Elizabeth Boyle's Blog, page 19

5 Things with Katharine Ashe

Katharine Ashe is the award winning author of adventurous, bestselling Regency romances from Avon! But her newest novella, in the anthology At the Billionaire’s Wedding, is a romp in contemporary romance. Here, she shares with us five things you probably didn’t know about her.

1) Did you have a nickname growing up? “Katie, Katie, the Paper Cup Lady”. One day in 1st grade I was innocently sitting cross-legged on my fuzzy blue Cookie Monster mat at snack time, when my teacher asked me to pass out the paper cups for juice. Someone called me that name, and it stuck, swiftly morphing into “Katie, Katie, the Big Fat Lady”, and so on. I’m proud to say that (after decades of therapy) I have finally gotten over this trauma. But if I could remember which nasty kid made up the name, I’d hunt him down and…

2) Do you celebrate when you finish a book and what you do? I drink champagne and dance in my living room to really loud music.

3) Where do you go for inspiration when the creativity well is running a little dry? The romantic core of my creative imagination never runs dry; there are always couples in my imagination eager for me to tell their love stories. But when I’m pondering plot ideas, I go to history books. History is so rich and complex and astonishingly unreal. I’ve found my best — and often my most outrageous — plots in the pages of history books.

4) What is the very first romance novel that you read? Once More, Miranda by Jennifer Wilde (who was a man). Full of action and delicious sensuality, with a strong heroine and excellent hero, I fell in love with it. I remember little of it now, but thirty years ago it changed my life.

5) What are your top three favorite movies? Moonstruck, The Cutting Edge, and The Hunt for Red October. Romance, comedy, strong heroines, alpha heroes, fabulous acting, perfect settings, action, conflict, noble deeds, and heart-swelling happily ever afters. And, of course, they’re infinitely quotable.

Ronnie: “I’m a wolf? You run to the wolf in me, that don’t make you no lamb.”

Kate: “Toe pick!”

Ramius: “‘And the sea will grant each man new hope, as sleep doth dream of home.” Christopher Columbus.”

Ryan: “Welcome to the New World, sir.”

[cue the swelling Russian choir music]

Thanks for having me visit, Elizabeth!!

You can find Katharine on Facebook, Twitter, and her website.

Have You Met: Avon Addict Veronica Arellano

Welcome, Avon Addict Veronica Arellano. If you don’t know Veronica, the questions she answered below for us should get you started…

1) Where is the most beautiful/romantic place you’ve ever been? Hands-down: Buzios, Brazil. It’s a tiny resort town made famous by Brigitte Bardot vacationing there in the 1960s. There’s even a saucy statue of her on the town’s main drag! The beaches are beautiful, the food is amazing, the music is lovely and I swear the sunsets are the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen. As soon as my vacation was over, I was homesick for Buzious. I just felt at home and at peace there, which made it the most romantic place on earth.

2) Favorite name for a hero or heroine. DECLAN. I can’t get enough of that name. Sophie Jordan uses it for her hero in A Good Debutante’s Guide to Ruin, and it is so sexy.

3) What new to you authors are you crazy about? I have a total reader’s crush on Theresa Romain and Carolyn Jewel. They’re so different–Jewel’s writing is angsty and dark and Romain’s novels are fantastically witty and smart–but they both know how to write these great off-kilter heroes that I find really appealing.

4) What is the most embarrassing song/app on your ipod? The song has to be Gato Astronauta by !Fantastico! (That’s right, there are double Spanish language exclamation points in the band name). It’s about a cat astronaut who travels to outer space. In my defense, it’s a track off of a Spanish-language kid’s CD I picked up for my son!

5) Name three books on your keeper shelf and why.

Romance: A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare

It’s a total feel-good romance. No angst. No drama. Just two people falling in love on the road. I read it whenever I need a pick-me-up.
Fantasy: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Mists of Avalon is a great feminist re-telling of the classic Arthurian legend. It’s a welcome respite from the off-handed misogyny that you often find in fantasy and sci-fi.
Epic: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

I am a huge sucker for epic family sagas, and this is one with a twist! The protagonist is an inter-sexed individual named Calliope/Cal, and through Cal’s amazing voice you’ll travel from Greece to Detroit to San Francisco.

TBT: Brazen Angel

I don’t know how many people told me NOT to write Brazen Angel. An editor at a conference. More than one agent. Critic partners. Contest judges. Every single one of them said that any story set around the French Revolution wasn’t romantic, would never sell. One of my critique partners joked that it was the tale of springtime in Paris with Robespierre. Yeah, very funny.

I wrote it anyway. And look what happened. It won the Dell Diamond Debut–which came with a publishing contract. It was nominated for two RITAs, Best First Book and Best Long Historical. It won for Best First Book. Brazen Angel, the book I wouldn’t have written if I had listened to everyone else, ending up being the story that launched my career. The one everyone told me not to waste my time on.

This is why you, if you believe in a story with all your heart, and you know it is THE story you have to tell, then you must tell it. Write it from the heart and tell it. I wrote this book on fire–the story would not leave me alone. I Had. To. Tell. It. And it was mine to tell.

So is your story.

Now, 18 years later, I still write–every day because I can’t not write. And always, I stick to crafting the stories that intrigue me, the characters who won’t leave me alone, the plot that leaves me breathless.

Haven’t read my first book? You’ll find an excerpt from Brazen Angel here, or order your copy here.

5 Things About Cynthia Sax

Cynthia Sax writes contemporary erotic romance for Avon Impulse, and came to the blog to share a few things about herself and her writing. Here are 5 things you might not know about Cynthia…

1) Where is the most beautiful/romantic place you’ve ever been? My favorite tropical paradise is Bali (the combination of beaches, art and the spiritual is wonderful). My favorite city is Istanbul (a combination of so many different cultures). The city I’d most like to live in is Chicago (the setting of Sinful Rewards).

2) How do you pick the names of your Heroes/Heroines? In Sinful Rewards, the heroine, Bee/Belinda is torn between Nicolas, a billionaire with a dark past and Hawke, a tattooed bad boy biker. As the men see two different sides of our heroine, I wanted them to call her by two different names. The man we believe is more casual calls her by the very formal Belinda. The man we believe is more formal calls her Bee. Yes, everyone in Sinful Rewards has secrets. (grins) Bee is also appropriate because she believes she’s always second best, the B choice.

3) Since romance authors always write about falling in love, when and how did you discover you were in love? I fell in love with my dear wonderful hubby at first sight. Yes, I didn’t believe in it either. I didn’t really believe in romantic love at all. I thought some people were lucky to feel passion for their friends. Then the hubby walked into a room and bam, both of us fell in love. I told a friend that very day that he was the man I’d marry. We’re from different races, different religions. He’s younger than I am. 20 plus years later, however, we remain very much in love.

4) Who are your must-buy authors? I love Shelly Bell, N.J. Walters, Laurann Dohner, Eve Langlais, Opal Carew, Naima Simone, all erotic romance. I LOVE the hot reads.

5) Print or ebook? eBook, definitely. I read, on average, one erotic romance a day (I speed read). Print would be a nightmare. I love being able to take thousands of books on vacation with me, being able to adjust the font size, being able to delete the stories I didn’t like.

You can find Cynthia at her website, on Facebook, her blog, Twitter, or sign up for her Release Day Newsletter here!

8 Ways to Maximize Your Writing Time

If you are like me, your writing time is both precious and never long enough. So here are some of my methods to make sure you are getting the most pages out of your limited time.

1) Stop reading email, Tweets, Facebook, Instagram, et al. Okay, maybe that’s a little drastic, but how about printing out this little rule and stick it on your computer screen: Writing first, all the rest second. To make is easier, turn off all your alerts and anything that might nudge you to go take a peek. Stay on target.

2) Do as much pre-writing as possible. Take notes while you eat breakfast and lunch. Sketch out dialogue bits, scene ideas, setting descriptions. When you sit down to write, type these notes into your manuscript and they are usually enough to catapult you right into your story without too much hemming and hawing.

3) Write from a well-thought out outline or synopsis. A roadmap of your story will get you from A to Z in the quickest route. You wouldn’t drive from Seattle to Dallas without good directions, so why write a novel without one?

4) Use a timer. When I get really behind or am on deadline, I use a kitchen timer. I set it for anywhere between five and twenty minutes and tell myself that I have that much time to write X amount of pages. That little ticking bomb really gets my fingers flying.

5) Turn off the internal editor. When I write my first draft, my only goal is to get the story down. If there are missing transitions, holes in the dialogue or in a scene, or a word, sentence or paragraph that just doesn’t sound quite right, all of that can be fixed when I do my revisions. Remember: Revising a manuscript is an entirely different process than writing the first draft.

6) Set a specific time each day and amount of time to write. Make this time sacred. You’ll find that as your daily writing time approaches, your imagination, thoughts and focus start moving toward your story automatically.

7) If you find yourself stuck and unable to think of anything, just write the dialogue for the scene. Or describe the scene. Anything related to that part of the book to keep your fingers moving. If you are really and truly stuck, go back to your synopsis and move to the next scene.

8 ) Give yourself a writing night out once a week. I get out of the house, away from the husband and kids, and go to Starbucks, where I review notes and plan my writing for the next week. Sometimes I use the time to review the pages I’ve written recently or just brainstorm. The change in scenery and the lack of interruptions give you some great time to concentrate and come away revitalized and refueled (literally) to get to work.

Good luck and remember: Keep Writing.

Have You Met: Avon Addict: Aemelia M

Welcome, Avon Addict Aemelia. If you don’t know Aemelia, here are some things to get you started…

Check us out!

1) What is the very first romance novel that you read? It was TAME THE RISING TIDE by Virginia Morgan, I found it on the bookshelf of my best friend’s mom one morning after I spent the night (I was always an early riser)! I was hooked! Shortly thereafter I discovered Kathleen E Woodiwiss, Johanna Lindsey, Julie Garwood, Brenda Joyce, Judith McNaught… and the rest was history! Lol.

2) If you could choose any 3 authors to gossip with over lunch, who would they be? Only 3?!?!? Ugh, that’s so hard. Lisa Renee Jones, Larissa Ione, and Ann Aguirre… though I’d love it if Tessa Dare, Victoria Dahl, and Elizabeth Boyle would also join.

3) Print or ebook? While I enjoy my ebook reader, nothing can take the place of print books, I love turning pages.

4) What book have you read the most times? It’s probably a tie between Johanna Lindsey’s BRAVE THE WILD WIND, DEFY NOT THE HEART, and HEARTS AFLAME.

5) Did you have a nickname growing up? Yes, a little girl that I babysat decided that my name was Zelda when she was 2, and the name stuck—her ENTIRE family still calls me that. O.o

6) What are your top three favorite movies? Gone With the Wind, Grease, Armageddon

You can find Aemelia at Rambling Reads on Facebook or as @TrustMe_2Forget on Twitter!

TBT: No Marriage of Convenience

This book, No Marriage of Convenience, was originally slated as the follow-up to Brazen Angel, and was to be the story of Emma’s illegitimate daughter, Riley. However, my Dell editor at the time passed on the idea and wanted me to write Brazen Heiress instead.

When Avon asked me if I had anything I would be interested in doing for them, I immediately proposed this story, the one I had been waiting three years to write. Of course, by changing publishing houses I had to take the Brazen connection out of the book, but I think it turned out better for the challenge to make it a standalone.

This is my only book that hasn’t been linked in some way or fashion to any other of my stories–but remains one of my favorites for I just adore Riley and her antics.

If you’d like to buy No Marriage of Convenience, you can do here, or read an excerpt here.

5 Things with Ellie McDonald

Welcome to the blog, Ellie Macdonald, author of The Governess Club series!

Here are 5 things you probably didn’t know about Ellie:

1) Did you have a nickname growing up? My family called me The Mad Hatter because of my quick temper as a child and it’s also a play on my real name. They still call me it every once in awhile; my mom and sister even bought me a mug with The Mad Hatter on it at Disney World last year.

Click to buy!

2) What’s your strongest/most productive writing habit? I wear noise reducing headphones. They are kinda like blinders for a horse: I put them on and then very little distracts me. Except for Facebook. And YouTube. And – well, you get the idea. ;0) I don’t know why it works for me; I mainly write at night so there’s not a lot of noise to begin with, but they just seem to focus me.

3) If you were going to an island for a long time, name 5 things you would bring. Assuming there is electricity and wifi on the island: my Kindle, sunscreen, my laptop, my toothbrush and my bathing suit. Hm, only two electronics on that list, not too bad.

4) If you could time travel, what time period would you most like to visit? Regency England, of course, but I do think I would be horrified to see how they actually lived. Not nearly as romantic as our novels make it out to be. Elizabethan England would be interesting as well.

5) What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done? I packed everything I owned into two suitcases and moved to London, England on my own for two years. I didn’t know anyone, I had less than 3 grand in my pocket (which doesn’t last long AT ALL there) and the extent of my planning was booking a hostel for the first week and registering with a headhunter firm. This was really was fly-by-the-seat- of-my-pants sort of thing. I loved every minute over there.

You can find Ellie on her website, Facebook or Twitter!

3 Writing Tips for NaNoWriMo

Are you off and dashing? NaNoWriMo–National Novel Writing Month–which challenges a writer to draft a book in a month–begins today and as you start furiously writing your story, I have three tips for staying on track and keeping your story moving forward.

1) Prewrite. I know that sounds crazy, but prewriting before you sit down at the keyboard, with a pencil/pen and paper will often give you the sort of creative jump start that can lead to more words on a whole, quicker and more easily. By drafting the ideas you have, or just playing around with your story for a bit of time before you start writing will get you in the right place and ready to write. Jot down dialogue–no tags, no descriptors, just the dialogue. Sketch out the setting. Write down what your characters WANT out of the next scene or scenes. I like to do to do this the night before I write, just to give the ideas a bit of time to ping around in the imagination.

2) Brainstorm. If and when you get stuck, make a List of 20 things. Anything. What can happen in the next scene. Where your characters will end up. Write down everything, no matter how crazy it is, just get to 20. Truly the good stuff comes bubbling up to the surface about numbers 16 and 17.

3) Drive Around the Accidents. Accidents happen in writing. Moments when the story detours. Something isn’t working. You can see where you want your story to go–say like in the next scene, but the current scene and your stubborn characters aren’t cooperating. Put a placemarker in your manuscript and skip ahead. Drive around the roadblock. And don’t look back until a solution presents itself. After having written 24 books, and driven around my fair share of writing collisons, the solution always comes up eventually.

Have You Met: Avon Addict Jody, aka Joder

Jody hosts the popular blog, Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess where she shares her love of books, amongst other things (as well as keeping a great list of giveaways–so if you like contests…).

But before you dash off to visit her blog, let me introduce, Joder:

1) Favorite name for a hero or heroine. Fave name for a hero is Devyn.

2) Do you immediately start another book once you finished one? As a blogger/reviewer I’m constantly reading and even dream of reading!

3) Favorite place to read? In front of my office window in the morning with the sun shining in on me.  It’s so soothing and better than Calgon in taking me away from it all.

4) What is the very first romance novel that you read? The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss when I was 12 and home sick from school.

5) Who is your favorite author? There’s no way I can pick just one but I’ll try not to go too crazy naming names… Lorraine Heath, Roni Loren, Julia Quinn, Sarah MacLean, Olivia Cunning, and JR Ward.

You can connect with Jody F (aka Joder) on her blog: Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess

Or on Twitter at @Jone402 and Facebook as Jody F.