snack or cherry Kool-Aid nearby. Those books, those words on the page, took me away to other places, times and worlds. It was magical. I got lost in people-on-a-spaceship-going–to-some-faraway-planet science fiction books. There was this one horse book when I was a kid that knocked me out, made me cry, and laugh with joy at the end it was so real to me and so full of pathos because I loved horses so much. It was called Smoky. Loved that book. Sigh. I never forgot how those wonderful books made me feel…so free. So adventurous. So rich. Like I could be or do anything someday. And when I grew up I wanted to create that magic myself for others. So…that’s why I began writing. And when I get depressed over my writing at times, I remember that.

I remember vividly one day at school (I must have been about 10 or so) when a big box of Weekly Reader books were delivered and we each got to pick one to read. The smell of those new books in that box as I looked at them, the excitement and awe of the other kids over the books and the reverence for those authors, and I thought: Wouldn’t it be something if someday a box of these books were mine…written by me? Oh, to be an author. People respect an author. It was the beginning.

Then there’s also a second part to the question: Why do I keep writing after 39 years? Because I can’t not write. I can’t stop. The stories take over my heart and mind and demand to come out. It’s sort of like birthing a baby (I have one real son and two grandchildren myself). You carry them for a while, a short or long time span, and then once they’re born (published) they go on to be their own individual entities that sometimes continue to amuse and amaze you. Or disappoint you. Whatever.

This is what it’s like to be a published author.

It’s not like anything you would imagine. There’s excitement, the passion and feeling of being right with the world, as the story is being created and the words are tumbling out into the computer; there’s the exhaustion of writing hours and hours, the doubt that your words will mean anything to anyone and why am I doing this? that creeps in but that you have to chase away; there’s the pride in seeing the finished book, either e-book or print, and finally there’s the feeling of unexplainable happiness when someone says they read it and liked/loved it. The best response I love to hear is: I couldn’t put it down. The characters were all so real. I got carried away with it. Didn’t want to leave the world you’d created. Wow. That makes the sometimes low pay and grueling hard work all worthwhile. Because writing is hard work. The creating and promoting anyway. Hour and hour, day after day, year after year. It’s your life you’re using up. Precious time. You have to truly love it to give all that up…to strangers.

Sometimes people ask me: is it still fun?

Fun? A strange way to put it. Sometimes, rarely, it’s fun. Mostly it’s hard work and lots of solitary time alone. Writers live so much of their life in their make believe worlds they get lonely. Lonely for the real world, real breathing people and adventures. I know I do. But the writing won’t leave me alone until I write down the words, tell the tale. The easiest way I can put it is when I’m writing or dealing with my writing I feel like I’m doing what I was born to do. Yes, I believe a writer is born to write – like an artist is born to paint and draw; a musician to write or play music. As an artist myself I know I’m not really happy, or fulfilled feeling, unless I’m writing, drawing or singing. Creating. Though the singing and the artwork have gone more by the wayside as I’ve become older…writing mostly takes all my free time now. Yes, writing does make me happy. Grin. Except the rare times someone hates one of my books…and that happens, too. I’ve finally learned that reading and loving a book or short story is subjective. Some people love my stories, get them, and others…don’t. And that’s okay. We’re all different people. That’s a lesson a writer must learn. One person’s criticism is not a blanket criticism of all your work or even that one work, it’s just one person’s opinion.

Is it lucrative? That’s a loaded question and (though I don’t know why) most writers will not talk about how much they make or a book makes. Maybe (this is just my theory) it’s because most of us make so little it embarrasses us. There’s no way we could ever live on it. It’s icing on the cake. Trim on the woodwork. The mid-level writers anyway. The top (very rare) writers like Stephen King, Dean Koontz and many other writers 9especially some romance authors) make a very good living, but most writers don’t. Ever. Oh, in my heyday in the 1980’s and early 1990’s I made fairly good money with Leisure and Zebra paperbacks (and though at the time I didn’t think it was good, comparing it with now, well, it really was good) , because back then the distribution and print runs were so large. I got a smaller percent in royalties but there were more books out there selling for me. So far the e-books and PODs (Print on Demand) aren’t selling that well, but I get a much larger percentage. I’m hoping in the next year by having all my old 10 novels out again (rereleased between June 2010 and July 2012) and 2 new books I’ll see a gradual increase in income. It’s an experiment, sort of. Selling a small quantity each 3 months of 12 or more books might add up to a nice sum. Or so I’m hoping. I’m marketing (a whole new thing in the Internet world these days) a lot, seeking and getting great 4 and 5 star reviews, joining reader and writer loops, guest blogging, etc. It’s never ending. Thing is I don’t know how much it all helps. Eventually, I figure, I’ll find out. I’m an optimist always.

Do I still enjoy writing? Sure. I love it. It’s like breathing, eating, dreaming. It’s become part of me. Second nature. It took me 39 years to say: I’m a writer. And really feel like I wasn’t being a pretentious so-and-so or outright lying. Took me all that time and 14 published books, 7 short stories (and more to come hopefully) for me to feel deserving of the title. Even without the money telling stories is what makes me feel…complete. Happy. Hey, look at me I’m a storyteller! Ha, ha, now I just have to figure out a way to make it more profitable, as well. Working on that. As one successful writer recently said to me: Just get the books out there…nothing else matters. (Presumably good books, I’d add.) The rest will come. Gosh, I sure hope he’s right. Cause I’m been working soooo hard.

Written by the author Kathryn Meyer Griffith this sultry August 24^th day of 2011 rdgriff@htc.net

A word about Kathryn Meyer Griffith...

Since childhood I’ve always been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. I began writing novels at 21 and have had fourteen (nine romantic horror, one historical romance and two mysteries) previous novels published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press.

I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-three years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois called Columbia, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have two quirky cats, Sasha and Cleo, and the four of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die.

Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:

Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure, 1984; Damnation Books, July 2012)

The Heart of the Rose (Leisure, 1985; Eternal Press Author’s Revised Edition out Nov.7, 2010)

Blood Forge (Leisure, 1989; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2012)

Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out July 2011)

The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2010)

Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out April 2011)

The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;

Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2011)

The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2011)

Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)

All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)

Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in August 2011)

Winter’s Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in September 2011)

The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in November 2011)

Don’t Look Back, Agnes novella and bonus short story: In This House (2008; ghostly romantic short story out again from Eternal Press in January 2012)

BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (Out from Damnation Books June 2010)

The Woman in Crimson (Out from Damnation Books September 2010)

My Websites:

http://www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith (to see all my book trailers with original music by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer)

http:// www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerGhttp://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.jacketflap.com/K.Griffith

http://www.shoutlife.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.goodreads.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://romancewriterandreader.ning.com/profile/KathrynMeyerGriffith

http://romancebookjunction.ning.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

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Blog and Giveaway--The Affordable Art of Self Promotion: Mystery or Myth? With Guest Blogger Kerri Nelson

2011-09-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

I’ve been in or associated with the publishing industry for about a decade now. I originally started out as a Promotions Chat Coordinator for a very popular author promotions company. I coordinated and moderated chats on a nightly basis. It was so much fun to meet the authors, get industry insider information and watch those authors hawk their new releases to the masses. But I was never really sure if folks were going out buying those books or just hoping to win a giveaway by appearing at the chat.

These days, it seems that blogging has replaced most chat situations. It is much more convenient than having to be available at a specific time and being stuck at your computer for an hour or more. Plus, with chats sometimes the screen is moving so fast that you feel overwhelmed to respond to everyone who bothers to show up. I like blogging and a massive blog tour is something I’ve chosen as a main promotion tool for my latest release, Courting Demons.

Is it affordable? Yes. It can be absolutely FREE if you do it all yourself. I’m attempting to do it that way this time around but I know plenty of folks who hire companies to set up the tours for them. There are certainly pros and cons to both routes but the bottom line is that you should always seek out ways to save money while still getting the word out there.

Obviously, you can always find ways to spend money while promoting your book. You’ll see the little cute items I’m giving away for today’s appearance are just two examples of the party favor swag that are popular giveaways. I’ve also done business cards, bookmarks, and custom designed goodies (look for my own Momwitch Bread Bag clips as giveaways throughout my tour), and once upon a time I designed custom book trailers for myself and other authors. Then there are professional promotions companies, paid advertising, websites and social media. Some are free and some are quite costly.

In all my years of writing (and in the past 2+ years since being published), I’ve tried just about all of the above.

And so you ask…

What are you doing to promote yourself?

KN: I’m searching for the most affordable methods of meeting new readers and capturing their attention without spending a ton of money. I enjoy the blog tour route (try to find blogs that appear to readers as much as or more so than other authors). I’m doing some minor giveaways (like those cute promo swag items) but I’m also doing a major giveaway (one Amazon Kindle at the end of my tour). But other than that, I’m seeking out opportunities where I can find people that might be interested in my book. I’m on the search for the great niche market!

How important do you believe it is to have your own blog/ website/ FaceBook page/ twitter?

KN: I believe you absolutely MUST have a decent website. A blog is very nice if you are committed to posting regularly and I dabble some in Twitter. If you can manage to keep your number of followers considerably higher than the number of folks you follow—you might get in and out of there without it being a time drain. As far as that “other” site you mention—I don’t go there. I believe that if you have the chance to play games and goof off, you’ll find your productivity decrease as a result. Sometimes it is just not worth it.

In your opinion, what would be Taboo?

KN: Too much social networking can work against your productivity (as mentioned above). I think trying to promote on sites where your subject matter could be found controversial would be another. Otherwise, I think trying to sabotage someone else’s book signing/appearance or using professional meetings or loops as a place to chat up your own stuff is no good. There have to be some rules of decorum. This is a business just like anything else.

In your opinion, what is a complete waste of time?

KN: A complete waste of time to me are things like high cost print ads. I like e-cover ads and sell them very cheaply ($5 or less a month) on my promotions blog (www.thebookboost.blogspot.com). But most of the other sites are charging double and triple digit amounts for a simple banner ad. It blows my mind at the cost of advertising like this—plus print advertising boggles the brain waves as well. Have you checked out some of those figures? Anything that takes a lot of money from you off the top with no personal interaction between the reader and the author, is a waste of time and money, in my opinion.

Any words of encouragement for those just starting out?

KN: Even before you sell your first book (or particularly if you’ve sold it but it hasn’t released yet), get that website going. Sometimes the agents and editors like to see your web presence BEFORE they sign you. Websites are the most affordable and highly effective way of reaching people in the market today.

I also believe that if you can find a good group blog with other established authors (preferably in your genre) that this could be a wealth of great cross promotion for a newbie author. Ask around your chapters and see if anyone is looking for an eager new blogger.

Whatever you choose to do for promotion…it doesn’t have to be a mystery. There are definitely folks out there willing to help provide you with every choice known to man and machine. And, to answer the question…is affordable promotion a myth? No way. It is out there and I won’t stop until I’ve found it all.

Courting Demons

Paisley Barton was already having a bad day before she turned her husband into a rat.
First, she was fired by her boss and then came home to find hubby in the shower with a naked blonde chick. They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned but this break-up may just unleash hell on Earth when Paisley casts a spell of vengeance against her philandering husband.
After her spell casting inadvertently opens a portal between dimensions, Paisley finds her family home transformed into a nightly courtroom for settling disputes between demons of the underworld and she’s the judge! If that’s not enough, she’s got to deal with a charming, ancient demon named Camden who wants to be her personal bodyguard while trying to explain her husband’s sudden, mysterious disappearance to sexy police Detective Dalton Briggs.
But Paisley will show them all that an everyday working mom is better equipped than most to deal with the mystical mayhem…and with a tempting demon hottie and a flirtatious young detective vying for her affection, she soon learns that being single again isn’t so bad after all.
“When a wronged wife turns her cheating husband into a rat, you know you have to keep reading! Kerri Nelson offers up a lot of fun and wild magic in Courting Demons!” --Bestselling author Linda Wisdom, Demons are a Girl’s Best Friend

Author Bio:

Kerri Nelson discovered her love of writing at an early age and soon became a columnist for her local newspaper winning the Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year Award for her efforts.

After a fifteen year career in the legal field, Kerri fulfilled her lifelong dream of publication and is now an award winning multi-published author of nearly every genre under the sun (and moon) and also writes young adult fiction under the penname K.G. Summers.

A true southern belle, she comes complete with a dashing southern gentleman and three adorable children for whom she often bakes many homemade treats.

Kerri is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Romance Writers of America as well as numerous chapters including Futuristic Fantasy & Paranormal Writers and her Presidency of Celtic Hearts Romance Writers.

Read more about Kerri’s books at her website: www.kerrinelson.com

Follow her on Twitter here: www.twitter.com/kerribookwriter

Visit her industry blog here: www.thebookboost.blogspot.com

Buy Links (print and e-book versions available 9/15 wherever books are sold but here’s the publisher link—free gift available with purchase of print copy—while supplies last):

http://jupitergardens.com/Courting-Demons-by-Kerri-Nelson-print.html

http://pinkpetalbooks.com/Courting_Demons_by_Kerri_Nelson_print.html

Excerpt for Courting Demons: http://www.jupitergardens.com/excerpts/kn_cd.html

Giveaway for the day:

Leave a question or comment to be entered to win today’s prize: A Devil Duck + a Witch Broom Pen Combo Pack!

Then, enter to win my book tour Grand Prize Kindle by following me on tour and e-mailing me the answers to each question of the day at the end of tour. The more questions you answer, the more entries you gain.

Question of the Day:

Who sentences Paisley to a year of grievance judge duty?

Details on how to enter to win the GRAND PRIZE Kindle at the end of my “Dark Days of Demons Tour” located here:

http://kerribookwriter.blogspot.com/2011/09/courting-demons-blog-tour-win-kindle.html

Blog: The Story of Witches with guest Kathryn Meyer Griffith

2011-09-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

The Story of Witches

(Originally a 1993 Zebra paperback and

now a 2011 Revised Author’s Edition from Damnation Books)

By Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Buy Link: http://damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615723553

In 1991 I’d already been writing for about twenty years, on and off (though there was a long gap where I didn’t write because of a divorce, the finding of a full time job to support myself and my son, and a remarriage…life) when I contracted my fourth novel, my first of four to Zebra paperbacks, a romantic horror called Vampire Blood, about a family of vampires who ran a movie theater in a small town. I’d already had a fifth novel, The Last Vampire, completed and in with them when they asked me for another novel.

Got anything about witches, they asked. Witches are hot right now. Hmmm.

For many years I’d played around with an idea about a present day white witch who finds a diary of a long dead witch – either good or bad, I hadn’t decided – in her old house’s attic, or basement, or under a floorboard. The story would have been about the good witch reliving the other dead witch’s life through the diary. I’d always called that possible book Rachel’s Diary in my head.

So in 1991 or 1992 I began the witch book and it quickly metamorphosed into a story of a present day good witch, Amanda Givens, who’s yanked into a perilous seventeenth century past by an evil witch, Rachel Coxe, to take her place…and die a horrible death as an accused witch. I had the idea then to actually send Amanda into the past to live (for a while) the other witch’s life. Of course, being a good witch, Amanda, changes the other witch’s unsavory reputation but still ends up in a prison waiting to die for Rachel’s earlier crimes. The story, simply put, would be how Amanda overcomes her trials and tribulations, finds her lost eternal love again in the past, and finds a way to return to the present alive. In the process, learning some important life lessons about accepting what life has dealt her and the value of sisters, friendships and the love of those around her. Or good versus evil and, in the end, good wins and is rewarded. I also threw in a few touches of humor in the form of three precocious witches’ familiars…a mind-reading and speaking cat called Amadeus, a mouse, Tituba, and a tiny bat, Gibbiewackett …all with feisty personalities and quirks of their own.

I was excited about the book as I was writing it and when it was done, pleased with it, but had no idea that over the years it’d become the jewel of my writing career and the book that my fans would love the best of all my books. I loved the cat face cover Zebra did for it (a rare occurrence as I’d learned the hard way that covers weren’t always what I’d envisioned and in the early days I had no choice but to accept whatever the publisher’s gave me…and some weren’t so hot, let me tell you!).

Witches came out in 1993 and did well. I noticed soon after as I went on to publish other books that I got the most response and admiration for it. Readers loved the three sisters, Amadeus and Amanda, Gibbiewackett and Tituba. In those days I was too busy working full time as a graphic artist, living my life and writing new books to notice. It went into a second printing in 2000 and after that, sadly, went out of print. But my fans never forgot it. I’d find comments on it and discussions on the Internet…even customer reviews raving about it years and years later. I tried talking Zebra into reissuing it but after Zebra and I parted ways there was no talking them into it.

Then in 2010 when Damnation Books contracted my 13^th and 14^th novels, the publisher, Kim Richards, asked about all (there was 7 at the time) my out-of-print Zebra and Leisure backlist novels and if I’d like to have them reissued as new paperbacks and, for the first time ever, in e-books. Sure, that’d be great! I told her. And, as they say, the rest is history. Between June 2010 and July 2012 all 7 of them (and now another 3 of my Wild Rose Press novels and two short stories from 2007) updated, rewritten and with stunning new covers will be out again. All in e-books for the first time.

Of course, that’s meant a heck of a lot of rewriting. A lot of work. Those early novels go back twenty-seven years and were first written in the days of snail mail and on an electric typewriter before the Internet, e-mails and Windows Track Changes (for editing). Oh, boy, did they need revising. As of today I can happily say they’re all rewritten now except the very first one, Evil Stalks the Night, 1984; yet even that one will be completed soon.

I’ve often been asked what I think of e-books and I have to say it feels strange, all these years later, to be so into them. I think it’s fantastic to be able to put thousands of books on one little lightweight hand-held contraption and sell them as inexpensively as we do. I started publishing e-books four years ago and have seen such great changes in even that short a time. I love the editing process now. With Track Changes it’s truly a collaborative effort between the editor and the writer and it’s taught me far more about the craft of writing than the old way of just sending off the manuscript, being asked to change certain things, but then never seeing any of those changes or the basic edits until the book was printed and in my hand. Now, no more pages added by an editor (That actually happened in Evil Stalks the Night. The editor, who I never met, added three pages of his own and I didn’t even know about it until I held the book in my hand. And the three pages didn’t make sense…ech!) that I never know about or see until the book comes out. Yeah.

With a chuckle I recall a writer’s convention I attended in 1990 – yes, that far back – and the main topic back then was…OMG the electronic books are coming! They’re going to make us authors obsolete! Print books are going to die a terrible lonely death…etc., etc. Lack and alas, what are we going to do? Ha, ha. It’s ironic that 21 years later I’m in love with e-books. They’re the future. And I think there’ll always be room for print books as well as electronic ones.

So Witches…Damnation Books is rereleasing it April 1, 2011. I’m thrilled. The cover is still of Amadeus, the cat, and Dawne Dominique did an amazing job on it. My editor, Alison O'Byrne, helped me make it a better book than eighteen years ago. Of all my novels, I’m most proud of it. It’s held up pretty well. I hope it finds many more readers and fans.

So that’s the story of Witches…the little book that wouldn’t die.

Thank you! E-mail me at rdgriff@htc.net

***

Kathryn Meyer Griffith has been writing for nearly forty years and has published 14 novels and 7 short stories since 1984 with Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press in the horror, romantic paranormal, suspense and murder mystery genres… and all 12 of her old books above (and two new ones) are being brought out again between June 2010 and July 2012 from DAMNATION BOOKS www.damnationbooks.com and ETERNAL PRESS www.eternalpress.biz again in print – and all in e-books for the first time ever! Learn more about her at www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyergriffith and http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486 .

The Art of Self Promotion With Guest Blogger Jordan K Rose

2011-09-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

It’s getting near that time when my book will be hitting the virtual E-Book shelves, and that being said, I started wondering what else I could do to promote myself to the world. I have a web site, book trailer on utube, I’ve started a facebook page just for my writing, I’ve been tweeting, I’ve had cards made up to hand out to anyone who looks my way, I’ve had buttons made, again to hand out to anyone who looks my way, and I have little keychains on order. I have a list of blog sites to guest at when it’s release time, and I’m already looking for conferences to head to where I can sit down and meet the public. But I have to wonder, is that enough?

I've asked Author Jordan K Rose to join me today to share her thoughts on the Art of Self Promotion. After trying her hand at many, many things- from crafting and art classes to cooking and sewing classes to running her own handbag business, Jordan finally figured out how to channel her creativity. With an active imagination and a little encouragement from her husband she sat down and began to write, each night clicking away at the keys with her black Labrador, Dino curled up under the desk. A few short years later she’s entered the publishing arena with no plans to ever turn back. Jordan’s a member of Rhode Island Romance Writers, as well as RWA National, and the New England (NEC), Connecticut, and Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal (FFnP) Chapters.

Thank you Jordan for stopping by. Now, what I want to know is,

What are you doing to promote yourself?

Jeanne, before I answer I’d like to thank you for hosting me on Romance in Flight. I’m thrilled to be here and appreciate the opportunity. You’re running a great blog and I’m delighted to be a part of it. Now, on to your questions.

My Marketing and Promo Plan is a work in progress. It continues to evolve as I learn more about what opportunities exist and as my release date comes closer. Currently I use Twitter as my primary tool. It’s short and sweet and super easy, all traits of a promo tool that meet my needs. I also use FaceBook, which I’ve learned to keep to a minimum. I have an author website, www.jordankrose.com, and use the blog portion of it to share info about my writing and appearances. I have business cards as well. In terms of giveaways I’m trying to determine what will give me the best return on investment. As a fan I like pens best of all giveaways. Well, pens and chocolate. But pens provide a better marketing opportunity. Let’s face it. No one keeps the wrapper after they’ve eaten the chocolate. So the pen is clearly the better investment. J I have not ventured into the book trailer realm. I’m a little nervous about trying it. Technology is not my strong suit and becoming frustrated as I try to make a trailer will not help my mindset and keep me writing. The book trailer is in the “maybe some time in the future when I’m well-rested and feeling adventurous” column of my marketing plan!

I also have a website dedicated to a character in my current WIP, www.evaprim.com. Eva blogs about anything of interest to her- movies, books, drinks, fashion. She doles out advice and tips for current vampires and wannabees. I use her site to help promote my name even though my first book, Perpetual Light, is not her story. An issue she has made her opinion quite clear on. She tweets and has a FaceBook page where she complains about the fact that her story is not yet published. She has close to 600 followers on Twitter so she’s also a good form of promotion.

How important do you believe it is to have your own blog/ website/ FaceBook page/ twitter?

Very important. I don’t believe a writer needs to utilize all of them, but at least a couple and she needs to be active on the ones she picks. You have to find your comfort zone. Not everyone enjoys FaceBook so that may not be the best tool for one person. There is so much out there, and with so many opportunities to promote your work a writer should be able to find a tool that fits her style. I think a basic website is a must. I’ve heard agents and editors say that the first thing they do when they are considering a submission is google the author. Your name needs to come up somewhere in the search engines.

I just took a second to google myself, which I haven’t done in quite a while. The first three entries were my own website. The next nine entries were still about me and not some other Jordan Rose. They were my profile pages from a number of other social media groups like Twitter, FaceBook, Paranormal Romance Guild, Shelfari, my publisher, Crescent Moon Press, and other blogs I’ve been on. Wow! I’m surprised and pleased to see my name is out there. This is a great example of why a writer needs to belong to some social media groups and have a website.

In your opinion, what would be Taboo?

I don’t know that I’d say anything that’s legal, morally and ethically acceptable is taboo. However, I would caution that you promote your name and work in appropriate venues so that you attract the type of readers who’ll want to read your books. A writer shouldn’t do anything that will discourage readers. For example, I write paranormal romance and the door is open when my heroes and heroines are intimate. However, I do not write erotic romance. I would not market my books as inspirational romances or erotica. It would upset or disappoint readers, who would in turn report their experience.

In your opinion, what is a complete waste of time?

My marketing efforts have not been in effect long enough to determine if anything I’m doing is a complete waste of time. I firmly believe that simply because something works for one writer does not mean it will work for another. Each person has to find a marketing tool and develop a plan that will work for her. In my own marketing planning two things are very important to me: time and money. How long is it taking me and how much is it costing me? The number one thing a writer needs to do is write. If you’re spending hours and hours everyday marketing, you are not writing. You can be a marketing guru, but if you don’t have anything written, what good is it? And, just because you saw something really cool at a conference, like chocolate bars with an author’s name and newest release on the label, does not mean it’s the best use of your money. Like I said, once I eat the candy, I don’t keep the wrapper.

The goal of my marketing plan is to gain exposure and make my name and books recognizable. But that needs to be done in the most efficient way both financially and time-wise.

Any words of encouragement for those just starting out?

Absolutely. Believe in yourself. Writing can be a fun and exciting job or hobby. It can also beat you down, if you let it. I’ve tried to learn something from every experience, whether it was a contest critique or a rejection from an agent or editor. Get a critique partner you trust and lean on her for support and encouragement. Enjoy the moments you can. Groan about the ones that distress. But then let them go. Get back to the computer and keep writing. It’s the only way to get published.

Jeanne, thanks again for having me. It’s been a real pleasure.

The pleasure is all mine!

For more about Jordan and what she's writing, visit her sites at--

Find Jordan on her website at www.jordankrose.com.

Follow her tweets on https://twitter.com/#!/jordankrose

Friend her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jordankrose

The Story of Vampire Blood by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

2011-09-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

The Story of Vampire Blood

Author’s Revised Edition by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

A rerelease of my 1991 Zebra paperback romantic vampire novel

Damnation Books Buy Link: http://damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615724253

In 1990 or so I’d just got done releasing my first three paperback novels with Leisure Books, a romantic historical (The Heart of the Rose 1985) and two romantic horror books (Evil Stalks the Night, 1984 and Blood Forge, 1989), and because I wasn’t making much money on them, was looking, as most so-called restless young authors were doing, to move up in the publishing industry.

So I wrote snail mail letters to three established authors of the day – Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Peter Straub – asking for a little advice and a little help. What do I do next? I want to be one of the big dogs running in the big races. I want to make the big bucks. Be famous like you. (Ha, ha. I was so naïve in those days!)

Well, Stephen King and Peter Straub never answered my letters but one rainy fall night I got a phone call from Gerda Koontz (Dean Koontz’s wife) and she said Dean had gotten my letter and wanted me to have a name of a brand new agent who I should call or write to and say I was recommended by him. If I thought it strange that Dean Koontz himself wasn’t actually talking to me I was told by Gerda that he was a shy man and had had a particularly hard couple of months because of family problems (I think it had something to do with his father in a nursing home or something, but can’t exactly recall now) and he’d asked her to call me. She often did that for him, as well as helping him with the business side of his writing career. He (through her…and I got the impression that he was actually nearby telling her what to say the whole time) said I had to have an agent (I didn’t have one) and then he gave me the name of an ambitious one, Lori Perkins, just starting out and his advice on what I should do to advance as a writer.

I do remember being incredibly touched that he, a famous busy novelist that I admired – I loved his Twilight Eyes – would take the time to talk to me, even through his wife. They were both so sweet and we talked for nearly an hour all about writing, books and everything.

I took their advice and contacted that agent and she agreed immediately to represent me on my fourth book, Vampire Blood, no doubt, because I said Dean Koontz had recommended her to me. Name dropper! But Vampire Blood was the reason I’d contacted those famous authors in the first place. I thought it was the best book I’d done so far and wanted it to go to (what I thought at the time) would be a better publisher than Leisure Books, which contracted and hog-tied their writers with a horrible ‘potboiler’ one-size-fits-all ten year contract with low advances and 4% royalties. Yes, I got a whole whopping 14 cents a book in those days, but, I must confess, they did print thousands of paperbacks each run and had a huge distribution area. I thought I could do a lot better. Anyway, Lori Perkins wanted me to send her the book and she did like it and eventually sold it, and then three others zip-zip-zip right after, to Zebra Books (now known more as Kensington Publishing) at 6% royalties and double the advances I was used to getting. They slapped a sexy blond vampire with a low dress on the cover and a hazy theater behind her. Lovely colors. I thought it was an eye-catching cover. I was so happy. I thought I’d made it! Again, so naïve.

Vampire Blood. A little story about a family of vicious killing vampires who settle in a small Florida town called Summer Haven and end up buying and fixing up an old theater palace to run, and pluck their victims from, and a divorced, down-on-her-luck ex-novelist and her worn-out father, who along with friends, help thwart them.

Now to how and why I wrote it.

My husband and I lived in this small Illinois town, Cahokia, at the time and there was the neatest little hole-in-the-wall theater in a nearby shopping center we used to go to all the time…run by a family of a sweet man, Terry, and his wife, Ann, and sometimes their three children, two teenage boys and a girl named Irene. Such a friendly, but odd couple. The run-down theater was their whole world it seemed. The kids helped take in the tickets, pop the popcorn and sell the candy snacks.

Now the minute Terry and Ann found out, in one of our earliest conversations, that I was a published novelist they were my greatest fans. Terry went right out and bought all three of my books and they all read them. Terry always thought they’d make great movies. Next time my husband and I went to the little theater Terry and Ann greeted us like old friends, so delighted to see us, and refused to take a dime from us for anything. We got in free whenever we went from then on. Now in those days my husband, my son, James, and I were pretty broke. I worked as a graphic designer at a big brokerage firm in downtown St. Louis (across the Poplar Bridge from our Illinois town) but my husband was in between jobs. We lived on a shoestring. Hard times. So I always was so tickled that we could get into the local movies for free. We went a lot, too, as we loved movies, especially science fiction and horror films.

One night I was watching Terry and Ann and their joy in running that little theater, with the kids bustling around doing their jobs, and I got the idea for Vampire Blood. Just like that! Use them and the theater as a backdrop for a vampire novel. Hey, wouldn’t it be neat, I off-handedly mentioned to Terry one night, if I wrote a book about a family of vampires that was trying to pass as a real human family, the man and woman wanting so badly to fit in and lead a normal life for a while, renovating and then running a theater together…but the kids are wild and, as kids always do, make trouble for them in the town…killing people? Terry loved the idea and I asked him if it’d be all right to use him and his family as a template for the vampires. He was thrilled to be part of anything to do with my books and said yes. So…I wrote this book about them (sort of), the theater (making it much grander than it was, of course), a small town terrorized by cruel, powerful vampires who can change into wolves at will….and a saddened lonely woman, her brother, and her ex-husband (who she still loves and ultimately ends up with again after he saves her life) who finds herself again, but loses a lot, as well, fighting these vampires. Vampires she doesn’t believe in at first.

I was very happy with the book when it was done and dedicated it to Terry and Ann when it came out in 1991. Terry and Ann were thrilled, too.

So Vampire Blood came out and did very well for me, second only to my Zebra 1993 Witches. As the years went by it went out of print and when, twenty years later, Kim Richards at Damnation Books contracted my 13^th and 14^th novels, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons and The Woman in Crimson, she asked if I’d like to rerelease (with new covers and rewritten, of course) my 7 out-of-print Leisure and Zebra paperbacks – and I said a resounding yes!

So…here it is…Vampire Blood…twenty years later, alive again and better, I believe, than the original because my writing then was done on an electric typewriter, with gobs of White-Out and carbon paper (I couldn’t afford copies), using snail mail; all of which didn’t lend itself to much rewriting. And in those days, editors told an author what to change and then the writer only saw the manuscript once to final proof it. Who knew what those sneaky editors were slipping in inbetween and before the final book was in an author’s greedy little hands. Hey, and I was working full time, raising a son, living a life and caring for my big extended family in one way or another, too. Busy, exciting, loving, happy and sad times.

For this new version, Damnation Book’s cover artist Dawné Dominique made me an astonishingly intriguing cover of a lovely vampire (Irene the youngest vampire who turns out to be the most brutal and ancient in the end)…but, thank goodness, without the low sexy top. And my DB editor, April Duncan, helped me make it a better novel.

A lot has happened to me and my family in these twenty years, as well. Both my parents, and my beloved maternal grandmother, the storyteller of her generation, have since passed away. Many people we used to know have. Old boyfriends, old friends and relatives. I miss them all! I no longer have that agent; she went on to bigger advances and bigger writers. I lost my good job at the brokerage firm, bumped around in lesser jobs for years, always writing in my spare time, and now, at long last, write full time while my husband works way too hard in a machine shop to support us.

Rewriting the book brought back so many good memories…and tears over those no longer here. The theater closed sixteen years ago, the owner believing it’d served its purpose and used up its time. Terry and Ann, heartbroken, were never the same. They had other jobs, none they truly cared about. Ann is still with us, but Terry died a few years ago, I heard from someone. We lost contact once they stopped running the theater and we moved from Cahokia to a nicer town miles away.

But I’ll never forget those early days and the stories that came with them. Days of high hopes and far distance future dreams…some of which have come true and some which haven’t. I’ve never made the big bucks, never gotten truly famous, but now, at long last and to my great delight, all twelve of my older books, from Leisure, Zebra, and The Wild Rose Press are being rewritten and reissued from Damnation Books and Eternal Press between June 2010 and July 2012. Better than ever after I’d rewritten them. I have plans to write more books and short stories, too, when they’re done. Most importantly, I’m living a good life with a husband I adore and brothers and sisters I love. Writing the stories I was born to write and happy I am. I have my memories. All in all, I’m a lucky, lucky woman.

So, all you writers out there…never give up and never stop writing!

Thank you!

***

Kathryn Meyer Griffith has been writing for nearly forty years and has published 14 novels and 7 short stories since 1984 with Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press in the horror, romantic paranormal, suspense and murder mystery genres… and all 12 of her old books, see below, (and two new ones) are being brought out again between June 2010 and July 2012 from DAMNATION BOOKS www.damnationbooks.com and ETERNAL PRESS www.eternalpress.biz again in print – and all in e-books for the first time ever! Learn more about her at www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyergriffith and http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486 .

***

Here’s a list of all my published novels and short stories:

Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure,1984; Damnation Books, July 2012)

The Heart of the Rose (Leisure,1985)

Blood Forge (Leisure,1989; Damnation Books, February 2012)

Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books, July 2011)

The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books, October 2010)

Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books, April 2011)

The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;

Damnation Books, February 2011)

The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books, October 2011)

Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)

All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)

Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007...out again from Eternal Press in

August 2011)

Winter's Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008...out again from Eternal Press in

September 2011)

The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008...out again from Eternal Press in November 2011)

Don't Look Back short story (2008...out again from Eternal Press in 2011)

In This House (short story 2008...out again from Eternal Press in 2011)

BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (2010)

The Woman in Crimson (2010) ***

Why I Wrote The Heart of the Rose With Kathryn Meyer Griffith

2011-09-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

I started writing The Heart of the Rose after my only child, James, was born in late 1971. I was staying at home with him, not working, and was bored out of my skin. I read a horrible historical romance one day and thought I can do better than that!

So I got out my old typewriter with the keys that stuck, my bottles of White-Out, carbon paper for copies, and started clicking away. I tentatively called the book King’s Witch because it was about a 15^th century healer loved by Edward the Fourth who was falsely believed to be a witch. At the library (no computers or Internet back then) I did tedious research into that time in English history: the War of the Roses, the poverty and civil strife between the Red (Lancasters) and White Rose (Yorks); the Earl of Warwick and Edward the King. His brother Richard the Third. A real saga. Well, all that was big back then. I was way out of my league. Didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I just wrote. Reading it now I have to laugh. It was pretty bad. But people, mainly women, loved it.

And so my writing career began. That was 40 years ago. It took me 12 years to get that first book published as I got sidetracked with a divorce, raising a son, and having to get a real job. Life, as it always seems to do, got in the way.

Then one day years later I found the manuscript in my bottom drawer and decided to rewrite it; try to sell it. I bundled up the revised pile of printed copy pages, tucked it into an empty copy paper box and took it to the Post Office. Plastered it with stamps. I sent it everywhere The Writer’s Market of that year said I could. And waited. Months and months and months. In those days it could take up to a year or more to sell a novel, in between revising and rewriting to please any editor that would make a suggestion or comment. Snail mail took forever, too, and was expensive.

In the meantime, I wrote another book. Kind of a fictionalized look back at my childhood in a large (6 brothers and sisters) poor but loving family in the 1950’s and 60’s. I started sending that one out, as well. Then one day an editor suggested that since my writing had such a spooky feel to it anyway, why didn’t I just turn the book into a horror novel. Like Steven King was doing. Ordinary people under supernatural circumstances. A book like that would really sell, she said. Hmmm. Well, it was worth a try, so I added something scary in the woods in the main character’s childhood past that she had to return to and face in her adult life, using some of my childhood as hers. I retitled it Evil Stalks the Night and started sending it out. That editor was right, it sold quickly.

But right before it was to go to editing, the publisher, Towers Publishing…went bankrupt and was bought out by another publisher! The book was lost somewhere in the stacks of unedited slush in a company undergoing massive changes as the new publisher took over. I had a contract and didn’t know how to break it. Heaven knows, I couldn’t afford a lawyer. My life with a husband and son was one step above poverty at times. Back then I was so naïve. That was 1983 and that take-over publisher was Leisure Books.

As often as has happened to me over my writing career, though, fate seemed to step in and the Tower’s editor that had bought my book, before she left, told one of Leisure’s editors about it and asked her to try to save it. She believed in it that much.

Out of the blue, in 1984, when I had completely given up on the book, Leisure Books sent me a letter offering to buy Evil Stalks the Night! Then, miracle of miracles, my new editor asked if I had any other ideas or books she could look at. I sent her The Heart of the Rose and Leisure Books promptly bought that one in 1985, as well; labeling it, and asking me to sex it up some, as an historical bodice-ripper (remember those…the sexy knockoffs of Rosemary Rogers and Kathleen Woodiwiss’s provocative novels?)! It wasn’t a lot of money for either. A thousand dollar advance and only 4% royalties on the paperbacks. But back in those days the publishers had a bigger distribution and thousands and thousands of the paperbacks were printed, warehoused and sent to bookstores. So 4% of all those books did add up.

So my career began. I sold ten more novels and various short stories over the next 25 years –as I was working full time and living my life. Some did well (my Zebra and leisure paperbacks) and some didn’t. Most of them, over the years, eventually went out of print.

And twenty-seven years later, when Kim Richards at Damnation Books contracted my 13^th and 14^th novels, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons and The Woman in Crimson, she asked if I’d like to rerelease (with new covers and rewritten, of course) my 7 out-of-print Leisure and Zebra paperbacks, including The Heart of the Rose – and I said a resounding yes!

Of course, I had to totally rewrite The Heart of the Rose for the resurrected edition because my writing when I was twenty-one was immature, unpolished and had been done on an electric typewriter, with lots of White-Out and carbon paper (I couldn’t afford copies), using snail mail; all of which didn’t lend itself to much rewriting. Then also in those days, editors told an author what to change and the writer only saw the manuscript once to final proof it. I also totally rewrote the book because, as was the style in the 1980’s, the prose was written in that old-fashioned prose using thees and ayes. The dialect of 15^th century England. There were sex scenes I had to tone down. It was awful. So I modernized the language, cut all the redundant adjectives and adverbs and helped the characters to grow up a little (they were so dramatic). The Heart of the Rose-Revised Author’s Edition published by Eternal Press in November 2010 (http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615722327 ), hopefully, then is a lot better book than it ever was in 1985. It should be…I have had thirty-nine more years of life and experiences to help make it a better book. Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith

***

You can keep up with Kathryn on her Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1019954486, or her My Space www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

A backstory and other tidbits from an old writer’s life part 1

2011-08-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

The Story of Egyptian Heart

A backstory and other tidbits from an old writer’s life

Eternal Press buy link:http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615724437

Digital ISBN: 978-1-61572-443-7 * Print ISBN: 978-1-61572-444-4

You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cogCNYKzPqc

Let me start with this: I have always loved ancient Egyptian stories since I was a child. I remember I wrote one of my first school papers at around eleven years old in pencil on the ancient Egyptians after dragging home an armful of musty smelling books from the library. I don’t recall exactly why I loved this particular time period and the people that lived in it but it might have had something to do with the movies The Ten Commandments (I was raised a Catholic), the horror mummy movies of the 1960’s and the early TV shows on Nefertiti and Cleopatra. I just had this affinity for the period.

It was February 1994 (I noted it on the outside of the manila folder where I keep a running book history on each novel) when I began Egyptian Heart. Originally I called it The Cursed Scarab. Later, I retitled it Egyptian Heart because I wanted it to more reflect the romance tale it had become.

I still had my agent, Lori Perkins, who’d sold four earlier novels for me to Zebra Books (Vampire Blood, 1991; The Last Vampire, 1992; Witches, 1993 and The Calling, 1994…after I’d sold my first three novels on my own to Leisure Books: Evil Stalks the Night, 1984: The Heart of the Rose, 1985; Blood Forge,1989) and she’d told me about a new romantic horror line that Silhouette was starting called the Shadows Line. They wanted to tap into the darker romantic paranormal market. Lori said they wanted the kind of story I wrote but with more romance. It was Silhouette after all. I’d been labeled as a horror writer from the get go, though all my novels blended genres; usually I wrote a romantic horror mixture with dashes of adventure, suspense and sometimes threw in a little history or mystery as well…but in those days the big publishers felt the need (and I think they still do) to squeeze a writer into one narrow slot. So I was a horror writer.

But by 1994 I’d lost my sweet editor at Zebra and a new one took her place...and over the next year he didn’t like anything I wrote for him and later that year Zebra unceremoniously dropped me and my latest book (Predator, a story about a dinosaur in Crater Lake…which never came out but still lingers like some weird ghost book in every computer on the global Internet) only six weeks away from going to the bookstore shelves. I’d begged the new editor not to call it Predator, bad title since there was a popular movie out of that name and it was nothing about a dinosaur, and the cover was awful, an empty boat on a lake…what!!! Having that book – my first ever – dumped like that was a crushing experience, let me tell you. I had a stack of finished, printed covers and had already done my final edits! I got to keep my advance but the book was officially dead. The new editor-that-didn’t-like-my-writing explained: “No one wants to read a book about a dinosaur.” And six months later Jurassic Park came out! The book is still sitting in a drawer somewhere and perhaps one day I’ll resurrect and finish it as well).

At that point, my agent wanted me to branch out so I wrote two manuscripts for the Silhouette Shadows Line or tried to. Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road (a romantic suspense about a woman truck driver driving a dangerous wintry route with a murderer on her tail, and a hitchhiker in her cab that she feels she’s falling in love with…and fears, at times, he’s the killer; which later I retitled and sold as Winter’s Journey). To make a long story short, Silhouette Shadows turned both down. Seems I had too much horror in them; not enough sex. I didn’t follow the formula. Sheesh. I’ve never liked depending too much on sex in any of my books or writing a book too predictable. The originality of the novel and the characters make the story for me.

After that my agent dropped me. Ah, the life of a writer.

So, then life (as it has many times in my 39 year writing career), family and job problems, and my other novels (I was into murder mysteries for years and sold two to Avalon Books), got in the way and Egyptian Heart and Shadow Road went into drawer hibernation until, oh, about 2004, when I rediscovered them, dug them out, rewrote them and began trying to sell them again. Sometimes, I’ve found, a book left alone in a dark cubbyhole ages like good wine. (Or sometimes it just turns to vinegar.)

Fast forward three years to 2007 and a new e-book (e-books still being considered a risky new-fangled craze at that time!) publisher called The Wild Rose Press contracted both and eventually a third called The Ice Bridge, a ghostly romantic murder mystery set on Mackinac Island, and published them. Good publisher. They treated me well. But in 2010 when I contracted my two newest novels, Before the End: A Time of Demons and The Woman in Crimson (both romantic horror) my new publisher, Kim Richards Gilchrist at Damnation Books wanted to bring out all my old out-of-print novels again (going back to those early Leisure Books from the 1980’s) in print – and e-books for the first time ever. Seven old paperbacks. I’d rewrite them all, get new covers and they’d all live again. I was thrilled. And grateful. It would take a lot of work on both our parts but when we were done ALL my old novels would be in print again and in electronic form out in the world. I jumped right in.

Then when my two year contract (I was lucky, e-books still being new, it was only for two years; now most e-book publishers contract for five years or longer) ran out with The Wild Rose Press. I happily switched Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge and a novella Don’t Look Back, Agnes to Eternal Press (Damnation Books sister company). Kim Richards, and her husband William, had just brought Realms of Fantasy Magazine into the fold, as well.

So. Egyptian Heart has had a very long history. Simply put, it’s a time travel paranormal romance set in the ancient times of Nefertiti and her heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton. It’s more romance than history, though I did a lot of research in 1994… originally for my 1994 Zebra horror paperback The Calling. I thought: why waste all this hard worked for research on just one novel? So I also used it for Egyptian Heart and an erotic short story, The Nameless One, one that Zebra had placed in their 1994 horror anthology Dark Seductions and now it’s available from Damnation Books.

The new cover for Egyptian Heart by Dawne Dominique is amazingly beautiful and Kim Richards herself was my editor. Thank you both.

So from a child’s love of ancient Egypt to the finished book, it’s been a long journey and goes to show all you writer’s out there that, yes, persistence does sometimes win out. And a good book never dies. It just ages like wine in a dark drawer.

I hope you’ll give Egyptian Heart a look and a read. The best way to describe it is through its blurb and so here it is:

Maggie Owen is a beautiful, spirited Egyptologist, but lonely. Even being in Egypt on a grant from the college she teaches at to search for an undiscovered necropolis she’s certain lies below the sands beyond the pyramids of Gizah doesn’t give her the happiness she’d hoped it would.

There’s always been and is something missing. Love.

Then her workmen uncover Ramose Nakh-Min’s ancient tomb and an amulet from his sarcophagus hurls her back to 1340 B.C – where she falls hopelessly in love with the man she was destined to be with, noble Ramose, who faithfully serves the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton and his queen Nefertiti.

She’s fallen into perilous times with civil war threatening Egypt. She’s been mistaken for one of Ramose’s runaway slaves and with her light hair, jinn green eyes and fair skin she doesn’t fit in. Some say she’s magical and evil. Ramose’s favorite, Makere, tries to kill her.

The people, angry the Pharaoh has set his Queen aside and forced them to worship one god are rising up against him.

Maggie’s caught dangerously in the middle.

In the end, desperately in love, will she find a way to stay alive and with Ramose in ancient Egypt–and to make a difference in his world and history?

Because Maggie has finally found love. ***

And thank you for having me on your blog! Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Eternal Press buy link: http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781615724437

You Tube Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cogCNYKzPqc

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A word about Kathryn Meyer Griffith, August 2011...

Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:

Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure, 1984; Damnation Books, July 2012)

The Heart of the Rose (Leisure, 1985; Eternal Press Author’s Revised Edition out Nov.7, 2010)

Blood Forge (Leisure, 1989; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2012)

Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out July 2011)

The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2010)

Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out April 2011)

The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;

Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out February 2011)

The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out October 2011)

Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)

All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)

Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in August 2011)

Winter’s Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in September 2011)

The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition out again from Eternal Press in November 2011)

Don’t Look Back, Agnes novella and bonus short story: In This House (2008; ghostly romantic short story out again from Eternal Press in January 2012)

BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (Out from Damnation Books June 2010)

The Woman in Crimson (Out from Damnation Books September 2010)

Her Websites:

http://www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith (to see all my book trailers with original music by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer)

http:// www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerGhttp://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.jacketflap.com/K.Griffith

http://www.shoutlife.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.goodreads.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://romancewriterandreader.ning.com/profile/KathrynMeyerGriffith

http://romancebookjunction.ning.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

E-mail me at rdgriff@htc.net I love to hear from my readers.

MY FIRST… NOVEL with Guest Blogger Morgan Fox

2011-08-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

With the release of her novel, Enticed by the Moon, Moonlight shifters 3, I thought it would be fun to ask Morgan Fox about her first…novel, so, without any ado whatsoever…

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

There was no one person in my life that introduced me to the love of reading, and unfortunately, my parents were so busy with raising my other siblings and running their own business that they didn’t have time to enjoy a good book. That instinctive desire came naturally to me, but not for a very long time.

I was always in advanced reading classes in school, but the funny part of that was that I never finished one book fully. Like a math problem, I figured out where all the good parts of the story were and simply read through those. It wasn’t until I was in my very late teens that I actually completed reading my first book, and discovered how much of each story I was missing. I can still remember the story, Goodnight Kiss by R.L. Stine, a young adult vampire story. That young adult book opened up the doorway for the plethora of books that I’ve devoured over the years.

I now have a personal home library of well over 2,000 books and I can’t stop collecting and reading.

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

I owe my decision to become a writer to two people. First, my grandmother Barbara Ragland was the first person in my life to see that I had a passion for writing and she encouraged me to keep it up. With her help, I entered my first writing contest when I was fifteen and placed with an Honorable Mention and was published.

The other person who influenced my decision to become a writer was my husband Eric. He was the one person who knew that the passion for writing I had as a child never went away and it was something I secretly longed for. With his love, strength and encouragement I’m now a published author and a full time writer.

Finish this thought. “If not for--------I would be-----------“

If not for my writing career I would be stuck in a corporate environment doing something I don’t love.

On that all important DEDICATION PAGE who did/will you thank?

For as long as I’m a writer I will dedicate and thank my husband for standing beside me and being that one person who won’t let me quit no matter how hard I think things get.

Look for Enticed by the Moon from Siren Publishing August 24th, 2011

The Perks and Perils of Writing with a Partner With Guest Blogger Margaret Breashears

2011-08-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

The Perks and Perils of Writing with a Partner

When we started writing together, we didn’t know whether a mathematician and a Ph.D in women’s history could actually write a romance novel. So, of course, we jumped right in.

Who knew years of teaching geometry gave Donna insight into cause and effect, or Margaret’s ton of history books and biographies provided endless backgrounds, motivation, and settings? All the solving of logic puzzles and hours of reading were worthwhile.

We shared a love for action-packed stories, a fondness for spirited lovers and feisty ghosts. Now learning the craft – point of view, show not tell, characterization, goal, motivation, and conflict – let’s just say those skills took a lot of workshops, discarded pages, and hair pulling to soak up.

Despite the occasional gripe of “You don’t like any of my ideas,” we eventually mesh our creative visions into a humor-filled, love story chock full of adventures, mishaps, and surprises. Angst simply isn’t in our repertoire.

Logistically, we write face to face using one computer with dual monitors and keyboards. While our editor dubbed our setup as dueling keyboards, our writing method is more talk it out, put it on the screen, then revise, revise, revise. Getting each other’s facial expressions, hand flutters, and rolled eyes into words is still a challenge.

Sharing the ups and downs of writing is a definite benefit for us. There are two of us to figure out how to Facebook, Tweet, Twitter and blog. We have a built in critique partner to add spark to flat scenes, provide missing words, locate typos, and flip the story upside down if it becomes too predictable. We also have a shoulder to cry on when those nasty rejections get us down, and someone to celebrate with when we sold our first novel.

Actual writing time, maneuvered around two family schedules, can be a bit challenging. But there is a bright side. A set time and place motivates us and keeps us turning out the pages. When we aren’t together, we let the ideas stir and grow so that we return to our work with fresh twists and turns.

But the best perk of all is our laughter and friendship.

Margaret Breashears lives in Allen, Texas with her husband, Eddie. Retired from teaching history, she can be found either at the stable riding her horse, Evento Rex, or at her writing with her partner Donna Helmedag about spirited lovers and feisty ghosts. www.wantedghostbustingbride.com

www.tell-talepublishing.com

Margaret Breashears and Donna Helmedag

www.wantedghostbustingbride.com

My First....Novel with Guest Blogger Julian Adorney

2011-08-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

Please Welcome my fellow Gypsy Shadow Author, Julian Adorney

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

That would be my 3^rd grade teacher, Ms. Hughes. She recommended I read Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara. It was a thick book, but from the first chapter I was hooked. Terry’s world was so layered, with distinct cultures and exotic creatures that somehow felt as real as history. I remember reading for hours, letting the outside world fade as Shannara—the homey city of Culhaven, the abandoned grandeur of Paranor—swept me up. I finished the book in about a week.

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

K.A. Applegate, who wrote the Animorphs series. I remember being struck by how real her characters felt: she used first-person, and she got in her characters’ heads so well that you could pick up any one of her books, flip to the middle, and figure out who was narrating, just by reading a page. Those 6 characters came alive for me, until I almost felt like they lived outside her books. I realized that I wanted to create characters like that, people I cared for. Even when I write today, I try to make my characters come alive.

She also taught me about the magic in the world. Animorphs was bursting with the unexplored: new creatures the kids could morph into, new alien species, new environments. Some other aspects of the books weren’t that amazing, but K.A. Applegate definitely made me see the magic of the unexplored. When you write, you have a blank canvass and no limits except your imagination, and there’s no freedom like that. I realized early on that if I truly wanted to explore everything—not only this world, but others; not only the 21^st century, but ancient civilizations—than I needed to write.

Finish this thought. “If not for--------I would be-----------“

If not for Ms. Hughes, I would be a businessman. I’m good at business, and there’s definitely money there. I think I’d run marketing campaigns for a small firm, make good money and be fairly happy. I still would have adventured, and tried to see over the next horizon like I do in my writing. But adventure wouldn’t have been my career.

On that all important DEDICATION PAGE who did/will you thank?

My dad, Thom Adorney. He was my biggest supporter even in middle school. He edited my first novel, let me relax during summer instead of working so that I could write, bought me books on writing for my birthday. When I finally publish a novel, I’ll dedicate it to him.

For more about Julian, stop by his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julian-Adorney/261486503861813

Or you can go to

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4789167-julian-adorney

Freedom: http://www.gypsyshadow.com/JulianAdorney.html#Freedom

Deals: http://www.untreedreads.com/?p=1708

The Cult of the Ebook With Guest Blogger Chris McKenna

2011-08-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll admit it. I was more than a little sceptical of ebooks at first. I'm not a big fan of reading on the computer – at least not anything longer than an article - and as convenient as my laptop is the thought of taking it out on the morning train, I have always found less than thrilling – doubly so when my machine seems to devour battery life like Charley Sheen in a crack house after a spell in rehab.

Then my life was saved.

The great gods of the arts sent down their saviour child. And lo she was called “Kindle”: Her saving energy! Her clarity! Like many, I soon became a convert. After all, who could resist such graces? With all the negatives gone, the world of the ebook was truly open to me.

But are Kindle and the other plethora of ebook prophets out there speaking the truth, or are they just another group of mad people shouting in the wilderness? Is the sudden rising of the ebook just a fad of fanaticism that will soon die out or will it develop in to full and lasting institution?

It seems few converts would be interested in going back to the old days – certainly as a writer I would not. I guess one big part of the revolution of the ebook has been not just the way it has changed the experience for the reader, but also the changes that it has enacted upon the publishing industry as a whole. Few can deny the way that control has been, at least, partial wrestled from the big publishers, giving a range of small publishers and independent authors access to markets that were previously far out of their reach. I don't think anyone would doubt the growing number of indie writers that have carved out their own successes in a place where they were previously told there was: “no commercial interest” in their writing. Likewise, it's given the reader more choice, no more so than those interested in niche markets: Space Operas, BDSM, Christian literature are all thriving and even the most avid vampire reader would have to make a full time job of reading all the blood sucker books out there.

So all great right? - Well no.

As fast as the ebook market is growing, it's still a bit of cult and far from firmly established. There are more than a few orthodox readers who are less than willing to join the movement, but there are not really the problem - there will always be doubters. As with all such developments, the real danger comes from within: Poor formatted and poorly written books; fake reviews plastered all over the internet; mutual uber-star ratings from writing cliques; misleading blurbs and descriptions – just to name a few. And what's the end result of all this? Confusion, bitterness, loss of faith!

The old gate keepers are gone and they're left us with the keys.

As a reader there has been nothing more frustrating in for me than just trying to find a good book. Distrust has become the name of the game when it comes to reviews:

All five stars– no!

Reviews with comments on only one books – no!

The same sycophantic writing on each – no!

And then at the same time you have to weed out the ever present hatters of everything that seem to linger on the “bottom of the internet”. It all just leaves you tired and wishing for the good old days when there were only have a dozen well known books to chose from.

So that the end of the then. The death of the ebook before it's really had a chance to make it's mark? - Again, probably not.

As will all new movements and religious there are going to be problems along the way and solutions will usually come along to sort it all out. I hear that in the first Vatican council they sorted out that tricky problem of castrates being allowed to be priests or not (NB: It's only okay if you didn't do it to yourself.) So we'll probably figure something out, whether that's the growing of more trusted review sites or well known reviewers – perhaps we'll all develop a prater natural ability to judge a book by its cover?

However it's dealt with, it clear that the cult of the ebook is still evolving - if we're allowed to believe in such a thing – and we're still in the early stages of development. To believe that things would or even could stay the same would be foolish at best. To believe that they couldn't get better would simply be to lack faith.

My First....Novel with Guest Blogger Teel James Glenn

2011-08-08T05:57:00.000-07:00

As I anxiously await the release of my first novel, Dragon Lover, I’m reminded of where I started and the moment I fell in love with the written word. For me, it came later in life (I was 18 before I realized I could lose myself in a book) and my first novel was gifted to me by my eldest sister. It was a romance, go figure, and I’ve been hooked ever since. So I started thinking, I know where I got my inspiration. I know the moment I realized I could be a writer myself. However, I’m interested in when others have made that monumental decision. So I've asked Muli-Published Author Teel James Glenn (and fellow Gypsy Shadow Author) to answer a few questions.

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

I learned to read from comic books! I would sit and have my mom read the captions to me on the Sunday papers and then Batman comics.

I jumped quickly to the Hardy Boys, the Alfred Hitchcock & Three Investigators, the Tom Quest books and the last but not least the great Doc Savage series excited me. I read two Doc books a day at one point in grammar school. I was hooks….

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

I don’t know if there is any one writer, per se but Edgar Rice Burroughs’ hard luck journey to success has been a constant inspiration to me. When I discovered his Mars books and the original Tarzan novel I was inspired to work on my first books.

Finish this thought. “If not for--------I would be-----------“

Mister O’Donnell my high school English teacher who was also a fan of old pulps and fantasy books I would not have had the world of pulps, Burroughs, Conan, old radio and movie serials opened to me. He is whom I think of when I teach my sword classes in hopes of inspiring the next generation…

On that all important DEDICATION PAGE who did/will you thank?

The first book I wrote (mostly in secret for fear it wouldn’t be very good or people would make fun of me for writing it) was eventually published as Vision Quest Factor. It didn’t’ make it into print until after I’d sold three other books to the same publisher, ePress Online. The first one that was published (accepted by an amazing lady Joan Mc-Nultly Pulver who nursed me through the whole process) was Death at Dragonthroat. It is the first in the Altiva world series and harks back to those Burroughs’ interplanetary tales but with a more adult, sardonic twist.

I wrote the dedication to my daughter Aislin Rose, the best and brightest moment in my life who hadn’t even been a possibility when I wrote the book. I hope to leave her a legacy of fun stories to be able to read someday and it wouldn’t be terrible if I could pay for her college eventually with some book sales. ( I have four years to go so everyone get out there and buy my books!).

Later I was able to dedicate The Traveler’s Tale, an all age fantasy romance book from Eternal Press which she got to read and enjoy! I hope to dedicate many more to her and someday her children…

A biography:

Teel James Glenn was born in Brooklyn though he’s traveled the world for thirty years as a stuntman, fight choreographer, swordmaster, jouster, book illustrator, storyteller, bodyguard, and Actor. As an actor he has appeared on all the new York soap operas, Spenser for Hire and the Equalizer plus over 100 genre SF/horror films.

His stories and articles have been printed in scores of magazines from Mad to Black Belt to Fantasy Tales as well as a number of books and anthologies. In the ensuing years he has sold a score of short stories (while continuing to teach and perform) and has written and contracted over two score novels with a number of publishers in many genres including Steampunk, westerns and mysteries including the SF thrillers “The Exceptionals’ series. One of the novels in the Altiva fantasy series “Sister Warrior” was named one of the hundred best fantasy novels of all time by Fantsybookreview.uk.

To learn more about Teel, visit

http://www.gypsyshadow.com/Teel.html#top

his author page at

Interview with a S'nat

2011-08-04T05:54:00.000-07:00

Interviewer: Today I'm interviewing Fray Matsen, hero of the YA paranormal romance S'nat Wars by the mother/daughter team of Linda Palmer and Julie Kimbrell. To begin, maybe you should tell us what, exactly, a "S'nat" is.

Fray Matsen: "S'nat" is a slang term for a Supernatural. Actually, make that vampire or shapeshifter.

Interviewer: You qualified that rather quickly. Are there other kinds of S'nats out there that we don't know about?

Fray Matsen: Vampires and shapeshifters came out several years ago.

Interviewer: That doesn't really answer my question.

Fray Matsen: I know.

Interviewer: Hm. Tell us about WatchDogs, Inc., the personal protection agency you work for.

Fray Matsen: My dad and his brothers, all shapeshifters like me, own the agency. We're dogs. We also have normal guys working there, too. Dad makes assignments based on the situation.

Interviewer: And what situation brought you to the Daniels' house?

Fray Matsen: Mr. Daniels is a lawyer who represents S'nats in court. Lots of humans hate S'nats, so when he won a high-profile case, someone threatened the family. I was assigned to guard Gabi Daniels, his seventeen-year-old daughter.

Interviewer: What kind of dog do you shift into?

Fray Matsen: A Rottweiler.

Interviewer: Does Gabi like Rotts?

Fray Matsen: I guess. She didn't complain, though she did ask if I could shift into a Chihuahua so she could stick me in her purse when she went to the mall. She was joking, though. At least I think she was.

Interviewer: Did you and Gabi get along, then?

Fray Matsen: Most of the time. She was pretty stubborn and didn't take orders well. Sometimes it seemed like she was deliberately trying to irritate the he-- um, heck out of me.

Interviewer: What did guarding Gabi entail?

Fray Matsen: I spent every second with her Monday through Friday, which meant going to her high school; running, shopping, and eating with her; and even tagging along when she went to a movie with a, um, friend.

Interviewer: Guy or gal?

Fray Matsen: Guy.

Interviewer: You went on a date with her? Wow. I'll bet that was awkward.

Fray Matsen: It wasn't a date, and I went as a Rott and stayed in the back seat so I could watch them.

Interviewer: Watch them?

Fray Matsen: The movie. I watched the movie.

Interviewer: O-kaaay. How did you handle the nights?

Fray Matsen: I slept with her. Well, not with her. I slept nearby...on the floor...as a dog. Let me start over. I shifted into a Rott and slept on a rug next to her bed.

Interviewer: I...see. And what about the weekends?

Fray Matsen: My brother Dion took over.

Interviewer: What's that frown about?

Fray Matsen: What frown? I'm not frowning.

Interviewer: My bad. Is there anything you'd like to tell readers?

Fray Matsen: Check out S'nat Wars if you want the whole story. A lot happened, and sometimes it was hard to tell where the threat was really coming from.

Interviewer: Do you still talk to Gabi now that everything is resolved and you've both moved on?

Fray Matsen: You could say that.

Interviewer: What's that grin about?

Fray Matsen: What grin? I'm not grinning.

S'nat Wars blurb:

Everything should've changed the day vampires and shapeshifters came out to the world six years ago, but it didn't--at least not for Gabi Daniels. She still sleeps, eats, runs, and goes to school. And when she's out in public, she still can't tell if the people she passes on the street are humans or actually Supernaturals, a.k.a. S'nats. No one else can, either, which is the problem. If S'nats have actually populated the globe for eons without anyone knowing, what else might be lurking out there, ready to pounce?

Then Gabi's dad, a lawyer, defends a vampire accused of murdering a human. His high-profile win results in threats from S'nat haters. To keep Gabi safe, he hires WatchDogs, Inc., a personal protection agency with bodyguards that actually shapeshift into dogs. Fray Matsen, a Rottweiler, has his work cut out for him and not just because he finds Gabi a big distraction. Is the threat really human? Or could it be S'nats with an agenda of their own? And will his human strength and canine senses be enough to save Gabi when they find themselves face-to-face with the enemy?

Available at: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Allromanceebooks, 1placeforromance, and Smashwords.

Linda's website: www.lvpalmer.com

Julie's website: www.juliekimbrell.com and www.laneystrykerbooks.com

My First....Novel with Guest Blogger Lynda Scott

2011-08-01T06:08:00.000-07:00

As I anxiously await the release of my first novel, Dragon Lover, I’m reminded of where I started and the moment I fell in love with the written word. For me, it came later in life (I was 18 before I realized I could lose myself in a book) and my first novel was gifted to me by my eldest sister. It was a romance, go figure, and I’ve been hooked ever since. So I started thinking, I know where I got my inspiration. I know the moment I realized I could be a writer myself. However, I’m interested in when others have made that monumental decision. So, I've asked fellow author, Lynda Scott to stop by and tell her story.

Now, Here's where I always put a profile picture of the author, But Lynda insisted I put a picture of her writing partner/inspiration/muse/babysitter, is there anything she CAN'T do? Wookie, the alien kitten.

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

This may sound corny and old-fashioned but my mother introduced me to the joy of reading. She only had a 6^th grade education but she was an avid reader and she encouraged me to read everything that came my way. She often said you could do anything or go anywhere if you could read.

She was right. I’ve been to alternate Earths, alien planets, the past, the future. I’ve performed archelogy, surgery, and forensic police work. I’ve lived on a prairie on a planet with a lavendar sky. I’ve survived cryogenic freezing to wake up in the distant future as the sole survivor of some unknown catastrophe. Yes, some of this was written by other authors and some of it by my own hand.

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

I don’t remember her name, but it was my 4^th grade teacher. She had us write a story about a magic door set in a tree trunk. This was the first time I ever had FUN doing homework. It excited my imagination and opened neural pathways that just exploded with more and more and more ideas. I was hooked. From that time on, I wrote story after story.

Finish this thought. “If not for Isaac Asimov, I would be a nurse.“

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a nurse. Honestly, it’s one of the most honorable, courageous professions there is. It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse. Unfortunately, I’m not that kind of person but I did kick the idea around quite a lot. Then I read an old battered copy of The Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It was the very first Science Fiction I’d ever read and, even more importantly, there is a love story in it. This captured my still maturing writer identity and I was off to the races writing Science Fiction with romantic elements. It also awakened my interest in science and engineering and computers…which is where I ended up on my day job.

But I never quit writing. I wrote on lunch hours and breaks. I wrote at home after work. When I wasn’t writing, I was reading. But the books I read, while excellent, lacked a certain spark if there wasn’t at least some romantic elements. Then I read Witch World by Andre Norton. Fantasy with romantic elements? I now had a new genre to glom and I began including Fantasy in my writing.

Then I met some lovely romance writers online. And they, though they were contemporary romance writers, told me about paranormal romance. They told me that I was practically writing paranormal romance and that I should read some to see if they weren’t right. For an avid reader like myself, this was like manna from heaven. This genre gave me the Science Fiction and the Fantasy that I loved AND the full blown romance that, for me, makes the book a complete journey. After I indulged in all these lovely paranormal romance books, I realized that my friends were right. I was just a fingernail away from writing Science Fiction/Fantasy Romance instead of Science Fiction/Fantasy with romantic elements.

On that all important DEDICATION PAGE who did/will you thank?

My very first published book thanked my lovely romance writer friends, of course. Had it not been for them, I’d still be writing and keeping my work to myself. I also thanked my crit group, who while not romance writers, were excellent critiquers in their own right. And, of course, I thanked my family without whose support the book would never have been written. Family and friends and good books to read…what more can you ask?

A little more about Lynda: In her family of Kentucky 'ridge runners', oral tales were a tradition that even the children participated in. She spent many nights with her brother, cousins and friends telling tall tales to excite the imagination. Now she creates award winning science fantasy romance filled with despair, hope, love and courage

Her website is http://www.lyndakscott.com/ Check out her contact page for Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Myspace and especially for her newsgroup. she's always got giveaway drawings (either her own or by guest authors on her blog) that readers are eligible to enter. Lots of cool books and other nifty stuff ;-)

Altered Destiny, Stranded on an alternate Earth, architect and Jill-of-all-trades, Liane Gautier-MacGregor must find her way back to her homeworld before she's enslaved...or falls in love with a man who is the exact duplicate of her ex-husband.
Devyn MacGregor's alter ego as the Reiver Lord is the only way he can fight the Qui'arel and their nefarious Bride Bounty, a tax paid with human females...until he meets the oddly familiar woman who claims he is her husband. And who sets in motion the rebellion that will either free his countrymen or destroy them.

Kindle, http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Destiny-ebook/dp/B00579FKFO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1308692836&sr=8-2

Nook http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Altered-Destiny/Lynda-K-Scott/e/2940012882417

Heartstone, Eric d'Ebrur is out of time. He must find the legendary Heartstone and fulfill the ancient Gar'Ja bond he shares with the Stonebearer. But when he finds her, he discovers that love can be more dangerous than the Gawan threat. Eric can defeat the mind-controlling Gawan but will it cost him the woman he loves?

After terrifying episodes of hypersensitivity, Keriam Norton thinks she's losing her mind. When handsome shapeshifter Eric d'Ebrur saves her from the monstrous Gawan, she's sure of it. But insane or not, she'll find the Heartstone and, if she's lucky, a love to last a lifetime.

Mundania Press http://www.mundania.com/book.php?title=Heartstone

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Heartstone-Lynda-K-Scott/dp/1606592335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307896585&sr=8-1

Heartstone is available in print and ebook format

Self Publishing with Debra Holland

2011-07-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

I’ve invited Debra Holland, self-published author of Wild Montana Sky (a Golden Heart winner) and Starry Montana Sky, sweet historical Western romances, to answer questions about her experience. To date, Debra has sold 9000 books in 12 weeks.

I have a friend who’s thinking about self-publishing, and I know she’s been going back and forth on the issue. Her main question is when should she stop trying to find the right agent and just do it?

Self-publishing and finding an agent are not mutually exclusive. You can self-publish AND still keep trying to find an agent. You can self-publish and have an agent. I certainly do, and so do a lot of my self-published friends. Self-publishing has become another OPTION, giving you more choices.

That means you can exclusively self-publish, or you can have a traditional publisher and self-publish. Or, you might self-publish your backlist, self-publish some new books (and/or short stories and novellas) and have a traditional publisher.

From some people who attended RWA national, and someone who attended a writer’s conference in San Diego, I’ve heard reports that several agents have said sales of 5000 or more on a self-published single book is something that makes them notice that author. You’ve proven you can write a good book. You’ve shown you have a readership, and if you wrote a niche book, then you’ve shown that there’s a readership for your kind of stories.

Although it’s not common, there are cases of a New York publisher buying a book that’s already been self-published. (It that happened, the author would no longer self-publish his or her version of the book.) More common is for editors to watch the Amazon lists and see what authors are doing well. They read those authors’ books and may offer them a contract on a new book or series of books.

If you find an agent, he or she might want you to write books in the same genre as your self-published ones. Your new agent also might be interested in books that tie into your self-published books in some way. For example, my agent wants me to write a sweet contemporary Western set in my fictional town with the descents of my historical characters. She told me that sweet, contemporary, small town romance is popular in a way that sweet historical isn’t. (Or at least it isn’t according to New York publishers, but not according to my readers. J)

However, I do have to issue a warning. Self-publishing is addicting. Once you start, you may not want to pursue traditional publishing. You may find you like having the control over your content, cover, and blurb. You may start compulsively checking your sales numbers. You may enjoy receiving a check or direct deposit every month (and watching it grow bigger.) You may find yourself moved to tears by a 5 star review or a fan email. And you may find you have more excitement and creativity about your writing career.

As someone who’s been published all of 12 weeks, I can say that the only regret I have is that I didn’t do it months earlier. However, I was in the middle of a crazy deadline for my nonfiction book on grief and didn’t have the time to self-publish.

If you wait months before committing to self-publishing, that’s money you won’t be earning on those books. It might not be a lot of money; self-published books by unknown authors usually have slow growth. But you never know. You may hit a niche or have another stroke of luck that brings attention to your book that causes it to take off sooner.

Debra will be answering questions on self-publishing for the rest of the day.

Debra Holland, Ph.D

Debra Holland has a master’s degree in Marriage, Family, and Child Therapy and Ph.D in Counseling Psychology from the University of Southern California (USC), and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. In her private practice, Dr. Debra counsels individuals and couples. She specializes in grief recovery, and communication and relationship issues.

Dr. Debra consults as a corporate crisis/grief counselor for businesses. She counsels employees who are upset or traumatized by the deaths of co-workers, accidents on site, robberies and other types of violence, and layoffs.

You can purchase Debra's books by clicking on the links below.

Critiquing and the Critique Partners with Kinley Baker

2011-07-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

Critiquing and the Critique Partners with Kinley Baker

First off, tell us a little about yourself.

BIO: Kinley Baker read her first romance novel at the age of thirteen and immediately fell in love with the hero and the genre. She is the author of the Reign of Shadows trilogy. The first book, Ruined, will release soon from Crescent Moon Press. She lives with her husband and her dog, Joker, in the Pacific Northwest. As a firm supporter of all supernatural lifestyles, she writes fantasy romance, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. You can find Kinley at www.kinleybaker.com.

What are your thoughts on online critique groups’ verses meeting in person?

I’ve never had the luxury of meeting in person for a critique group. But I’ve had great experiences on-line the past few years. I think sometimes your ideal critique partner just isn’t in the same state or country. Finding the right fit is the most important part of any critique relationship.

What is your ideal critique group? How many is too many?

Right now, I have a critique group of four, and it’s a great fit. We send in chapters through a private yahoo loop when we need help. We all got busy at about the same time, so it’s definitely hectic managing contracts and trying to get submissions in, but the group is awesome and supportive. I don’t think you can ask for much more in a group, except perceptive editing, but my group is full of that, too!

How often do you feel it’s necessary to meet (e-mail) you’re critique partner(s)?

We generally send in two chapters at a time. Sometimes, someone is on deadline and can’t respond, but there are still two other people to read, so it works out well. I think it depends where you are in your writing journey. The critique partner I’ve had the longest, I’ve been working with for over a year, and when we first started working together, our critiques were returned slashed with red. Once we learned more about the craft, critiques weren’t quite as extensive and we didn’t need to e-mail as often.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in regards to critique groups and the critique concept?

Learn about craft. Find the right fit for a group. Form a tough skin but don’t tolerate rudeness. Yes, people should be honest about your work, but if they make you cry every time you read their critique, the partnership or group probably isn’t the best fit.

My advice would be to create your own group with people who are at the same stage. On-line loops like the ones associated with Romance Writers of America really helped form my current group. I’d recommend trading the first chapter of a manuscript to see if everyone is on the same page. It’s not easy to find a group that works, but that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger J I’m a better writer for all those critique horror stories I’ve acquired. I won’t share them, but some are painful, some are motivating and some are funny. I think the experiences are all just a part of the writer journey. If you find a critique partner or group who understands you and your writing, be nice to them! Without my critique partners to put things into perspective sometimes, I’d be a less productive writer. Thanks CPs!

For more About Kinley Go to her web-site at
http://www.kinleybaker.com/
To purchace her book, Ruined, click on the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/Ruined-ebook/dp/B005D9J6L2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311436294&sr=8-1

Critiquing and the Critique Partners with Marsha West

2011-07-18T05:41:00.000-07:00

First off, tell us a little about yourself.

Over the years, I’ve been a PTA mom and volunteer, served on the Fort Worth school board, taught theatre arts in high school, and worked as a principal of two very different elementary schools. I’ve been writing for about five years, morphing from what I thought of as romantic suspense to single titles where characters are never too old to find love, and danger threatens. My web site is close to being ready, and (please don’t say I told you so, Jeannie and Jerrie.) FB may not be too far off in my future.

I’m “Mimi” to two adorable grandkids, a boy and girl, and my husband and I are excitedly awaiting the arrival of another granddaughter in late summer. Since retiring, I’ve split my time between concentrating on the writing career, being an officer in my writing chapter, loving on the grandkids, and taking trips with my husband to many beautiful places, some of which find their way into my books.

What are your thoughts on online critique groups’ verses meeting in person?

I don’t have a lot of experience in an actual online critique group. I have to think doing the whole thing online and never meeting face to face must have its challenges.

What is your ideal critique group? How many is too many?

It depends on how much time you have to give to not only the meeting but also the time to critique your partners’ pages. We each have two sets of approximately 20 pages and we read those over at least two times. (I’m always amazed what I find the second time around. J How’d I miss that?) We line edit as well as point out the story elements that don’t ring true for us or inconsistencies that get by. We meet anywhere from two to three hours together. One more person might be doable, but that’s another whole story to juggle and adds time away from our own writing. Of course, reading others’ work makes us a better writer too. Sooo, as I said at the beginning, “It depends.”

How often do you feel it’s necessary to meet (e-mail) you’re critique partner(s)?

We meet weekly, but are flexible. Sometimes life happens and one or more of us can’t make it to the meeting. Two of us will meet in person and do the missing person’s pages on line. Or none of us gets together, and we do it all online. The vast majority of time, we work in person with hard copies in front of us.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in regards to critique groups and the critique concept?

1) Develop a thick skin. Remember your CPs are not out to crucify you. They’re trying to help. They give you the benefit of another set of eyes looking at the babies you’ve spread all over the page. Because our intent is to put good stuff down on the page, when someone questions us, it hurts. We frequently make a comment about someone’s writing, followed by, “But it’s your book.” Bottom line, our opinion is just our opinion. The book belongs to the writer.

2)If the critique group is not working for you for whatever reason, look for another group or add a group. (There are time concerns with adding, but these are people you’ve more than likely grown quite close to if you’ve worked together for any length of time, and it might be difficult to leave them flat out.)

3)Agree to some rules. I don’t think it matters so much, what they are, so long as you all agree to them. You know: how often will you meet, how many pages, will you just do big concept or will you line edit, too, etc.

4)Find a group. Maybe some people can develop as a writer without a critique group. Despite on line classes and conferences, I wouldn’t have. It’s not just seeing things marked in my own work, it’s looking at their work, too. It’s the discipline and structure a group gives regardless of how often you meet. There’s a time limit. When I’m writing a new book and know I have to take new pages the next Wednesday, that’s a good motivator for putting my rear in the seat in front of the computer.

There is no one better than your critique partners for picking you up after one of those bad contest experiences or agent rejections. And no one better to celebrate with when you win contests, an agent requests chapters from your query, or the call comes saying someone wants to publish your work. So get yourself some CPs, and keep on writing.

Book Cover

2011-07-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

I had to share, I'm just too excited. I don't have a release date yet, but I do have a book cover. Soo, coming soon to Gypsy Shadow Publishing......

For eighteen years Kimball Crossley trained for the day she’d come face-to-face with the demon who murdered her parents. Nothing could’ve prepared her for the dragon who would change her life forever.

Dmitri of the Langhier Clan is one of the elite Dragon Hunters. For eighteen years he’s stood against evil, believing he’ll forever be a warrior for his people. That is, until the night he’s confronted with his future.

With whispers of war in the air, can Kimball learn to trust what she’s always hated and accept her love for the Dragon Hunter? Dmitri’s skills as a hunter are superior, but can he accept that women, particularly his woman, can be as strong in mind and body as any well-trained hunter? Can they put aside their differences long enough to save both their worlds?

Thank you so much Charlotte Holly for putting up with me.

Critiquing and the Critique Partners with Karen McCullough

2011-07-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

First off, tell us a little about yourself.

Here’s the quick bio: Karen McCullough was born in New York, grew up in New York and Massachusetts, and now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina. She is the author of ten published novels in the mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy genres and has won numerous awards, including an Eppie Award for fantasy. She’s also been a four-time Eppie finalist, and a finalist in the Prism, Dream Realm, Rising Star, Lories, Scarlett Letter, and Vixen Awards contests. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and numerous small press publications in the fantasy, science fiction, and romance genres. Her most recent release is a cozy mystery with a bit of romance titled A GIFT FOR MURDER, published in hardcover by Five Star/Gale Group Mysteries.

What are your thoughts on online critique groups’ verses meeting in person?

I've done more with in-person critique groups in the past, but have done some online critiquing as well. More and more critiquing seems to be moving online where it’s easier to find authors working in the same genre and/or types of stories you are.

I find online critique groups difficult. You have to be brief yet careful about what you say since comments you make have no context for the person reading it, at least not in the same way that you have for an in-person group. The person receiving the critique online in a chat or email can't see your face, read your body language, or hear your tone. As humans we depend so much on the non-verbal in our interactions, and I'm surprised at how many people don't understand what a difference that can make. The bare words just don't always convey the totality of what you want to say. There’s a reason we invented things like emoticons to use for online communication, but even they can’t replace the subtleties of inflection, the warmth of a smile, the hand gestures that say I was a bit confused by this bit.

I currently work with a couple of critique partners, and while we do exchange manuscripts and critique text via email, we also pick up the phone when we really need to talk to each other about something that’s not working or where we might have suggestions for improvement.

What is your ideal critique group? How many is too many?

It depends to some extent on what you are critiquing. For short stories, it’s not hard to have a number of people in the group. I think six to eight works best for giving a variety of points of view and different perspectives. However, for novels, I don’t think you want more than three or four. In part because of the amount of time it takes to read and comment on a novel, whether all at once or chapter by chapter, but also because if you do it chapter by chapter, it’s hard to keep track of more than a few in progress.

My ideal critique partner (and I’m fortunate enough to have a couple) gives honest feedback, is willing to brainstorm with me when needed but tries to avoid imposing her own vision of the story on what I’ve written, listens to what I say, but will call me on it when I’m really off base.

How often do you feel it’s necessary to meet (e-mail) you’re critique partner(s)?

Working with just a couple of critique partners, we tend to be somewhat informal about it and don’t do it on any strict schedule. We trade stories or chapters when we need feedback.

When I’ve been with more formal critique groups (and I’ve been part of several) we generally met once or twice a month. That gave enough time for everyone to read and think about material submitted and to work out their responses.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in regards to critique groups and the critique concept?

Critique groups don’t work for everyone, and if you don’t find it helpful, then don’t worry about it. And sometimes the chemistry isn’t right, so don’t hesitate to leave a group if it’s not working for you.

But I think they can be invaluable for a beginning writer! I know the ones I belonged to early in my career were very helpful for me. When you’re starting out it can be particularly hard to spot problems in your own writing. Because the mental image of what’s happening on the page is so clear in your head, it’s difficult to tell whether you’re conveying a clear picture with your words, and if you are, whether it’s the picture you want to convey. Critiques groups can point out weaknesses in your writing, your plotting, your characterization, etc. Things you might never see on your own.

The other piece of advice I would give is to be very respectful of the other members’ writing. Keep in mind that you’re critiquing something they spent a lot of time on, something they likely poured heart and soul into. Don’t criticize lightly and always make suggestions for improvement. Remember to praise the things someone does well in addition to pointing out problems.

Karen invites visitors to check out her home on the web at http://www.kmccullough.com and her site for the Market Center Mysteries series, http://www.marketcentermysteries.com

Channeling Your Inner Child With Guest Blogger Kathy Lane

2011-07-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

ATTENTION READERS: Join me on my July Blog Tour and play my Scavenger Blog Game. Visit each of my blog/interview sites for the month of July and leave a comment. At the end of July, one lucky winner will receive a prize package which includes a copy of Bloodsworn I and II, a $25 Amazon gift card, and more! Happy July!

Children tug at our heartstrings. They’re cute, cuddly, frequently messy, and wonderfully unpredictable. Handled correctly, they can also add depth to a story. Keep in mind the ‘handled correctly’ part. In my humble opinion, sticking a child into the plot for the sake of sentimentality won’t cut it. Characters need a purpose, even the adorable ones.

So let’s say your story calls for a rambunctious little boy or shy little girl. can be loads of fun, though getting things right from a child’s perspective isn’t always easy. Have you ever read a book where the dialogue definitely didn’t match the child’s age? Very distracting, isn’t it? It’s hard to take a step back from everything you know as an adult to try and recapture the wonder and innocence only a child can possess. Especially when there are decades and decades and, *sigh* decades, between you and your childhood years. All I can say is: Do Your Research! Surround yourself with age-appropriate examples. Invite the nieces and nephews over for a tea party. Have lunch at a place that caters to children. Watch, listen, and learn. Then write.

One last thing. As a reader, I enjoy getting a glimpse into a child’s world which is chock full of wonder and imagination. An author, however, especially romance author, needs to keep in mind just who the story is about—the Hero and Heroine—and not get carried away with a re-visit to her childhood. *grin*

In Linked by Blood, my new book due out this month, you’ll meet a wonderful little boy named Seth. He’s five-years-old, loves to play with frogs, splash in water, and has a boy’s healthy fascination with sharp, pointy things. His mother is Sheren, a young widow who finds herself drawn to the Amber Blade, Bracca Cu-Laurian, despite her vow to keep her distance. Things get even more complicated when young Seth becomes ill. Only Bracca’s Bloodsworn can save him, a move which links Bracca and Sheren even closer while putting all of their lives in danger.

You can pick up your copy of Bloodsworn II: Linked by Blood at www.thewildrosepress.com. Hope you enjoy the story!

Here’s question (3) on my Blog Tour: Seth’s favorite critter is a jade frog. When you were little, what animal/insect/ect. held the most fascination for you? Mine were doodlebugs, also known as antlions.

Critiquing and the Critique Partners

2011-07-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

It's July and as I get closer to launching my first book out into the world, I'm reminded of how much I owe to my critique partners. They really are the reason I didn't give up on myself long ago. SOOOO, July is going to be about Critique partners and how they hold you up through the years.

To start the month off right, I would like to introduce you all to one of the JMJ team, Mrs Jerrie Alexander!

First off, tell us a little about yourself.

A closet writer in my youth, I set aside my passion for writing when life presented me with a John Wayne husband, and two wonderful children. A career in logistics offered me the opportunity to travel to many beautiful locations in America, and I revisit them in my romantic suspense novels.

My characters went with me, talked to me, and insisted I share their dark, sexy stories with others. I write alpha males and kick-ass women who weave their way through death and fear to emerge stronger because of, and on occasion in spite of, their love for each other. I like to torture people (in books), make them suffer, and if they’re strong enough, they live happily ever after.

I live in Texas, loves sunshine, children’s laughter, sugar (human and granulated), and researching for my heroes and heroines.

What are your thoughts on online critique groups’ verses meeting in person?

I do both. I meet once a week with one group and online with the other. I think each writer has to find what works for them. Some benefit from the face-to-face meeting. Plus I think it depends on where you are in your writing career.

What is your ideal critique group? How many is too many?

Again, it depends. How many pages are you critiquing? How often?

My in person group does twenty pages a week. That doesn’t sound like much until you throw life, family, friends, and your own writing into the mix. There are three of us, and for our group, that has proven to be the max.

There are four in the online group I critique. We are all at different points in our career. We try for a forty-eight hour turnaround, but again, those are guidelines because of the same reasons mentioned above.

How often do you feel it’s necessary to meet (e-mail) you’re critique partner(s)?

I’m not sure it is necessary. Depends on what the needs and preferences of the group.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in regards to critique groups and the critique concept?

You gotta get one!!! Go online and track down some guidelines. You’ll find lots of information about how to form a critique group on the RWA website.

Know that the first or even second group may not meet your needs. It’s not personal, it’s about different stages in your or their needs.

Find people you can trust. Trust to tell you the truth. Trust that they’ll couch their criticism with kindness. Trust that if you need them...they’ll be there.

Random Thoughts Thursday With Jordan Rose

2011-06-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

When Characters Take Over!

Has this ever happened to you? You’re sitting down, minding your own business, trying to relax, maybe eating lunch on a nice sunny day when -BAM- a “character” pops into your mind and you know she’s not leaving any time soon.

If you’re a writer, it’s happened. And it’s probably happened more than once. Today, I’d like to talk about my experiences with this sort of intrusion. I’m calling it an intrusion because at the moment it is.

When I wrote Perpetual Light, my debut novel, releasing in Winter 2012 from Crescent Moon Press, each of the characters came to life mostly as the story unfolded. There were a couple times when Lucia, my heroine, or Vittorio, her hero, slipped into my thoughts as I was learning about secondary characters or when I was trying to understand the flow of the story.

Of course, they both woke me from sound sleep on a number of occasions to work through plot issues or some conflict or to tell me about their love story. And I didn’t mind. I enjoyed getting their story onto the screen.

They were kind, in love, urgent at times, but typically respectful. They still are. As I begin to consider the plot for the next book in their series, they seem quite willing to work with me.

On the other hand, there’s Eva. Eva Prim. The heroine of my current Work in Progress. The antagonist of my life. She’s a vampire on the hunt for friends. And it’s quite clear to me why she doesn’t easily make or keep them.

She can’t control herself.

When Perpetual Light sold at the end of April, I was on cloud nine. Singing my news from rooftops, telling everyone who knew me about the wonderful happenings in my writing life.

Little did I know, she was brooding. Her hot little temper percolated with a jealousy the likes of which I wasn’t prepared for. She finally blew a few weeks back and she did it on Twitter. She has her own website and Twitter and Facebook accounts. She blogs and comments, and people actually listen!

And she knows how to use social media. We got into a little argument on the social network. She put an ad on Twitter looking for a writer who’d focus on her story. Someone “who’ll care about me.”

And I took the bait, arguing with her over the fact that no one cares about her more than me. She was a bit insulting.

Needless to say, I’m completely unable to focus on anything else but her. Her story, her conflict, her needs. It has to get written or my life will never be the same.

Have you battled character intrusions? Had to deal with focus issues as every waking thought is hijacked by your hero or heroine or someone you thought was a secondary character? I’d love to hear your techniques for handling these situations.

PS- how could I ever get away without mentioning Eva’s contact info: website- www.evaprim.com; twitter- https://twitter.com/#!/evaprim

Facebook at https://facebook.com/evaprim

Bio:

After trying her hand at many, many things- from crafting and art classes to cooking and sewing classes to running her own handbag business, Jordan finally figured out how to channel her creativity. With an active imagination and a little encouragement from her husband she sat down and began to write, each night clicking away at the keys with her black Labrador, Dino curled up under the desk.

A few short years later she’s entered the publishing arena with no plans to ever turn back. Jordan’s first book, Perpetual Light, debuts from Crescent Moon Press in Winter 2012. Check her website for upcoming contests and giveaways.

Jordan’s a member of RWA National, and the New England (NEC), Connecticut, and Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal (FFnP) Chapters.

Find Jordan on her website at www.jordankrose.com.

Follow her tweets on https://twitter.com/#!/jordankrose

Friend her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jordankrose

Finding your voice with Rachel Firasek

2011-06-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

First, tell us a little about yourself:

I’m a mother of three crazy kids. Each one is so different, it’s no wonder I can create all these characters in my head. They are definitely inspiring! I’ve been married for 15 years this October and it never gets old. I adore my hubs and lean on him more than any wife should… but when you’re working a full time day job, trying to play “mommie”, and starting a career as an author you have to have a rock—he’s definitely my rock.

We live in Central Texas on 26 acres with our dogs, duck (yes, just one) and 22 sheep. The rest of the animals are wild and not my responsibility, lol.

How do you find time to write? I know it sounds crazy, but I get up 2 hours before I need to put in a couple hours of writing time and I grab another 2-3 in the evenings. I don’t sleep.

How did you find “YOUR VOICE”

I really didn’t find it. Heather Howland ( http://www.heatherhowland.com/), my editor for Piper’s Fury pointed it out to me. She recognized my unique voice under the sloppy amateur writing and the problem words we all start out with. Once she taught me to clean it up, we uncovered something amazing. My voice! Viola. Nice and shiny and all my own. I really didn’t struggle with voice, this question is a hard one. For those that feel that they are struggling, it might not be a problem at all, it just might be buried under the clutter. J

If you could describe your writing in one word, what would it be?

Tight

What advice would you give a writer still searching for their “VOICE”?

See comments above and I’ll elaborate. First of all, I feel like your voice is an extension of the way you talk. My first problem I had to deal with was I speak backwards. I have like… dyslexia of the mouth. My thoughts come out in an order that only really make sense to me. So, now, instead of just writing what I would say, I write what I should say. Somehow, it comes out right—when I think it through. Not all the time, but sometimes I get lucky. Lol.

My actual bit of advice is that if you don’t think you’ve found your voice, you haven’t written enough. How much is enough? Who knows. For me it was one book. For someone else, it may be ten before they settle into a style and voice that suits them. It’s a struggle and in today’s unpredictable publishing world, who’s to say that you don’t already have a great voice and you’re the only one thinking it’s bad. I don’t fret over voice. I just write the best story I can, clean up my work and submit.

I just told my husband this morning, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” And as big as voice is, if you’re always sweating it, you’ll never find it. Isn’t it always when you quit looking for something that it shows up?

Thanks for having me on the blog! These were great questions and I hope that I was able to help someone today, or at least entertain them for a minute. J

Piper's Fury available now! Buy HERE

Strong Hard Love coming soon from Whiskey Creek Press

And for more about Rachel, vizit these special links : www.rachelfirasek.com
Twitter: raebob7
Facebook: Rachel Firasek

What I'm Writing Wednesday

2011-06-15T11:46:00.001-07:00

I’m still working on book 3 in my Dragon Hunters series and it’s coming along. Slowly, but it’s coming along. In between writing, I’m also helping my daughter plan her wedding, taking care of my grandchildren, and getting ready for my husband’s first ever family reunion. (I’m in charge of setting up the family tree/photo album) Not to mention posting in my blog and reading the other blogs that come my way.

And it’s another blog that brought me to this point. The author wrote about books to help you along in your writing. Inspirational books, books on the art of writing, and books that make you “Sit your butt down and write.” I have all of the above, but what inspires me the most are those little snippets that make me believe I “CAN”

Stephen King wrote:

“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair—the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrows, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”

There’s more to the quote, but you get the idea. If you’re not completely serious about writing, then don’t sit in front of your computer, your notebook, your typewriter. Even if you’re writing comedy, you need to be serious about writing.

Another quote that inspires me

“Don’t just talk about what you can do; do it.”

If you’re a writer, write. Make it the best it can be.

So, what inspires you?

Random Thoughts Thursday

2011-06-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

Time Tested Tips for Promoting Your Book to the Media

Melissa Jarvis

A mild-mannered Public Relations executive by day, and action-packed writer by night, Melissa Jarvis lives in celebrity-friendly Southern California with her husband and son. For over 14 years, she has worked in the public relations industry, doing press releases, bios, newsletters, media campaigns and more for clients ranging from the Playboy Jazz Festival to the Los Angeles Mission to JVS. And she’s survived with most of her mind intact! An active member of RWA, she writes both paranormal romance and urban fantasy, as well as spicy paranormal under the name Melissa L. Robert. Her debut book, Past Her Time, a time travel historical, was just released from BookStrand Romance. You can learn more about her, time travel and the agents of the Lineage at www.melissajarvis.net.

Let’s travel back in time to 10 years ago, when Facebook, MySpace and YouTube were unheard of, Twitter was something that woke you up in the morning (darn birds) and blogs could still be counted in the hundreds. How did writers promote themselves? And do those methods still work?

There is no question that Social Media 2.0 has changed the way we reach readers. I’ve been in Public Relations for over 14 years, and we are still trying to grasp the implications for our industry. I can’t tell you how many seminars I’ve sat through with so-called “experts in the field.” The fact is, the field is changing so fast that everyone is trying to catch up, and we’re still two steps behind.

Most of us have figured out how to blog (although this is my first one), utilize Facebook and other similar sites as a networking tool for connecting with other writers, book reviewers and readers. We’ve all put up a website, and worked on our brand. But the one thing I’ve noticed that’s fallen by the wayside is promotion the old-fashioned way, or rather, the tried and true methods that have worked since the era of Mad Men.

So, here are some methods to garner newsprint and maybe even a sound byte on the six o’clock news.

Despite the new social media, newsrooms are inundated with thousands of press releases every day. As a writer, how do you stand out from the kids feeding the homeless, bear in the backyard or latest slow-moving freeway chase?

Well, even the most heart-tugging shots of children visiting the hospital can’t compete with the bear in the backyard story. But there are ways to break through the clutter. You may need to be a little sneaky. You may need to be a little devious. But, hey, we’re romance writers. Sometimes our heroines have to bite the bullet and go undercover just to land the hero.

Calendar listings: Every newspaper, from the Los Angeles Times to the New York Times, has calendar listings. Generally, each paper also has an editor assigned to do nothing but sort through these. These listings range from a few sentences to almost an entire paragraph, and should be written that way as well. A calendar listing should include the very basics: who, what, where, and if you have enough room, why. If you’re having an event such as a book signing, or participating in a panel discussion, send in a calendar listing. But know WHO to send this to and what their lead-time is, i.e. how far in advance of the event they will accept a listing. You can find out editors and lead times by calling the paper or checking out their website. There are also directories available out there of all the media in the U.S.—radio, print and television, even blogs, with specific information on how to contact them (ie email or phone), when, what they cover and more. PR firms use media list services available from companies like Cision, and the Public Relations Society of America. Most dailies have a lead-time of 1-2 weeks, and most weeklies have a lead-time of 3-4 weeks. Many radio station websites also offer a page where you can submit a listing for an upcoming event.

Letters to the Editor/Op-Eds/Editorials: Got an opinion? Don’t be afraid to share it. If you’re a writer of e-books and ABC News does a story on e-books being the fastest growing segment of romance in America, send a letter on why you agree or disagree. If the Daily News does a piece on the growing popularity of tearooms, and you’re a Historical writer, send in a letter. Pay attention to the news. If it relates to you or what you write in some way, WRITE! Most papers have guidelines on how to send a letter to the editor or opinion piece in those sections. However, a word of caution: make your letter interesting, either totally agreeing or totally disagreeing with the viewpoint presented in the story. Your letter cannot be a blatant advertisement for your new book, although you can briefly mention it when talking about why you’re qualified to offer an opinion. Another word of caution: be fast. If you see a story you’d like to respond to, write and send in a letter or op-ed piece that same day.

Position Yourself as an Expert: This one takes a little more time, and a little more patience, but the payoff can be far greater. Reporters are constantly on the lookout for sources, someone to back up or disagree with their viewpoint. If they’re doing a story about the addiction of romance fiction (which we’ve all seen the articles on recently), you want to be someone they quote. How do you do this? There are a couple of ways. First, find out which reporters cover what beats, i.e. who covers books and publishing, current events, women’s issues, etc. Send that person a Rolodex email stating your name, occupation, and what you’re qualified to talk about, or sign up to follow them on Twitter. Watch the paper for stories by those writers, or listen to the radio talk shows. If you see a story you think you could have commented on, or know someone they could have talked to, give them a call or drop them an email. Mention you saw their story, thought it was great, but you know of someone who could really be useful to them. This way, you are positioning yourself as a resource to them. And, they don’t see you as self-promoting. Be a fountain of information, not just on yourself.

Human Interest Stories: Do you think your life story would make great copy for People? Are friends hanging on your every word at parties? Then you may have a human-interest story. This category is the most competitive and the hardest to sell. You first need to think of who your readers are—what do they read? Are they the type to go for People and Ladies Home Journal or Sci-Fi Quarterly? Once you’ve figured out your target audience, pick the magazine that best reflects that. Research it. Who covers what? You’ll then need to craft a 1-2 page pitch letter—similar to a query letter, only it’s about you. What makes you interesting? Why would your story appeal to their audience? If your story centers around an upcoming event (such as you’re giving birth to your daughter’s kids), be aware that magazines have a 3-4 month lead-time. To find out who to target and where, check out the magazines masthead page—the listing in the front of all the editors and offices. Most magazines are based out of New York, with bureaus in Los Angeles.

Radio: This is a category unto itself. Radio, more than other outlets, needs a constant stream of news. They have more space to fill, especially with the satellite specific channels. Who are the morning show hosts in your area? Are they conservative or liberal? What kind of guests do they feature? Are there any nationally syndicated shows that you think would be a good fit? If you’d like to be a guest on a radio talk show, put together a packet of information on yourself—bio, book covers, any press clippings you have and send it with a pitch letter on why you’d be a great guest. Don’t contact the on-air personality directly though, contact their producer. Find out how the radio station conducts their interviews—in-person, by phone, taped or live.

Public relations is exactly that—it’s about relationship building. You’ve already done it in the social media realm, and you can transfer that knowledge to radio, TV, and print. Get to know your local media—who and what they cover. Don’t call them about something you’ve never seen them do. Be reliable. It’s the same as with your editor. Deliver what you promise. And get used to rejection.

Past Her Time
Agent Alex Raines takes no prisoners—in her job or in her personal life. But all of that changes when the time travel organization The Lineage sends her to 1793 Revolutionary France. Used to a "get in, get out," modus operandi, she finds her heart and will tested by local English nobleman Lord Gabriel Huntington, whose reasons for being there are as deceptive as her own.

In the midst of revolution and betrayal, can these two learn to take off the disguises and trust each other? Or will the fate of the world and time travel rest on Alex's ability to betray the one man she has come to love?

Tuesday’s Reflection

2011-06-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

As you know, I’m new to the world of blogging, and as I morph from one blog to another, reading what my fellow bloggers have to say, I realized that what I’m getting out of this is inspiration. I stopped by Marie Andreas’ blog and her summer’s weekly Monday Motivation, (Plug for Marie’s blog http://faeriesdragonsspaceships.blogspot.com/ ) and it was a picture, simple really, and as I gazed longingly at the stone walkway into the shimmering water, I thought “AHH HAA!” and immediately began writing. I’d been stuck, you see, between deleting half of what I’d written and scrapping the entire book. “NO” this picture told me. “YOU DON’T NEED TO TOSS ANYTHING OUT, EXPAND ON WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE.”

It’s strange. A picture is what started me on the path to writing this particular book, and it was a picture that saved what I’d already created in my mind. I have pictures of my characters, their homes, their places of employment, even the cars they drive. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, I say it’s more like ten thousand, or even eighty-thousand. Heck, I got twenty thousand out of this one, and I’m just getting started.

So, as I sit here, my muse yelling in my ear to get back to work, I can’t help but wonder, what inspires you, my fellow writers? Inquiring minds want to know.