Sarah Madison's Blog, page 36

What’s coming up next?

Christmas Tree via flickr Creative Commons stevep2008

Oh my! There’s a lot coming up soon on the website and in my life. I’m about to go on the adventure of a lifetime–my first honest-to-god take-the-whole-week-off vacation since 2004! And when I sat down and counted in the holidays, I realized that this is the first time I’ve taken 12 days off in a row since the early 90s.

And if that weren’t exciting enough, I’m actually leaving the country. As in getting on a jet, using a passport, the whole...

Because without cat pictures, the internet would die…

Sometimes you walk into the room and the sun is just right, and the camera is within reach.

Why yes, this is a post simply about my gorgeous cat. And I don’t even have a funny caption to go with it!

Interview with Nessa L. Warin

Hello! Welcome to my blog, Nessa! Thank you for answering my nosy discerning questions! First, please tell us a little about yourself and the kinds of stories you like to write. Would you say there is an underlying theme behind your stories?

Hello! Thanks for having me. I’m sure your questions are very nosy, I mean discerning, and I’m happy to answer them. *winks*

The best way to describe me would probably be to say I’m a geek. Sure, I can give you facts—I’m a thirty something woman currently w...

Aging Gracefully…

Today, I think I might finally have accepted the concept of aging with grace. For you to fully appreciate how astonishing a moment this is for me, you have to understand a couple of things: first, if there is any such thing as ‘age-anorexia’ then I suspect I have it. You know how anorexics look into the mirror and are incapable of seeing that they are a rack of bones? Trust me, I lived with one, I know to what extent the mind is capable of playing tricks on your health and sanity. I used to w...

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop: Phase Two!

It’s here! Phase Two of the Next Big Thing Blog Hop begins today with the links to six authors going live as they talk about their latest projects.

Come join us as some of your favorite authors (and some of your soon-to-be-favorite authors!) give us some hints about what we can expect from them, their inspirations, and a little about their next release!

Each of them in turn will link to other authors, who will keep the hop going, and so on, and so on. I can’t wait to check them out, and neithe...

Sex in Romance Stories: Love it or Leave it?

Some time last year, I participated in a large informal survey of people who read fanfiction, and one of the surprise results was how many people skipped sex scenes when reading these stories.

Given the recent overwhelming popularity of certain fanfic-turned-original fiction stories, this astonished me, especially since with regards to romance, one would expect sex scenes to be an important factor in a story. Then too, there are some publishing houses that have a set formula that authors must...

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

I was invited to participate in the Next Big Thing Blog Hop—a sort of pyramidal branching hop where one person sends questions to five people, who post their questions to five people, who select another five people and post the following week, and so on and so on, like that old seventies shampoo commercial. I liked the idea of it—for one thing, I like blog hops. For another, it’s fun to see how different people answer the same questions. The best part I think, though, lies in the fact that yo...

Why M/M Romance?

I came across this thought-provoking commentary on jessewave last night regarding tropes in M/M romances and whether the genre was aimed at women or men. I immediately sat down and wrote a long response to it–only the site ate my response and I hadn’t saved it.

You know that moment where your hand hovers over the ‘send’ button and you waffle about hitting it, which is when your brain tells you ‘if there’s any doubt, don’t do it!’ and you hit send anyway?

Yeah, I had one of those moments.

Fortuna...

Interview with Lex Valentine

Continuing the fun with my guest bloggers, I’ve invited author Lex Valentine here to talk about her latest release and be interviewed along the same lines as Claire Russett last week! I’m finding it fascinating to read different authors’ answers to the same or similar questions–it really gives us a take on what makes them tick!

Here’s what Lex had to say:

Hello! Welcome to my blog, Lex! Thank you for answering my nosy, I mean discerning, questions! First, please tell us a little about yourself...

Interview with Claire Russett

I’m so excited today–my good friend Claire Russett has a new release, Catalyst, with Dreamspinner Press! To celebrate that fact, she’s allowed me to interview her here today and ask all kinds of thinky questions. Do leave a comment or ask a question of your own–one random commenter will be selected to win a signed print copy of one of her anthologies (winners restricted to the UK) or the reader’s choice of an e-copy from something in her backlist (outside the UK).

Hello! Welcome to my blog,...