Congratulations to our own Katy Lee! Her romantic suspense, GRAVE DANGER has been nominated for a RITA!
The nomination is well deserved and couldn’t have happened to a kinder, more generous person. Best of luck in New York City!
Please join us in congratulating Katy on this incredible accomplishment!
Hey friends, Casey here. Please welcome my guest and fellow Soul 
Mate Publishing sister, Meggan Connors.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading her latest release Highland Deception and it doesn’t disappoint. If you enjoy Scottish highlanders, historical romance or just hot guys in kilts, don’t miss this book.
Without further ado, take it away Meggan….
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Not so long ago, I was asked an interesting question in regard to my writing: What is the worst piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?
Now, I’ll be honest: most of the advice I’ve gotten from fellow writers is pretty good advice. Writers are a helpful lot. But bad advice tends to come from the people who know you—or think they know you—the best.
It comes from family.
So, the worst piece of advice came when I was prepubbed—you know that period of time when you need the support the most. When a part of you believes you can’t write for a hill of beans, or you’ll never get published. It tends to come right after you’ve gotten rejected for the first (or the tenth, or the fiftieth) time. I got my advice right after I had joined my first writer’s group, and my first third place finish in a contest.
And here is what she said: “You know you’ll never get published, right? You should stop writing altogether.”
A part of me believes it’s just this person, that this particular person has an issue with writers in general and me writing in specific, but I don’t think it is. I have heard enough writers complain about unsupportive spouses or parents or siblings or friends. Luckily, I have a very supportive spouse, and my friends have been generally supportive as well. I could ignore the naysayers.
I honestly believe that the doubters, the haters, whatever you want to call them, truly think they are doing us a favor, that they are grounding us from being crushed by an impossible dream. Maybe life has crushed them in some way, and they don’t see the beauty in chasing a dream, no matter how impossible it is.
Whatever. I’m here to tell you that there is no harm in trying. I’m here to tell you that the only way you’ll never be published (traditionally, self-published, however you choose to pursue your goal of publication) is to not try at all. It’s to let the rejections and the naysayers crush you into believing you can’t.
And believe me, you’ll be tempted to give in.
Every rejection, every time I got bad advice, every time I had a critique partner or a judge in contest say she didn’t like something… well, the first several times, it crushed me. I thought about quitting every single time.
Because my naysayer was right: I had a lot going on. There were so many other things I could have been doing with my time. Sleeping, for instance. I’ll admit, I miss the sleeping thing.
She may have been right, but she wasn’t right enough for me to stop. After all, if something is really important, you’ll find the time for it.
So, my advice to you is this: keep trying. People may tell you you suck, and, shoot, maybe they’re right. But they won’t always be right (suckage is always temporary). If you keep trying, keep practicing, keep honing your craft, you won’t suck. You’ll get better. In time, you’ll be awesome. After all, they say people who read for an hour a day in their chosen field will be international experts in seven years.
Think about it.
What does this mean for you? Follow the dream, and practice your craft. You’ll get there eventually.
But not if you give up.
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Meggan Connors’ latest novel, Highland Deception, came out in March of 2014. She loves to hear from readers, and you can find follow her on her website (www.megganconnors.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/Meggan-Connors/120715354695518) Twitter (@MegganConnors). Where you’ll get to hear about her latest camping trip, books she’s reading, musical musings, and her small obsession with cute shoes she can’t wear (because they’re cute, you know?).
Highland Deception is available through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Highland-Deception-Meggan-Connors-ebook/dp/B00J3D2JS6/
Blurb:
When Kenneth Mackay, long-banished rogue and thief, returns to the Mackay holding at the request of his brother, he has no idea what he might find. He certainly doesn’t expect to be confronted with his twin’s imminent death, or with the plan his brother has concocted.
Ten years before, Malcolm made a tragic mistake, and, to preserve the family name—and his own skin—he allowed Kenneth to take the fall. Now that he is dying without an heir, Malcolm plans to atone for his mistake: by giving Kenneth his life back. All Kenneth has to do is assume his brother’s identity. But complicating matters is the unexpected return of Lady Isobel Mackay, the daughter of an English marquess… and the wife Malcolm didn’t want.
Isobel barely knows the husband who abandoned her even before their marriage, and she’d long since given up on having a real marriage with him. Yet when she returns to the Mackay holding far earlier than expected, she finds her husband a changed man. Despite the hurt between them, Isobel’s heart responds to this man who cares for his entire clan as if they were family. Who, for the first time since their marriage, cares for her as if she is, too.
Falling in love with her husband had never been part of Isobel’s plan. But when their future is suddenly in peril, Isobel must find a way to save him—from himself and from the deception threatening to tear.
I’m so grateful that Meggan ignored her naysayer. Otherwise, I’d never had the chance to meet her or read her awesome stories.
Got comments, questions for Meggan or want to share your own worst advice? Don’t be shy! Please share.
Hi everyone. Thea today, thinking about the past. I mean, what did I write about before romance? It seems to me I always loved romance, even in the biggest blockbuster male dominated best-sellers back when. As I’ve mentioned before, reading Nancy Drew got me started writing — about intrepid girl sleuths.
But then, around high school, I started writing about family (my grandmother who truly believed there was a Jewish tube in the radio by which shows in Yiddish were broadcast); the choir — and what I intuited at age seventeen in that fiction; in college, I wrote all about my friends and acquaintances. And finally, grown-up sensual romance and one historical romance I still haven’t finished.
I still have some of the writing I did back then. I think I’ve mentioned that I can see in it vestiges of the way I write now. I kept it, not as a souvenir of my journey, but because I’m a pack rat.
But I love being able to track where I came from to where I am now.
I suppose we all have a path to take before we find that sweet spot in writing that feels like the right fit. Did you? Or did d you always know? Or did you try on several genres? Was there an “aha” moment.
Look for Thea Devine’s sequel to The Darkest Heart, a September 2014 Pocket Star eBook.
Hi, friends! Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe that I’m actually an author. Some authors just have that thing, that spark, where they can pimp their books to everyone, talk about their writing eloquently and network like pros. I’m not there yet. I don’t know if I’ll ever be there.
BUT this week something pretty cool happened that made me feel a little more author-like. I was invited down to the Harlequin offices in the beautiful Woolworth Building in NYC to meet with the team. I’m a newbie and not as savvy as I would like to be about the publishing industry so I didn’t know what to expect. Luckily my very fabulous agent, Emmanuelle Morgen, was there with me.
I always had this idea in my head of what big New York publishing offices would look like. I thought they would be plush, luxurious. I thought there would be women in power suits and Prada shoes sitting at their desks doing things like plotting to take other publishers down. But it wasn’t like that. The Harlequin office, once you get past the lobby, looks like any other set of offices. Except for the books everywhere. The people were dressed fairly casually, no suits or heels in sight. Everyone was smiling. The office had this calm feeling. They seemed happy to be working there. My editor, Tara Gavin, has been working there for over twenty years. That says a lot for a company. I know editors move houses all the time but there are many at HQN who stay for their entire careers.
I was there to meet with my publicity and marketing team. Shara, Brie and Lathea. They told me their plans for Ginger Jamison’s LIBERTY. I was impressed, not just with what they were going to do for my book, but how knowledgeable and determined they all were. I didn’t know what to expect, or realize that there was a weight on my shoulders, but after meeting with them, I felt like my book, and my career was in really great hands.
I got to see the cover for JERICHO, my second book in the series and read the back cover copy. I never knew who wrote those over for my HQN Kimani books. But it turns out Brie does. She does a beautiful job. I suck at doing that kind of stuff. But Brie seems
to know my books better than I do and I’m grateful to her for that.
Just read this!
JERICHO
She had no one to rely on but herself.
Until a wounded stranger offered his friendship…and ecstasy beyond her most vivid dreams.
Georgia Williams has traveled a hard road from sheltered preacher’s daughter to struggling single mother. Determined to build a secure future for her baby girl, she takes a job as a night nurse at Jericho Military Hospital. But her precarious world shifts yet again when she meets her newest patient.
A marine who nearly died fighting for his country, Lieutenant Christian Howard is a man of duty, honor…and deep desires. Something about the scarred war hero touches Georgia, awakening feelings she’s tried to keep hidden. One passionate night together changes everything, erupting with consequences neither could have foreseen. Now Georgia faces the most momentous decision of her life. Should she trust Christian—a man she barely knows—with the devastating secrets from her past? Could this be a love that will heal and
save them both?
Heartrending and sensual, Jericho tells a moving and seductive story about the power of love to redeem and transform even the most burdened of hearts.
I’m so happy with it I could cry!
I also met with the team at Saint Martins Press later that day. I met a lot of them at RWA so it was a little bit like a reunion. My editor, Holly Ingraham, is my age and driven and spunky and all the things you want in an upcoming editor. In fact most of the team at SMP are young. But it’s good to see women my age making waves in the publishing world.
Jen Enderlin was there. She’s the boss. She’s got the biggest office. She just has that I’m- -in-charge aura around her. The day I met with her and the team was the day the news about Sylvia Day broke. Of course that was the only thing I could think about when I was shaking her. And that she has the most beautiful eyes and dark hair. Of course the romance writer in me wondered about her personal life. I bet I could turn her into a romance heroine.
So that was my day. The biggest take away I got was that the people who are in romance publishing love romance. They live romance and they want their writers to do well. I know in the future I’ll probably be one of those hybrid authors but right now, I love where I am.
Happy post-4th of July. Casey here.
Since it’s a long holiday weekend, this will be a short post.
I’m trying a little experiment that is designed to make sure I’m always writing something. I am concurrently writing two books at the same time.
Generally, I switch every other day. Right now the word count averages 1200-2000 per day depending on how much time I have.
It’s working great at the moment. But something I’ve long suspected is being proved true.
The first thirty thousand words are killer!!
I’ve discovered that I need at least that long before I can really get into my character’s heads. It’s like a giant uphill slog to get the first 30k down on the page. Usually after that, I can pick up speed and the plot rolls forward from there.
I am not sure how much longer I can write two books at once, because I’m sure I’ll have to commit the mental power to one universe at a time. And, of course, I have to be careful not to mix the worlds up or have two books that “sound” alike.
Anyone have a similar experience with the first thirty thousand (or whatever the magic number is for you)? And have you tried writing multiple books at the same time?
Writing Secrets of 7 Scribes 