Advice To The Future Published Authors

Just because I feel like making lists, and because I get a lot of emails asking for advice of the "Things you wish you knew before you were published," variety:

1. Always add a month longer to your deadline than you think you'll need. Really.

2. When you get published, you will lose friends. When you hit milestones, you will lose more. But you will gain awesome ones too.

3. Don't sweat the small stuff. It's annoying when the hero's hair color is wrong on the cover, but really, that's a very small thing and not worth an ulcer over.

4. Make time for the family. It can be very easy to get caught up in deadlines, the fun of writing, the social interaction on blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. But if you don't have a strong family foundation and support, writing can become a chore.

5. This is a very unstable business -- you have very little control over anything, but you DO have control over your writing. So keep learning the craft, keep improving, and let your writing be your strongest promotional tool in your arsenal!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Arcady is up for a hero award!

Hey guys. So Arcady is in the Hero Competition at TRS. I would seriously like to win this. Wanna pop by and vote for him? HE will make it worth your while...

http://theromancestudio.com/summer2009/hero.php

Thanks!

Vampires are everywhere!

At least for me they are. lol Between my obsessive need to watch True Blood 3 or 4 times a week, the book i'm writing, the books i'm plotting and my print book coming out in August, they literally are everywhere. lol

The current work in progress is a short story that is going to kick off two separate ideas that I blended together for this one book. Hopefully to whet the appetite for more no matter which direction I go in first. I hate to be so vague but for now this is my super secret project that I will eventually divulge when the time is right. lol It's paranormal and yes there are vampires amongst many other potential supernaturals. :)

On August 28th (which just so happens to be my birthday. Squee!!!) my first Vampire story, Awaken, will debut in print in the final edition of the Vampire Oracle series at Cobblestone Press. This is still one of my favorite stories. The heroine is a singer and the song she sings in the book is an original piece written for me on my birthday 2 years ago by a long time high school friend. So it's obviously special to me.

I may be busy with my vamps but I haven't forgotten my beloved shapeshifters, they've just been put on hold since the publisher they are with is closing soon. I thought 2009 would be the year of the Black Cougars but it looks like 2010 is more like it.

It feels kind of weird to have so many series going on at once but the cougar trilogy is written and my secret vampires have been pushing at me for over a year now so I am finally giving them the time they deserve.

Good thing here at AAD we embrace the paranormal in all it's varieties because for a scatterbrain like myself, I like to have multiple things going on at once.

Take care,

Eliza

Make it Stop

Wow, summer is screaming by and I can't quite figure out where the heck its going. Why is it that warm days always pass a lot quicker than cold snowy days :) I did sneak some time to check out the new Harry Potter movie~ I loved it, but my sons thought there was too much romance. Boys...what do they know? I'm also thinking about going to GI Joe. I love action movies with mindless plots and lots of shooting.

On the work side, I'm trying to finish up Salvatore's story and thinking about the plot for my novella. I just received a box of ARCs for Darkness Unleashed that's scheduled to be released in November, so I intend to hold a few contests in the next few months. I'll be sure and post when it's coming up!

Hope all is well with you!

Alex

CONFESSIONS OF A CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR

First, an admission. I'm a born worrier. I'll worry about anything, even things that no person in their right mind would be concerned about. For instance, my irrational fear of helium balloons flying away while I'm holding them. Yeah, I know. Crazy.

Anyway, in my writing I worry too about things that are at least a little more logical. Such as, are my characters realistic? Are their motives understandable? Do their actions follow what any reader would do in a similar situation in real life? Such are the pitfalls of writing straight contemporary romance. That is why I found writing paranormal such a refreshing change. Now, after writing and releasing "Erato" for Tease's print anthology Love's Immortal Pantheon I, and the short eBook for ARe "Eros' Valentine", the third story I've written in the paranormal erotic genre, Bacchanal, is no less thrilling for me as a writer.

I must confess that being able to create characters that have no qualms about anything was a very freeing experience for me. I find the ancient Greek gods fascinating. More, I found being able to write about sex without worrying about character motivation or social mores incredibly erotic. These all-powerful beings eat when hungry, sleep when tired and have sex when it pleases them. They are the walking, talking, breathing personifications of the id hidden inside all of us; those raw desires that we all suppress.

Attending the Authors After Dark event and being able to celebrate my paranormal works with others who love the genre will be a pleasure and I look forward to it greatly. Though unlike Dionysus in "Bacchanal" I won't be attending the parties oiled and nude except for a mask, I still intend on having a hell of a lot of fun.

I hope to see you there!
Cat

My newest god story, Bacchanal, released in eBook July 15th.

Excerpt and Buy Link at All Romance eBooks

Bianca Makes the Big Time

Well, in the publishing industry, getting a "New York" contract is a big deal. I got the contract, but somehow it didn't feel real until I saw the first cover for my upcoming Kensington Brava release, HALF PAST DEAD. The book is an anthology containing two stories - my military paranormal called SIMON SAYS and an historical paranormal by Zoe Archer. Both stories features zombies in some way. Here's the blurb from the back of this gorgeous cover:


Special Forces soldier Simon Blackwell ended his affair with Mariana Daniels three years ago, but he hasn’t stopped protecting her. Mariana has no knowledge of the dark, deadly creatures that lurk in the forest surrounding her clinic, or of the mysterious powers that make Simon the only one who can defeat them. But soon he’ll have no choice but to reveal the truth, and urge her to trust in an explosive passion that never faded….


The book is slated to be out on December 29th of this year. Now I can't wait to see what they come up with for my first solo novel with Brava, ONCE BITTEN, TWICE DEAD, scheduled for release in March 2010.


In other paranormal news, INFERNO is now out in ebook. It's a cross-over vamp/were story with a little fey magic thrown in. There are some very naughty bits in this love story that follows the path of Dante d'Angleterre, a vampire we first meet in another of my paranormal books, LORDS OF THE WERE. In that book, Dante starts out as a bad guy with questionable motivation. We learn more about what makes him tick in INFERNO and are introduced to the werewolf girl who's been sent to spy on him.


It's a real action/adventure kind of tale complete with a vampire ball, selkie shifters who are also Navy SEALs (get it? LOL) and a whole lot of very hot lovin' - some scenes with multiple partners. Hey, what can I say? This is one of the more wicked Bianca D'Arc books. LOL!


If you're interested in any or all of the above, check INFERNO out from Samhain Publishing at MyBookstoreAndMore.

Erotic Romance with Cowbell!

With this Halloween short, coming in October from Phaze Books, comes an interesting left turn through Dareville. Like Dulce, which only alluded to characters in the series (and I may bring back the principles of that story for something new), this story should not really be considered part of the Dareville canon. In terms of chronology, it will be set after the events of A Winter's Dare, and if you're paying attention that would put this work in October of 2006.

I understand when readers are into a contemporary, there comes the tendency to apply the action to the current day. Because Truth or Dare released in 2004 and the subsequent novels are set almost immediately after each other, time passes more slowly in Dareville. Nobody is Twittering quite yet, and W. is still the President. I have to be very careful with cultural references when writing these stories so everything remains accurate. If you read the Kinsey Millhone mysteries by Sue Grafton, you'll notice it's set the same way. A is for Alibi came out in 1982, and Grafton has it set so subsequent stories are happening one right after the other. Of course, it doesn't make sense for a detective to work only one case a year. I'm assuming Kinsey doesn't use Twitter, either.

Eventually I'll have Dareville catch up to the rest of us, don't worry.

Another point about Reaper that sets it apart from the rest of the series is that this one is sort of a paranormal. I'll let you figure it out from the blurb in progress:

En route to a sexy Halloween soiree, Cal and Sue Briscoe are involved in a car accident and...die?

Stranded between layers of the veil, they cling to each other with the hope that whatever happens, they will stay together. As the Grim Reaper - a handsome fellow introducing himself as Gil - tries to discern their fate, the Briscoes take advantage of the moment out of time to celebrate what could be their last chance for love...or the beginning of a new life.

Still tweaking it, I hate blurb writing. I will say this, however: it ends well.

AAD: Charity raffle for Pets Alive!

So last week I had the explicit pleasure of going to the Pets Alive compound in Middletown, NY and meeting both Matt and Kerry and seeing everything they do for our feathered and four legged friends. I have to say I don't think I have ever seen a more deserving place to be named as a charity.



This compound is amazing. The sheer numbers they care for on site is insane! We got to tour all of the grounds, meet the dogs, and the horses and the cats and the two naughty parrots that live in the office.



Ok. Im a dog lover, everyone knows this, but I was moved and touched to see the amount of cats they have and how well they are taken care of. The main house is filled with rooms of cats, and they even have a room where they house and take care of FIV cats. That alone made me smile. They were all just beautiful, and their facilities were amazing.




We did get to meet one of the horses, Matt's horse, and I'm sorry I forgot his name. He was a beauty, as you can see, and so well mannered. they have 6 horses on their site that are adpotable, and if they are anything like Matt's sweet horse, then I know they will find families.

The dogs, sadly, were in the kennel while we were there, as it was going to pour (and pour it did) So I have a few pictures but nothing that




really shows you the beauty of these dogs, or just how much each is looking for a home. It broke my heart to see so many, and Im a firm believer of rescuing animals, so when I do move, I'll be adopting before anything else.



Seeing animals like
this always serves to remind me that there's so many out there that need love, and a loving home. Both Joe and I were moved.

They care for all these animals with the donations they receive and the fund raising of groups like ours. At AAD this year, we will have over 75 author baskets and other fantastic gifts to bid on. Pets Alive is one of two animal rescue organizations we are
donating the money to, so remember to give big!




Now, who is up for a contest? OK well Today's contest is easy. Simply post a comment here, and youll be entered to win two print books from Audra and I. Simple right? Next month, we will be talking about what Audra and I will be doing at AAD and all the goodies!

Greetings!

And salutations!

Well, it has been a wild sort of a week for me. On the one hand I am still under the spell of a new medication that makes me fall asleep, on the other hand, RAPTURE came out last Tuesday!! YAY! The response from readers has been really awesome and I thank you all for that. It's really exciting for me since I feel this is my best work to date. It is a personal favorite of mine.

I am so excited about the release that I am going to give away an ARC of PLEASURE both here and on my home site to anyone who comments on RAPTURE and what they thought of it. You can get picked if you even have less than enthusiastic things to say about it. I prefer the truth to ass kissing, thank you very much. I think it makes me a better writer in the long run.

There's been some confusion as to the release date for PLEASURE. The official date is August 25th, 2009. It is NOT in 2010. That was a misprint in the RAPTURE excerpt. I also wanted to let you know that I am still working on the sixth Nightwalker book so it will be some time before it goes into production and you all get to see it. Starting in January you will see me taking leave of the Nightwalkers altogether in order to introduce the Gatherers, an interdimensional romance series that I think you will like a great deal. After that you will see me doing a sci fi romance series with Ballentine Books. Wild huh? A LOT of exciting stuff, new and interesting to be sure. But you will eventually get to see your favorite Nightwalkers again, never fear.

On a personal note, Bianca is here for the summer! It's a little crazy with a nine year old in the house, and such a change from the boring quiet I am used to. I can't get much of anything done, but I don't mind! It's great to have hugs and stories and such. :) We're headed to the beach in August and I think we'll all enjoy that.

So, anyway, tell me what you thought of RAPTURE if you want some PLEASURE! I'll be happy to mail you out your prize! And don't forget, we are going to have some wild fun at my get together in October and I really hope to see you there. Don't forget to get yourselves registered now because the price goes up after the initial cut off date because of the hotel rules. C'mon, it's worth it just for the DJ and the masquerade!

Sundaes, Cider, and Sexy Magical Men

I'm supposed to talk about what I'm most excited about regarding attending AAD. Well, that would be the people. I don't get a lot of opportunity to talk romance at my day job, or in other book groups. A few people admit reading it, but they don't want to talk about it much. I guess it's the geek in me. I like discussing which first kiss was more memorable. So yes, hanging with real people who actually adore talking about romance is the biggest thing on my radar.

Fan Girl SQUEEE! That was me learning about a weekend event with some of my favorite romance authors! A chance to listen to them talk writing, stories, and get to know them better, at an affordable price, within driving distance. I was so there! Then came more information about all the fun activities, notably the make our own sundaes and the hard cider tasting. Just about two of my favorite things in the world, after reading and sex. Romance fans, WE are going to have so much fun. I have this rosy vision of friendly, interesting women of all ages gathered to chat about life and books. In our pjs.

I'm not sure about you, but I don't get to do that very much in real life. On the internet, I have publisher groups, and writer friends, with friendly snippets on Twitter. But nothing replaces the connection of face-to-face time, and I am so eager to meet with people who aren't afraid to admit how awesome paranormal romance is. I am going to ask a thousand questions and soak up all the opinions. Who's hotter, the shadowdwellers or nightwalkers? *giggles* I'm going on fourteen about this weekend, I'm telling you!

If you're someone who is thinking about this weekend, rest assured you'll be welcomed. I'm coming alone, so you can do it, too. You can stick with me. We'll debate gargoyles vs. aliens and pick out all the green m&m's. Mima is a children's librarian who writes erotic magical romance between reading jags. Learn more about her newest merman release at http://www.mimawithin.com/.

Yay, Wisconsin!!!!

Well, we're all moved and settled in! The move went well -- the best of 12 moves we've made. Usually we have to drive from one coast to another, but this time the drive was only two days, from VA to WI. And instead of taking two cars, we only had to take one. So hubster drove while I popped open my laptop and worked on edits.

It was a pretty decent trip.

So now we're here. Hubby is out on his Coast Guard boat until mid-month, so I'm getting the house set up by myself. I took today off, however. Today was a "curl up on couch and drink hot cocoa day." Why? Because you would never know it's not summer!

Today the high temperature was 54 degrees, and it's rainy and foggy outside. I have a fire going in the fireplace, hot cocoa in my cup, and slippers on my feet. I'm loving it! Such a nice change from VA, where we were already using the A/C in February!

So anyway, I'm here and happy. Hope everyone else is doing well!

Hugs,

Larissa