Susan Wiggs's Blog, page 15
April 21, 2017
30 years old…and forever young.
Guess what’s 30 years old this month? My first novel, that’s what. I wrote Texas Wildflower in longhand and typed it up on a Brother “Correct-O-Ball” electric typewriter, and sent a synopsis and sample chapters to Kensington Books.
I didn’t have a literary agent. It’s hard to get an agent when you’re new and don’t have a publisher. The offer came by phone, and I was gobsmacked to hear that it was Wendy McCurdy, an editor at Kensington Books. She made an extremely modest offer, and I thanked her and said I’d call her back.
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[Wendy and me in 2016, still friends after all these years.]
Loud screams of wonder and joy ensued. And then I called her back, and said of course I’d accept the offer. No negotiating. Nada. I didn’t have anything to bargain with other than an unfinished manuscript. So we made the deal, and Texas Wildflower became my first published novel.
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[This cover is so legit, I can’t even.]
It’s a sexy historical romance set in the days of the Republic of Texas, featuring the spirited, implausibly buxom Shiloh Mulvane and the square-jawed, even more implausibly sensitive spy posing as an outlaw, Justin McCord. Between gunfights and barroom brawls, they have frequent, orgasmic sex and eventually resolve their trust issues, saving not only their relationship, but the Republic itself!
The ever-tactful Shelley Mosley summarizes the novel this way in Booklist:
“Shiloh Mulvane’s father is one of Texas’ greatest detectives, and she wants to be just like him. She gets her break when she’s hired by a powerful judge to capture Justin McCord, the man who stole his daughter’s virtue. It’s fairly easy for Shiloh to capture the prospective bridegroom, but Justin, knowing the real reason the judge wants him for a son-in-law, turns the tables on her and tricks her into marrying him. From that point on, the tale is rife with espionage, murder, mayhem, intrigue, and dirty politics. Written before Wiggs evolved her current masterful style, this tale is as much a history of Texas gaining its statehood as it is a romance. Even though the book is long and the ending seems a bit rushed, fans will cheer for the spunky heroine who keeps putting herself at risk to be accepted by her father. This tale will please readers who enjoy Jodi Thomas and Lorraine Heath.” –Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Fair enough. It was the start of something special for me, a major leap forward in something I’d been striving toward since I was old enough to hold a crayon.
Over the years, Shiloh and Justin have been reissued several times.
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[Lilacs don’t actually grow in Texas, but whatever.]
They’ve even traveled to distant lands, as evidenced in this Indonesian (I think) edition.
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But no matter how many years have passed, one thing remains the same–that indisputable happy ending.
Happy work-i-versary to my career!
#KensingtonBooks
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March 29, 2017
Who are the VIPs in publishing?
The Romance Writers of America just announcing the winners of this year’s Industry Awards. Congratulations to the recipients!
RWA Announces 2017 Award Recipients
Romance Writers of America is proud to announce the recipients of the 2017 RWA Awards:
2017 RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award: Beverly Jenkins
2017 RWA Emma Merritt Service Award: Cindy Kirk
2017 RWA Service Awards: Victoria Alexander, Anne Elizabeth, Lucy Farago, Diane Kelly, Terri Molina, and Sharon Sobel
2017 RWA Vivian Stephens Industry Award: Tina Dick, Editor in Chief, Walking in the Clouds
2017 RWA Cathie Linz Librarian of the Year: Danielle King, Alafaya Branch, Orange County Library System (Orlando, Florida)
2017 RWA Steffie Walker Bookseller of the Year: Bea and Leah Koch, The Ripped Bodice
2017 RWA Veritas Award: Thu-Huong Ha, "Maverick Women Writers are Upending the Book Industry and Selling Millions in the Process," Quartz
2017 RWA Academic Research Grants: (1) Dr. Ria Cheyne, “The Disability and Romance Project” and (2) Dr. Kate Brown, “Dukes, Dowers, Devises, and Demesnes: The Paradoxical Place of English Law in the Historical Romance”
Susan Wiggs :: www.susanwiggs.com
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March 14, 2017
help for the jaded reader
Shout out to @RT_magazine for this so-thoughtful review of Dockside.
A wonderfully written, beautiful love story with a few sharp edges and a bunch of marvelously imperfect characters, this is one of Wiggs’s finest efforts to date. It’s sure to leave an indelible impression on even the most jaded reader.
Fans of Daisy Bellamy will get a glimpse of how the trouble all started. And you’re in luck–the e-book is just $1.99 for a limited time. Happy reading!
Susan Wiggs :: www.susanwiggs.com
Join me on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram, or Pinterest.
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March 2, 2017
happy birthday to a personal hero
Guess who was born on this day in 1904.
He said, "I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities." #DrSeuss
This print is one of my most prized possessions–it’s his sketch for the endpapers of The Cat in the Hat Songbook. When I was six years old, I taught myself to read music just so I
could play the songs on the piano.
A reminder that #MotivationIsEverything.
And nevertheless, #ShePersisted.
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February 22, 2017
artist’s date
In THE ARTIST’S WAY, Julia Cameron urges creative people to take themselves on “dates” to feed the creative mind.
My mom thinks it’s a fancy way to play hooky.
Both ideas work for me! Today’s ski day–er, artist’s date–was so beautiful, I thought I’d share our pictures. Enjoy!
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Artist’s Date
In THE ARTIST’S WAY, Julia Cameron urges creative people to take themselves on “dates” to feed the creative mind.
My mom thinks it’s a fancy way to play hooky.
Both ideas work for me! Today’s ski day – artist’s date was so beautiful, I thought I’d share our pictures. Enjoy!
…and the artist at work:
(via mobile)
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February 16, 2017
Let’s talk about writing.
Thanks to beloved author Shirley Jump for this interview, originally published on the Romance Writers of America web site. Whether you’re just getting started or are a seasoned pro, the RWA National Conference is the place serious writers get together. Hope to see you in Orlando!
This new eNotes column will spotlight the speakers who will be at the RWA Conference this summer in Orlando. This week, we are talking with the brilliant Susan Wiggs.
Susan Wiggs’s life is all about family, friends … and fiction. Today, she is an international best-selling, award-winning author with millions of copies of her books in print in numerous countries. Her novels have appeared in the number one spot on the New York Times best-seller list, have been optioned for film and television, and have won readers’ hearts around the globe. Her books celebrate the power of love, the timeless bonds of family, and the fascinating nuances of human nature.
1. What are you speaking about at RWA? Why is this vital info for today’s author?
My talk is called “I Can’t Wait to Hear What I Have to Say.” It’s vital info because it’s about the new paradigm of writers navigating the swift and radical changes in publishing and how this shift creates our best opportunities—if we’re smart about it. Have I been smart about it? Well, 2017 marks my thirtieth year as a published author, so that would be a yes from me. But I’m more entertaining and more instructive when I talk about my many mistakes and blunders, so you can be sure you’ll hear about that, too.
2. What do you see as the biggest challenge(s) facing authors in today’s market?
The same challenge the writer has faced from the moment the first cavewoman picked up a chisel and confronted her first stone wall: how to start the story, how to sustain it at the highest possible level of craft, and how to end it. If you can do that, everything else will feel like a cakewalk. No wait, I have never, ever won a freaking cakewalk. Maybe the metaphor should be “everything else will feel like eating cake. The good kind, with a moist center and cream cheese icing and those little rosettes on the corners.”
Thus proving that a side issue for some writers would be the undeniable scourge of overwriting.
3. What’s your number one tip for making the most of conference?
Approach each workshop and event with a beginner’s mind. Stay open to new ideas, new possibilities, and new connections. No matter how experienced you are, remember that you can always learn something new, sometimes in the most unlikely of places.
Don’t forget to volunteer, too. True story: I met Dianne Moggy, the woman who later took my career to a new level, while organizing a PAN panel.
One of the most inspiring things I see at conferences is how many longtime, wildly successful authors sit in seminars and take notes, the same way they did as newbies.
So take a risk. Find something on the schedule that sounds as though it might be out of your comfort zone, and go there.
You’re shy. That’s a given. It’s part of your DNA as a writer to feel awkward and out of place around people (other than fictional characters). The conference is your opportunity to set that shyness aside and do something bold.
When I was in graduate school, I had a landlady who liked to give me advice. One of her best nuggets was, “Walk into every situation as if you own it. If they’re monitoring the door, get a drink in your hand and back into the room, and immediately start chatting someone up.” I don’t care how shy you are. Do it. This is your shot. Don’t screw it up because you’re too bashful to speak up.
Afterward, you can go curl into the fetal position in your room and maybe raid the mini bar.
4. Best thing to do at Disney?
Go to the outdoor movie (poolside at the resort) when Frozen is playing and sing along at the top of your lungs. See above note re: mini bar.
Get your hair done like Elsa’s or Moana’s, depending on your hair type.
Go water skiing or wakeboarding at Sammy Duvall’s Water Sports Center.
Take a surf lesson at Typhoon Lagoon.
Treat a colleague to a character meal. Really. And take pictures.
New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Shirley Jump has written more than fifty novels for Berkley, Harlequin, Entangled and Kensington books. http://shirleyjump.com/
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January 18, 2017
timeless romance
So in my current work-in-progress, the main character is showing a film to an Amish girl for the first time. I decided a 16-year-old’s first movie should absolutely be The Princess Bride. It’s a no-brainer.
Here’s a fun article about the making of this virtually flawless film–Fifteen interesting things you probably didn’t know about The Princess Bride.
I’ve been trying to collect my favorite movies on Pinterest. Check it out here.
As you wish!
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January 4, 2017
new year :: new novel
This is the moment. A new year, a new book. Deep breath. Everything at the ready. And so it begins…
This novel has the working title Middle Grove. I’ll try not to get too attached to it, as the publisher tends to change my titles. I come up with something gloriously clever, like Falling Awake, and it gets changed to Family Tree. And of course works much better. (The e-book is just $1.99 this month, by the way. Acts of Light will be published as Map of the Heart. Wiser heads than mine will prevail. So stay tuned.
This particular story has a very emotional, larger-than-life feel to it. I’m not sure where that came from. Some ideas simply unfold that way. Some characters are simply bigger and more dramatic. Their problems are bigger and more dramatic. I worry about them as if they’re real people.
The tools of the trade are simple, but my needs are very specific. I can’t just use any old paper and pen. It has to be Clairefontaine (made in France), spiral bound, and graph ruled because I don’t always think sequentially. The pen has to be a Sheaffer (and I did spell that right, FYI) fountain pen with peacock blue ink. If you’re left-handed, you know why. If you’re right-handed, then you don’t worry about dragging your sleeve through the ink.
I’m very lucky to have a beautiful spot to call my own. View out the window, two sleeping dogs, a sense that all is right with the world. However, the place where I am isn’t crucial to the process. I’ve written in cubbies and closets all over the place, from a tiny tract home in Houston to a castle in southern France–and everything in between. On trains. Ferryboats. Park benches.
Photo – Google Photos
Of course, I’m most productive when I fall into a routine. The mug of tea has to be white on the inside. And the type of tea? PG Tips is my drug of choice. I’ve had many fancy brands of tea in my day, and this one is sort of prosaic, but I find it delicious and the scent of it evocative, stimulating creativity. Every so often I will go for a good cup of Mariage Freres Earl Grey with a little bits of bergamot flower, but my go-to, everyday tea is PG tips, or Typhoo in a pinch.
With the tea, the paper and pen, the dogs and the comfy chair, I can go for hours. My husband, who also works from home but in his atelier across the garden, will come and over at sundown to root for something to eat and mix the drinks for happy hour. That’s when I know my work for the day is done.
And so it goes. Each book emerges at its own pace. I asked the publisher for a generous deadline, because at the time, my beloved dad was very ill and I wanted plenty of time with him. He passed away in 2015, and while there’s a hole in my heart, there’s more time for writing. He loved being a writer’s dad. I like to think he’s still close by, cheering me on.
Life in all its beauty, pain, joy, and sorrow is never less than a fantastic adventure. Happy New Year to All!
PS: Speaking of adventures, I really wish you’d join me and Elizabeth George on the Mystery and Romance Cruise this March. You’ll also meet the amazing Deborah Coonts and the incredible triathlete and yogini, Cindy Peters. I never thought I was a “cruise” person until I checked out Silversea. It is THE cruise to take. It will spoil you for all other cruises, what with its butlers, suites, open bar, and Caribbean sunshine. Call 800.828.4813 and tell them Susan sent you. They’ll fix you up good!
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November 6, 2016
Have a cookie. Read a book. Raise some cash for a good cause.
The holidays are coming and Seattle7Writers is hosting the 7th Annual Holiday Bookfest at Phinney Neighborhood Center, on Saturday November 19, 2016, from 3pm-5pm.
There will be a musical performance by The Rejections (and Trailing Spouses) as well as readings by a selection of Seattle7Writers.
Meet and mingle with 25 writers under one roof, sample tasty treats baked by the authors themselves, and pick up some gifts for the readers in your lives. And the best present of all? Your purchase will help support the Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas and the Phinney Neighborhood Association. That’s downright festive!
More details, including the readings schedule, are at: www.seattle7writers.org/holiday-bookfest.html. Hope to see you there!
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