Tina Gerow's Blog, page 12
April 5, 2014
May Online Class: Writing Love Scenes
February 14, 2014
Sleeping With Shadows is Now Available!
Can soul mates meet in a dream? Until their past-life karmic cycles are balanced, Matt Martin and Sarah Ryan are on a collision course pushing the world toward a disastrous end.
Will they allow their intense past-life connection to cause them even more missed opportunities in this lifetime? Everyone’s karmic tapestry is in jeopardy because of Matt and Sarah. Together they form the thread that threatens to unravel universal karmic harmony.
To make matters worse, a third person brings more difficulty for the duo. When Sarah’s spurned ex-lover threatens to destroy her to keep her to himself, he unwittingly dooms millions. Can Sarah and Matt work through this dangerous reincarnation with a twist?
If you’re looking for a new and suspenseful paranormal story then you are in luck, Sleeping with Shadows by Tina Gerow was just released. You will not be disappointed with the suburb level of writing that Tina brings while taking you on an adventure that will have you wondering what is a dream and what is reality. Sleeping with Shadows follows the journey Matt Martin goes on to find his first love, Sarah Ryan. As Matt starts to see Sarah in his dreams he is not sure of what is real and what is a figment of his imagination. When things go from weird to supernatural, Matt enlists the help of his best friend and a private detective to try to piece together the dreams he keeps having. Sarah and Matt don’t skip a beat when it comes to sparking back up their relationship both emotionally and physically after years apart. As I was reading, I felt like there was a timer and if I didn’t find out what was going to happen next then it would be the end for these two. Sleeping with Shadows is remarkable and mind boggling so be prepared to stay up all night till you finish.
Filed under: Uncategorized
October 8, 2013
Return of the Zombie Onion…
In order to write the ending to this story – the one with the Return of the Zombie Onion – I have to lead you to a previous blog that went out on my Cassie Ryan site but I don’t think too many of you saw…so here it is, reproduced, and after that – the ending of this very odd story… So stay tuned…
When You Find an Onion in Your Bed:
August 20, 2013:
Welcome to my off the wall blog. We had some excitement at the Gerow household last week and since it made my critique group laugh out loud I thought it might make good blog fodder….
My son, Darian has to feed his slithery (that’s snake for those of you not terrified of the things!) Anyway, he has to feed it one live mouse once a week. There’s a local reptile house that supplies them for $2 a mouse. So no problem, right?
Okay – I’ve come to terms with that fact, after all, slithery (which is named Inconnu) needs to eat just like anything else. It’s the circle of life. We just don’t get attached to the mice. Darian always gives them food names like banana, pickle, onion etc. Well, last week on D’s 19th birthday he decided that he would feed Inconnu before we went to get his first tattoo. No problem, right? Slithery has been a very quick eater since he shed his skin several weeks ago, so Darian figured Inconnu would be digesting by the time we left for his appointment.
Well, apparently slithery wasn’t feeling up to eating on that night so we had to take Onion out of the tank – if you leave the mouse in there with a snake who isn’t up to eating him right then, the mouse can actually start to eat the snake. 
So, Darian, distracted and excited about his coming tattoo appointment, put the mouse back in the little brown paper bag the reptile house put him in, stapled i shut and left it on his bed….yeah – you can all see where this is going…
When we got home, Onion had chewed his way out of the paper bag and was loose in the house somewhere…sigh… I think Darian was more worried about telling us than about the mouse stalking around in his room somewhere.
We figured Nox (our black 4 year old cat) would make a snack out of Onion and all would be done, but we never found any “remains” or evidence that she’d found him. After all, while she is a little predator with full claws and teeth, she’s never SEEN a mouse, so I wasn’t so sure how that was going to work out…
Several days ago Nox was acting weird when my husband, Jon, was getting ready for work, so he moved a box in the living room and Onion ran out and slipped under the refrigerator…sigh…
Nox would hang out in the kitchen trying to look under there but soon lost interest when Onion refused to make an appearance.
So a few days ago, Jon woke up at about 3am, jumping up because something was “crawling on him” We turned on the light and found Onion on the bed and heading toward me. I’m not usually squeamish about mice, but there’s something about finding one on your bed at 3am that just isn’t pleasant. I’m just happy that I didn’t give in to a girly squeak or a scream – although I did jump up and encourage Jon when he started to reach for Onion.
Anyway, Jon grabs him, and Onion promptly bites the shit out of him. I opened the front door and Jon deposited him outside…okay, threw would be more accurate.
Yeah – I’m glad Onion is outside now, but I do sort of feel bad for the little guy. I’m not sure if he found his way over to the cat’s food and water bowl over the previous week, but he was probably just scared, hungry and thirsty, and now we’ve released him into the cruel world where several feral cats live around the complex. Yes, I know he was going to be food anyway, but like I said, the slithery is VERY quick about his meals normally, so it would’ve been over in seconds if he’d gone that way. I was up for several hours after the “incident” trying not to be creeped out. I kept reminding myself that there were no more mice in the house that could crawl on us in the middle of the night, but every time I thought I felt something crawling on the covers I flinched. The poor cats were rattled for several hours after that too. Especially poor Nox who was sort of jumpy. Probably because of all the commotion and because Daddy (she’s a total Daddy’s cat) was a bit rattled too, although I think he finally made it back to sleep.)
Anyway – that was our excitement for last week and I’m happy to say this week that “Pizza” met his demise within seconds and is NOT wandering free around our house.
October 8, 2013
Return of the Zombie Onion
Argh!!!!
I’m seriously gonna have nightmares now…
To preface this you need to know that for the last several weeks, Inconnu hasn’t been interested in eating. So we’ve ended up setting the last three mice, Pocki, Cherry and Pumpkin in the greebelt outside our apartment complex.
Anyway – tonight I went to the Valley of the Sun Romance Writer’s monthly meeting. My friend, Bev Petrone dropped me off at home afterwards. It’s always murky by our front door. There’s a light out by the sidewalk but you sometimes have to try a few times to get the key into the lock. Anyway, I noticed something white on the brown welcome mat. It fluttered slightly in the breeze and almost looked like a flower of some type?? I couldn’t imagine someone dropping a flower on our doorstep, but out of curiosity I nudged it with my foot – didn’t want to crush it if it DID happen to be a flower dropped there.
To my surprise it moved AND looked up at me. Huh?? I stumbled back a few steps while my brain made sense of what I was seeing. It was a mouse! A small, white mouse!! And it was looking at me pathetically. Ack!!!! It looked a bit drunk as it walked, not zippy and scared like mice are supposed to be, especially if you nudge it with your shoe!!
Eyeing the mouse nervously I fumbled my key into the lock and bolted inside, shutting the door behind me and locking it before looking down at the entryway to make sure he hadn’t followed me inside.
My hubby was already asleep since he gets up early for work, so I beelined for kidlet’s bedroom and waited for him to be astonished at what I had found. Only he wasn’t astonished – it had been there when he got home earlier!!
ACK!! Was this one of the three we had set free in the past few weeks? Or was this Onion coming back to stalk us for tossing him outside into the cruel, cruel world?
Now I’m scared we’re being haunted by a tiny zombie mouse named Onion out for revenge!! I just keep seeing that little pathetic face looking at me and I’m racked with guilt but I’m also scared I’m going to wake up and find that little guy climbing on me or Jon again…
Sigh… So much for a good night’s sleep…
Why do these things happen to us?? Maybe so I can have good blog fodder? I wonder if this is why Kayce Lassiter has hilarious online dating experiences – more great blog fodder.
This is why I need more Butterscotch Martinis…
And on that note, I’m going to bed to spend a sleepless night watching the shadows and hoping the cats will guard me – but knowing they didn’t do us much good last time!!
Filed under: Tina Gerow, Writing Life Tagged: mice, mouse hauntings, snake feeding, Tina Gerow, zombie mice
September 25, 2013
Help! I see pictures of dead people…
So sometimes truth is really stranger than fiction. If I would’ve written the following story in one of my books people would say it was too coincidental to ever happen in real life. To them I have to say, “You’ve obviously never seen my real life!”
About 7 or 8 years ago I caught the genealogy bug and signed up for a free trial long weekend on Ancestry.com. Now, to be honest, I didn’t do ANYTHING that entire weekend but play on Ancestry and update as much of my family tree in all directions as I humanly could so that I could cancel my “membership” before they pulled their first extremely expensive monthly payment. I love the idea of the site, but it’s pricey.
Anyway, fast forward to two nights ago. I received a notification from Ancestry.com that I had received a message from someone. The subject line was, “I have your family pictures” That caught my interest so I headed out to the website to log in and read the message.
I hope she won’t mind me reproducing the note here, but it will save me time in summarizing it:
Hello,
I believe that I have your family pictures and artifacts. I have a box containing probably close to 1000 pictures, negatives, birth and death certificates, adoption records, enlistment papers and even baby shoes 
I have been holding on to this box for YEARS in hopes of finding its rightful owners. I don’t want any money.
I cannot remember exactly how I got it. I was an antique dealer at the time and am a photographer. I am naturally drawn to pictures, frames etc. at auctions so that is probably how I got it. I can’t be sure. I decided not to sell/use these items because it is an amazing, vast collection of someone’s family history. I also believed that I could in fact FIND this family and return it to them.
Again, I don’t want money. What I want is assurance that I am in fact returning this box to the right family and that the person who receives these items will in fact keep them and treasure them forever. Ideally, I’d like to return these items to the direct descendants of Sarah and Herman Hatcher (hansard?).
I know this is kinda weird. I realize that this message may not reach you for quite some time but I plan to hold on to these items until I can return them to the family they belong to.
VERY cool! I couldn’t pass up the chance to see if these were really our family photos and documents, so I messaged her back and told her I was in Arizona and asked where she was located figuring I could see how much it was to pay for shipping.
A few hours later I received a response. Excited, I read the note that told me her cross streets – which were actually less than a mile away from my house!!
My writer’s antennae immediately bristled. I hadn’t told her WHERE in Arizona I lived, so I was immediately suspicious about how she knew those cross streets would even make sense to me. So being the nosy person I am – AND a suspicious one I Googled her I found out immediately that she was, indeed, a photographer and local. I also found her Facebook page, and of course checked that out thoroughly as well. Yeah – we writers can stalk with the best of them when we need to…LOL!
As I was digging around on her Facebook page I noticed that we had two friends in common. Since I have nearly 5000 friends on Facebook, it’s not unthinkable that we would have one or two in common, so I clicked to see who the lucky two were.
Bree & Mark who I worked with at Starbucks for three years!!!
Ah hah! Progress My snoop gene went into overdrive and I dashed off an email and a text to Bree to get the skinny on this woman. I needed to know if she was legit, or a psycho in order to figure out if there was some type of nefarious angle here or if she truly was a good samaritan who was looking to return our family pictures and things out of the goodness of her heart.
Bree told me that she was a regular customer and a really nice lady. Bree is awesome and reads people well so I was instantly relieved AND excited! I had really hoped this wasn’t a scam of some sort, and now I was really dying to see what was inside that box!
I had arranged to call Aronda (the woman who had sent me the note) last night so we could set up a time/place to meet on Wednesday (today). But when I called her last night and we found out about our mutual Starbucks connection she asked if I’d just like to meet her up there? So while it was still light out I dashed off to Starbucks to meet up with her. She had told me that she would have a white box with her, and that it said, “Pictures of Dead People” on the side – which cracked me up! That is something I can TOTALLY see several members of my family writing on a box like that – myself included!
Bree was right! She is a great lady and I stayed to chat with she and her daughter for nearly an hour before I came home with the box full of treasures. I found out that she knew I probably lived in Arizona because several of the documents in the box had addresses on them – back when we lived less than I mile from where I live now, so she figured I might not have gone far.
As soon as I got home I dug into it and immediately found great stuff! The first was an original metal social security card for my grandfather I also found my grandfather’s birth and death certificates, a receipt from 1957 for my great grandfather’s funeral for $1037, and a newspaper clipping from 1943 with pictures of an Allied invasion force during the war. Other treasures included my grandfather’s high school diploma, some baby shoes, my 2nd grade class photo and tons of pictures I either hadn’t seen or hadn’t seen in years.
Unfortunately most of the pictures didn’t have anything written on the back, and I didn’t know most of the people or the places. So I called my Mom and sister to clue them in on the story and to ask my Mom to come over and help me with the box.
My Mom came by this morning, and after I bribed her with breakfast and a Starbucks black tea we sat on the couch with the box between us and dug in. She wrote the names on the back of pictures she recognized and read off any information that I could add into Ancestry.com, and we made it about a quarter of the way through the box before both of us gave up. We plan on doing several more of these sessions to see what else we can find, but after my quick perusal last night, I know there’s more great tuff in there. But Mom knows more of the stories, more of the people and can recognize and help Darian and I put names to a lot of the faces.
It was really fun to see the family resemblance go back through so many people in so many branches of the family. I found smiles, expressions and even stances that reminded me of my son’s or my sister’s daughter throughout that box.
The best we can figure out is that the box was my grandmother’s favorite/most treasured pictures and memories and when she died it probably went to my uncle’s house (he was HUGE on keeping family pictures etc) and then when he died, his horrible wife got rid of it without passing it back to any of the family. I call her horrible because she now says she doesn’t count being married to Jim because he’s dead… Yeah – karma will be coming to bite her VERY Soon, I hope! Not a very nice lady…
But moving right alone…I’ve now vowed that I will find time before the end of the year to go through MY box of keepsake pictures from my life and write on the back of them so that some future generation will not have to write “Pictures of Dead people” on the side of my box because they don’t know who all those people are! Although just for fun I might write “Pictures of Future Dead People” and the date on the side just to screw with someone someday
I can picture one of Darian’s kids sitting down with my box as well as the box my Mom and I are going through now, cross referencing the Ancestry.com tree I’m building and seeing all the resemblances and similarities we are seeing right now.
It’s been an interesting few days, and makes me nostalgic and itchy to find more information for my family tree, but right now both available time and available money are not abundant so it will have to wait. But I DO plan on getting back to it and very soon!
And on that note, this makes the second day in a row I haven’t gotten any writing done. Well…unless you consider this blog! But my WIP hasn’t grown any. So I need to take a fortifying nap and then dive back in to my actual work!
I just hope I don’t have creepy dreams about dead people tonight after looking at them for several hours today. And yes, we did have some of those creepy pictures of family members in their coffins at the funerals…sigh… I’m not sure why that’s such a Southern Baptist (what I was raised) staple, but we have lots of those, and always had food at EVERYTHING. LOL…
Moving right along….I’m off to NOT see pictures of dead people for the rest of the day at least
Filed under: Fun Stuff, Tina Gerow Tagged: Ancestry.com, Dead people, genealogy, Hansard, Hatcher, Tina Gerow
July 20, 2013
#WritingTips – Fun snippets of writing tips to make you smile!
Every now and then I’ll go on a Twitter binge and post a bunch of writing tips or pet peeves or whatever else is on my mind that day. So since I have the TimeHop application on my iPhone I can see what I posted in previous years on this day. And apparently two years ago on this day, I went on a writing tips binge so I was inspired to do it again this morning.
For those of you not familiar with Twitter – if you’re posting something under a topic you want people to be able to search on and follow, you use a hash tag. And mine was #writingtips. So since a lot of my Facebook friends either aren’t on Twitter or don’t follow me on there – I have a TON of Facebook friends…lol…I decided to do a blog about them so everyone could experience my warped-ness… I know – if you follow me on Facebook you already get a big dose, but hey – if you can stomach that much, what’s a little more, right?
Again, for those of you who don’t Tweet – you can only use 140 characters in your tweets so that’s why some of the funky abbreviations. I didn’t type them all fresh – I copied/pasted…LOL!
Now for those of you who have had me edit your books somewhere in your past – some of these will look familiar – and you’re already used to my warped sense of humor…LOL! But you may even have more “Tina gems” that I don’t have on here…
So here we go! Here are mine – feel free to add your own in the comments – especially the fun ones!! Don’t give up too early – some of the really fun ones are toward the end of the list!
1. #writingtips If a cock leaps 2 attention, it had better have little feet & B ready 2 run across the room…LOL!
2. #writingtips If writing anal scenes – don’t do a BrokeBack Mountain thing – sliding in w/ one stroke w/ no lube would HURT! Ouch!
3. #writingtips Another bad euphemism: “Dangling globes of manliness” – ACK!! Just say NO!
4. #writingtips If you aren’t getting hot and bothered while WRITING your sex scene, no one will while reading it!!
5. #writingtips Make sure your hero and heroine’s internal thoughts & dialogue sound different. Each character’s should be unique.
6. #writingtips Usually if a sentence begins with And or But, the ‘and’ or ‘but’ can B removed without changing the sentence & will read better
7. #writingtips Action/reaction. Let us see the character’s reactions to things – internal thoughts, emotional reactions & physical reactions.
8. #writingtips Don’t forget to SHOW emotions in your scenes. How are the characters feeling? SHOW US!! Don’t TELL us.
9. #writingtips A hero who looks at, fantasizes about or ‘plays with’ other women than the heroine (unless it’s a menage book) is NOT heroic
10. #writingtips Heroine can’t flirt/cheat on hero either – NOT heroic, If they both agree to a threesome etc – fine, but not outside of that
11. #writingtips When writing romance, a hero who is a jerk or treats her badly is NOT a hero. Readers want a romantic hero – give it to them.
12. #writingtips If your hero knows every brand name your heroine is wearing – he’s gay, folks! Which is fine if you’re writing M/M romance
13. #writingtips Be realistic. Most guys (sorry guys) can’t come four times in an hour…some women can…Don’t make readers roll their eyes!
14. #writingtips Word choice – jizz or love juice – YUCK! Just use come or orgasm. Don’t gross the reader out!
15. #writingtips KNOW your reader demographic – for romance – mostly highly educated women 18-50 Don’t talk down to them!
16. #writingtips If hero/heroine are running for their lives & stop to have sex – they kinda deserve to die…Just sayin’ LOL…
17. #writingtips Call it what it is. It’s not a ‘man rod’ or a ‘love shaft’ or a ‘steely length’ It’s a penis or a dick or a cock. Really…
18. #writingtips Don’t be afraid of words – use them, but use them well. Her yawning moist cavern is just icky! Sooo not sexy!! 
19. #writingtips Afraid of using the “C” word? If can be done..lol! Read my Seduction series – used in non traditional way, but readers loved it.
20. #writingtips “Clit” is better than a euphemism like “love button” – ACK!
21. #writingtips Word choice matters. Thigh is sexier than leg. Breast is sexier than boob or tit.
22. #writingtips If heroine/hero are chafing – and handcuffs aren’t involved – get them some freaking lube, ppl! LOL…That’s just not sexy!
23. #writingtips If a scene doesn’t move the story forward – cut it! Seriously!!
24. #writingtips World building: Make the rules for your world/characters & then don’t break them! You’ll lose the reader’s trust…
25. #writingtips Make sure U know your book’s timeline. Keep a chart. If 3 nights have passed, but it’s never bn dark-better B a paranormal LOL!
26. #writingtips If your prologue is just an excuse to do a backstory dump -cut it! Only use those when absolutely needed to set up a story-RARE
27. #writingtips If writing a sex scene & you’ve never done whatever it is U R writing about – talk to someone who has!! Seriously!
28. #writingtips Avoid using euphemisms that will make most people laugh – “his hairy man sack” is just gross! NOT sexy…lol!
29. #writingtips Anything that pulls the reader out of the story & gives them the chance to put the book down-weed it out of your writing!
30. #writingtips Try 2 avoid giving all your characters in 1 book names that R2 similar or all start w/ same letter-could confuse reader!
31. #writingtips Use of “locks” for hair has become cliche – seriously. PPL have hair, not locks unless it’s a padlock in their hair – ouch!
32. #writingtips Use age appropriate language 4 yr characters. If yr 20 year old heroine says “Golly gee” – that’s odd & jarring 2 reader
33. #writingtips Schedule a time each day 2 write, sit butt in the chair & write-brain will get the hang of being productive on cue.
34. #writingtips Watch repeated words used close together -distracting for reader. For me it’s usually a diff word in each scene I have to edit!
35. #writingtips “Mary was scared”=Telling. “Icy tendrils of fear raced up Mary’s spine”=showing. Paint a visual picture!
36. #writingtips Try to avoid using was/ing combos-makes it kind of passive. Was running can become ‘ran’
37. #writingtips If yr pacing is slow & dragging-go back & make sure yr conflict is big enough & difficult enough! Conflict drives pacing!
38. #writingtips READ widely. Pay attention to writing you enjoy & writing you don’t and figure out why on both counts!
39. #writingtips Don’t use flowery writing-readers like simple writing that paints a visual pic, not something schlocky & makes them groan!
40. #writingtips Make sure your events aren’t out of order. pick up book, walk to door, open it, walk through, out of order won’t work here
41. #writingtips If yr hero is “hard enough 2 drive nails” he needs 2 call the # on the back of the Viagra box!! That’s not healthy!! Ouch!
42. #writingtips Avoid cliches – find a new, fresh way 2 say something! Make it yours. Cliches R distracting 4 the reader & don’t add value
43. #writingtips Remember even when writing that heroes usually don’t want to kiss a heroine right after she’s “swallowed” – Jarring for reader
44. #writingtips If your heroine’s vagina is “weeping” – there’s salve for that…LOL! Get her to the doctor! Ewwwwww!!!!
45. #writingtips Make sure the action is w/ the character, not the body part. Fists won’t clench on their own, the character clenches them…
46. #writingtips Beware of over repeated actions. If yr heroine is always sighing the reader is gonna wnt 2 kill her by the 10th time…seriously
47. #writingtips Keep in mind yr job is 2 paint a word picture 4 the reader so they cn C the pic U have inside yr mind when writing the scene
48. #writingtips Beware of wimpy verbs that don’t give reader a visual picture – words like ‘put’, ‘got’, and ‘went’ Use a more descriptive verb
49. #writingtips If the heroine’s heart clenches inside her chest and she’s short of breath, she’s not in love, she’s having a heart attack!!
50. #writingtips Who vs That. If you are talking about a person – use ‘who’. If you are talking about a thing – use ‘that’
51. #writingtips Get rid of “filler” words like “just” and “that”, which don’t add much value
52. #writingtips Write what you mean. If a heroine leans INTO a hero – that’s gonna hurt & require surgery – she’s prob leaning AGAINST him.
53. #writingtips Watch out for body parts gone wild. Eyes can’t fly across the room unless they have little wings. Gazes can though…
54. #writingtips Purple prose is distracting & annoying & doesn’t help your story, it only discredits your writing in the eyes of the reader.
55. #writingtips Remove exclamation points, use your words 2 carry the emphasis, not throwaway punctuation that distracts the reader.
56. #writingtips if hero’s “member” has a head the size & color of a large plumb, he’s got medical probs & his partner will NOT be excited!
Filed under: Seduction Series, Writing Tips Tagged: #writingtips, Cassie Ryan, Tina Gerow, Twitter writing tips, Writing tips
July 8, 2013
My Akashic Reading
Today I did something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time. I had an Akashic reading.
For those of you who don’t know what that is, an Akashic reading is a reading based on information contained in your Akashic Scrolls. In the Bible this is known as The Book of Life. (Psalm 69:28, Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 20:15 and Revelation 21:27) The record of your every thought and deed here on Earth as recorded by God and the angels.
And in some belief systems is also believed to contain information on your previous lifetimes.
As a paranormal author, this concept has always been fascinating to me. The possibilities for stories arising from such a library for each person who has ever lived on Earth are unlimited and fun to explore!
So after a friend had her own reading and told me about her amazing experience, she introduced me to Simone Gers and the rest fell into place easily.
If you’ve never had a reading there are dozens of great websites on the subject, including Simone’s above in the link. The reading is entirely based on questions that you ask, and your guides and teachers communicate with the “reader” to answer your questions. This isn’t a psychic reading, per se, as it doesn’t tell you your future, but helps you put what you want to be in perspective based on your past and present. It can help you to understand why you end up repeating a certain pattern in your life – perhaps you always choose emotionally unavailable partners or continue to always be broke and sick…whatever your current challenges are, this is a great chance to gain perspective into yourself as well as finding out why those patterns may be repeating.
I found it extremely insightful and accurate. And the book ideas for how to use this experience to make a great paranormal story are already perking inside my head!
Simone was a great guide for this process. She sent me some tips for how to phrase questions for the best responses before our session. Once the session began she explained how everything would work and talked me through at each stage making sure I didn’t have any questions on the answers I had received or about the process of the information exchange.
I came away from the experience energized, feeling light and ready to go to work to break through the roadblocks I’ve been struggling with.
There are many different fees out there for such readings (and there are also other types of related readings, check Simone’s web page for the ones she does). Simone is very reasonable compared with a lot of the sites I saw, but everyone needs to choose someone they are going to be comfortable with. Like I said, I really loved the experience and would highly recommend Simone from personal experience! If you have or have had a reading, I’d love to hear your take on the experience. I won’t ask you for the specific reading details because very personal information is reveled and discussed, but I’d love to hear others’ experiences with this type of reading.
Off to noodle my idea for a book based off of this…
Tina
Filed under: Fun Stuff, Tina Gerow Tagged: Akashic Readings, Akashic Scrolls, Book of Life, Tina Gerow, Writing Life
May 31, 2013
A fun puzzle of Seducing the Succubus
No, seriously – this is a jigsaw puzzle of my awesome Cassie Ryan cover for Seducing the Succubus:
My Puzzles Jigsaw Puzzle Gallery – JigZone.com
Filed under: Cassie Ryan, Fun Stuff, Seducing the Succubus Tagged: Cassie Ryan, cover jigsaw puzzles, Seducing the Succubus, Sisters of Darkness
May 29, 2013
Does SWAG really work for advertising books?
I’ve seen studies where they say that SWAG or giveaways other than actual books do very little for the most part to get readers to pick up your book. However, I have bought and given out SWAG at most of the conventions I’ve attended. Have I really seen a Return on Investment?
To be honest, I don’t know.
But what I do know is what I’ve heard from others and what I do with SWAG when I get home.
When I come home from a conference or retreat I’m usually exhausted. So the first thing I do is kick off my shoes, say hello to my guys and my kitties and then sleep!
I know, you want to know about the SWAG! Well, to be honest – again – it really depends on how quickly I get around to unpacking my suitcase – or the box that I shipped home with all the “stuff” in it.
Sometimes that is a few days and sometimes it’s actually weeks. Hey – I did tell you I’d be honest, right?
No matter when I finally get to it, things from there pretty much follow the same pattern. If there is anything edible in the bag or stash of SWAG I sort through it and either eat it (if I didn’t already at the convention) or toss it. Just don’t forget that if I ate it at the convention, the wrapper with your author sticker, website and name on it went into the trash as soon as I swallowed the food, and it will with most others too. Usually those little butter mints are the first to go – I eat those almost as soon as I pick them up at the convention Chocolate, believe it or not, if it doesn’t get eaten at convention, I usually toss it because it’s going to melt by the time I get home and I don’t want it all over everything. Other types of mints, munchies, cookies, water bottles etc usually don’t even make it home – so they get tossed. Now that also means if the SWAG is on a “take it yourself” table, I just don’t take those. But lots of convention goers take some of everything so a lot of those will end up in the trash.
Then I sort through for the “cool” stuff. Mirrors, letter openers, alarm clocks, cool buttons, cool pens (I usually don’t take the boring ones or the ones I know I won’t use, but again – lots of people take some of everything offered, so you have to factor that in.
I know lots of people get those squishy things shaped like people or globes or whatever, and unless I think I’ll ever look at it again or it really makes me smile I’ll give it away at the conference or take it home for my son, sister, friends etc. I don’t really have a desk anymore now that writing is my day job, so I don’t keep that stuff I have no place for. If it just takes up space and doesn’t do me any good, I just don’t need it.
Then I look at what’s left – usually the paper products and magnets. I have a ton of my own bookmarks, so unless I think they look really cool or they are for an author I really want to read – AND it looks cool – I don’t even bother to take them. But several conferences make up the bags beforehand so I end up with a stack of paper to go through. I usually use bookmarks for my own books when I read anything, but if there’s a cool looking bookmark and something I think my sister or one of my friends would like then I keep it, but if it doesn’t pass that test, it gets tossed. As for magnets, if it has a fun saying or picture on it that I like and might smile at every time I see it, I’ll take it home and put it on the fridge. Or if I think my sister, son, friends etc might like it, it might make it home. But the rest get tossed. Sorry…
But what about those little homemade books with excerpts in them? Again – if I think my sister or one of my friends might like it, it might make the trip home, but usually those don’t make the cut either. I just simply don’t have time to go through and read all those. I know several authors swear by those, and maybe for them they work. But in my experience as someone who looks through the stuff at the end, unless it’s from an author who I really want to get a “taste” of their work or a new book in a series I’ve read and loved, or something along those lines – it gets tossed.
But what about the little temporary tattoo sheets that also have a sticker with your author name and website on them? Once I’ve used the tattoos – that backing sheet with your info is in my trash can.
But what about nail files with author names, websites and book names on them? I usually toss those in the bottom of my purse and fish them out when I need a nail file, but I don’t ever look at what’s printed on it beyond when I first pick it up.
Are you seeing a pattern here? Most people, unless they are hoarders just don’t hold onto “stuff” unless it serves a purpose for them. If it’s something that people are going to actually use AND read over and over then that might stick in their subconscious and make them connect that with your book when they see it on the shelf, but unless it really is something that they love and see and use daily, it probably won’t make them go LOOK for your book.
Does that mean I’ll never again bring SWAG to a convention? Honestly – as money allows I’ll probably still bring stuff. But I’ll chose carefully. I’ve brought buttons to several of the last conventions that seemed very popular, but I’m not sure what happened to a lot of them once people got home. Every now and then someone will mention that they still have my button on their cork board at home or on their “normal” conference lanyard, but no one has ever told me it made them run out and buy my book, so who knows. I had “Got Gargoyles?” buttons for my Maiden series which were very popular. BTW – I stole the idea from Brit Blaise who had a “Got Cowboy?” button to promote her Cave Creek Cowboy series, and told me I was welcome to “borrow” the idea. Then when I had my first series out as Cassie Ryan I took bright pink “Got Seduction?” buttons which were EXTREMELY popular, but again – not sure how often they made people pick up my books even though all of those had my name and website on them as well as the saying. I do still have a letter opener from Judi McCoy but I usually picked up her books because I knew her and really liked her AND her books. I also have a few really cool bookmarks from Cheyenne McCray, but again – she’s a friend and I love her AND her books. I’d buy a Cheyenne McCray book with or without the SWAG, same for Jennifer Ashley. I do still have some cool pens and nail files in the bottom of my purse, but I couldn’t tell you which author they were from unless they are my own or one of my critique partner’s… I also still have a small mirror that folds out that I keep in my purse. It was displayed on an author’s signing table at RT one year and said “Vampire Self Test” – Cute and useful so I took one. I don’t remember if I bought her book or not and I don’t remember her name – there’s no sticker etc on the back of the mirror for me to remember it, but I do still have and use the mirror.
As for free books I usually bring all those home unless one of my conference roomies want some of them. My sister and friends get to pick from what I don’t want and the ones I keep go into my TBR pile….until I get to them…unless it really catches my interest or it’s by an author I love. For me, historical or Regency romances get read first, then paranormal romances and then erotic romances – usually the paranormals first Then everything else as I get time and as it catches my interest. Anything in my TBR pile after a year gets offered to my friends and family or gets traded in at the used bookstore or donated.
I do have a FEW conference bags with people’s author names/conference names on them. Most of them I give to my sister who is a huge reader and collects SWAG for authors she loves. I’ll get new bags at most every conference so there’s no need for me to build up 20 different bags at home when I’ll never use them. I do still have one that has Jennifer Ashley’s name on it because she’s a good friend AND one of my favorite authors. I also have a few different lanyards – two from Cheyenne McCray, one from my critique group – The Butterscotch Martini Girls — and one from my Cassie Ryan pen name. My main conference one is one of those black ones with the zipper and the pockets in back. The front has a velcro flap that allows you to store business cards and such inside it and then below is the clear plastic thing to hold your “name tag” they give you at most conferences – this one is also from Cheyenne McCray. When I use this one at pretty much every conference I go to I pack it full of my business cards, a few pens and that’s usually where my hotel key card goes so I don’t lose it or bend it from being in my back pocket. I don’t carry my purse around conventions!
That’s about it. So choose carefully when you decide what money to spend on SWAG and what to invest IN. Something that won’t make it farther than the hotel trash can isn’t really going to give you any return on investment for your hard earned dollars spent. And as you can see, a lot of the other stuff may not make it much farther than that.
So does SWAG really work? I really don’t know. The verdict is still out, but I have a feeling many authors will keep using it as a marketing vehicle regardless of it’s ROI. (That’s Return on Investment for those of you not into my Corporate America acronyms…lol)
Filed under: Cassie Ryan, Tina Gerow, Writing Conventions, Writing promotions Tagged: Brit Blaise, Cassie Ryan, Cheyenne McCray, Jennifer Ashley, Judi McCoy, Seduction Series, SWAG, Tina Gerow, Writing promotions
May 27, 2013
How I Got My Agent
I wrote my last blog post on A Query Letter and the NY Call I referenced that I would write this blog soon to fill in the “rest of the story”, so here it is!
I first met Paige Wheeler (Folio Literary Management) at the Desert Dreams Conference held here in Phoenix by the local Desert Rose RWA Chapter (of which I’m a member) I had heard great things about Paige and so when offered the chance to sign up for an agent or editor slot at the conference, I chose her.
However, I didn’t have any new work to pitch. I was with the now defunct Triskelion Publishing at the time and was writing a series there – The Maiden Series. But I knew I wanted to break out soon and make a run for a NY publishing contract so I needed to start “shopping” for agents soon. So I did something pretty unorthodox…I DID sign up for an agent appointment with Paige, and I didn’t pitch anything! In fact I told her up front that I didn’t have anything to pitch, but that I wanted to use that appointment as an opportunity to see if we would work well together in the future when I was ready for an agent. Paige smiled and took it in stride, and we had a great chat about writing, books and working in NY.
Fast forward to the next year when Audrey LaFehr from Kensington gave me “The Call” to offer a three book deal (that became my Seduction Series). As I referenced in my other blog, I did tell Audrey that I wanted to use this deal to get an agent, and asked if she had any agents she particularly liked to work with. She countered asking me who my top choices were. Paige was my TOP choice so I mentioned her. Audrey said she LOVED working with Paige, and told me to let her know how if she would be working through Paige or directly with me.
So once I got home and recovered my wits a bit…I’d taken The Call at work in my cubicle…I called Paige and asked if she remembered me. She did, since it’s very rare to have someone take an agent appointment and NOT pitch anything I told her there was a three book deal on the table and that I’d love for her to be my agent on the deal. She asked me to send her the manuscript so she could evaluate it to see if she’d be interested in representing me. Okay, fair enough, so I sent it off (pretty much as soon as I hung up the phone!) Well, hubby and I were at Chili’s when Paige called me back so I did have to wait until we finished dinner and I got home…snerk!
A few days later I received a call back from Paige. She offered representation on one condition…that I be willing and open to receiving feedback. My first internal reaction was, “Well, duh!” Who wouldn’t want feedback from their agent??? But from what I know now, there are plenty of authors out there who DON’T want to receive feedback from ANYONE, so it was a fair point. I agreed and we were officially a team – okay, there was some signing of contracts etc involved, but you get the idea!
From there we discussed pen names – she suggested I take one since my Tina Gerow “brand” was all about paranormal romance and this new trilogy would be erotic paranormal romance. Don’t want to give “brand shock” to my readers. It was up to me if I was very open that I was both names or not, but that way the readers would know what they would get when they picked up each pen name. And for those of you who know me, I’m VERY open that I’m both Tina and Cassie, but I do have some friends who have to be “hush hush” about their second pen name for day job reasons etc, so I do understand the reasons behind their secrecy. I just didn’t have to do any of that. So I used every bit of advice I’d received from writers over the years about pen names. I wanted to find something I wouldn’t mind answering to in public, something that was easy to sign a gazillion times, something that didn’t sound like a pole dancing name, something that had a dot com URL available, and something that would fall in a good place on the bookshelves… So Cassie Ryan was born – which falls just after Nora Roberts on most romance bookshelves, by the way! So I’m hoping I’ve attracted some impulse buys from her readers browsing the shelves even though we write different things
Audrey approved the pen name (I think they just want to make sure it’s not something totally stupid or obscene) and we were off and running!
That was several years ago and Paige is still my agent and we get along great. I totally trust her guidance on my writing career! She’s a very savvy lady and if she’s willing to have me, I’d love to keep her as my agent for the long haul! Because I plan on continuing to write until they pry the laptop out of my cold dead hands Sorry for the cliché visual…but it seemed to fit
So that’s my “how I got my agent” story and I’ve never regretted any of it!
So now off to get back to writing!!
Filed under: Audrey LaFehr, Cassie Ryan, Paige Wheeler, Seduction Series, Tina Gerow Tagged: Audrey LaFehr, Cassie Ryan, Literary Agents, Maiden Series, Paige Wheeler, Seduction Series, Tina Gerow
May 25, 2013
A Query Letter and THE NY CALL
I just read my friend and crit partner, Brit Blaise’s blog about our long ago RWA trip and her query that ended up getting her a book deal with Avalon and it got me thinking about my own past history with publishing. In fact, I think it was on that same RWA trip that I heard an editor speak who would change my publishing career forever.
If you want to get the scoop on our RWA trip, here’s the link to Brit’s blog -
Brit Blaise’s Blog
As for me, I attended a Kensington Publisher’s Spotlight and heard their editors talk about a new line that was starting called “Aphrodisia”. They asked for writers to send them erotic romances, even partials so they could get this new line off the ground with a bang. I had just started an erotic romance with the help of my friend and crit partner, an already published erotic writer, Brit. So I decided to send off my partial. Why the hell not, right? Couldn’t hurt…
So here’s the query letter I sent in with my partial – verbatim (and I’m cringing at the typo that got by me then!!:
Audrey:
I attended the Kensington publisher’s spotlight at this year’s RWA National Convention in Reno, where one of your editors advised you were looking for erotic romance—even partials—for a new line. So I’m enclosing a partial of Seduction of the Klatch, a paranormal erotic romance that is just under fifty percent complete along with a synopsis. It completed portions are linear, except for the last scene, which jumps to the queen’s ascension ceremony. The story is about an ugly duckling who wakes up to find out she’s the crown princess of a race of otherworldly witches whose life force is sexual energy. She needs the help of the prince of her erotic dreams to help her save a world she never knew existed.
I’m currently published in paranormal romantic suspense with Triskelion publishing and my paranormal romantic comedy comes out in both print and ebook next month, also with Triskelion. I’m the president of my local RWA chapter, a member in good standing of the FF&P chapter, Kiss of Death and Passionate Ink (the new RWA erotica chapter) as well as a member of an active critique group.
I’m very excited to submit to Kensington’s new erotic romance line. I hope you enjoy reading Seduction of the Klatch and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Tina Gerow
encl.
So now the rest of the story…
I didn’t hear from Kensington for almost a year. In fact, I figured it sucked so badly that they had just circular filed it and didn’t even bother to reject me… But then….I got THE C ALL! Or actually my husband did. He was at home and got a call on our home phone from Audrey LaFehr from Kensington asking me to call her back. He called me at work with the information and as soon as I could I called her back – right there from my cubicle
I’ll admit – I was terrified! This was my first “Call”. When Triskelion had bought my first book, Into a Dangerous Mind, I’d gotten the “EMAIL” – which I still did a happy dance over. But this was New York calling – the big leagues, an actual New York editor! And I scrambled to remember everything I had learned about talking to editors and about getting “THE CALL” Anyway, I called her back, actually remembered my name to tell her who I was and managed not to sound like too much of a flake – I hope…LOL!
She told me that she loved my sexy writing and could I turn this world I had started into three books. My heat started racing, my palms started to sweat and I said without missing a beat, “Yes, I can do that.” Then she asked if I could finish the first book by the end of the month (I still had 50% of it to write) and get it to her. I found myself saying a confident, “Absolutely,” before panic set in. Then I told her I wanted to use this deal to get an agent and did she have any she liked working with. (I had heard about this tactic from a fellow RWA author – might as well make sure you have an agent your editor likes working with – right? Anyway – she threw me off when she instead asked me for my short list of agents I was considering. I told her Paige Wheeler topped the list – I’ll have to tell that story about how I met Paige in another blog. Audrey told me she LOVED Paige and I was off and running…. Although she did mention a few other things like she hated the title – sounded too much like “Seduction of the Crotch” for her taste…lol!! Which is true. It eventually became Ceremony of Seduction – my best selling book to date! She also asked if I would be taking a pen name since this would be my first erotic. I told her I’d get Paige’s opinion and let her know.
Anyway – I’ll give you the scoop on how I got Paige as my agent in my next blog, but I immediately called my critique group – The Butterscotch Martini Girls – together to figure out how the hell I was going to turn this into a trilogy and to gird me up for finishing the other 50% of this book in three weeks. Because, damn it! I wasn’t going to miss out on a three book deal just because I had to write a measly 40-50 thousand words and edit and polish an entire book in three weeks! I had seriously fallen down on the job because I figured they hated it so had resigned myself to the fact that I just couldn’t cut it as an erotic writer. No worries – I wouldn’t give up writing, I’d just stick with my sensual books that had gained me my current fan base.
But that’s how I came to write the query letter above for Kensington when I sent in my partial. When I was learning how to write a query a friend and NYT Best Selling author had shared one of hers with me and I modeled mine off of that. So feel free to borrow mine and update it if you’re learning – I’m a big believer in paying it forward
And like I said, I’ll write another blog going about how I got my wonderful agent, Paige Wheeler – who really is terrific!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day holiday planned! I’m off to write!!
Tina
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Aphrodisia, Cassie Ryan, Ceremony of Seduction, Query Letter, The Call
