Diana Peterfreund's new release!

I'm neck deep (more like forehead deep and sinking) in revisions this week and have given myself an end-of-the-month deadline, so a blog topic, (or even semi-coherent thought) is proving difficult.

But, my writer friend Diana Peterfreund's third book in her Secret Society Girl series came out yesterday, so I thought I'd just take this opportunity to give Diana a little pimpage. (and thereby get myself out of thinking up something clever to post.)

**Drum roll**

RITES OF SPRING (BREAK) follows our heroine Amy as she goes on, you guessed it, spring break. Love the title of this book, I have to say. I haven't had the pleasure of reading this one yet, but read the first two and I'm sure this one's just as smart and funny as they were. Plus, it's got a super cute cover. Note the Rose & Grave tatoo on Amy's hip...

Diana was blogging about mid-series pros and cons over on Manuscript Mavens yesterday. So, if you're totally annoyed at my lack of a writing topic today... Go read what Diana wrote about doing a series. ;-)

Congrats on your release, Diana!

Oh, and agent Lucienne Diver is doing a lunch time chat in The Knight Agency chat room at 12:00 noon EDT today, Wed June 25. Check it out.

Mad Men

Anyone else watching this right now? Mad men is being shown in reruns on two different channels -- with lots of hype informing (or reminding) us of how much the critical world loves this show. Golden Globes, etc, etc. For those that don't know it's about the men in the New York advertising world in the 50's - when manipulation, smoke and mirrors and diversion started to replace coupons as advertising code. Also in a starring role is the chain smoking, misogyny, functional alcoholism, racism and alpha male attitude that was apparently inherent.

This show should suck. These characters are hateful! The men are asses - the women are barely recognizable from the other side of women's lib - and advertising? Aren't we pissed enough about how we've been manipulated without seeing how it all began?

The show is good. Really really good. I love this show. The season opener created a hero in the first half hour and then slowly, slowly revealed him for the anti-hero he actually is. Every single person, every single relationship is fraught with drama. Real drama. Emotional and physical drama - without all that crazy backbending work we have to do while watching things like Lost. And it's fresh - really fresh - unlike House who feels a bit like an old shoe at this point.

The stakes - especially for the women - feel so high. And we care - we care about the misogynist, cheating, war hero. We care about Peggy - the new girl. We care about the older secretary - who has clearly become "the town pump." We really care about the war hero's wife and stress fractures showing up all over her life.

Historically, it's really cool. Lots of winks and nods to the things that have been banished from our world - kids without seat belts, chain smoking at lunch, while pregnant, while drinking scotch. The clothes that are so gorgeous and so uncomfortable. Fedoras and pearls. But the best thing about the time period is that the mores and values of that time allow for all this drama - all these high stakes. We believe that Peggy has one chance to hook a Jr. executive so she can get out into the country to raise her kids. We believe that Draper's been conditioned to provide "things" not "love."

It's good tv. You should watch it.

Contemporary romances scare me.

I’ve been reading romance a long time, but the one area I am abysmally poorly read in is contemp romance. Which is strange, because I love Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and Ain’t She Sweet is definitely in my top ten romances.

But apart from some wonderfully charming and sexy Susan Donovan romances, Jenny Crusie and a couple of Deb Smiths(amazing) none came to mind when I sat down to write this post.

And I know editors are asking to see more of them. It’s time for this market to be rejuvenated and the only way it will happen, as with the historical market, is if amazing contemp romances find their way into editor’s hands.

And never in a million years could I write one. They scare me. I’m a historical romantic suspense writer. I might someday branch into contemp suspense, even paranormals, but a straight romance over 400 pages.
I wouldn’t know where to begin.

I rely on my suspense to move the plot, to create action and forward momentum and to give me added tension to the romance plot.

Without it, I’d be lost. I know Susan Elizabeth Phillips (from now on to be referred to as SEP) does it. She usually has about two subplots, one involving another romance, but otherwise, everything moves along at a really nice pace, it’s compelling, completely involving and to me it seems like magic.

I keep meaning to read one of her books with the purpose of evaluating it on a scene level, but before I know it, I’m caught up in the book. Even her lesser books.

I think there are so few well known authors in this field because it’s so hard to do well. 400 pages about two people just falling in love, and to make all those pages tense and dramatic and never repetitious.

Makes me sweat just thinking about it.

And on an unrelated topic. Anyone see the end of Battlestar. It won’t be back until 2009, but I have to say, hell of an ending. Loved that no way did I see that coming.

Romance Heroines Behaving Badly

Yesterday afternoon, (well, technically this afternoon, because I haven't gone to bed yet...) I started to write a comment on Molly's post, in response to Stephanie's comment about some of the motivations for the heroine in Sherry Thomas's PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS coming from a less than angelic place, then thought: Hey, why not just make it a post.

FWIW, I completely agree with Stephanie that many of the heroine's actions/decisions in PA are less than sympathetic, but that's one reason I loved that book, and why I hope it opens up the door to editors taking chances on more heroines like Gigi.

While reading that book, I kept thinking, "Everyone's behaving so badly, yet I'm riveted." I loved that it broke the "rule" that a romance heroine's motivations have to be so "good" all the time. (I think heroines who are good all the time can be boring.)

Some of Gigi's choices weren't motivated by the best of values... and neither were the hero's. Between them, at various points in the book, they were motivated by money (him), social climbing (her), anger (him), deception (both of them), revenge (mostly him), jealousy (both of them)... on and on. All negative motivations. LOVED it. Loved too the emotional cruelty of some of the sex scenes. Don't see that in too many romances. At least not the ones I've been reading to date. I remember at least one steamy sex scene where the reader knows how much more the each character is feeling as compared to what he/she is willing to show the other and I found that deliciously heartbreaking. In the end, I did think each of them was redeemed enough to deserve the happily ever after, too. They both paid for all the mistakes they'd made.

WARNING: Spoilers below in white text. Highlight to read.

Gigi did treat her fiancé terribly, but I thought the author handled that well - at least the way I'm remembering it, right now. Didn't the fiancé finally figure out she was still in love with her husband? Didn't he dump her in the end or at least give her an out? I loaned the book out again, so I can't check. But I do remember thinking that bit had been resolved in a way I liked. Not too easy for the heroine, but not in a way that made her even worse than she had been.

And as far as her intentions re: the heir… I, too, was a little surprised that she went along with the plan with little thought at first, but then as soon as the diaphragm came out, (I mean went in, wink), I was shocked for new, better reasons. I don't think it crossed her mind what would happen to the baby if she got pregnant — because she had no intention of letting herself get pregnant. She just planned to have sex with him — something she already knew she'd enjoy, while hiding the fact she was using protection — until the year was up or even better, he gave up trying. LOVED that. So devious.

Romance needs more devious yet lovable heroines. I say bring 'em on.

Oh, and this book had the funniest trailer I've ever seen. I normally hate book trailers, but this one's worth watching...

What will it look like?

Last DWT we stumbled upon my new favorite game. Maureen and Sinead will not remember this because they were too drunk. (Note to self: when Sinead orders another cider and then giggles. Yes, giggles - settle in for the good stuff and get out the notebook.) There are perks to being the sober one at DWT.

Anyway - the game. What Will It Look Like? When the suffering sub genre comes back into popularity what will it look like? How will it be different than it's first reincarnation?

I think it's safe to say that Historicals are back - not that the market isn't tight - it is. And the books coming out these days are proving that a tight market makes for great reading. But what do they look like? All these great reading historicals? What are some of the ties that bind them?

Well, they're better that's for sure. The historicals out right now are plain better than a lot of stuff being put out in some of the glutted sub-genres (ie paranormal or romantic suspense). The new historicals are tight, well-paced, and crafted. Elizabeth Hoyt, Deanna Raybourne, Sherry Thomas - they are taking their time with their words.

Most of them are hotter. But not gratuitous. The romantic conflict walks right on into those love scenes making them hot, emotional and exciting.

They're darker - aren't they? They feel darker - not "let's kill everyone" darker, but tone and conflict just seem heavier. I know Julia Quinn is still writing in her style - a little lighter. But those Julia Quinn copy-cats have dropped in number, leaving lots of room for writers who have taken some of the darkness from the uber-popular paranormals and laced it into their books.

There's a lot more plot going on in some of these books. Spies. Murders. Proactive heroines. Out of the ordinary heroines. Crime solving heroines.

So, last DWT we talked briefly about what will the contemporary romance come back looking like? (Before suddenly, we were talking about make up??) As it went out of vogue a few years ago it seemed that it had melded with chick-lit and everything was pink. Everything was light. Zany. Everyone was trying to be Jenny Cruise. Now, it could come back that way - perhaps the reading public is tired of all this dark paranormal stuff and we need some lightness. Which makes sense to me - it really does, because so many of those books were good.

But my guess is that editors aren't going to be looking for that chick-lit voice in romance for a while. They've been burned. And how.

Also, I think the fantastic ongoing popularity of romantic suspense and paranormals set in contemporary times indicates that the book buying public wants a heavy dose of fantasy, of "this is so not like my incredibly dull life - no one is deciding what to do with the chicken thawing on the counter or how to potty train their son" with their romance. The popularity of category romance (slight surge in numbers and the huge surge in the number of princes being found across lines) indicates to me that this is true too.

But what do I know? Really. I was sober.

So, what do you think? How do the new historicals look to you? What do you want to see in returning contemporary romance?

Bonnets and Bees

I had something I was going to blog about this week... but then I went on a small tirade on one of my loops last night, and Molly convinced me to blog about that instead -- saying we could use a little controversy.

Not that I'm sure it's that controversial. Ah, well.

Source of my tirade:

It never ceases to amaze me how tied up in knots people can get in RWA-land. Now, everyone who knows me knows I love RWA. I think it's an amazing organization filled with amazing and talented and generous people, but in any organization of 9,000 or so members, there's going to be some element of "crazy".

The current source of my crazy fodder comes from my membership in a relatively new RWA chapter called "Elements of RWA". For those of you not riveted to the ups and downs of RWA, there's a category defined for the two big RWA contests called "Novel with Strong Romantic Elements". (One of my projects was a finalist in that category in the Golden Heart last year.) There was some controversy a while back when the RWA board proposed eliminating that category from the unpublished contest, while leaving it in the published one. Sorry for the backstory... But it was around that time that this new chapter was formed and because some great published authors I really respect, (like Allison Brennan), were involved in the forming of this new chapter, I decided to join.

But in reading many of the chapter discussions online, I'm getting the impression that the chapter's become a home to many unpublished romance writers who think the reason they aren't published is because what they're doing is "too different" for romance. That the reason the editors aren't snapping up their work is because they as writers aren't willing to color within the defined lines of romance or follow the formulas.

To this I say, WHAAAAT?

I admit, as many of you know, when I first got involved in the romance writing/publishing industry, I came in with some preconceived notions about romance and formula. These misconceptions are so prevalent it's hard not to. And based on the advice some people will give you, there can appear to be a lot of rules in romance. Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Jayne Ann Krentz do a workshop where they call these advisers the "romance nazi's" and claim the one thing these people have in common, beyond thinking they know all the rules about romance, is that they are either unpublished or have sagging, lackluster careers. From what I've observed, I agree. (Oh, I agree with SEP and JAK. How daring of me. LOL)

Sure there are common elements, plot devices, styles and techniques, that work well in romance and are therefore used often... but anyone who's tried to write a novel, knows that these things are just the tools or skill set of a professional fiction writer. Not a freaking formula you can plug things into and out pops a book. I wish.

In reading the romances I've picked up and enjoyed in the past year or so... Authors like Sherry Thomas, and J.R. Ward, and Marjorie M. Lui, and Eve Kenin, and Joanne Bourne etc. etc. etc. It's so clear to me that breaking the mold, being different, garners more success than being derivative. Pushing boundaries is so the new black.

So, what got me all riled up last night was people trying to define "romantic elements" so that it might include just about any freaking romance written, claiming we RE writers were the ones trying to break free of the boundaries of formulaic romances. And I suppose I should be okay with a really inclusive definition of RE. I mean, why not be inclusive. But seriously... IF YOU'RE WRITING A ROMANCE, CALL IT A ROMANCE!!!

Romance is a huge market with a plethora of sub-genres for just about any taste, and oodles of dedicated and voracious readers, so it baffles me why anyone would try to claim a book that has a romantic relationship at it's core and a happily ever after ending would try to categorize their book in any other way. (Especially if they want the book to be popular/commercial fiction vs. literary fiction that might be up for the big awards.)**

To me, the RE category is for books where plot elements other than the romance are more important to the story, but there's still a strong romance subplot in the book. The main plot might be a "women's fiction plot" (like family or friend relationships, or a woman's journey spurred by a major change in her life), or a chick lit plot of coming-of-age self-discovery, or suspense, or thriller, or mystery, or sci-fi, or fantasy -- but all books where the romance plot isn't central enough to call the book a romance. Now, obviously, no black and white lines here... Whose to say when a book crosses the line from being a suspense with romantic elements or a chick lit with romantic elements into being a romance. But I really don't think -- in spite of the totally ambiguous, and in my opinion too vague to be helpful, definition that RWA came up with for this contest category, (BTW. I don't envy, and completely admire the people who took on this task) -- that they meant for stories with a central romance plot to fall into this category. At least not often.

I think the problem is contests... Contest have their place, (great way for newbie writers to get feedback and experienced, unagented writers to get onto the desks of agents and editors) but by their nature, rules have to be defined for contests and categories described. And this makes the entire industry look more rule-oriented than it is. I'm sure many of the more innovative romances on the market these days wouldn't have done well in contests for unpublished writers. But who cares? Shouldn't writers care more about what agents/editors are saying about their work than contest judges? If they think their craft is up to snuff, but they're still bombing in contests because judges "don't get" what they're doing, or think their romance novel falls outside the "rules of romance", then they should submit it to some industry professionals and see what they think. If they get rejected all over the place with little positive feedback, chances are the problem isn't being too different, chances are it's not being good enough.

And if your book's a romance, I say call it a romance. I'll bet many queries get rejected because of unnecessarily complicated genre descriptions. "My novel XXXX is a sexy sci-fi fantasy with suspense and romance elements, and inspirational overtones." It behooves writers to know the market and where their novel fits into it.

Believe me. No editor is going to say, "Boy, I'm just dying to find the next great romantic elements novel." WHY??? Because that category of books does not exist in the publishing industry. RWA just made it up for contests.

Rant over...

**I've just thought of an exception. A time when you might not call a spade a spade... and it's based on industry trends. For example, 3-4 years ago, tons of books I'd call romances were published as chick lit. Some people say chick lit was "about the voice", but to me, the plethora of romances put out as chick lit was just the romance publishers trying to glom onto a trend. And, of course, I think it was those romances-in-chick-lit-clothing that KILLED the market for chick lit... But that's another rant.

Guest Drunk: Stephanie Doyle

In my writing/drinking life, before there was Maureen and Sinead there was Stephanie Doyle. She's a fantastic Harlequin writer whose career has taken her from Intimate Moments to Duets, Flipside, Bombshell (The Contestant 2005 Romantic Times Best Bombshell winner, right here, folks) and now the Athena Force series. Untouchable is out now and I couldn't recommend it more.

She poses a question in the following post regarding what is the Stephanie Doyle experience - and I'll answer it for her: out of the box heroines (did I mention Untouchable's heroine has poison skin?) and heroes who leap off the page fully formed. Stephanie gets away with things in category romance that no one else does.

Here she is:


First I want to say thank you to the DWs for allowing me to guest blog. This is officially my first blog. Very exciting. Usually, I read blogs and think… all the good stuff has been said already - why bother? That’s especially true of DWT. It’s almost a little weird how much I jive with you guys.

Anyway I told Molly I was going to write about one thing. Then I changed my mind. Not unlike what I do with my editor. What I wanted to talk about was a) I’m in love with David Cook. For those who don’t know he won American Idol. And b) how a singing competition really sets an example for writers who want to be successful.

I ‘lurv’ David. I figure I’ll wait until he gets his fill of hot Hollywood ass and then make my move. I’m starting with a ‘Will You Marry Me David C’ sign that I plan to hold up during the Idol concert. That’s right. I’m a 37 year old single woman and I’m going to the Idol concert. It’s okay. Mock me. I would.

Moving on… In one of the writers group I belong to there is an author who was in the publishing biz for many years. He gave a talk at a conference in which he said something that blew me away but probably shouldn’t have given that I’ve been doing this for 12 years. He said part of being a successful author is the ability to repeat the same experience book after book.

I get it. Stephen King has to be Steven King. Nora Roberts has to be Nora Roberts. But as I watched this season of Idol it hit home with me. What made David special wasn’t just his voice it was the David Cook experience. If you look at several of his performances he consistently did three things: big notes, angsty-emo emotion, new twist.

A different song each week but the same feeling. I found myself thinking it doesn’t matter what he sings. I want the experience. Me and the other people who voted for a total of 94 million times. (I only voted like 50 times. I swear.)

As writers we need to do the same. Deliver a different story, but deliver the same experience with each book. It’s not easy. The first hurdle is not re-telling the same story over and over. I can say there are a number of authors who I fell in love with, who ultimately I gave up on, because for me the books ran together. The plotting, the characterization, the pacing, the resolution - same old, same old. Insert character’s name (here).

The second hurdle is identifying what you want your experience to be. This is where as a writer it really comes down to crunch time. You need to choose the elements that will make up your experience and you need to love them because whatever you pick you will need to repeat them FOR-EVAH.

Imagine a JR Ward Brotherhood book that’s funny and lighthearted with a well adjusted beta hero who doesn’t need saving? Or an Elizabeth Hoyt historical that closes the door on the bedroom scene? Breaking faith with readers is just about the kiss of death for an author.

Keep in mind what I’m talking about isn’t voice. You don’t choose your voice – it is what it is. All you can do is hone it. But the experience – that’s completely up to you. Do you like hot sex scenes or tame ones? Lots of action or lots of angst? Do you want to make readers laugh or cry or both?
As an experiment think about your favorite authors, old and new, who are successful. What are the elements you need from them to consider the book a success? I’ve been writing for 12 years. I have 10 books published. I’ve done funny, action, mystery, paranormal. I have done strong heroines and alpha males. Now I’m attempting an historical. Basically I’ve been all over the place. The thing to do now is to isolate from those 10 books what elements are consistent. What do I keep going back to? What makes a Stephanie Doyle book a Stephanie Doyle book?

If you’re thinking about being a successfully published author you need to do it too. Who are you, what elements make up your experience, and what do you want to bring to each story each time? If you figure that out, and if readers fall in love with that experience, you too could win 94 million votes.

What if

What of my favourite games is to fantasize what I would do if I sold a book for ten million dollars.. or more like won the lottery.

This is a fantasy, so I get to spend the money any way I want, although even in my head, I have to give a chunk to charity.

But then, I’d get a new house, nothing stupid, but more space. I wouldn’t even get a new car, my current one is great. But that’s where the reasonable thought ends.

I’d get a nanny, I’m typing this now with a big grin on my face. Then I’d hire a personal trainer, to kick my butt into shape for the fantastic new wardrobe I’d buy. Lots of cashmere sweaters, because, hey, I won’t care about the drycleaning costs, and maybe even a cashmere bathrobe. And I know it makes no sense, but this is a fantasy.

And then to be totally ridiculous, I’d buy a Birkin, the $9000 handbag that I do secretly covet. I know it’s a purse, but it’s a really nice one… remember, this is all fantasy..

I’d travel a lot more. First class all the way.

Then I’d come home and build a room onto my house. A study/library. A quiet room, with floor to ceiling bookshelves, a chandelier, a gas fireplace(no sense in messing around with wood to keep it going), a chaise lounge in white, because white is a stupidly impractical couch colour when you have kids and to top it all off, a state of the art Mac, just to annoy my husband who is PC all the way, and a comfy chair to write in.

Then I’d have a secret door built in leading to my perfect bathroom, with a soaker tub, and white marble and a stack of new books by the tub.

I would have hours every day to write, and in my head, I’d be writing perfection.

Then I remember Stephen King’s amazing book On Writing, where he talked about getting this giant slab of a desk in this quiet office and getting nothing done. After writing in a small basement, he’d finally created his perfect place to write and got nothing out of it. It was too removed from his life, and his family and in the end, he found a smaller desk, closer to the ones who gave him inspiration.

So in truth, I probably will never find a quiet place to write, no matter how much money I have but I also know that writing at my kitchen table is, right now, the perfect place for me, dreams of fireplaces and floor to ceiling bookshelves notwithstanding.

Does anyone else play this game? Anyone else want a birkin?

Tying motivation and plot together

So, it's clear I can't blog about the new Indiana Jones movie, 'cause it would all end in a big DWT cage match... Actually, that sounds kinda fun -- except it's two against one and I never go into a cage match without Sinead backing me up. She's freakishly strong. (Even if she's wrong about the movie.)

But what I've been thinking about this week--the few times I've had a chance to think about writing, because I've been busy (read swamped) with the three gazillion entries I received for my local chapter's writing contest--is something Molly said to me on the weekend.

We were hashing through some issues I was having with my hero's motivation in the middle of my book, because he was waffling and really he's not a waffling kind of guy. The waffling was all me, not him. And I knew what I wanted to have happen in the plot, but I couldn't figure out what my hero's motivation would be for making it happen... Then something Molly said made me slap myself upside the head.

This was her jewel of wisdom: Have your character decide one thing, but then have the plot force him to do the opposite.

Brilliant.

Discuss.

My Perfect Movie Experience

I come from a small town outside of Chicago. When I was growing up the population was about 8,000 people. I swear to God, I lived in a yellow house on Main Street. My dad was a teacher and coach at the high school - my mom a nurse at a nursing home right across the street. It was really a pretty fantastic childhood. We had a movie theater in town -- The Hub. And I saw a lot of movies there -- Back To The Future 1 and 2, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure 1 and 2, Hoosiers, Dirty Dancing, (which I had to sneak into because it was too racy, according to my mother) Clash of the Titans, Indiana Jones and a bunch more that I don't remember. There were three screens. Well, Rochelle has grown and The Hub after being closed down for a long time has reopened.

I'm home visiting my folks and last night they sent me out, by myself, with five bucks in my pocket to go see Indiana Jones at the Hub.

Best freaking time I've had at the movies in ages!!

The Hub is exactly the same as it was - I swear the Coming Soon posters could have been for Back To the Future III. The floor is still the stickiest floor known to the movie going public and the seats still recline so far back that half the time I wondered if they were all still broken. No air conditioning so the sound has to compete with two giant fans at the front of the theater.
It was nostalgia at it's best. And then - Indy. Oh! Indy. Now, granted - last night I was the easiest movie goer in history. I couldn't have had a critical thought if they paid me.

Sinead and I got in an argument a while ago. She argued that no sequel was going to be as good as the first Indy movie and my point was - with this freaking team they should knock this movie out of the park. It should be better than the first and I realize now - it's not possible. Indiana Jones was a great movie at a great time - it's about the context of nothing being like it before and nothing but imitations after. But this 4th installment seemed to hit all the right notes. Great effects, great one-liners, great side-kick (I laughed out loud at the blatant nod to the Wild One - my Mom is going to love that) Excellent villain. Great stunts and great Indy. And then - then they bring back Karen Allen and it becomes this fantastic wink at the audience. It's both totally current and totally nostalgic.

Plot-wise it goes off in to left field and Indy is more indestructible than ever, but all in all - it was a movie experience that is going to be really hard to top.

Watch great movies, great TV and read great books.

I followed Maureen’s link to Karin Tabke’s blog and found a great question there.
Can you learn to be a good writer?

There are some great answers on the blog, and in short most people feel that yes, you can. I completely agree. With practice, writing, getting critiques and really listening to the criticism, we can learn to write well.

The other aspect is reading and watching great storytellers.

So, yep, in case you needed it, I am completely giving everyone permission to spend time in front of the TV, to go to movies and read great books.

I think, like osmosis, it sinks in, permeates our subconscious and teaches us what works and what doesn’t. Especially, if like us drunk writers, you talk it to death after the fact.

We have spent hours dissecting the greatness of Friday Night Lights, and Battlestar. Some of it really useful, some of it rambles after too many pints.

Molly listed her books for the summer, and I don’t have much to add to those, but I’m adding some movies and TV shows to my list.

Looking forward to the new Indiana Jones, even if just for nostalgia. The new batman, cause I deeply loved the first.
I’m going to spend the summer watching the Tudors, Mad Men, and possibly Torchwood. Christine and Amy have converted me through their blogs.

Not sure what else, but I’m hoping to learn lots. And enjoy in the process.
Another reason why I love writing.

Great talk on the Biz

Okay, so this is going to be the absolute laziest post I've ever done. Even lazier than the guest blogs, because those actually involve a few e-mails back and forth with people.

But I'm swamped with contest entries for my local RWA chapter's contest and trying desperately to finish a ms I told my agent she'd have by the end of May... So, I thought I'd bring the attention of all the drunk writer readers out there to a great discussion on the publishing business currently happening on Karin Tabke's blog.

I haven't had time to read it all myself, but she's had Allison Brennan commenting on the ins and outs of getting on the NYT list, etc.

Great stuff.

Shopping List

Toys R Us is taking back everyone's poisonous plastic baby bottles and giving store credit in return. It doesn't matter if the bottles were bought at Toys R Us or if they're used - bring them in and you'll get some Toys R Us cash to spend. We ended up with sixty bucks. Yesterday we decided to make an event of it - we haven't bought our son much of anything by way of toys (we have generous parents) so we decided if we went $40 over the 60 - we're laughing. Well, we went $80 over and we were still laughing. But, let it be said - Mick's favorite things are the eight dollar matchbox cars and husband's favorite thing is the remote control dinosaur.


Lesson learned: you can take your kid to the toy store -- not your husband.


Anyway - in keeping with this sudden we must be rich attitude - I decided to go on line and get myself a bunch of books. It's summer - vacations are coming up and I need some good reading. Here is what I got:

Untouchable by Stephanie Doyle - this is a part of the Athena Force series and while I haven't read the series (and probably should - it's very Marjorie M. Liu-ish) I read everything Stephanie Doyle writes. Stephanie was given the job of writing a heroine with poisonous skin - awesome.

The New Elizabeth Hoyt historical -- Her last series was incredible. Looking forward to how she handles herself now that she's a big star.

Silent in The Sanctuary -- Silent In The Grave was one of my favorite books last year. A fantastic blend of historical mystery with a truly tense and intriguing romantic subplot. A great heroine.

The New JR Ward - June 3rd is coming soon!

Driving Sideways - because who doesn't need more sicklit in thier lives.

Irresistible by Susan Mallery -- Susan is one of the few writers out there doing straight up contemporary romance and this book landed on the NYT list. She's a heavy hitter in category romance and I figure it's time to see how people are breaking out of category without serial killers or vampires. Looking forward to this book!

Delicious by Sherry Thomas - Maureen, who does not usually rave about romance novels, will not shut up about this book. It's like Battlestar all over again.

The backlist of the Six Degrees of Sexy girls - Amy Ruttan, Christine D'Abo and Wylie Kinson. Three of the nicest, most supportive writers ever. I look forward to their hot e-books and not just because my life is devoid of heat these days -- well, actually, that is a big chunk of the reason.

Chabon's Yiddish Policemen book, Alice Hoffman's Angel book - that is seriously lighting the world on fire and a little Dr. Suess for the boy. My son, not my husband.

What am I missing? What does my summer reading list need to be complete?

Mishmash

Been a really fun week entertainment wise. American Idol wrapped up with a really great winner, probably my favourite performer on the show since Kelly Clarkson.
House ended with two stunning episodes. Best episodes since the season 1 ending. Amazing, especially because I’d reached a point with House that it felt boring, and I’d felt they’d tapped out everything they could with the character.
And then they go and delve deeper. (spoilers ahead) Threatening House with his friendship with Wilson, brilliant. Without that friendship, what is he, but an addicted, middle age, lonely man.
And that they made Cutthroat Bitch the perfect woman for Wilson, and showed us brilliantly through the process of buying a mattress.
When House does character driven development, they do it better than almost anyone else on TV.
Also realized this week, that as writers, we need to focus on what we do well, but we can’t ignore what we struggle with. I was reminded as I read the latest book from an author I normally love. The book feels really paint by numbers. What she does well, is all there, but what she fails at, she really fails at in this book.
I think as writers there comes a point where we have to push through and really improve our weaknesses. Maybe that’s the push that can take some authors from midlist to bestseller.
It certainly reminded me that I really have to work on character driven story developments, rather than my usual, kill off a character, to drive the plot.
Now, if only I could find some motivation, I’d get right on that..
But first I’m going to listen to David Cook’s/Chris Cornell’s version of Billie Jean.

Guest Blog by Jess Riley

Today, I'm thrilled to host a guest blog by Jess Riley, whose debut novel, DRIVING SIDEWAYS, just hit the shelves. Isn't it a cute cover? Jess blogs every week over at The Debutante Ball, and on her own blog.

Take it away, Jess!

*************************


When Maureen graciously invited me to (okay, I probably shamelessly threw myself at her) guest-blog on Drunk Writer Talk, I nearly broke an ankle jumping at the chance. Drunk writers? Dishing about writing, publishing, and the vast differences between the two? Oh, few things could appeal to me more…

I was reading Maureen’s May 7 post (Writers Helping Writers) and have to add that I’ve been truly humbled by the generosity and support I’ve experienced from the writing community, and from friends and family. Watching my first novel being sent out into the world after 30 months in the publishing chute is quite surreal—it still doesn’t feel like it’s happening, actually. My emotions are all over the map. It has been a godsend to be able to share the journey with other writers going through the same experience.

I’ve had a few interviews so far, and I’ve explained the book to many people, and there’s always that point after they see the bare feet on the cover when you can see the bingo balls lining up in their minds and then? We have the winning question! “So how do you feel about writing chicklit?”

Frankly, I want to reclaim the word ‘chick.’ Like I want to reclaim the words ‘liberal,’ ‘feminist,’ and ‘styrofoam.’ Chicklit carries connotations of fluff and superficial pursuits. And though it helped me ‘Get my Stiletto in the Door,’ the very word also is persona non grata in the publishing world. Officially, NOBODY is writing chicklit anymore. (Or its life partner, ‘ladlit.’ Or ‘dicklit,’ if you’re feeling cheeky.)

Only many of us still are. It’s like we went underground. We’re all at a giant speakeasy, only instead of booze, you go for the chicklit. And well, maybe there’s still booze.

In certain circles, yes, I’m a chick. I like shoes, but I don’t like diamonds. I love to eat, I was once a little boy crazy, but I also subscribe to Mother Jones and once worked in a prison AND a cheese factory. (Guess which I liked more?)

To me, ‘chicklit’ is simply a catchy if somewhat maligned handle to convey that I wrote a story in which a young woman comes of age … while coming to terms with her own terminal illness, the suicide of her father, the absence of her mother, a strained relationship with her brother, and daily reminders that she is too sick to be as young as her friends. (I know, I know…it’s a barrel of laughs, really! Sicklit, is more like it. But actually, that makes me think of Chuck Palahniuk. And he may be a genre unto himself.)

Bottom line? You tell the story you want to tell, the way you want to tell it, and if someone likes it enough to pay you so they can share it with more readers, and if those readers like it, too? Well, you can’t ask for much more than that.

Other than maybe that pony you didn’t get in the second grade.

Where the Hell is that Pendulum?

A friend of mine asked to borrow some books the other day. This friend has two young kids and she just wants something to read in the five minutes at night before she passes out cold. She belonged to a book club and just found the selections too much and too depressing at this point in her life. Which I totally agree with - considering I can't watch the news without bursting into tears, the last thing I need is the five minutes before I pass out at night to be filled with angst. Book club - I'll see you in a few years.

So, anyway, I said no problem to my friend and consulted my bookshelf. Now, I've been reading historical and paranormal romance -- not her bag. I've got some great Elizabeth Berg books and of course the incomparable Alice Hoffman. So, I grabbed those. But I knew that she called me because she wanted top shelf romance. I am, after all, a romance writer. And I realized there is a giant hole in the genre right now. Single-title, contemporary romance. Romance/women's fiction. Juicy, meaty, fun and satisfying. No vampires, no spymasters, no raunchy sex. There's Jenny, SEP and of course, Nora. But Jenny is writing romantic suspense that I'm not loving and SEP writes maybe a book a year. And, frankly, I haven't enjoyed a Nora book in a long time. Even one of my favorite "chick-lit" authors - Eileen Rendahl is coming out with romantic suspense. (But I loaned my friend Do Me, Do My Roots.)

I know I need to check out Susan Mallery, but Debbie Macomber doesn't do it for me, and who else is out there right now - lighting things up?

The pendulum has swung so so far to subgenre books that it's a waste-land in the other direction. Which, frankly has got to mean any moment now the pendulum will start it's long slow creep back to hearth/home contemporary style. I hope so, anyway. I really do.

And not just because I have this great idea for a book....

Celebrity Overload

Sorry about the late post. Two sick kids and a lack of sleep have made me really ineffective today.
Been trying to narrow down blog topics, but the one that keeps coming back to mind is the current obsession with celebrities.
Maybe it’s always been there, but it’s really only hit my radar in the past five years. And it seems to have hit a frenzy lately.

What does this have to do with writing?

Celebrity gossip is the only reading a lot of people do anymore. And I’d say most of the gossip is fictional, or arranged. A washed up pop singer releases an album and gets married/engaged within a week of the album’s release, giving her a lot of media exposure which helps sell albums. An actress is promoting a new movie, around the same time she starts to date a hot actor. Nicely convenient.
Why do people care?

Because it gives them a fantasy. Impossibly good looking people leading glamourous lives, wearing beautiful clothes in exotic destinations. Sounds like the tag line for Harlequin Presents.

We even have the ‘good’ celebrities and the ‘bad’ celebrities. The good being the mother’s who manage to lose the baby weight in three days, campaign for underpriviledged kids, all while ensuring they look perfect out in public, while holding their adorable moppets.
What’s never mentioned is the four nannies, several maids, cooks and personal trainers behind the scenes.

Then you have the ‘bad’ celebrities, the ones who get caught DUI, sleep around, and somehow decided that underwear was bad. What is never brought up is how much of this behaviour is done to get attention.

Celebrity magazines give us heroes and villains, all dressed up with glossy pictures of beautiful people.

We writers don’t have the advantage of glossy pictures, but we can make our heroes three dimensional and more real. We can find ways to give our readers escapism, but still ground our stories in some sort of reality.

And maybe soon this celebrity obsession will pass. Because I’m so sick of hearing about Brittany, Paris, Nicole, and almost everyone else.

Active Characters

I can't believe I'm going to blog about Survivor, today. But I am. And how does this classic reality TV show relate to writing?

Well, on pondering the outcome of the finale on Sunday night, I decided it was a perfect example of why we popular fiction authors write proactive protagonists.

For those of you not addicted to this show, (that I swore I would NEVER watch when I first heard the premise, but find more addictive than crack -- not that I've tried crack, just saying), the final two contestants were Amanda and Pavarti. Two very pretty girls who'd both been contestants on previous seasons and were part of the original "favorites" tribe.

I read a few blogs about the outcome and I think it's fair to say that most fans of the show expected Amanda to win. The final winner is based on a vote of the last 8 people voted off the show before them, and so it's expected that the players who have done the most backstabbing will lose, because the "jury" is raw from just being turfed off and often want revenge. That's the way this show normally goes -- the most liked player generally wins at the end -- and so the contestant who gets the power to choose who to take to that final vote with them, typically takes someone the others don't like, and that's what Amanda did in picking Pavarti. Pavarti had flirted with a bunch of the jury members -- men and women -- she'd lied to just about everyone, and she'd staged a coup against one of the most popular and powerful players, Ozzie, who was so angry he wouldn't even let her talk that night.

Now Amanda, in my mind, was no angel in the game. In her "confessional" interviews, (when it's just her and the camera), I thought it was pretty clear that she had a strategy and was pretty smart about the game and pretty smart about who to trust and who not to trust and how to keep people trusting her. She was good at the game.

BUT... In the final tribal council she made a huge mistake. She decided to play the innocence card. She sat there with her big brown eyes wide open and told people how trustworthy she'd been. How she'd been lucky to be in the right alliance. How she'd only lied to people she believed had lied to her. How she'd been really loyal to the people she'd given her word to.

While Pavarti took the opposite tack. She owned up to all her devious actions and, in fact, took more credit for the powerful "women's alliance" forming than I thought she deserved. I know we only see what the producers/editors want us to see, but it seemed to me that Cirie and Amanda were both pretty big players in orchestrating the amazing blindsides these girls pulled off. But Pavarti took the credit/blame. Even as everyone they'd tricked was spitting venom at her, she just sat there, didn't get defensive, and said, "Yes, I did it. I fooled and tricked you all."

And it worked. In spite of everyone saying how much they hated her, the majority of them voted for her to win the million.

Why? I think it was at least in part because Amanda cast herself as the passive character. The one who sits back and lets things happen to her. This let Pavarti take clear hold of the active role. The one who makes things happen.

And the cast, the jury, the people voting, didn't see what we'd seen at home. They hadn't heard Amanda scheming behind their backs as we had. They hadn't seen her taking action. (Except maybe with Erik, but that was so funny, no one except Erik would hold it against her.) So, they believed that Amanda had been passive most of the game and gliding along on the Pavarti ride. And they went with the woman of action.

And I took that as a good lesson for why readers like active characters.

See? It ties in.

Post Script (that I could probably fit in above if I weren't too lazy to do some editing, but I really must get back to my manuscript...)

This outcome was also a lesson about not letting your protagonist cry. I think Amanda's tears, that many took as false the night she chose Pavarti over Cirie, really worked against her. Fresh from seeing her acting job in tricking Erik, many questioned the sincerity of her tears, plus they made her seem weak. Now, I'm a big crier myself, but readers don't generally like their main characters to cry. Just saying.

Things To Do When The Writing Is Not Working....

So, as I mentioned, my current WIP has been the bane of my existence for the last few months. Nothing about this book was easy and I took a big chunk of time off in the middle of things to work out my aggression and try and get back on track and as I was working things out - I took some special notice of what I was doing and I thought I'd share it here.

First of all, I think for newer writers who perhaps have not finished a manuscript or have finished one that took them years to complete -- DO NOT STOP. DO NOT START THE NEXT BOOK. This becomes addictive - whenever the book gets hard (and it will, they always do, no matter what) it's simply too easy to drop it and start on the book that sounds so fresh and exciting in your head. You've got to push through - pushing through is the singular biggest learning experience in a writer's self-education. Nothing, I repeat, nothing is more important.

That said, I think if you've been around the block with your muse a few times. You've got some finished work making the rounds with editors and agents. You've finished books and you know you will finish the current problematic WIP -- I really think the best thing to do is Stop. Stop pushing through. It's time to think and do some unraveling. Go for some walks, do some reading outside the genre (or some fantastic reading inside the genre), talk with friends. Get out of your own head.

For me, I know with this current WIP my problem was plot and not enough of it. So, I had to stop writing these scenes that were going nowhere and doing nothing (all written while I thought I had to push through) and scrap about 75 pages and go back and plot. For those of you who are pantsers and you hit the wall -- try plotting -- not a lot just to get you past the hump.

If you've got plenty of plot, take some time to look at your characters. I find a lot of times when things get rough it's because I need my characters to change and grow and I have not set it up properly, so that beautiful moment of self-realization falls flat and I end up writing a bunch of boring scenes, when what I should have done is gone back to the first three chapters and feed in all those questions that I want my reader asking.

I also find myself running out of conflict. And when this was a real problem for me a few books ago -- I had this terrible love/hate relationship with chapters 4 and 5. I realize now, it's because I didn't have that plot point that made the external conflict tie to the internal conflict. That end of the first act jaw-dropper. IE - in A MAN WORTH KEEPING - Delia calls her ex husband to tell him to leave them alone. My hero hears this and chooses because of all that internal conflict not to get involved. His internal gets all tied up in her external -- keeps things moving.

If all this fails you can do what Sinead does which is murder someone. Or, do what I do -- throw in a kid. Or what we should all try and do is be more like Maureen who figures this stuff out a head of time.

Hope this helps and PLEASE what are some of your tricks?

When do you give up on a series?

Two series I was completely addicted to – the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, and the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. By series, I mean books with the same lead protagonists.

One is a sort of humorous contemporary with strong romantic elements and the other is a dark, violent, paranormal with strong romantic elements.
The elements these two series had in common were they were fast paced, and had amazing sexual chemistry, and funny enough, two strong male protagonists that the heroine had to choose between.

And, to me, they both went off the rails. For me, with the Stephanie Plum series, it was book eight, and for the Anita Blake series, book eleven. And both authors have released more in the series since, which have become bestsellers, so the general public disagrees with me. Hell, I have a good friend, who is still addicted.

But I felt with the Plum series the books just got repetitive and the Blake series, went in a direction I just didn’t buy. But to give Laurell K. Hamilton her due, at least she tried to move the characterization forward.

And hey, if a publisher was throwing buckets of money at me, I’m not sure I wouldn’t continue to write a series, even if I had run out of ideas.

For me, I’ll always compare each book to the best in the series, which means all the books that come after are disappointing to me.

Sucky for the author, but there you have it.

Otherwise I’m looking for inspiration. Wasn’t thrilled with the last episode of Battlestar and nothing else on TV right now has really hooked me in. And yes, Molly, I know I should be watching Lost again.

Writers helping writers

I read a blog post a few weeks ago that was summarizing a book called "Some Writers Deserve to Starve: Harsh Realities About Publishing" or something to that effect. Now, I haven't read the book, but it sounds like the basic thesis is that if you're not informed about the industry, then you deserve to starve.

Okay, kinda harsh, but I guess I agree. (But really, no one deserves to starve. Catchy title, though.)

I read through part of the summary on the blog and it sounds like has the structure of revealing various TRUTHS about publishing. I was skimming along, nodding my head, and then I crashed to a halt on one. The TRUTH was "writers rarely help other writers". All I can say to this is the author of this non-fiction book is either a person no one wants to help, or she's hanging with the wrong writers.

My experience in the five or so years I've been seriously pursuing a career as a writer has been quite the opposite. I’ve been blown away, from day one, at the amount of information, support and assistance other writers are willing to share.

Now, I suppose it depends on what kind of help someone expects.

If some newbie approaches a very successful and busy author with the first draft of their first ever manuscript, asks them to read it and is offended when said author will not a) read it, b) rewrite it, c) call her agent and insist said agent reps it, or d) call her publisher and threaten to move houses unless said publisher publishes this newbie's work... Well, if that's the kind of "help" people expect, then yes, I suppose that TRUTH is correct.

No writer is likely to offer that kind of help. But that’s not unique to writers. I mean, no one is willing to help people who expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. On the other hand, if someone has done their homework and has a specific and appropriate question or request for help, most writers are pretty nice people. If they can, they’ll help.

Sharing insights about the craft and industry. Encouraging writers to keep trying to get better. Encouraging writers to be persistent and do their homework and continue to submit and write better stories even in the face of rejection. I've found that kind of help and support abundant out in published author land. Such a gift.

And I think we trying-for-our-first-contract writers need to have some tact and apply good judgment in terms of how/when to ask for help. I've been lucky enough to have had help offered to me by several published authors who I've met, or who have read my work in contests or via critiques I won or purchased in auctions. I got a couple of referrals to great agents that way -- one of those referrals led to representation. But I didn't walk up to a published author I barely knew and say, "Hey, I'm a writer, too. Can you refer me to your agent?" No. I found an appropriate way to get my work in front of them and then they offered to help. Big difference.

Now, I do think there are times when it's appropriate to ask for help, too. I watched a good friend of mine, whose first book comes out this summer, as she went through the process of obtaining cover quotes for her debut. But this is appropriate. The way it's done. And again, watching her go through this process, the generosity of some very prominent authors was astounding. Not that it's just generosity. Her book is amazing. And it is good publicity for the quote-offering author... But still... Taking the time to read a debut novel and come up with a quote. Generous. That's all I'm saying.

Perhaps that's what it boils down to. If you follow the etiquette of the industry--pretty much common sense. If you aren't obnoxiously pushy. AND if you work hard to ensure that your product is the best you can create. THEN kindness and generosity will fall from the sky.

And someday you'll be in a position to pay it forward.

If You Haven't Done It Yet - Do It Now. Read Marjorie M. Liu and Joanna Bourne

I am really late to the dance on Liu - she's been building her Dirk and Steele Series for a few years and is, by now, a hugely-deserved, best-selling author. I crashed into the series with The Last Twilight, a shape-shifter human romance, that reads partly like an action-adventure, travel book and a comic book - with steamy love scenes tossed in.

There are a couple of things that AMAZE me about this woman's writing. Her depth of research is astounding and better yet, her use of that research is deft and subtle. No big chunks of info dump. No bulky, crappy 'you know Bob' dialogue. Nothing boring. Ever. If she didn't live in Africa -- I am stunned, really stunned. Too often great research results in bad books - Liu has not committed that sin.

In that same vein, she uses simple, careful, subtle world building. No long paragraphs about rules, or super powers. Nothing is told - it's all shown. Characters that can read minds -- guess what -- they just read minds. Characters that turn into cheetahs - she shows them morphing into cheetahs. People who can't die - that's right -- the bullets get pushed right back out of their skulls. There's no third chapter -- 'here's what we can do' scene. It's freaking amazing. She shows us everything - nothing is told. Her characters are just who they are - she makes a point of introducing them in scenes that reveal their core core nature. He's a cheetah running the streets of San Francisco and she's in a bar in Africa somewhere, arm-wrestling a soldier. That's good showing.

NO CLICHES. I think this was my biggest realization/amazement. Powerful, original writing. That was, for the most part, cliche free. And wow. You just don't read that in romance -- I know I'm not writing it. But I'm going to start trying harder, that's for sure.

Now, Joanna Bourne. The Spymaster's Lady is her recent debut and lucky lucky me, my agent is her agent as well and she got me an ARC of My Lord and Spymaster. I felt like a star! For those of you who might not know - these are top top shelf historical. Lots of action, lots of intrigue. No damsels in distress in these books, that's for sure. Well, they are actually, but they don't act like it. She breaks every historical convention about what a heroine should and shouldn't do and then goes to work on the men. So, for those of you longing for a historical with bite and miles away from any ballroom - here you go.

Again, her research is impeccable and subtle. Her settings, her plots and her characters are original. She is cliche-free too. Her writing - the bones of it -- beautiful. Time and time again she made me green with envy over some tiny turn of phrase, that was so perfect.

But it's her characters that shine. They burst on the page, fully formed, fully human, fully alive. We don't get backstory dumps, they just act in tune with their backgrounds and past.

Liu and Bourne have truly inspired me to push past my first ideas. Make hard decisions in my editing process, trust my reader, banish easy cliches. Work Harder. A few weeks ago I said that to succeed in this business you have to try and write better than the best romance you've ever read -- well, these two just upped the bar.

It Depends

Someone posted a question to one of the writer’s lists I’m on, actually, the only one right now. When should the hero and heroine meet? A bunch of people popped in with an answer and the first four answers were, immediately, definitely before the end of the first chapter. One answeree went on to say, she’d put down a book where the hero and heroine hadn’t met before the end of Chapter Three.

I’m pretty silent on this list, and remained that way, but in my head, I was waiting for someone to pop in with It Depends.

The answer to almost all writing related, general question is, for me, almost always, It Depends.

Finally, one, really successful and very smart author piped in with ‘it depends on the kind of book you’re writing’ answer.

Five years ago, I would have read the first answers and taken them as gospel. Three years ago, I would have piped in with the ‘immediately’ answer.

Now, well, the title of this blog answers the question. But really, the answer is whatever serves the story. And a lot of it comes down to the inciting incident.

Where does the story begin?

A short romance, would probably begin with the hero and heroine meeting and one, if not both, their worlds being thrown into chaos.
A paranormal romance, romantic suspense, even historical might have several plots running through the book. The hero and heroine might not meet till chapter six and if the book is written well, those six chapters would still be riveting and completely satisfying. It all depends on where the central plot begins.

If I pick up a book and the beginning is riveting, then I don’t care when the hero and heroine meet, as long as they do at some point.

Maybe the next time someone posts a question, I’ll pop in with a ‘It Depends’, probably the most frustrating answer to a question there is and the only these days that makes sense to me..

Welcome Marilyn Brant!

I heard some great news on Monday. Marilyn Brant, who won the Golden Heart in the "romantic elements" category last summer had SOLD HER MANUSCRIPT in a two book deal to Kensington!!! Now, some may think I'd have sour grapes at this. She did beat me out in the contest... She did sell before me... But if you ever have the pleasure of meeting Marilyn, you'll understand how it wouldn't be possible to be anything less than genuinely thrilled for her.

I asked her to guest blog about her first sale story. (First sale stories fuel my fantasies these days.) Take it away, Marilyn!

“It doesn’t have to be super long,” Maureen said when she graciously asked me to guest blog today. “I was thinking you could just tell your ‘first sale’ story for a bit.”

Nearly eight years sped by in my mental viewfinder at her words, stopping on the most memorable scenes from my writing odyssey--fast-forwarding to one and then lurching back to another, like some dreadfully mutated author-version of The Time Traveler’s Wife.

And I wondered, should I really try to condense my journey from Newbie Fiction Writer to Published Novelist in a handful of paragraphs when--let’s face it--I seriously suck at composing a 5-page book synopsis?

Hehhehhh! (That would be no.)

Okay, then. I briefly considered listing a bunch of pertinent facts about my writing background and letting you all conclude what you will, but I could too well imagine the reaction of Maureen, Molly and Sinead’s smart Drunk Writer Talk readers: “That Marilyn Brant person wrote SEVEN full manuscripts before she finally sold? She had to revise her According To Jane book FIVE TIMES before she could make it marketable? She’s, like, 40 and she STILL doesn’t ‘totally get’ GMC? Man, I’m not reading this blog post anymore. There’s gotta be something better on YouTube…”

So, I’m turning to an old standby--the wisdom of experienced writers. Because, when I lacked my own, their wisdom guided me through hundreds, quite possibly thousands, of rejection letters. And rejection emails. And rejection pitches. It saw me through group critiques where my novel’s opening was so somnolent that a few of my chaptermates were in danger of snoring. It supported me as I steadily worked my way from an aspiring romantic-comedy/women’s-fiction writer who’d never even heard of RWA…to a PRO member…to a GH winner…to someone who’ll soon have provisional PAN status. (And, incidentally, to a person who can now translate all of these industry-specific acronyms, which may be my biggest career achievement to date.☺)

The wisdom of which I speak basically boils down to something the wonderful Betina Krahn wrote to me this week in a note of congratulation: “Know that the world is a better place because of your dreams and the way you’ve worked diligently to achieve them.”

Sigh.

Her words resonated right to the heart of one of my deepest dreams--that from the moment I started this writing game, I DID want to help make the world a better place. I think most of us authors do. But I knew I couldn’t do it by cracking medical mysteries or leading a country through crisis or even baking anything that didn’t taste vaguely of too much vegetable oil.

I could, however, be emotionally truthful and share my observations and skewed worldview with others. I could scribble down plots that illustrated character growth, hoping the thoughts and actions of my heroines would be meaningful to someone else someday. And I could show by example that committing to following your dreams is not only a good idea but a vital one--the very cornerstone of personal happiness.

So, you see, although I wish I could do as asked and give a decent Cliffs Notes version of my “first sale” story, it’s not possible. Synopses really are a weakness of mine and, anyway, my real story has very little to do with a certain phone call on a special day. Like your “first sale” story is--or will soon be--it’s a lot more about those 2,812 days before it.

(Yeah, I counted…)

And, it’s also about where we choose to go from here.

Some Books Just Happen....

I've been really lucky. I've had three books in my career that just happened. They poured out of me and needed very little blood, sweat and tears to edit or polish. Baby Makes Three was one and the last of the Mitchell books, Worth Fighting For and then the book after that, out in December called The Son Between Them. The characters arrived pretty fully-formed. I had a pretty sound idea of all the stuff that needed to happen in the book and the stakes tied to it so my plot mattered to my characters. A couple of nudges in the right direction from my critique group and that was it.

I am realizing those books do not come free. They are not a gift from my cruel and unusual muse. I am paying for them right now.

This book - tentatively titled THIS F*&$)@^ BOOK - started with a roar and died. Died a terrible death at page 200. It's just lying there, barely breathing, not even trying to help.
But, I've had two interesting conversations with Dr. Sinead and I think (probably unbeknownst to her) we've got a diagnosis. We, at DWT, have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we do well. What we get, inherently. And what just comes part and parcel with our process. It's a very very good thing to know - if you haven't figured out, you should. Because you can capitalize on it, shine that function up so that it really works for you. And I've been doing that. I have lots and lots of emotional, character driven conflict in my books. Oh! The conflict!

However, in polishing up that, I've neglected what I don't do well. And, of course, been delighted to do so. But we were talking about Sinead's current WIP and a certain dilemma she had about motivation. I kept telling her to write in the scenes that show us the character creating the motivation. And she kept saying "I think I need a plot point to create the motivation. Attempted murder, or something."

And I realized that why my book is stalling is that there are just too many character scenes that further the plot so minutely that the book isn't dying - it's sound asleep from boredom. Stuff needs to happen.

We watched the very brilliant movie The Savages the other day. (Not funny, that movie. Not funny at all.) But everything that happened was so small, yet so huge. I don't need attempted murders - luckily. But I have to keep things rolling along with the right kind of plot for the book and characters. People standing around talking works to some extent, but every once in a while, you need whatever the equivalent of a car bomb is for your book.

So, this f*#%(&^ book is reminding me to work on what I'm bad at - plot and stakes. Have you figured out what you're bad at? Are you working on it?

Trying to read the future.

It’s funny, as I read Maureen’s post from Wednesday, I completely understood what the authors were trying to do in gathering info on each agent’s preference. A couple of years back, I probably would have been volunteering my efforts.

It seemed so much easier than doing what all the published authors suggested, which was ‘write a better book’. A couple of years later and I sort of understand what those pub'd authors meant. Know the industry as best we can. Know what new books are selling, know what the overriding trends are. Right now sexy seems to be selling across genre.

But otherwise, trying to figure out what agents are looking for is a losing proposition. It probably changes daily.

And one great book that really creates some buzz can re-invigorate a genre in the space of a few months.

Otherwise it’s like trying to read the future with some vague tea leaves at the bottom of a cup. Which is hard to accept when you really want to sell a book and the prospects seem really grim. When we get rejection after rejection and no real reasons given for why an agent or editor doesn’t like our book.

The only way to deal with those rejections is to start the next book. Really get excited about the next project, and not get bogged down with what the market wants or doesn’t want.

It’s the only thing that works for me. That and wine and chocolate..

Squeezing water from a stone

I belong to a couple of specialty chapters in RWA -- mostly because the women's fiction projects I've written fall outside the boundaries of the romance genre, yet I still love RWA and want to be part of the organization.

One of those chapters has started a very well-meaning initiative I think is fraught with problems at best, and is futile at worst. But in spite of several experienced and published members saying they think the project's a bad idea... many members (mostly newbies based on their posts) think it's an amazing one.

I started to write my third negative post about this idea on the loop and then thought the better of it, mostly because I've already said my piece there (as have several published authors including a NYT Bestselling one) and I think the overall message is worth saying more publicly and might generate some discussion if readers of this blog think I'm full of sh*t. (Which I often am.)

The project is to gather intel from rejection letters received by chapter members in order to determine agent/editor preferences. In particular, since this chapter is aimed at members with projects that aren't strictly romances, they want to identify agents/editors willing to look at stories that don't have a traditional HEA ending.

To me, the answer to that question is easy. If your book doesn’t have a HEA ending don’t submit it to a romance imprint, or to an agent who only reps romance. Your book isn’t a romance. There are plenty of houses and agents who rep commercial fiction that isn’t a romance. In fact, the pool is much, much bigger.

I think the most exciting thing for me when I started writing books that fell into the broad “romantic elements” category was that there were many more potential publishers and agents available to me. The number of agents who specifically do not rep romance is far greater than those who exclusively do. In fact, I'd wager there are less than a dozen who rep NOTHING but romance.

And as far as gleaning other insights based on rejection letters goes... I think it's hard to extrapolate much of anything based on comments an agent/editor made to a writer whose work you've never read. It's even hard with your own rejections or those of your critique partners. An agent might say, I don't like X, or there's no market for X, simply because it's the first thing or the easiest thing, or their standard thing to say when the real reason for rejection was "I didn't like it" or "it's not good enough to publish". The truth is sometimes harsh and agents in particular don't want to get a rep for being harsh, so they find nice ways to say things and often writers read too much into those nice things.

Also, agent's/editor's preferences can be a tad fickle and/or change over time. Fickle isn't fair. It's a subjective business and one that changes as the market ebbs and floes. Of course their preferences will vary and sometimes seem inconsistent. We've already had an example of this on the loop where one well-meaning member offered up that Agent X told her that she wouldn't ever rep paranormals at a conference... and another member piped up that Agent X had just signed her based on her paranormal. Things change. There are few absolutes.

On that note, I heard that Jennifer Enderlin told a crowd at some conference this winter she’d love to find a great western… So, I’ll bet that many agents who now say “no westerns”, mostly because they think no editors are buying them, will change soon their tune on that sub-genre. That certainly happened with paranormals over the past 3-4 years. And as someone who witnessed the chick lit boom... There were many agents who sent out rejection letters to some of the north american pioneers in this genre saying they hated books written in a first person voice, only to start signing a whole whack of authors who wrote in first person six months later.

I’ve heard an agent say at a conference that she’d never represent X, while knowing she’d just requested a full ms from a friend based on a partial that was full of X. (X in this case was graphic violence.) I also know an agent who turned down a now well-known author based on her less-than-sympathetic heroine, and then signed another based on a book with an even less sympathetic heroine.

My guess is agents/editors often state their preferences on panels, because they’re asked and have to say something, and to cut down on the volume of cr*p they get that contains X when X isn’t their favorite thing… But if they love a concept/hook and a writer’s writing, they will bend those preferences or discover they have new ones. Not that there isn't value to hearing them state their preferences... I just think those true preferences rarely show up in rejection letters.

I know it's frustrating for RWA members who aren't writing strictly romance to find agents/editors at RWA conferences who are interested in their work. But all it takes is five seconds on www.agentquery.com to learn that this is an advantage, not a disadvantage, in terms of the number of agents/editors willing to look at your work.

I’m sorry to the people who initiated this well-meaning project for sounding so negative. I laud the members who stepped forward to volunteer their time to do it. I just hate to see anyone waste their time trying to glean information from a source that has little reliable or objective info. I also hate to see newbies rely on unreliable information. As someone who has a stack of both, trying to ascertain agent/editor preferences from comments they made in rejection letters will simply never yield much. It’s like playing an old LP backwards in search of hidden meanings. Okay, not that bad… I’m getting carried away.

I might not have a contract yet, but I have been around the block a few times (a few more times than I’d like). And when I was starting out as a writer and submitting my first manuscripts, I was dying for the kind of information it sounds, on the surface, like this project could produce. I’ve simply come to believe that in a subjective business, such objective information simply does not exist.

Romantic Times Convention: It was the Best of Times It Was the Blurst of Times...

Sorry, I do not know how my husband's Simpson's reference slipped in there...

Anyway - back from RT and I think I've recovered enough to give a little summary of the sights and sounds. I was a part of a series panel and we learned that while many of the publishers suffered a slump the last two years, thanks to the US economy, Harlequin managed to gain a 2% increase in sales. Probably in large part due to the ebook transition. Lots of lines at Harlequin are buying - including a new Young Adult division of MIRA. These books won't come out like series, but more on a "we get a good book we will sell it" basis.

The conference is really really leaning towards writers these days and I heard it's because as a reader conference it just wasn't bringing in the number of readers that it used to. So, now they are pulling from the big pool of aspiring writers. I have NO clue how effective the workshops are.

There is a lot of cringe factor - for me, anyway. The male cover models and they way they are treated by the conference attendees is really a little gross. But there is also a lot of celebration of the genre. RT truly reflects what's hot in the genre - so there was lots of paranormal/erotica fans there and as such - lots of ebook fans.

My main feeling walking away is that it's like Star Trek writers going to Comiccon. There are three thousand rabid fans at that conference, who will dress up in Spock ears and only speak Vulcan. But Star Trek has a viewership of millions - and the same is true about RT. The average romance reader and certainly, my average reader or the series romance average reader was not there.

But fairies, vampires and voracious readers of the genre were very well represented.

Jessica Andersen and J.R. Ward at RT

In lieu of me actually doing a post this week. I will next week, I promise.

Read this post from the Smart Bitches.

I had the pleasure of having dinner with Jessica Andersen last year when I went to the NEC conference. She's repped by the same agency as I am (Maureen name drops) and she is a lovely, smart, down-to-earth person who is a very successful writer for Silhouette, and the first title in her Nightkeepers series for NAL comes out this June. Can't wait. I've never met her oh-so-famous-now-and-wonderful critique partner J.R. Ward, but as readers of this blog know... we're all big fans, and it sounds like the two J's did a pretty amazing talk at RT. Boy, I wish I'd been there.

Sinead and I are cheering for Molly this week who has gone to RT to speak on a panel and accept her second (HER SECOND) RT Reviewers choice award. Yeah, Molly!

Our good friend Eve Silver/Eve Kenin is also accepting two awards this year! One for Silver and one for Kenin. You go girls!

Blogeriffic II

Hey more blogging fun! This time over at Love Is An Exploding Cigar. Join me!

Hate mail, bravery and Suzanne Brockman

Hey sorry this is so late. The New England Conference was incredible. Yet another small regional conference that I would totally recommend for those authors looking for the conference experience without the Nationals insanity. NEC is a smaller conference than New Jersey, but they have huge caliber authors in their ranks and so they have really interesting workshops. One of those authors is Suzanne Brockman.

I didn't know any more about Suzanne than what she puts out there in her books. She obviously has an incredible work ethic, a passion for research. A mutated gene somewhere that allows her to plan a fiction series out to the like the 40th book. She lives around Boston. Her husband has started writing. One of her sons is gay.

Jules Cassidy, a gay FBI character she created about a million books ago, she claims has been her most popular character. He keeps showing up and showing up and I imagine as her son and her family became more plugged into gay rights, politics and love affairs, the bigger Jules storyline. Until finally, in a mainstream heterosexual blockbuster romance novel, Jules got a love story. A love story that grew and morphed and became it's own book and then grew and morphed more and became it's own Novella that featured a gay marriage.

You can imagine there are people out there who hate this. Who now hate her. And because she has a website and a button people can click to get in touch with her - they let her know. She gets hate mail.

I've gotten three letters from people who say they will never read another one of my books, because of something I've written about or something that was on my website. And these three letters have tormented me. It just kills me that there are people out there who are so angry with something I wrote they took the time to tell me I suck and they wouldn't be buying any more of my sucky books. Three letters.

I can't imagine how many Suzanne has gotten. Or how vicious or mean or personal. Obviously, she cares deeply about this issue as it pertains to the health and happiness of her son. And frankly, I think it speaks volumes about her gifts as a storyteller that she gets more letters that say "thank you for writing about this." But still - she put herself out there. And she's staying out there.

I was just really blown away by how brave she is.

Sarah Connor Chronicles

Another rainy, cold day. My fellow drunk writers are attending the New England conference, hopefully having a great time.

Me, I’ve been catching up on some of the stuff I’ve had saved on my PVR(TIVO in the States) forever. One of which was the last three episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
It’s taken me forever to watch them, because I wasn’t completely enthralled with the first part of the season. And I just figured out why,

It was very straightforward. Pretty much every one’s seen the movie, so you know the basic premise. Women on the run, trying to keep her son alive when machines from the future keep trying to kill him.

And the TV series started with that premise and didn’t really expand on it tremendously. The same number of main characters, Sarah, her son, and the good terminator sent back through time to help them stay alive. Too few characters, and only one major plotline to fill 13 episodes. It felt too sparse and I sort of lost interest. Plus, there was no mystery to the storyline. No major unsolved questions, that really fired my imagination.

Then in the last three episodes, new characters, new plotlines, and a ‘what’s in the basement’ mystery that will keep me watching for several more episodes.

I have the season ending episode left to watch and based on the strength of the previous two episodes, I’m anxious to see it.

And I’m starting to formulate a theory on the best storytelling in the suspense genre. It either has a monster at the window, or a mystery that drives the narrative, but I’ll save that for another day.

Conference Bound

I'm off to the New England Chapter's writers' conference this weekend outside of Boston.

In my first couple of years writing I can't tell you how inspiring, encouraging and simultaneous demoralizing I found writers' conferences. Inspiring when new light bulbs about craft and storytelling went off, encouraging to get requests for my work, and share war stories with other writers, but the demoralizing part was realizing how many other talented people shared my dream and how few of us would actually realize it. Humbling to say the least. That's a better word than demoralizing. **Maureen slaps herself upside the head.**

Then I had my winter-o-conferences -- the year I decided I was going to pitch to as many of my top choice agents as I could stalk at regional conferences. I was very focussed. Sure, I also went to some workshops at those conferences and learned a few interesting things, but mostly it was about the pitching and the networking and I did come out of that year with an agent. Yippee!

Now... while I'm stuck in this limbo place of having an agent but not yet having a publishing contract, I struggle to come up with rationalizations for spending money on conferences. Yet... somehow I manage.

This weekend I'm going to support my CP and buddy Molly O'Keefe who's a speaker and doing a booksigning. I'm also going to support and catch up with the very funny and talented Eileen Cook who I knew on-line long before we finally met in person -- at a conference. I'm also going to schmooze (and booze?) with a whole whack of TKA clients like the lovely Marley Gibson (who also writes as Kate Harmon), and Kwana Jackson, and Jessica Andersen and many more. And, I've also scored a breakfast meeting to pick the brains of the amazing Deidre Knight whose not only the president and founder of the agency I'm with, but is also a great writer (and a client). (That always sounds like those old Hair Club for Men commercials to me. LOL) Can't wait.

Do you go to conferences? Why or why not?

Blogeriffic!

Hey guys! I am guest blogging over with the debs at The Debutante Ball! Come join me there!

Stuff happens - or is supposed to

It’s Friday. Season Four of Battlestar starts today, so even though it’s rainy and dark outside, it’s a good day. And apologies for the rambling. The coffee I just drank has not hit my system yet.

In a drunken rant about writing one night, I yelled out, so the whole pub could hear, I want to read books where sh!t happens. I think I might also have followed that up, it’s not difficult.

But really it is. Getting meaningful events on each page, is freakin’ hard. More so, when also adding conflict, sexual tension and poignancy.
It’s been top of mind lately, because I’ve surrounded myself with really good storytelling. A new historical, Joanna Bourne, The Spymaster’s Lady, read it, you will not be disappointed, especially if you love historicals. I’ve replayed the first three seasons of Battlestar, rewatched 3:10 to Yuma and now my head is filled with great storytelling.

It doesn’t have to be big stuff, but it has to be intensely meaningful to the characters involved. And lately I can tell when I don’t have enough stuff happening, because I stretch scenes out, add conversations that don’t tell us enough and generally slow my pace down to a crawl.

The stuff happening thing is largely a voice issue. Some incredibly talented authors can take one big thing and make it the focus of three, fascinating chapters, while other authors might have five events happening in one chapter. It all works as long as the storytelling works.

I’ve been trying to work the ‘stuff happens’ saying into something actually useful. So far no luck.

I know when I’m reading a book and the writer didn’t have enough stuff happening to fill her page quota. Then we get repeated scenes, but in a new POV, or a tacked on suspense plot, (see every historical romance put out between 1985 and 1995), or long, slow descriptions.

So far all I have on the stuff happens thing is, there is constant forward momentum in both character and plot, and a page that doesn’t do this has no purpose being in the story.

I’ll be more careful what I yell out during the next drunken writer rant.

Romance Instruction Manuals

Today I'm stealing ideas from other people again. What's new...

But something that the wonderful Margaret Moore said in a comment to Molly's last post really struck a chord with me -- and I love when new light bulbs go off--mixed metaphor much?--especially when they give me more great ammunition for defending the romance genre to naysayers.

Fiction isn't meant to be a how-to manual. It's not supposed to be life. It's supposed to be bigger and better and way more interesting than life. Otherwise, why would we enjoy reading it?

People forgetting this, is one of the reasons that the romance genre comes under so much criticism and derision. Real men aren't like your heros. People don't fall in love that quickly. It's all fantasy. Women who are pretty realize they are. Just a few examples of criticisms I've heard of the genre.

The disadvantage romance has in defending itself against these types of critics is that most people have experienced falling in love at least once and therefore they think they deserve to have an opinion about what happens in your FICTIONAL story. Whereas... not too many of us have been involved in a murder mystery, or a war in outer space, or a terrorist plot to blow up the world, or fighting off monsters -- and I don't know you, but I've never tracked or been tracked by a serial killer. (That I know of.)

But at the same time, this "disadvantage" is an advantage and why the genre is the most popular of all popular fiction genres. People have lived it and want to relive the feelings and emotions of falling in love, but in a better than real life situation that holds their interest.

That's what it's all about. (At least this is what I think, today.)