Winnah, Winnah, Chocolate Dinnah!

Hi, all. Suze here. We have a winner in last week’s Valentine’s Day Giveaway: Gail Ingis! Gail, I’ll contact you to make arrangements to get you your prize.

I have lots going on this week so I thought it would be fun to let you know what I’m reading right now. Yes, I tend to flit from book to book and usually have several going at once. How do I choose which one to read? It largely depends on (1) where I set the book down last, and if I can find it again (sometimes not for days/weeks/months later!); (2) whether my Nook is charged; and (3) whether I can get the iPad away from the teenaged Crown Prince so I can use the Kindle App. Here’s what I finished this week:

Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly. (Ebook, Nook) This is a wonderful little cozy mystery that just hit the NYT Bestseller list and is the first in a new series. It’s about an American woman who travels to Ireland to learn about her heritage, and ends up finding a home. It’s a little bit darker, a little bit slower paced (and slower paced is not always a bad thing!), and a lot more introspective than most cozies. Loved it!

Nameless Cowboy/Cowgirl Romance by unnamed author. (Mass Market Paperback) Honestly, I did not love this book. In fact, I didn’t love it enough that I’m not going to tell you what it was about or who wrote it (nobody I know personally, BTW!). I will say that this is by a prolific author, and lots of other people apparently don’t agree with me because it has sold lots and lots of copies. So, to each his own! But I’ll be giving this one back to the person who lent it to me, with no regrets.

Manuscript Written by a Friend. (Word doc, on computer) One of the things we writers do for each other is read and critique each other’s manuscripts. I finished one this week–with just a little bit of polish, this is ready to go out into the world. It’s a romantic suspense, fresh with a fun premise, and with a great heroine and a sexy Portuguese hero. I predict a sale this year!

Now that I’ve told you what I finished this week, here’s what I have in progress:

Penelope (A Madcap Regency Romance), by Anya Wylde. (iPad, Kindle app) I’ve fallen a bit in love with this indie-pubbed Irish author (just a coincidence, btw, all the Irish stuff in this post!) since I read her previous book, The Wicked Wager (A Regency Murder Mystery & Romance). These books are great fun, a bit offbeat, and only 99 cents each–so I recommend picking them both up if you like historicals/regencies. In fact, everybody go buy them, read them, and report back here with questions/comments in a few weeks, when I’ll be interviewing Anya!

Wedding Day Murder, by Leslie Meier. (Mass Market Paperback) This is another cozy mystery by a veteran author. I can’t get enough of Lucy Stone and the inhabitants of Tinker’s Cove, Maine. I’m reading this series out of order–but the author does such a good job of making each a standalone, I can easily keep the stories straight.

Portrait of a Dead Guy, by Larissa Reinhart. (Ebook, Nook) Just getting started on this mystery, but how can you not love this first line? “In a small town, there is a thin gray line between personal freedom and public ruin.” Can’t wait to dig into this one.

How about you? What are you reading these days? Are you a one-at-a-time reader, or do you have several books going at once?

Is it really all about the numbers?

PJ Sharon here, coming to you from the hills, and enjoying country life. As many of you spent Superbowl Sunday watching football, laughing at commercials, and being entertained by Beyonce, I was out ringing in the spring. For me, the beginning of February marks a turn toward warmer weather and longer days. I know there will likely be plenty more cold and wintery weeks ahead, but I figure there are less ahead then there are behind. It’s also my birthday month—time to reflect on where I’ve been and where I’m going.

Whether we’re talking about football scores, rising temperatures, or adding another year to my age, life seems to be all about the numbers these days. It certainly is when it comes to the book promoting business. Sales figures, rankings, budget—all very important to pay attention to when seeing what’s working and designing any future marketing plans. One of the benefits (or curses) about Indie publishing is that you have immediate access to your numbers. You can follow your rankings and sales to determine if your current promotion is working or if you need to change tactics the next time around.

I’ve done a few FREE promotions through Amazon’s KDP Select Program so I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at them. Whether they are as effective as they once were, or if all of these FREE books are killing the publishing industry are topics for another day. For today, I’m happy to share the all-important numbers of an Indie-published author trying to make a dent in this tough book economy. Last week, I had my second Contemporary YA novel, ON THIN ICE, available for FREE for three days. I thought you’d be interested in seeing how one of these FREE runs is done, and decide for yourself if it’s worth the work and expense.

Pre-FREE
January 1-25th 20 copies sold (2 borrows) (I won’t include all the foreign sales, but this title does tend to sell well in the UK)
Amazon Ranking: #75,623 in Kindle Store

FREE Run January 26-28th
Saturday, Jan 26th
7,984 downloads
Amazon Ranking: #64 in Kindle Free Store
#2 in Kindle store>Kindle e-books>Teens>Romance

Sunday, Jan. 27th
4,171 additional downloads
#19 in Kindle Free Store (highest ranking achieved in Free Store)
#2 Kindle store>Kindle e-books>teen>romance

Monday, Jan. 28th
3,791 additional downloads
#1 in the Teen Romance category…woohoo! Not bad for a book that has been on the “shelf” for a year.

Also notable were the foreign downloads. It’s always so cool to imagine people overseas reading my books!
UK=143; de (Germany)=24; France=5; Spain=2; Italy=1 (crazy Italians!); Japan=3; and Canada=15

Now, realize that when the book went back on sale in the paid store, no one had actually purchased it in three days so the ranking dropped to about 245,250th in the Amazon Paid store (yikes!), but once post-promotion sales started, the rankings jumped back up and hovered between 11,000th to 15,000th all week. I got a slight bump from pre-promo sales of 1-3 books a day to about 10 a day. That’s already beginning to fall back down to about 5 a day with total sales since coming off the FREE promo adding up to 50 copies of that one title sold in the past week. That’s more than double what I sold in the first three weeks of January. I’ve seen a slight boost in sales of my other titles as well. There have also been 24 borrows (as good as sales at $1.81 per borrow), and I’ve gotten a few positive reviews for ON THIN ICE.
Not the results I’d hoped for, but worth the effort? Sure. So here’s how I advertised the sale.

I gave myself a $100 budget figuring I would make up the cost with a post-promo sales bump of about 50 books. I’ve broken even on the promo after one week. Running the promotion on a Sat.-Mon. made it easier for me to be there to monitor results and landed at the end of the US Figure Skating Championships, which I wanted to honor by giving the book for FREE that week and getting it into skater’s hands.

I contacted the following sites several weeks (a month ahead of time in most cases):

Book Bub-It cost me $30 to advertise my FREE run but they are the current “premier” advertising site. It costs more for other genres, but most people are saying it’s worth the ad cost, especially if you’re offering a discounted book.( .99-2.99)
Story Finds-$20
Authors on the Cheap-$25
Book Goodies-$15 for 3 day ad.
Bargain e-book Hunter-$5
Orangeberry Book Tours-$10

The following sites were free to advertise with:
(ENT)E-reader News Today (they book up months in advance and sometimes aren’t open for scheduling), Indie Book of the Day, Pixel of Ink, Awesome Gang, E-reader Café, Free Book Dude, Ask David, Books on the Knob, Free Booksy, The Kindle Book Review, E-books Habit, YA Promo Central, Book Blast (Kindle Fire Department), and I did a post on the Readers Guide to E-Publishing (RG2E) on Saturday.
You’ll find many of these sites and their links listed on Kindle Book Promos at Kindle Book Promos and Media Bistro/Galley Cat.

The day of the sale, I also posted to Snicklist, Addicted to e-books, Free Kindle Fiction, Good Reads (Free Romance Books group), Google+, World Literary Café (WLC), and as many FaceBook pages as possible that had to do with Figure Skating and the US Championships—(Stop back next week when I’ll be talking about niche markets).

Some of the sites have restrictions (many won’t publicize erotica-not that I’m writing that, but some of you are), and some have some gate-keeping systems in place. Digital Book Today requires 18 reviews with an average 4.0 star rating before you can advertise with them. It took some time to weed through all of these sites, but now that I have my list and links, it only takes me a few hours to set up a really comprehensive and relatively inexpensive promotional blitz. Of course I also schedule my tweets to go out three to four times a day, ask my network peeps to spread the word, and spend some time promoting on Face Book throughout the three days.

I know it sounds like a lot of work. That’s because it is. I haven’t found an easy way to reach this many new readers so quickly, or give my sales a boost in any other way that doesn’t require an equal amount of effort or money. I try to do one big promotional event per month. February’s event will be a three day FREE run with HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES right after Valentine’s Day, hoping to hit those new Kindle owners whose thoughtful men bought them an e-reader. After that, these two titles come off of the Select program and will be available once again on BN and Smashwords. I also plan to upload them to I-Tunes and Kobo this go around so that they are available on as many distribution channels as possible. Then I’ll leave the kids alone to see how they fend for themselves while I focus my efforts on gearing up for the release of book two in The Chronicles of Lily Carmichael, WESTERN DESERT, due out in June. It’s going to be a busy spring!

As far as other promotions, there are always the .99 cent sales, blog hops, blog tours, Good Reads giveaways, and contests. Each requires effort and planning and will yield different results depending upon the genre you write in, whether it’s your first or fifth book, and how the wind is blowing on any given day. All we can do is keep writing, add quality material to our cyber shelves, and hope our sails (and our sales) catch the wind when it blows our way.

Today’s Unlocked Secret: Don’t get too hung up on the numbers. Like age, the number doesn’t define us. How we navigate the rough seas tells us who we are. Happy sales!

Any questions?

Blessings,

PJ

A New Face for a New Year

PJ Sharon here wishing all you Scribe’s followers a Happy New Year!

We are so thankful for your support over the past year and hope you’ll continue to join us for fun, informative, and entertaining posts about writing, publishing, and all things books. You’ll be treated to an occasional secret recipe, guest authors, interviews with industry professionals, reviews of our favorite books, and tips on everything from  craft to the everyday pitfalls of trying to manage this crazy writer’s life.

As the first Scribe to post in 2013, I’d like to talk about the most important selling point of a well-written book–aside from it being well-written, that is.

In this day of digital publishing, when as many as 350,000 new books a year are put in front of readers, the burning question is, what will help your book to stand out in the deluge? I can’t help but think the answer goes back to the basics. Most of us judge a book first by its cover, then by the blurb, and then by reading the first page or so. Most readers, many who are buying from their e-reading devices, only see a thumbnail version of a book cover and often decide to look closer only if something about that tiny image pulls them in. Having a breathtaking cover, a well-written and captivating blurb (back cover description), and a grabber of a first line can only up your chances at being noticed.

As you may know, I had moderate success with a FREE promotion last week and I think the results prove my point.  After having my cover redone by a professional cover artist, downloads for Heaven is for Heroes outnumbered my previous bestseller, On Thin Ice, 3 to 1. You can read about my results here.  Since the only thing I did differently to showcase Heaven is for Heroes was a $5 paid ad on Facebook, I’m betting that the new cover had something to do with the increased numbers. My results tell me two things. Facebook ads do work, and cover art matters. Either way, I took the hint and had a new cover made for Savage Cinderella. **Incidentally, I did see a small bump in sales this week after my FREE days, so IMO it’s still worth hopping on the KDP Select gravy train if you’re looking for a boost in sales and visibility.

Although I’d had lots of feedback from friends and fellow writers who liked the original cover, the black and white just didn’t stand out on the thumbnail version. The title and author name didn’t “pop,” and the image didn’t really give a clear impression of the genre or the story, at least not when competing against the cream of the crop with their photoshopped masterpieces.

One of the benefits of independent publishing is that we can easily adapt and change with the market. Young adult cover art has evolved over the past year or two, leaning toward “darker” images, bolder colors, haunted faces with intense expressions, and beautiful young men and women looking tormented but relatable on the covers. The tone of a book should be clearly expressed through the cover art, and there should be some hint as to what the story will entail via the title fonts, tone, and cover image. I’m hoping that my new cover does all of those things, perhaps even tapping into a new readership who previously may have overlooked the other cover simply because it didn’t stand out enough or they didn’t “get” a feel for the book.

There’s no doubt that I’ll run across those who would rather not see a face on the cover, preferring the character’s features be left to the imagination, but the idea is to make an impression–to grab a browsing reader and make them look twice. If you’ve read the book you’ll probably understand why this image is so powerful. If you haven’t read the book, you can find it on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords, or you can read a chapter a week for FREE on Wattpad.

As always, I’d love your feedback.

This cover is the work of Melody Simmons, who also did my Heaven is for Heroes and Waning Moon covers. She is super easy to work with and reasonably priced, not to mention, fast. She had this cover and my HIFH cover back to me in a day or two, offering me several options from which to choose, and working with my suggestions to get to the look I wanted.

I hope you’re looking forward to 2013 as much as I am. I have a feeling it’s going to be a stellar year for the Scribes and we’d love for you all to share the journey with us.

Blessings of good health, peace, prosperity, balance, and harmony to all,

PJ

Do you have any exciting plans for the coming year? What do you think about trends in cover art? Too many faces on YA covers, or do you like to see those smoldering and deperate looks?

 

Get Over Yourself!

Hey, all. Suze here. Welcome.

Last night I attended a talk by a famous author at our local library. (I was horrified by the poor turnout, despite quite a bit of publicity, but that’s the subject of another post).

Now at the same time this talk was scheduled, a writers’ group was also meeting informally in another part of the library. And when I say “writers’ group,” I mean a group of people who get together once or twice a month and exchange pages and discuss each other’s work. The librarian in charge of the event approached the group to let them know that a New York Times bestselling author was speaking. Great opportunity, right? They could come in and ask questions and learn about the writing process and the publishing industry from someone who had achieved great success.

And not a one of them came.

I’m not kidding. They stayed huddled in their little group, apparently too wrapped up in themselves and their “art,” to meet someone who has achieved what I’ll bet each of them wants: publication.

Now I’m not knocking small writers’ groups. If I had not found the guts to walk into one a few years ago, I wouldn’t have met J Monkeys and Casey Wyatt and PJ Sharon, and I wouldn’t have a completed manuscript and a couple more in progress, and I wouldn’t be blogging to you from the Seven Scribes today. But there came a time when we realized we needed more than we could get from each other if we wanted to be published, and that’s when we rushed our local RWA chapter, even though we’re not all writing romance.

It ain’t all about the art. (Well, for some people maybe it is, but you’ve still got to get it published somehow) And it ain’t all about the genre, either. Good, sellable writing is, well, good sellable writing, and it doesn’t matter if it’s romance, mystery, YA, sci-fi, paranormal, or even (spoken in a hushed tone) literary. We’ve all got plenty to learn from each other. In fact, I’d argue that exposing ourselves to different genres and styles of writing makes whatever we’re working on fresher and stronger. As the teenaged Crown Prince of Hardydom is so fond of telling me, “Don’t judge.”

How about you? Any missed opportunities you want to admit to? Secret biases you want to come clean about (the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, LOL!)? If you don’t feel like confessing, tell us about a great speaker you’ve heard.

Amish Vampires, Oh My! Leanna Ellis & Her Scary Tale of Stepping out of her Market

Happy Sunday, Katy Lee here. Last October on this day, the Northeast was under 2 feet of snow with no electricity. This year we await a hurricane, hoping Halloween isn’t canceled AGAIN! Because of the loss of power last year, my special guest, Leanna Ellis missed out on all the Scribes’ readers. So she is here again this year to chat with you all.

Let’s hope the power stays on this time.

Now last year, her release, Plain Fear: Forsaken, an Amish vampire story hit the shelves. Now this year, Leanna has a second release in her Plain Fear series. Forbidden. As an Inspirational writer, there are pretty strict guidelines to follow when writing for this market. One of them being, absolutely no vampires. But Leanna had these stories to tell, so what was she to do?

Here she is to tell you about it. So please give Leanna a warm welcome!

Happy Halloween! Oops! Did I say something wrong? Did you know that little phrase can be fairly controversial? There are certain camps regarding Halloween.There are those who embrace the holiday with all the gore and such and drape their houses in cobwebs. Then you’ve got those who allow their kids to dress up and enjoy the candy but no gory or other-worldly costumes. Then there’s the group that shuns the holiday because of its roots in paganism. So I didn’t mean to offend anyone by saying ‘Happy Halloween,’ but I just meant it as a friendly greeting. Like Halloween, we each have to figure out what is right for us and what is right for our families. And this is true in writing too.

In light of all of that, it seems very appropriate to discuss my novel, Plain Fear: Forsaken, which is a bit like Halloween, somewhat controversial. Some people may love the idea. Others may withhold judgment until they’ve heard more about it or even read it. And others will shun it just because of the subject matter. Just last week, I received this great review where the reviewer said, “Plain Fear Forsaken is a book that screams to be opened. It offers a fresh portrayal of vampires and their complex world, while taking readers on a journey of love and heartbreaking loss. This haunting tale is wonderfully written, with such intensity that you will not put it down.” Obviously a really nice review. Within an hour, I received an email from a reader who called my book, “Evil.” Did they read the same book? Apparently. But like Halloween, it’s not for every reader and it was a risk to write it, much less publish it.

Amish and vampires? Really? Yes, really. I’m asked a lot how this book came into being. Forsaken actually began as a joke. I was at a book signing and another author and I made a joke about we should write an Amish/vampire story because those were the two genres that were selling incredibly well. It really was a joke. I didn’t rush home and start writing the book. But I suppose some seed was planted in my warped little brain and took root. Soon a character was speaking to me about her story and wanting me to write it. But I resisted. However, there was a very intriguing element that I couldn’t seem to ignore. To me, this was a Phantom of the Opera type story, with a love triangle, and a clear dividing line between good and evil. So just playing around with the story idea, I wrote the prologue and first chapter. Then I set it aside because I was busy meeting other deadlines. Besides what was I to do with an Amish/vampire story?

Really, where would an Amish/vampire story ever fit? I was writing in the CBA (Christian Booksellers Association) where Amish is very popular. Why couldn’t I write a traditional Amish book? Well, that’s just not how my brain works. I mentioned my story idea eventually to a couple of writer friends. They laughed but in a good way and encouraged me to write it. Well, I wasn’t so sure.

However, I was becoming obsessed with the story and very passionate when I spoke about it to anyone. I spent a lot of time in prayer over this book, because I didn’t want to write something that God didn’t want me to write. Also, I knew I’d have to leave the Christian market and sell it in the secular market. I wasn’t about to make that move without God’s clear direction. He began to show me in more ways than one that this was the book He wanted me to write.

More than a year passed, and I was at a writer’s conference minding my own business and not pursuing this story at all. An editor said the perfect submission would be…you guessed it! An Amish/vampire story. So I made an appointment to meet that editor and just talk about the idea. It almost felt like when an addict first admits she has a problem. I felt like I was teetering on the edge when I said, “I’m a writer and I’ve written an Amish/vampire story.” Well, she requested it.

Then I had to tell my agent about it. Thankfully, my agent loves the way my brain works. I caught her at the same conference and whispered to her that I’d had a request for a book I hadn’t even told her about. When I said, “Amish/vampire,” she laughed out loud in a joyful way. Gotta love an agent like that.

After she had read the prologue and first chapter, we had some serious discussions about ABA or CBA (secular or inspirational) and adult market or young adult. We both felt that in order to have a book about good versus evil, you have to be able to show evil and in the inspirational market I would be hindered in that way. I was once told that I couldn’t have a character say ‘pee.’ Really. Also, my agent and I decided that even though the heroine was young, the topics were adult. In YA novels, the characters are often in school and dealing with issues teenagers deal with. But in the Amish world, kids stop going to school at age 14. They’re making big decisions about their life much earlier than Englisch teenagers.

So began the submission process. Some editors got it, and some didn’t see how the two genres could ever be combined. Thankfully, Sourcebooks had a visionary editor, Peter Lynch who got it and gave Forsaken a chance. It’s honestly been great working with him, and I know God led me to this publisher.

What I love about this story is that it shows the battle of good and evil. Yep, I guess that reader did get part of the theme of the book. Evil doesn’t always appear with pitchfork and horns though. Quite often, evil is appealing and attractive and hooks us in before we realize what has happened. Such is the case with my heroine Hannah. She simply loved a boy. But she opens her heart and her mind too easily and the consequences could be devastating. Even though this story is published in the secular world, it has a powerful spiritual message, a message the world needs to hear.

In Plain Fear: Forsaken, Hannah Schmidt, a young Amish woman mourning the mysterious death of her beloved Jacob, must decide between two brothers, between good and evil. When she learns her first love is now the vampire Akiva, she must forsake him and cling to a new love, a lasting love, one that will save her soul.

To read an excerpt, click here. And now also available is the sequel:

Plain Fear: Forbidden Rachel Schmidt Nussbaum, a young Amishwidow, is now seven-and-a-half months pregnant with her first child. She blamesherself for her husband Josef’s death, and believes she is being punished byGod for her past sins.
So when a stranger arrives claimingto be an old friend from her wilder years, saying only she can fix things forhim, for Josef, and for herself, she makes an impulsive decision to follow him.It is a decision that will send Rachel on a dangerous journey—one that willlead her to the depths of ultimate danger, the potential for new love, and abattle that will decide both the fate of her soul and the life of her unbornchild.

Winner of the National Readers Choice Award, Leanna Ellis writes women’s fiction. Known for her quirky characters and wacky plots, don’t let the quirkiness fool you as Ellis probes deep in the heart and plucks at the heartstrings. She lives deep in the heart ofTexas with her husband and children and an assortment of dogs and cats, including her crazy labradoodle, aka Hilo Monster, and her new kitten, Sawyer.

To keep in touch with Leanna, you can find her at:

www.leannaellis.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leanna-Ellis/49487472434

Leanna, thank you so much for sharing how Plain Fear: Forsaken and Forbidden came to be. Stepping out of your market can really be a scary thing to do. It’s a risk we are glad you took.

Let’s Cozy Up

Hey, everybody! Suze here, writing to you on a beautiful fall day. Hope you’re enjoying it!

When people ask me what kind of stories I write, I tell them cozy mysteries. (I have a needs-revision contemporary romance too, and a long-way-down-the-road literary novel or two I’d like to tackle, but the mysteries are what I’m focusing on now). More often than not, I get a blank stare in return, followed by: “What’s a cozy mystery?” So today, I thought I’d try to solve that puzzle for you. I’m pretty sure you already know a cozy when you see one, but you just didn’t have a name for it. Remember Murder She Wrote? How about Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple? And of course, Nancy Drew.

There is no one definition or set of rules for this mystery subgenre, but here’s my take:

• The heroine (and it’s nearly always a heroine, not a hero) is an amateur who, for whatever reason (bad luck, nosiness) gets involved in a crime. This means she’s not a private detective or working in law enforcement. If she gets paid to find a killer, it’s not a cozy.
• The heroine is single, usually childless or with children grown and out of the nest, at least at the beginning of the series. There are exceptions (Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldy Bear Schultz books come to mind), but in general the heroine starts out on her own.
• The heroine has some interesting occupation that the reader can either identify with or learn more about. Goldy Schultz is a caterer. Lucy Burdette’s Hayley Snow is a food critic. Rosemary Harris’s Paula Holliday is a gardener. Sheila Connolly’s Meg Corey owns a New England apple orchard. Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen owns a cookie shop. There are series about tea shops, knitting/yarn stores, cheese sellers, soapmakers, writers — the list goes on and on. There are also some paranormal variations. Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse books started out cozy-like. Heather Blake’s Wishcraft series is about a witch.
• The stories are often accompanied by recipes or craft patterns/instructions.
• Setting is extremely important. Cozies are always set in small towns, and as a series develops over time, the reader feels as though they know the village and its inhabitants intimately. You might not want to actually move there, since as an outsider your chances of getting bumped off are pretty good.
• Close to the beginning of the book, a murder occurs, either of a townsperson, or a stranger.
• The murder happens off-stage. This is crucial. In a cozy we do not see the murder happen. Our sleuth can, and often does, find the body, but that body is already dead (or dying, but in any event it is too late). There can be some on-camera violence, but it is not graphic (no heads exploding in a shower of bone and blood), and it’s usually done in self-defense.
• Likewise, sex happens off-stage. People do it in cozies all the time — we just don’t get to, um, experience it.
• There is often a love interest, but the relationship develops over the course of several books and may never actually end in marriage or an HEA. (Big difference here, between romances and mysteries)
• As for the mystery itself, there are several suspects, each of whom has a credible motive for wanting the victim dead. It’s up to the sleuth, and the reader, to figure out whodunnit.

What about you? Do you like cozies? What’s your favorite series, either on television or in books? Know of an occupation or hobby that would make a good cozy?

A Lifelong Affair with Love

Hello Scribblers!  Long time no write.  Vivienne Ylang here.  I’ve got something exciting coming up and I wanted to tell you a bit about it.  On July 1st, I’m kicking off a new writing project.  I’m putting the finishing touches on an old project now and I’m Thrilled!!! to be starting something new.  My new characters are chomping at the bit (well, they would be if they were horses.  They aren’t.) and I’m looking forward to all kinds of fun stuff.  This new project brings me back to my reading roots ~ romance. 

The romance industry has changed dramatically since Kathleen Woodiwiss published The Flame and the Flower in 1972.  I was MUCH too young to read romance back then (or read at all) but about ten years into the genre, I was a young teen bugging my mother for something to do one summer day.  I must have been bugging her a lot because she chucked her book at me and sort of screeched, “Read this!” before stomping back into the house.  Being the dutiful daughter I have always been, I immediately flopped down into the lawn chair she had vacated and opened Lost Lady by Jude Deveraux. 

WOW!  What an eye-opening book for a 15-year old!    Let me take a look-see at my copy (I still have it!).  By page 18, just into chapter 2, our hero and heroine have met and are having sex.  Quite graphic sex.  Somewhat against the heroine’s will – well at the last minute, anyway.  But the sex aside, I loved this story and became a voracious reader – of historical romance.  I did try a contemporary romance once, Jude Deveraux had written one long before the contemporaries she writes now, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.  By the time I went to college, I had read hundreds and hundreds of romances.  I was hooked. 

Sure, I had learned a lot about romance novels by that point.  I had favorite authors – those author’s whose books I purchased the day they were released, in $25 hard cover versions.  Jude Deveraux, Johanna Lindsey, Julie Garwood, Judith McNaught.  There was a second tier of writers in my mind too – Kathleen Woodiwiss, Theresa Mederios, Jill Barnett, Constance O’day Flannery, Constance O’Banyon – if only because there weren’t as many of their books available.   (I read Velvet Chains by O’Banyon so many times that the pages fell out of it.  I may actually have to buy a new copy…hmmm)  And eventually, I became a romance snob.  There were authors I wouldn’t read if someone had paid me to do it. 

Many of these authors are still on my list of favorites – some for their current works and some for more nostalgic reasons.  By the mid 1990′s new top romance authors were making names for themselves.  Julia Quinn and Lynn Kurland are certainly my two favorites these days. And it’s because of Lynn Kurland and this very blog that I’m about to begin my new WIP.

Last fall, we at the Scribes interviewed Lynn Kurland (part 1 and part 2) and after a crippling ice storm sent most of Connecticut back in time (at least from the perspective of having no electricity!) I sent Lynn a note with an idea for a story.  She very kindly wrote back saying that I should write it.  Well, friends, I am.

These characters and their problems have been percolating in my mind for nine months, waiting somewhat patiently for their turn on the laptop.  And in two short weeks – their time will arrive.  I’ll let you know more as things develop – and if you see me word sprinting, you’ll know why! 

Today’s Secret: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!  to all the wonderful romance writers who’ve gone before and inspired me.  I promise not to head hop! 

Today’s Question: Who has inspired you to reach for your dreams?

REAL VIRTUE Chosen for a Book Club Read

Hello Scribers, Katy Lee here. For the month of May, my latest release, Real Virtue, has been chosen for a book club read. The International Book Club of Clean Reads asked me to join their group, and I did, but not without weighing the costs of being a part of something like this. The biggest one being … it will cut into my writing time. (sigh) But in the end, I figured that the benefits of joining a book club far outweigh the costs, and here are a few of those benefits I reap:

1. I am exposed to reading material that I might otherwise pass over, or never hear of—and that includes people hearing about my books. But if I keep my mind open, I can learn about others’ experiences and how they have opted to look at the world as a result of them.

2. A book club keeps me in touch with the world. That doesn’t solely mean reaching readers, but also reading different genres and literature that expose me to different viewpoints I may not have encountered otherwise. It can only better my writing.

3. It’s a safe place to exchange and challenge ideas. Many times I just don’t like a book, but in the discussions I am able to listen to others share what they did like, and it may help me understand my own thoughts.

4. Readers are bright, knowledgeable and articulate people, and they make great friends. Who doesn’t need friends?

5. It’s an opportunity to make lifetime connections with people that go beyond following you on Twitter or liking your Facebook Fan Page.

The Unlocked Secret: Book clubs can open a lot of doors for writers. And with so many to choose from, you’re bound to find one that will fit your writing style and genre. And perhaps your book will be chosen, too! I know I am blessed for Real Virtue to have been chosen as the next read.

Readers: If you would like to get in on the read, please contact me for the details. The more the merrier!

Question: Do you belong to a book club? What is your biggest benefit? Your cost?

And here is a blurb about Real Virtue:

In a virtual reality game where she can fly, there’s someone aiming to take her down.

 Mel Mesini is a New York City restauranteur and an avid virtual reality world traveler. She’s risen above her misfit life and now bears a striking resemblance to her glamorous gaming avatar. But her successful life—both online and in reality—takes a swerve the night her father is seriously injured in a hit-and-run. Mel is careened back to her judgmental hometown, where being the daughter of the town’s crazy lady had made her the outcast she was. To make matters worse, Officer Jeremy Stiles, the man whose harsh, rejecting words had cut her the deepest, is heading the investigation.

Jeremy knows he hurt Mel and attempts to make amends by finding her father’s assailant. When he realizes she’s the actual target, his plan for reconciliation turns to one of protection—whether she wants his help or not. What he wants are answers, especially about this online game she plays. Is it a harmless pastime as she says? Or is she using it to cover something up? As a faceless predator destroys the things that matter to her, Jeremy knows he’s running out of time before she loses the one thing that matters most—her real life.

 

Dialogue That Made Me Swoon

 DIALOGUE THAT MADE ME SWOON

 Hi everyone.  Thea Devine here. It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me that GWTW is among my favorite books.  I first read it when I was sixteen, and you can probably guess my teenaged reaction to the love story.  But, as I subsequently discovered, it’s wholly different book when you reread it when you‘re older (say, oh — thirty and forty), and as I did recently with my sister-in-law.  However there’s one thing in GWTW that never changes and that, for me, was always the whole key to anything about romance.

It’s the moment at Twelve Oaks before the picnic, when Scarlett — in the book — has just encountered Charles Hamilton on the staircase, and turns to see Rhett staring up her, and indignantly thinks, “he looks as if — as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy.” (sic — my edition).

I love that moment. I always thought it went beyond prurience, that he was not envisioning her naked, he was not thinking sex; rather he was seeing her whole, her beauty, her vanity, her greed, her flaws and phony flirtatiousness, and everything about her right there that made her “her” — and he decided in that moment, he wanted her, that he loved her.  Not just the body, but the whole person, just as she was.

Don’t we all?  Want the  guy who wants us just as we are?  Without lists, demands, requirements must-haves, guarantees?.  Don’t we want to say to him, “I love you,” and have him respond, as does Han Solo in a critical moment to Princess Leia in The Empire Strikes Back, “I know.”

Oh, be still my heart.  That he knew in his deepest core that she loved him.  That acknowledgement was more than him saying “I love you.”  It said that he’d always known and everything he’d ever done was colored by that, in spite of the bickering, the clashes, in spite of everything.

I love that.  Who wouldn’t love that?  But even better — a moment on House:  you can quibble about whether House and Cuddy belonged together (and I will, because I didn’t think they did), but when he said to her in a last year’s episode, “I always want to kiss you,” –   I melted into a puddle of swoon.  Always .. Are you imagining that?  Always … God, I wish I’d written that line.  Think what means. Always …

But then, I’m hopeless romantic. I love love.  I love being in love.  I think love is forever, in spite of all the recent public and humiliating break-ups in the news. I think those moments above expressed in dialogue are at the heart of romance — and that we all yearn for that deep visceral knowledge of the other person that transcends everything but the need and desire to be together because …

Because we love – and they know.   Always …

Do you have a favorite line of dialogue?  Or something amazing your husband ever said to you?  Or something else that made you swoon …?

Thea Devine is the author of twenty-five historical and contemporary novels and a dozen novellas.  She was honored as a Romance Pioneer by Romantic Times. She’s currently working on a sequel to her June 2011 release, The Darkest Heart.

What is Middle Grade?

Hidey-Ho Scriblers – J Monkeys here.  How are ya?  I’ve been thinking about my Livingston-Wexford Series lately as I’m gearing up to start writing the 3rd book in the series.  It really is a Middle Grade series because it is at its heart a quest story, an adventure for the 14-year old main characters.  The series deals with some potentially dark issues (the main characters’ entire families seem to have been slaughtered by dark forces pretty much unknown) but that happens off-screen (at least so far).  The series doesn’t tackle gritty YA issues of sex, drugs and eating disorders.  But Middle Grade is so wide a genre, that I don’t want my books to get lost.

Consider this.  The following books are all in the Middle Grade genre:

• The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
• Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys
• Charlotte’s Web by EB White
• JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books
• The 39 Clues series
• Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series and the Kane Chronicles
• CS Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• The Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer

a page from Captain Underpants

Here’s the problem. Captain Underpants is a great series for kids in grade 2-4. It’s very engaging and funny with wonderful pictures on every page.  It has a straightforward story with few if any subplots.  It’s a Middle Grade Book.

The 39 Clues series is for kids 8-12 years old.  That’s 2nd-6th graders.  It’s a fast paced adventure series where kids travel the globe on a quest to win their late grandmother’s estate.  All their relatives are trying to kill them.  It might be a little dark for an 8 year old, in my opinion, but hey, I’m not your kid’s parent.  It does have a lot of great history and geography in the series.  Each book is pretty straight forward, there aren’t a lot of subplots, but there is an arc that holds the series together.  It’s a Middle Grade series.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is intended for kids in grade’s 4 and up.   We all know that series get’s pretty dark, and the books get pretty thick.  The subplots are complicated enough to have spawned a zillion websites.  It’s also considered a Middle Grade book.

The Enola Holmes Mysteries are fun, quirky mysteries where Sherlock Holmes younger sister is solving crimes and avoiding capture by her brothers in Victorian England.  It’s also a Middle Grade series intended for kids in grades 4-6. 

Here’s a sample paragraph from page 43 of The Case of The Gypsy Good-bye:

“This modern metropolitan dungeon was not only chokingly dense and shadowy, but also dank and dripping.  The tunnel was even darker, and I had no lantern.  Still, that must be the way she had gone…confound my own daring, which might one day be the death of me.  As a child, I had always been the kind to cross a river not by walking on the bridge, but by balancing atop its balustrade.”

The whole series is written in lyrical, but somewhat complicated, language/grammatical structure.  And there were a number of words that I had to look up…pulchritude for example.  It means beauty or comeliness.

When you compare one end of the Middle Grade spectrum (Captain Underpants) with the other (Enola Holmes) it’s hard to imagine that they could be classified in the same genre.   Nancy Springer’s style of writing alone almost makes the series Adult Literary Fiction, in my opinion.  Don’t get me wrong – it’s a wonderful series.  I just can’t imagine that I would have understood much of it when I was eleven.

So what am I to do with my books?  I’ve been calling them a ‘Tween Adventure series with elements of the paranormal.  That’s quite a mouthful, I know.  But I want to appeal to twelve-year olds.  Do you remember being twelve?  I wouldn’t have been caught dead with a little kid’s book like Captain Underpants when I was twelve.   Today’s ‘tweens are even more status conscious than ever.  I guess I’ll stick with ‘Tween Adventure and hope it takes the world by storm.

Today’s secret: if you don’t like the genre your book fits into and you are Indie Published -  make up your own genre name.  If you are confident enough about it, hopefully people will assume you know what you are talking about and maybe it’ll catch on.

Today’s question: what’s your favorite genre?