Susan Sey's Blog, page 6

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Is there anything better than a girl trip?

Since my folks have retired, my mom has made an annual tradition out of taking one of her daughters on vacation.  (There are four of us; I’m number three.)   We go in rotation–oldest to youngest–and the Daughter of the Year gets to pick the destination.  (This is limited, of course, to locations offered by the time share my parents participate in.)

This year was my year.  I’d skipped my last turn–the kids were too little and I was (am) a stay-at-home mom.   And you can’t sub that kind of work out.  It’s not that hard (usually) but the hours are impossible.

My youngest is in school now, though, so when my year came up again, I jumped.  I’m on the plane as I type this, flying home from an incredible week away with Mama Sey in San Francisco.

Why San Fran? 

I don’t honestly know.  Neither of us had a particular connection to the city.  But the climate is perfect and it’s close to wine country, and I stopped listening when somebody said, “Wine.”  Sold!

I can’t begin to sum up what a wonderful time we had, so I’ll let my pictures tell the story.  I’ve attached them all along this post, so here’s a little snippet about each of them in order:

The first photo was taken from the center of the labyrinth inside Grace Cathedral downtown.  A local artist had just completed a project in which parishioners wrote their prayers on long ribbons and hung them from the ceiling above the labyrinth.  I had just finished walking the labyrinth, looked up and there they were. 

The second photo is a selfie of me and Mama Sey aboard our first street car.  (I love selfies, as some of you may know.)  Mark Twain (I think?) famously said of steep, hilly San Fran, “If you ever get tired of walking in San Francisco, you can always just lean up against it.”  The best decision we made all week was investing in MUNI passes so we could hop on any bus, street car or trolley that happened by when the walking got too steep. 

Then there was our wine country tour.  One of the wineries took us on a behind-the-scenes tour of their plant.  We took our glasses along, because we live in hope.  The rest of that day’s a little fuzzy.  It eventually devolved into napping, but not before I decided to purchase the expensive but delicious bottle of pinot noir currently in my suitcase.

We stopped for lunch in Yountville, and OH DEAR LORD LOOK IT’S THE FRENCH LAUNDRY.  We didn’t go in–we got a decidedly “reservations only beyond this point” vibe from the staff–but if I’m ever King Midas rich I’m going to book reservations here and have chef Thomas Keller do up a tasting menu just for us, with hand-picked wines and artisanal cheese and everything.  Because everybody needs a dream and that’s mine.

And last, but never least, this is me and Mama Sey biking (that’s right, I said BIKING) across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Because it was there and we could.  Boom.

And now I’m flying home, missing my mom and wondering why on earth I let Wisconsin and an entire Great Lake (Michigan) come between us.  It’s so hard to step out of daily life, to make that space for something new.  But every time I do, I’m filled with wonder at what comes along to fill it.  This time it was falling in love with a new city, and realizing that someday, if I’m really good and really lucky, I’ll grow up to be like my mom. 

I can’t help but wonder what the next four years will bring, and what kind of lives we’ll both step out of the next time my number comes up.    

So how about you?  Have you stepped out of your normal life for a week?  A day?  An hour?  For what?  Share!

 

TEMPT ME Winner!

Congratulations to catslady, the lucky winner of Tamara Hogan’s latest TEMPT ME!

Email us here for all the details on how to claim your prize!

September’s Members Only Prize!

Congratulations to Jen. B who took home September’s fabulous MEMBERS ONLY prize package! 

We’re cracking the treasure chest wide open this time!  Just look what you’ve won, Jen!

From Anna Sugden – A Perfect Distraction and some Cadbury’s chocolate

From Joan Kayse – Barbarian Soul

From Donna MacMeans – Cassanova Code

From Nancy Northcott – Renegade

From Christina Brooke – London’s Last True Scoundrel

From Susan Sey – A copy of Taste for Trouble or Kiss the Girl (E or Print)

So what about you?  Are you interested in a shot at the Members Only prize?  Become a Bandita Buddy!  It’s as easy as going to our home page, finding the “Become a Bandit Buddy!” button on the sidebar & clicking!   Join us in the Lair….

Tamara Hogan and Things You Never Hear On Twitter

You know how sometimes you have to do something for your own good?  Like going to the dentist, say, or working out.  You know you’re going to hate it but you do it anyway, because it’s good for you.  With me, it’s joining stuff.  I hate meetings.  Committees are worse.  I prefer to stay at home in my pjs, talking to the voices in my head.  (I call them “characters.”) But Mr. Sey insists I get dressed & go out from time to time, so I joined my local writers’ group.

And–as happens sometimes when you do things that are good for you–I was rewarded.  I met Tamara Hogan.  It’s always great to meet somebody whose writing you love (and I do love Tammy’s writing), but it’s far more unusual to like the person as much as the book.  And with Tammy, I do.  She’s one of those rare people who tells the truth & does it in such a wry, funny way that instead of being taken aback, you’re all, “I *know*, right??”

To celebrate the release of her novel TEMPT ME, Tammy’s agreed to join us today for a discussion of that ever-complicated intersection of truth and Twitter. Let’s give her a big bandita welcome!  Take it away, Tammy!

 Thanks, Susan!  I’m delighted to be here today.  Let’s get down to the dirty truth, shall we?

You know how it goes on Facebook and Twitter for the denizens of Romancelandia. In and amongst the fun personal interactions, the RTing of the news of the day or of quirky stories, the chatting with friends, the snark-o-licious live-tweeting of your favorite TV shows, comes the business of writing: the promotion, and the humble-bragging.  We’ve all done it—tweeted great news like a contest final or win, or making a list. Someone will tweet that they wrote 5000 words today. (That person would not be me.) We might retweet an awesome review of one of our books, quoting the tweet and adding a chirpy “Thanks so much!” or “How awesome!” to get double the mileage out of that precious link.  In public, we are relentlessly, manically positive.  But in private? Sometimes not so much.

Here are some things you never see authors say on Twitter: 

“I wrote 118 words today—every bloody one of them pulled out from under my fingernails with a rusty pliers.”

“Sales…really aren’t that great.”

“My royalty checks don’t even pay for conferences.”  

 “Why can’t I get a release date for my book?”

 “My publisher dropped me today.”

 My publisher dropped me.

 Yes, I knew this happened—this is a tough, tough business—but I hadn’t seriously considered it would happen to me. My editor loves my work! My books are well-reviewed! They’ve won, like, awards and stuff! But sometimes love isn’t enough. Love doesn’t necessarily translate to sales, and this is a business. What my former publisher and I were doing together wasn’t working as well as either of us would have liked.

 Several years ago, being dropped by my publisher would have been a crushing disappointment. Now? Not so much—though I must admit it took a day or two to bang the ding out of my ego. The industry has changed radically since 2009, when I signed a traditional publishing contract. There are now so many ways for authors to get their words into the world.

So with TEMPT ME, I join the ranks of indie-published authors, and it’s here that I need to offer infinite thanks to my friend, Susan Sey—for sharing her knowledge, for reminding me I’m a damn good writer, and for listening to me say things an author never says on Twitter.

You are a damn good writer, Tammy, & I’m delighted you’ve got a foot on the indie side of the fence!  Because I’ve been following the Underbelly Chronicles since the beginning & I’d have been torqued if I’d been deprived of  Bailey & Rafe’s story!

Speaking of which, TEMPT ME is available at:  Amazon (Kindle and Print) – BN – ARe (Sony, Kobo & iBookstore are coming soon!)

Want to read an excerpt?  Click away!  

Now, then, time for our question of the day:  If you’re a reader, which vaguely “inappropriate” questions have you always wanted to ask an author? If you’re an author, what do you wish you could say on Twitter?

One lucky commenter today will win a copy of TEMPT ME for her very own, e- or print version!  So don’t hold back! 

Stock images courtesy of Free Digital Photos, mouse over for artist attribution

 TEMPT ME Blurb:

 A sex demon and a preacher’s kid? Heaven forbid! 

Technology whiz Bailey Brown is one of two humans alive who knows a very important secret: that humanity has shared their planet with paranormals for millennia. When an obsessed hacker from her past threatens to expose the secret, Bailey and her Sebastiani Security colleagues must use every weapon at their disposal to stop him. The stakes couldn’t be higher, and she can’t let herself be distracted by her boss’s gorgeous brother, even if he is temptation incarnate…

Incubus sculptor Rafe Sebastiani hasn’t produced a decent nude in over a year, since he made the most selfish mistake of his life: sleeping with Bailey Brown. Now, with a deadline looming, his cranky muse has finally allowed him to express his memories of that incendiary night in clay. But when his brother asks him to pose as Bailey’s lover to provoke her dangerous ex, he jumps at the chance…to sculpt her, to protect her, and to earn the right to tempt her—and only her—for the rest of their lives…

Author Bio:

Tamara Hogan loathes cold and snow, but nonetheless lives near Minneapolis with her partner Mark and two naughty cats. When she’s not telecommuting to Silicon Valley, she writes paranormal romance with a sci-fi twist. A voracious reader with an unapologetic television addiction, Tamara is forever on the lookout for the perfect black boots.

Tamara’s debut novel, TASTE ME, won the Daphne du Maurier Award for Mystery and Suspense, Prism Awards for Best Dark Paranormal, Best First Book, and Best of the Best, The Aspen Gold, and was nominated for the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart® Award.

 

October!

Happy October!

I love fall.  There’s so much to look forward to–chunky sweaters, soft scarves, fresh-picked apples.  Then there’s the first frost, first pumpkin pie, first crockpot chili…  Some among us might say football season (I’m looking at you, Suz & Jeanne) but some of us married Nebraskans without full disclosure about much of every weekend would be sacrificed to televised Husker coverage.  (It’s extensive.  I should’ve been warned.)

But here in the Lair, there’s something for everybody!  And October is looking awesome.   Check out what’s in store for you!

 

BANDIT BOOKS!

 

Love a good historical?  Check out Christie Kelly’s new release ENTICING THE EARL!

 

 

More into the witty contemporary?  Caren Crane’s KICK START is now available as a trade paperback!

 

 

 

 

Looking for something a little darker?  How about Trish Milburn’s OUT OF THE NIGHT?

 

Click on the covers for more details!

 

GUESTS!

 

 

On Wednesday, October 2nd, Anna Campbell hosts lair favorite Annie West (www.annie-west.com), who’ll tell us about her latest passionate tale, AN ENTICING DEBT TO PAY. Annie’s always great fun and we look forward to hearing about what’s going on in her life!  Plus she’s giving away two copies of her new book!  

 

 

On Thursday, October 3rd, our own Caren Crane will host Regan Black and Debra Webb as they discuss the Magic of Mentors. Regan and Debra will share what makes their professional friendship so beneficial – and so productive.  They’ll be giving away an autographed BULLETPROOF totebag & a $10 Amazon gift card, so swing on by!

 

 

 

 

On Friday, October 4th,  Sara Jane Stone will be celebrating her debut release, COMMAND PERFORMANCE, with us!  Tawny says that this is one hot, hot debut, so you might want to wear oven mitts.  One lucky commenter will receive her own e-copy of COMMAND PERFORMANCE! 

 

 

On Monday, October 7th, Susan Sey invites Tamara Hogan to talk about all the things authors should never say on Twitter (but maybe want to.)  Come hear all about it, & maybe win a copy of Tamara’s latest release TEMPT ME!

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday, October 11, Christine Brooks bring us another lair favorite–the fabulous Amy Andrews with her brand new release from Momentum, HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO. 

 

 

 

 

 

On Monday, October 21, Nancy welcomes Gerri Russell back to the Lair.  Gerri will talk to us about her new release, A LAIRD FOR CHRISTMAS, and dating customs in the 1700s.

CONTESTS!

Anna Campbell is holding a Halloween contest to celebrate a month-long price cut on her very romantic ghost story, THESE HAUNTED HEARTS, which is now only 99 cents. She’s giving away two copies of the novella (international). All you need to do is email her on anna@annacampbell.info and tell her the name of her 2012 Christmas novella featuring Alicia and Sebastian. You might just find the answer on Anna’s book page: http://annacampbell.info/books.html For more information, please visit Anna’s contest page: http://annacampbell.info/contest.html

And that’s just what I can round up in advance!  Stuff is always cropping up last minute, so make sure to stay tuned!  

Turning over that calendar page always brings surprises–some welcome, some not so much.  Any surprises on your agenda this week?  

 

 

Top That

Happy Sunday, everybody!

It’s been such a busy weekend chez Sey.  We kicked it off with a random meeting on Friday night (what a weird time for a meeting!), then followed it up with an all-day dance competition on Saturday.  Saturday evening we had dinner guests, so there was a frantic hour or two of house cleaning between the dancing & the dining.  It’s almost midnight on Saturday as I write this blog, & I still have to plan a quick lesson for the Sunday school class I’m teaching in the morning.  

(Did you know they let *me* teach Sunday school?  They do!  Believe me, I’m as astonished as you are.)

As you can imagine, jamming all this into one little weekend didn’t leave me a lot of prep time for our dinner guests.  So I’ll admit it:  I didn’t even try to produce something fancy or impressive.  I just fell back on a Saturday night favorite–build your own pizza night.  

I love build-your-own pizza night.  It’s so much fun to watch everybody execute their vision, and believe me, when it comes to pizza, everybody has a vision.  A vision which is only rarely shared by their spouse.  So build your own pizza night is a fun way to kick off a dinner party.  

It essentially comes down to a Pizza Quick Five: 

1)  Crust:  Thick or thin?

2)  Sauce:  Red or non-traditional?  (Think pesto, alfredo, bbq, etc.)

3)  Toppings:  Under the cheese or on top of it?  (This is deeply contentious.  I had no idea.)

4)  Source:  Restaurant?  Take & bake?  Home made?

5)  Beverage of choice:  Beer?  Wine?  Soda?

I think we can all agree that pizza is the perfect food.  But what is the perfect pizza?  Let’s hear your version!

All images courtesy of Free Digital Photos.  Mouse over image for artist attribution.

 

I Do.

I love weddings.  I adore them.  I cherish them.  I wish there were a word stronger than cherish, because I’d totally use it.  I love weddings that much. 

Now in my twenties, weddings were thick on the ground.  We had weddings to the tune of one or two a month, sometimes a couple in a single weekend.  You couldn’t toss a bouquet without hitting a wedding back in the day.  

The wedding cycle slowed down in my thirties, of course.  But then we started going to baby showers instead, & guess what?  Most folks didn’t have just one baby; they had two!  Sometimes three!   Throw in the occasional baptism, & I was happy for an entire decade. 

But I’m in my forties now, & my peer group is in a lull.  At least weddings-and-babies-wise.  Now we’re too busy maintaining the marriages that come from weddings, & the babies that come from baby showers to throw a decent party.  Plus we’re too poor.  (I blame the children.)  

Now I love my kids, but man do I miss weddings.  I was reminded of this recently when, in defiance of our age bracket, we went to three weddings in the space of six weeks.  

And suddenly I remembered how much I’ve missed dressing up & going dancing. 

How much I’ve missed fancy flowers & white cakes & those funny candied almonds.  

How much I’ve missed watching little kids take to the dance floor to boogey with the bride & get down with their own bad selves.  

But most of all, I remembered how much I’ve missed the magic.  Because what else can you call it when two people walk into a room as individuals & leave as a family? To me, that’s the most powerful brand of magic we humans have access to, & witnessing it takes my breath away every single time. It doesn’t matter if I’ve known the couple my whole life, or if I just happened to stumble upon them in a hotel lobby.  The magic is there & they’re radiant with it.  

And it just humbles & delights me, every time.

So how about you?  Where do you find the magic in ordinary life?  Weddings?  New born babies?  A timely Diet Coke?  Indoor plumbing?  Share!

All images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.  Mouse over for artist attribution.

 

Quick Five!

It’s my birthday today & I have a confession: 

I’m discouraged.

It’s been a busy summer.  I’ve gotten so little writing done, I can’t even confess the word count out loud.  It’s too demoralizing.  My house is falling down around my ears, & not just in term of cleanliness.  Currently, we’re down to one working bathroom, & of the three sinks in the house, only one drains properly.  I dropped $5,000 on car repairs this summer, a couple hundred on the washer, & another couple hundred just last week on replacement parts for the grill.  And the check engine light on the van STILL comes on whenever it wants to.

When I was young (read: in my thirties) this stuff didn’t bother me.  I was too busy with diapers & preschool & play dates.  Anything I managed to get done on the side (house keeping, home repairs, writing the occasional novel) was above & beyond expectations. 

But I’m in my forties now.  In September, I’ll start my second year of both kids going to all-day school.  This is the promised land for stay-at-home moms who continue to stay at home.  We think longingly of these years & all the things we’re going to get done when we don’t have kids in every single minute of every day.  We dream of all the things we’ll do, the places we’ll go, the successes we’ll have when we’re able to rub two thoughts together more than once or twice a week.

But I’m living in that uptopia now, & it’s not exactly how I envisioned it.  I guess I just thought that I’d be farther ahead by now. Farther down the road to success, to accomplishment, to at least having a reliable van.  Instead I have my in-laws staying with us for a week, & am mortified that I can’t offer them a shower that works properly, let alone a guest room with a door on it.  

So, as you can see, I’ve been digging myself pretty darn deep into the pit of despair.  And we can’t have that.  It’s my birthday!  So in honor of making it through this past year, I’m going to come up with five things I’m grateful for.

1) Health.  We all got a miserable cold while camping in Yellowstone earlier this month & coughing my lungs out has given me a renewed appreciation for the excellent health I usually enjoy.  I know a lot of people my age who suffer with chronic illness, injury & pain.  I’ve been blessed with a sturdy little body & a tough constitution.  I rarely get sick & when I do, it’s not for long.  I’m a lucky duck & it’s good to remind myself of that every now & then.

2) Stability.  Mr. Sey has been the sole bread-winner in this family since we had our babies.  We knew that depending on one income was risky, but I wanted to stay home with my babies, & Mr. Sey wanted that, too.  So we jumped.  And in spite of the rocky economy, Mr. Sey has taken care of us.  We don’t have fancy cars or a lot of functional plumbing, but we have a roof over our heads, food on the table & the luxury of never having to flip a coin to see whose career takes the hit when the kids get sick.  It’s a blessing.

3)  Love.  This kind of goes along with stability, but when I decided to stay home, Mr. Sey & I made a bargain:  He’d make the money, I’d raise the kids.  We’d both parent, of course, but I’d take care of the kids & the house, & in return he would take care of us.  And I’ve never for a single instant doubted his word.  He said he’d take care of us, and he does.  Every single day.  If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.  

4)  Career.  This is a funny one since I just got through telling you that I’m a happy stay-at-home mom, but I actually do have a career.  I’m a writer.  (Surprise!)  I’ve published two books traditionally, two more by myself, & have another one coming along.  So it’s not a huge career, but it’s a career, & it’s more than a lot of people have after they’ve been out of the traditional workforce for ten years.  I call that a blessing, if not a miracle. 

5)  Cake.  Because it’s my birthday & I love cake.  With ice cream.  A lot of ice cream.  Okay, maybe ice cream with a side dish of cake.  Maybe I’m just grateful for ice cream.  I think I am.  I’m deeply grateful for the existence of ice cream & the fact that my knees still allow thrice weekly runs that keep all the ice cream I eat off my butt.  Or at least most of it.

So how about you?  What are you particularly grateful for today?

 

 

Intruder!

Okay, I have done a lot of camping in my day.  

I’ve hiked the Guadalupe Mountains of west Texas, and canoed a chunk of the Rio Grande.  I’ve circled Lake Superior.  I have pitched my tent in Yellowstone and Yosemite, Glacier and the Grand Tetons.  I spent my honeymoon backpacking in Alaska.  I am an experienced camper.  I’m familiar with wildlife.  There is very little that can happen in a tent or on a hike that will surprise me anymore, & I camp with kids so that’s saying something.

But the other day I was enjoying Yellowstone with my family, & I’ll admit it.  I was surprised. 

See, I was packing up the tent for the long drive home–sniffle, sob–and I discovered….this.  

Yep.  That there’s a hole in the bottom of the tent.  

It had been neatly chewed by sharp little teeth.  From the outside.

I know this because there was a corresponding hole in the ground cloth under the tent.  

A hole that overlaid a well-engineered tunnel that started about two feet from the edge of the tent and ended…well, directly between my sleeping bag & my 10 year old’s.  Her sleeping pad was chewed about half-way through before whatever this was decided the whole endeavor felt like a lot of work and gave up.   

Or did it?  

We never saw any evidence of an intruder, so I figured this must’ve happened on our last night.  The digger was trying to get out of the nightly rain, thought it would tunnel into this likely shelter, discovered large noisy people already in situ & abandoned ship.  But I was thinking about it on our twelve-hour drive home yesterday & it occurred to me that this hole might’ve been dug a few days earlier than I thought.

See, it rained almost every night, and my husband’s & my sleeping pads were turning up damp in the mornings.  A little dampness is pretty normal in a tent, but typically it’s around the edges.  Our dampness was dead in the center of the tent, while the edges remained dry.  We didn’t think much of it until later.  Until we knew there was a sizeable hole in the bottom of our tent that likely sent a good deal of moisture directly into our two sleeping pads.  

Or something.  So what if was no random thing, this hole, but a precisely engineered, well-hidden assault?  What if that clever chewer had a whole system worked out?  What if it routinely chewed into people’s tents and slept the day away in the comfort of a cozy sleeping back or (heaven forfend) curled on a pillow?  What if I had spent an entire week unwittingly sharing my PILLOW with a squirrel?

Animals are clever creatures, & those in Yellowstone were particularly wiley.  I would not put it past the wildlife to find some way to time-share my tent but I always assumed I would know when it happened.   Or when it was attempted.  

I had no clue. 

I think I’ve been played.

So how about you?  Have you ever had a wildlife encounter than was closer than you’d like?  I’d feel a lot better about sleeping with the squirrels if you’d share your own Wild Kingdom tale.

 

Just Keep Swimming…

I feel like this post is going to my “What I Learned Over Summer Vacation” post.  Only summer vacation–for me–is the RWA National Conference.  Every year I go, & every year I come home with a boatload of new information that seems crucial to career success but that requires a LOT of digesting.  

Well, now I’ve had time to digest, & I think I’m ready to share.  Here are (according to RWA13, anyway) the keys to a successful career as  romance novelist: 

1)  Write fast.

Romance readers have a voracious appetite for their favorite authors, & they want to be fed.  With the way the internet is opening up the marketplace, they have access to many more storytellers, too.  And while this is a great thing on a number of levels, it also means it’s way easier to lose an audience than ever before.  If you want to keep readers, you’ll need to feed them.  Often.  To the tune of 5-10 books a year.  

A YEAR.

Gulp.

2)  Feed your readers via as many avenues as possible.

You can do this two ways.  First, you can continue writing for a traditional publisher, but self-publish any backlist titles you have rights to.  Second, you can produce fresh stories for both a traditional publisher, and also for self-publication.  And if you can keep a small-press/epub in stories as well, do it.  Because you want your books in the book stores, but also on every single virtual bookshelf you can find.  And your readers will want to find a new one there 5-10 times a year.  Did I mention? 

FIVE TO TEN.  BOOKS.  A YEAR.

Gah.

3)  Retain an agent unless you either have expertise in dealing with foreign rights and movie rights, or want to develop one.  

4)  Write 12-16 hours a day, because work/life balance is overrated when success comes knocking.  And because you’ll need to publish 5-10 books a year. 

FIVE. TO. TEN. BOOKS. A YEAR.

After three or four days of this, I finally stood up in a self-pubbing panel & asked the following question:  

“I understand that the key to success these days is writing as fast as possible & publishing via as many platforms as possible but I haven’t heard anybody talk at all about those of us who simply don’t write that fast.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether there’s any place in this brave new world for a writer who can turn out one book a year, & what that place looks like.”

**crickets**

They panelists looked at each other uncomfortably & finally the agent said something along the lines of maybe being able to work with an author like that “if the work was just incredibly beautiful.”  But if you’re just writing the same old junk everybody writes?  You’re out of luck, lady.  Or that was the message I received, loud & clear. 

I found this demoralizing.  Because guess what?  I can only write one book a year.  My creative well just isn’t that deep.  I struggle for every word, & when the words finally do arrive, none of them grab me as “incredibly beautiful.”  

After this panel discussion, I had to go lie down for a while with a cool cloth on my forehead, contemplating my future as a failure.  Then I remembered something.

I’ve always been a long shot.  

The books I write?  They’re contemporaries, which was the kiss of death not too long ago, & I suspect will be again shortly.  

The books I write?  They’re long, which is a problem because more & more, people like their reads snappy & short. (Get right to the sex, please, I haven’t got all day.)   Me?  I love sexual tension.  My characters might wait two hundred pages for a kiss, but when they get there?  It’s good.  Most readers won’t hang in for two hundred pages of sexual tension, however.  

The books I write?  They’re hard to categorize.  You might want to call them romantic comedies, but you’ll get sucker punched by a scene or two of real emotional devastation.  You might want to call them romantic suspense, but you’ll be disappointed by a very low body count, & a marked paucity of bullets.  I like to take serious issues & give them a fluffy treatment, which means walking a very fine line between light & dark.  When I hit the balance right, it works.  It really, really works.  But it makes it super hard to find the right shelf to put them on in the library.  So nobody knows how–or to whom–to sell them.  And that’s a problem. 

Which means that the books I write should never have gotten a traditional publishing contract.  But they got one.  (And only one, but that’s publishing for you.)

It also means that the books I write should never have found an audience but they found one.  A little one, to be sure, but an audience is an audience.  And mine is just big enough that I was able to take my family to Disney earlier this year & pay for it all by myself.  I’m not making the mortgage every month or anything but hey, it’s better than I have any right to expect, given what the market wants & how I write.

So I took the cold cloth off my forehead & went back to the workshops.  Because what right do I have to feel demoralized?  So I’m never going to be a NYT bestseller.  So I’m never going to move 1.5 million books a year, or make $100,000 a month.  So what?  I never expected to do any such thing.  All I ever wanted was to share my stories, and hopefully with enough people to make a modest living.   And even that dream seems a little far-fetched most days.  But I’m making progress.  And how?  By ignoring everybody who says I’m doing it wrong and doing it anyway. 

So I’m going to ignore all the kerfuffle about how fast I should write, what I should write & how often I should publish it.  That’s all just static.  That’s all just stuff.  What matters is the story.  My story.  The one I hear in my head.  What matters is putting my butt in the chair & pulling the words out of my head, one by reluctant one.  What matters is that I don’t stop.  That I keep swimming, swimming, swimming, just like Dory from FINDING NEMO.  (If I concentrate, I can hear Ellen Degeneres chirping away in my head, “Just keep swimming!”)

So that’s what I learned at RWA13.  I am all wrong for this career but screw it.  I’m doing it anyway.

Just keep swimming. 

How about you?  Have you ever desperately wanted something that you just weren’t suited for?  What did you do?  Persevere?  Find a more appropriate goal?  Lie down with a cool cloth on your forehead to feel sorry for yourself?  Share!

All images courtesy of Free Digital Photos, mouse over for artist attribution.