I’ve always considered myself a bit of a renaissance woman. I like exploring new hobbies and becoming proficient at them. Some, I let fall off over time (like knitting). Others stick with me.
I’m a pretty good cook. I grew up with my grandmother and we were usually pretty broke. Most of the time, what we ate was from scratch. What choice did we have, you know?
So, I went from having a pretty-broke childhood to a definitely broke college experience and transitioned from there into a paycheck-to-paycheck existence for the first few years of my marriage. I learned to get creative with food because we ate some pretty cheap stuff.
Later, money was less tight, and I bought better stuff. Better ingredients. Fancy gourmet items. A good knife and cutting board.
I was awesome. Adventurous, even, when it came to food. I have a pile of cookbooks like you wouldn’t believe.
Then stuff happened.
I had kids. We moved. Publishers started acquiring my books. My days became less regimented…
And so I started cheating. Saturday, I was in Safeway and had a coupon, and so I bought this:
Yeah.
I didn’t even have to cook the pasta. I just steamed the broccoli and dumped in the noodles and sauce.
Kids ate it.
Do I feel guilty about it?
Yeah. Yeah, I do. The ingredient list is as long as my palm.
But, the truth is, ever since we moved in December 2011, I’ve been in a state of severe disorganization. Even keel? What’s that? I’ve meal-planned perhaps twice in a year. I’m lucky to heave meat defrosted by the day I need to cook it. I guess…between the disruption my writing process causes and the fact my kids complain about WHATEVER is on their plates 50% of the time, I’ve stopped trying so hard.
All those fantastic quiches and cakes I used to make?
*blows raspberry*
Maybe when both kids are in school–we’ve got a while to go with the not-quite-3-year-old–I’ll pick up some of my old hobbies. For right now, I’m still trying to work out my balance. This working-from-home stuff is kind of discombobulating. If you’ve figured out the tricks to this, I’d love to hear them!
(Especially mine. They probably read my marketing worksheets and sigh until they faint.)
Anyhow, some sweetie pie nominated My Nora‘s cover for a Swirl Award!
The Swirl Awards recognize contributions to multicultural and interracial romance. I guess My Nora counts as a contribution, campy as it is.
If you’d like to vote for this cover as one of the best of 2012, the website has an easy two-click voting process and you can vote once per day until June. Check out some of the other great art while you’re there and also take a peek at the book finalist list.
My Nora‘s in there as well as my Christmas novelette Boughs of Halle. Godspeed to the judges! May you laugh more than groan.
Usually I know what the next thing I’m going to write will be before I’m done with my work in progress. I may even have the character sketches and a loose synopsis written up.
Right now, though, I’m at a complete loss as to what I should be working on. I guess I’m in a weird place. My 2013 release calendar is filling out nicely, and I don’t feel so desperate to submit anything right now. Therefore, I haven’t written anything new in about a week.
Still, this is supposed to be my day job and I can’t not write, so let’s itemize the options.
-I just finished reviewing line edits on my May paranormal romance Love by Premonition. I started a spin-off last year, but the hook is a dud. I need to re-do the beginning. I’m not sure how yet, so until I fix that, I can’t make any progress on it.
-I just finished second edits on my October erotic contemporary Calculated Exposure. That book has a spin-off coming, but I need some distance from those characters before I can start it.
-I just submitted the first title in a paranormal romance trilogy. I haven’t started the second book yet because I really need a green light on that sucka. It’s a little bawdy. It’s a romance with a snarky urban fantasy voice…and a demon daddy who’s hellaciously obnoxious. I need to see if I can get away with it.
-My Natural Beauty series is on hold until I’m ready to expand the world. As of right now, Clean Slate (coming April) will be the last story in that series for a while.
-I so don’t feel like writing a holiday story right now. (That was what I actually had on my writing calendar for March.) I keep trying to get up the holiday energy. Nope. I spun Mrs. Roth’s Merry Christmas off so Gillian’s assistant Terry got a story, but Terry’s not speaking to me loud enough right now. I’m about six pages in on that story and flailing.
-I could start something completely unrelated to any of the series I’ve got going, but I’d need to add a new publishing house to do that. Since I’ve got queries out right now, I don’t want to do that. Working with too many publishers would be like having a whole bunch of wild children to manage, each with different needs. I like having brown hair. I don’t want it turning gray anytime soon.
So…I dunno. I guess I’m out of the groove. Lots to think about. While I ponder silently in my corner, here’s a picture of me in a shamrock shirt. Maybe that four-leaf clover will do me some good.
Do you scan book blurbs for setting info? I do. Not gonna lie. If an author reveals a book is set somewhere in the South, I’m 50% more likely to take a closer look. If it’s set in North Carolina? Heck, I start reading sample pages.
I’m intrigued by settings. I’m one of those readers who likes to feel like the setting is a character in the story. While I’m reading, I surf Wikipedia to find out more about places (assuming they’re real) and often keep a Google map open.
I asked my friends to tell me about their book settings, ’cause I’m that kind of nosy. They’ve kindly obliged me. First up is Vonnie Hughes on her former stomping grounds.
Waitakere Hills – New Zealand, Courtesy Vonnie Hughes
Vonnie says:
“I’m a New Zealander, so even though I’ve spent the last eleven years in Australia, I still know New Zealand better than I do Australia. So I tend to set my romantic suspense novels in New Zealand.
“The land outside the cities is deceptive. Many a traveler has discovered that the meek and mild temperate weather changes in the blink of an eye, and that the gentle looking mountain peak in the distance hides crevasses and unclimbable escarpments. Likewise the placid rivers (“creeks”) can turn into raging rivers after only a day’s torrential rain. It might be one of the safest countries in the world when it comes to dangerous animals (there aren’t any) and be peopled with friendly folk, but like most inhabited places, Man is the main predator.
“Hence my first romantic suspense/thriller published by The Wild Rose Press. It’s called Lethal Refuge and has all the elements of quintessential New Zealand as its setting.
“There’s the impenetrable bushland (a lot of the countryside is clothed in tight-knit trees and bushes so that a person gets lost every easily. It can be deceptive). I have attached a picture of the setting of Lethal Refuge to give you some idea of how idyllic the Waitakere Hills outside Auckland can look. Then look closer and you’ll see that after you’ve ventured six or eight steps into the bushland, you can become disoriented with the flick of an eyelash.
“Lethal Refuge deals with the apocryphal New Zealand witness protection unit which has been compromised to the extent that no one—not the team psychologist, members of the unit’s committee, even the police team involved—are safe. Most of all, the relocatees, many of whom have testified against criminals, are in the worst danger, because someone knows their secrets and he’s killing to ensure his own safety.”
About Vonnie Hughes’ Lethal Refuge
LETHAL REFUGE is set in New Zealand. Celie Francis is plunged into the witness protection program (the Unit) after witnessing the aftermath of a murder. There, she is expected to trust complete strangers with her life, and trust is not something Celie does well after being abandoned as a child.
Brand Turner, the psychologist for the Unit, demands trust from the relocatees so he can ease them into their new identities, but someone inside the Unit is leaking information. He and Celie are menaced and they go on the run. Should Celie trust Brand with her life?
Vonnie Hughes is a Jill-of-all-trades (seriously!) and a New Zealander at heart. She writes contemporary romantic suspense and regency historicals. Chat with her on Facebook check out her backlist at Goodreads.
True story: back before I reinvented myself as a writer, I was an office flunkie. My very first job out of college was as the administrative assistant in an executive recruitment firm (later, I was the “administrative office manager” – that meant I was the lucky duck who put up signs in the bathrooms reminding people to flush). That business was a start-up. On my first day on the job, there were no filing systems in place, and in a business where being able to cross-reference information was so critical, that was kind of a priority.
I’m the poor slob who set up, troubleshooted, and refined the filing system. Pretty much everything has gone electronic now, but the same principles apply. Where do you file stuff so you can actually FIND it?
This post comes on the heels of a bunch of writers I know asking how everyone else managed their manuscripts. I thought I’d share my madness.
The Hierarchy
First, I have a top-most folder I shortcut in my Mac dock. It’s called “Manuscripts.” Basically, that’s everything that has to do with my fiction writing.
When I open it, it looks like this:
Note folders such as “Sons of Gulielmus.” That’s a project that hasn’t been contracted yet. When someone acquires it, it’ll move into the…
Contracted folder!
Because I work with multiple publishers, each house has its own sub-folder for more efficient sorting. Within a publisher folder, the next level of the hierarchy is the project name.
I currently have two projects contracted by Lyrical Press, thus two folders.
Now, from there you can see the hodgepodge of stuff that goes into each project file. Here’s the folder for Sold As Is (my Crimson Romance novel):
There, you see contracts, marketing forms, all my various drafts, and I’ve bumped cover art and promo graphics into their own folder.
I don’t keep every single draft of a story. After the final version is submitted, I tend to clean up a bit and clear out earlier drafts UNLESS I think I need some snipped information later for a spin-off or maybe even a whole new story. I use the Greek alphabet to track my drafts so I know which is the newest. So, with Sold As Is, my file names would have been something like Sold As Is Alpha.docx, Sold As Is Beta.docx, Sold As Is Gamma.docx, and so on.
If you scroll back up to that first image, you see I also have a “Self Published Titles” folder, and that’s organized internally the same way as my “Contracted” folder. The “Trunked” folder? That’s stuff I’m not ready to throw in the towel on, but don’t have time to tinker with right now. That’s where the fantasy trilogy I’ll be working on later this year is living.
I guess that file cabinet flunky job came in handy for something, huh?
If you haven’t worked out a filing system yet, give it some thought before you become too prolific. The last thing you want is for an editor to ask for some form you could have sworn you sent back already, but you can find no evidence of on your computer.
…but feeling a little shy this morning. I’m still waiting for it to come out and play nice at Amazon and Kobo, but it’s already warming up bar stools at All Romance eBooks, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. (Okay, to get the bar stool reference, you have to know the hero, Patrick, is a pub owner.)
I’m excited about this series. It’ll be five complete love stories with one major overarching plot. The next installment will come in May, so I won’t keep you waiting too long for a Shrew fix.
And this weekend only, TPwP is on sale at Amazon (whenever it goes up…) and Barnes and Noble! It’ll be a wallet-squeezing 99¢. On Monday, the price will creep up to $1.99 when nobody’s looking. I’m doing a little promo with three other writers of IR/MC fiction, so here’s your chance to try a new author or grab something cheap from someone you like!
Check out these great deals:
From Melissa Blue: Everything He Dreamed, $2.99 $0.99
From LV Lewis: Fifty Shades of Jungle Fever, $2.99 $1.49
It’s Read an Ebook Week at Smashwords, and lots of authors are offering stories at a discount or free. Through March 9, you can download my sexy second chance romance novelette Reinstated Bond in pretty much any format of your choice.
Got a Kindle or Nook? Read books on your smartphone? Did you know you don’t have to use your device’s store to buy ebooks? You can download books from vendors like Smashwords and All Romance eBooks and transfer the files to your device. You may have to go through an extra step (such as emailing the file to yourself), but it’s a great way to get freebies not priced as nice at the big stores.
So, give it a try this week. And if you enjoy Reinstated Bond, I’ll have another sassy, sexy novella for you on Friday. And guess what? It’s paranormal!
MJ’s been a 5W victim before. She visited back in December and told us about her Crimson Romance release Taken by Storm. Now, she’s dipping a big toe into the self-publishing pond, and since I have a raft on it myself, I thought it was time she came back. I love hearing about how authors diversify.
Writers have to throw out a bunch of lines to stay on top. Movie stars just go out wearing hideous dresses if they want a fresh infusion of attention from the press. But romances writers? We have to be everywhere at once. We can wear ugly dresses if we want, but paparazzi probably aren’t standing to document it. Bummer.
So, let’s jump on the tour bus and see what Mary has to say about her rock star romance, Trapped Under Ice!
WHO are your main characters?
Chad Evans, rock star. Chad is frequently on edge, keeps himself apart from the others. Tall, lean, muscular, looonng legs, long, curly, dirty-blond hair, mustache and goatee. Leather strap at wrist, silver rings on long fingers. Long face that doesn’t contain your usual pretty boy features, but he absolutely oozes sex appeal. Anger always seems to bubble just under the surface, but he’s a good guy, just kind of lost.
Beth Donovan, lunch lady/romance writer. She’s the anti-Chad. Sweet, kind, smart, witty, sexy. Blonde with killer eyes. Shapely. Nice dresser. Loyal to her friends. Loving mother. Giving person. With all this, if you look hard, you can see hints of her sadness.
WHAT tropes do you utilize in the story?
Love at first sight. Two different worlds colliding (trope?) [Holley says, "That's a trope. I swear it is."]
WHEN is the story set and how long does it take to resolve?
Set in this general era. Takes place within a 6-8 month time period.
WHERE is the story set and why’d you choose that setting?
It is set all over the place, St. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, New York, New Jersey, Bloomington, IL. These are locations that Chad is when he is on tour and Beth’s home town of Bloomington.
WHY did you write this story?
I am a huge rock music fan. This is sort of my fantasy put to paper. I like the idea of a tortured soul, or two tortured souls, finding redemption in love.
HOW is this story different than the last one you wrote?
My last book, TAKEN BY STORM, is set in a fictional country resembling ancient Persia. It is about a prince and a sheepherder’s daughter. So, as you can see, vastly different. But there are similarities between the main characters. Both heroines have suffered, in different ways, and have reason to distrust their hero. Both heroes have also suffered and are at a loss as to what to do with their unfamiliar feelings for their heroine. But Tahj is much more contemplative where Chad is a man of action. Actually Chad is more likely to act first, think later. Bashea is headstrong and determined where Beth is easy to get along with, though still, determined.
Thanks for having me on today, Holley! It was fun to really look at my characters here. Your questions bring out information that other interviews haven’t.
**
You got it, MJ! I’m intrigued by rock stars. Especially the ones that look a little dirty.
ABOUT Trapped Under Ice
Rock star Chad Evans’s tortured past hides just beneath the surface. Even fans screaming out his name in ecstasy can’t drown out the screams of his childhood. He can usually keep it under control, but not always. Tonight the alcohol doesn’t seem to soothe.
Part of the crowd, Beth Donovan smiles, really enjoying herself for a change. But her smile isn’t usually this bright. It is the kind of smile that masks sorrow. Three years just isn’t long enough to get over losing Paul.
When a vicious attack behind stage brings this unlikely pair together, something changes inside of them both. But can a jet-setting superstar and a Midwestern lunch lady ever manage a real relationship? And even if they can, will the person sending Chad death threats take it all away? Or is it their fate to remain forever trapped under ice?
FROM Trapped Under Ice
Chad rang the doorbell, nerves making him tug at his shirt sleeves to straighten his shirt. Everything had to go just right tonight. Beth opened the door and light fell on the porch. “Damn!”
She laughed. “My, you do have a way with words.”
“Let me see this!” He whistled, stepping in and circling around her so he could get the full effect. Beth had on a longer emerald dress, with four straps crisscrossing her upper back before plunging downward and long slits gliding up her legs. Again, her hair was swept up, making her neck seem so much more inviting. He returned to face her, admiring her from the front. He laughed. “I’m sorry, it’s just…damn!” He shook his head.
“Oh stop,” she mumbled, her face flushing as she hit him with her handbag.
“I love the way you blush.” Chad touched her hot face and gave her a kiss.
When he pulled away, she blurted out, bubbling over, “I’m so excited. So where are we going?”
“Ah-ah-ah. Not yet. You need to wear this.” He pulled a silky, black scarf from his suit pocket.
“Ooooh. What kind of kinky thing am I in for?”
“You little vixen!” Chad gave her a sharp swap on the derrière. He positioned himself behind his date again and brought the scarf over Beth’s head to tie it behind her as a blindfold.
“What are you up to?” she asked coquettishly.
Chad leaned into that tantalizing neck, annunciating each word in her ear with a seductive whisper, “Try not to anticipate.” Then, unable to resist, he kissed her there.
She squirmed with delight. “Oooh. That’s so much better when I can’t see you.”
“Uhhh…is that supposed to be a compliment? ‘Cause, it doesn’t sound like one.”
“Oh, silly. You know what I mean.” She tried to reach for him. “I can’t find you to kiss you,” she whined in frustration.
“That’s part of the fun,” he teased, his voice now coming from in front of her. “Okay,” he continued, leading the way, “you need to take a step down onto the porch. Where’s your key?”
“In my bag.”
He took her handbag and locked the door. As he moved her toward the steps, another arm supported her on the right. “Wow, Beth! You look fantastic.”
“Thank you, Pete. So he roped you into this, too?”
“No rope needed. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
Chad shot his usually tightlipped bodyguard a warning look, which Beth, of course, could not see. After the two men got her safely in the limousine and closed the door, Pete commented, “If you don’t propose to her, I will.”
“Just you try it, old man,” he returned with a grin.
I was born in the heart of Tornado Alley, and I’ve been a bit mixed up ever since. Not really, but I’ve always wanted to use that line. The medical community has established no solid connection between the place of my birth and my off-beat personality.
I grew up in St. Louis and graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a degree in English education. I left the workforce, however, when my kids were born. Unbelievably I now have an eighteen year old and sixteen-year-old triplets! Yes, I write to escape teenagerdom. Although I love them dearly. I also escape via rock concerts and karaoke. My first book, TAKEN BY STORM, was published by Crimson Romance last fall, and my next book, the second in the ROCKING ROMANCE COLLECTION, titled ABANDON ALL HOPE will be coming soon!
My first car was cherry red 1990 Chevy Cavalier with manual transmission. It was used when I got it. I can’t say how used without giving my age away (that’s a carefully-guarded secret). I will say, however, that it was so used it was sold without warranty: “Sold As Is” the sticker said.
Granny and I didn’t know a damned thing about stick shift, so she asked a neighbor to take it on a test drive. It was all right. Didn’t fall apart on the road.
One day, I went to school and came home to find my grandmother had sealed the deal. I think the sticker price was like $4,000. Looking back, that was kind of a rip off because months later the car needed an extensive radiator repair. The next year, part of the transmission fell out when I was driving to Alabama. Alone. Ended up stranded on a roadside in the boonies (that’s a story I need to tell one day).
Anyhow, for as much frustration as that P.O.S. brought me, it was my first, and I had a lot of good times with it/in it/because of it. That Cavalier, and the little used car lot in Edenton it came from, were part of the worldbuilding in my romantic comedy Sold As Is (available now). The story is set in part on a fictional car lot called Archie’s A-1 Autos, where the heroine Mandy is forced to work because of being fired from her job in a clothing store.
I mean, what a miserable job that must be for someone who doesn’t know a thing about cars, right? And for someone who’s exceedingly honest and would hate to put someone in a lemon (like I got)? Awful. That’s why Mandy can’t sell anything.
And it’s why when she takes the governor’s son on a test drive, it’s him doing all the selling…and I don’t mean the car.
Now, while this book is technically a romance with a definite HEA, if you take the romance away, there are still a couple of subplots that kind of stand on their own. It’s definitely not the traditional romance novel! It’s snarky, a bit erotic, and has a BIG-ASS, CRAZY CAST. It’s a plot-driven romantic comedy. That’s what it is, and this is me owning up to it. Boom!
Thanks to editor Jennifer Lawler at Crimson Romance for not having me committed over this one. It was a wild ride writing it, that’s for sure. Even I snort on occasion while reading it in a total “I can’t believe I wrote that” kind of way.
Today’s sneak peek comes from my next release, Sold As Is. It’ll actually be available tomorrow! It’s a very sexy romantic comedy (which means there are subplots and secondary characters out the wazoo). The stars are a hapless used car saleswoman named Mandy McCarthy and the governor of North Carolina’s gearhead son–Aaron Owen. Their first meeting comes with some bumps. Literally. He accidentally knocks her over.
Here’s the aftermath:
***
“I’m sorry,” the dark–haired baritone said. He cringed to reveal perfectly straight white teeth and bent down with a hand extended to aid her up.
Mandy rubbed her sore neck and gawked up at him from the ground her ass had smacked after he’d bumped her. She knew that face.
“I was just looking for some help.” He hooked his thumb in the direction of the back lot when she didn’t take his hand. “I parked back there and was talking to your tow guy for a few minutes while he smoked. He told me to come back up to the trailer to get some sales help since your meeting was over. Please let me help you up. I don’t usually go around knocking pretty girls on their rears.”
His voice was like molten lava: thick, deep and bearing a hint of a drawl that marked him a true native. Lord have mercy, he could read the McDonald’s dollar menu and sound like hot, dirty sex. She cleared her throat and blinked at him. God forbid he say anything scandalous or else she would probably melt into a little puddle there at his feet, just like all the other girls did. That was the problem: she didn’t want to be like all the other girls. Begging for crumbs of attention at a man’s feet had never been her style, and she wasn’t going to start then. Not even for that man, prize that he was.
She put her hand in his when he offered it once more and allowed him to pull her gracefully up to her feet.
“There you go.” He smiled and let his rough hand linger around hers, and she allowed it because she’d experienced a mental disconnect between what she’d expect and what reality turned out to be.
**
This book is full of over-the-top humor and bawdy language. When I wrote it, I guess I was feeling pretty darn silly, ’cause it definitely shows! It’ll be available everywhere fine e-books are sold, and eventually in print.
