Tessa Dare's Blog, page 18

Crashing

This year, I am adding a new term to my publishing vocabulary: "crash". As in, "to crash a book."

Perhaps you already know what this means. I confess, I didn't. My agent called me a little over a year ago to let me know yes, Ballantine would publish the Stud Club trilogy. I said, "Great!" (Read: OMG, squeeeeeee!). She said they wanted to publish them in May/June/July 2010. I said, "Um, how is that possible?" (Read: massive internal freak-out) And she said, "Well, they will just crash the ...

Coming to a town near you! (Um, if you live near these three towns.)

Well, I returned from the wedding (um, a week ago, but who's counting…)! My dareling made a precious flower girl, if I do say it myself. Actually, several other people said so, too! I'm glad she got to have the experience, and it was lovely to see all our family members.

As I look at my schedule for the next few months, I see it filling up with exciting travel and literary events and book signings. If you are anywhere near any of these events, I would love to meet you! Yes, you! (Okay...

Mischief Managed!

*carves sixth hashmark on the wall*

I am so happy to report, the manuscript of Three Nights with a Scoundrel is all turned in to my editor. There will be revisions and edits and page proofs to come, but I can say now that I have authored six books. Hooray! I am so thankful to the wonderful friends and critique partners who helped me through this last stretch, and through the whole trilogy. You know you are. I could not have done it without your support. Mwah.

Yesterday was a big...

March, 2010

Whew! I have met all my deadlines (for the moment, ha), and just in time to enjoy the beautiful California spring. (My sympathies to those of you still shoveling snow in the East.) It's a busy family month for us, with weddings and birthdays and other fun. And I can't believe it's just a few months until the May 25th release of One Dance with a Duke!

Reading Aloud for Fun and Profit

I don't blog about the craft of writing all that often anymore. There are a few reasons for that. The first is that most days, actually practicing the craft of writing is just about all I can manage. Barely.

The second is that, the more books I've written, the less I feel I truly know. Paradoxically, it also seems like any advice I give should be actually useful advice–which kind of scares me, because I am not a teacher. Some people have a true gift for crystallizing points of craft and i...

this is just to say… happy valentine's day

Many thanks to Janga for passing on the link to this site. Click on the picture to find other valentines from Poets.org.

Random thoughts this post inspired:

Must download the Poem Flow app to my iPhone.

I'm always drawn to poets who punctuate with exuberance and eccentricity. (My copy editor would be unsurprised to hear this, I'm sure.)

I think someday I'd like to write a poet heroine. I will have to make her a bad poet, though, or at best a middling one.

I wish you a day of romance!

I am honored; a reward could be yours!

The lovely readers at All About Romance have voted me "Best Debut Author of 2009″ in their annual reader poll. This is a truly thrilling honor to receive! I was also so excited to see that my good friend and critique partner, Courtney Milan, was awarded Best Short Story for her novella "This Wicked Gift" in The Heart of Christmas. Congratulations to all the winners. I am just delighted to be mentioned in such great company.

AAR is coincidentally having a Valentine's Day giveaway featuring ...

Promise Me Winners!

And the winners of copies of Sara Lindsey's PROMISE ME TONIGHT, as determined by Random.org, are….

Emily (#6)

and

Willaful (#16)

Congratulations! Please use the contact form to send me your snail mail address. And if you didn't win, be sure to enter my current "New Authors" contest–I'm giving away copies there, too!

Thanks to everyone for a great discussion of the Best Friend's Little Sister trope. There were so many mentioned that I love (The Duke and I! sigh - Pleasure for Pleasure! yum...

February, 2010

Ah, February…the month of romance! For me, this is going to be the month of romance and work, work, work, as I finish up the writing, revising, and editing of the 2010 trilogy (starts with One Dance with a Duke on May 25!). So I may be scarce on the internet for a few weeks, but in the meantime I've opened a new "New Authors" contest, giving away books from historical debut authors Sara Lindsey and Erica Ridley. Happy Valentine's Day!

Best Friend's Little Sis

If you've read Goddess of the Hunt, you already know that I find this an irresistible romantic trope: the poor guy who falls under the spell of his best friend's little sister, all grown up. For years, she's been nothing but a sister to him, or a friend–perhaps even an annoyance. And suddenly, Little Sis has grown into that awkward coltish frame, set aside her hoyden ways (well, in Lucy's case - never!), and become a woman. So tempting, and yet so forbidden.

On her side, she's been...