Seleste deLaney's Blog, page 11

Seeing Red…and Blue…and Green…

While I was away at the beach, edits came in on a recent story. It's a short, so I figured it was no big deal and I'd be able to tackle them pretty quickly. Now, to give you some perspective, when I'm really on, I can edit a short in a day or two. Then I opened the file.

Holy highlights, Batman!

There was…a lot. And I knew without a doubt I needed more than a couple days of sneaking away from family time to get it done. Most editors who have worked with me (and talked to me while I was...

The Romance Is Over

Or at least the Mr. Romance competition.

Word came out last Wednesday that the people behind the Romantic Times convention have pulled the plug on the competition. I'm not going to re-hash their reasons (you can read them here –> http://readersentertainment.com/2011/... ). It's no secret I'm not happy about this, but I don't think it's for the reason most people who know me (or know of me) think. Okay, that might be a bit of the reason, but it's not the whole reason.

Here's the ...

No. You Buy It Like This…

There's been a lot of talk from authors online about how to buy their books. Basically the push is something like this: buy in print, buy at an indie bookseller, buy it the first week. Basically, the argument is that those things will help drive sales and increase the likelihood of hitting the NYT bestseller list.

*shrug*

Maybe I'm silly, but to be honest, I'm just happy people are buying my books. Buy it wherever you want. Buy it in print or digital. Buy it on release week or buy it a year...

Home Again…for a Little While

For those of you who didn't know, I got to tag along with my husband on a business trip last week. Since I had to cancel the convention I'd planned to attend later this summer due to an eight-fold increase in costs, he hoped this would make up for it a little bit.

Our first night in Frankfurt, while stumbling around, hunting for food, we stumbled on the last night of a street festival celebrating Spanish-Germans. A rather interesting mix, in my opinion, but really, who can argue with...

Apparently I'm Versatile

The Flash Queen (that's flash fiction…get your minds out of the gutter for a second) and my fellow OWG Rebel, Danielle LaPaglia, has apparently decided I'm versatile. Crazy as it sounds, that is one of the best compliments she could have given me. As someone who writes all manner of speculative fiction, if I'm not versatile, it means some of what I write I'm just not very good at. Plus she complimented my critiques, which always makes me smile.

[image error]So anyway, the crazy woman has bestowed upon me t...

Putting in the Work

So, a few weeks ago, I was getting a story ready to submit. I told my editor that she'd have it as soon as I'd finished with revisions. At that moment, it was out with my wonderful betas for a read-through so I could fix any glaring issues before I sent it in. She said (paraphrased), "You don't revise until after I edit it."

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Then, at a totally separate time, I was talking to a fellow author (who shall remain unnamed) about one of her shorter works. She...

It's the Little Things

Writers get asked about inspiration all the time. Where did the idea for the story come from? What inspires you? I think the questions bother some authors, but usually those are the easiest ones for me to answer since I tend to be able to pinpoint the birth of all of my stories.

Every once in a while though, the inspiration is such a small thing that it's hard to explain. For instance, my trip to Scotland and London last week. In part, the trip was research-based. I want to write a story set ...

Summer Trips, Summer Movies

As many of you know, I'm in Scotland with a couple girlfriends this week. But I hate when I don't leave a blog post, so in case you're looking for something to do, may I suggest the following movie? I'm missing the opening, but I plan to see it when I get home! Plus, I might be working on a superhero story soon, so I've got men in tights and capes on the brain [image error]

Just curious. How is your favorite superhero? And what super-power would you want if you could have one?

Me-yow…

Cougar.

Love the cat, and to be honest, I don't hate it as a slang term either.

A couple places I frequent on the interwebs have been discussing cougars of late. Why the sudden surge of interest? I'm not sure. Maybe it's cyclical and I've just missed the cycles until now LOL. Really though, it's led me to do a lot of thinking. The first time it popped on my radar was with regard to romance books, and specifically erotic romance. Are cougars hot or overdone? How much of an age difference until i...

Just a Thousand More Words Please

Word counts are the bane of many writers. Your first novel is over 100k? You might want to look at some trimming. Under 70k? Only if you're writing middle grade or younger. There are guidelines all over the internet on what constitutes a good word count for just about any genre of fiction. That's not what this post is about though.

One of the greatest things about digital publishing is beyond the "are you insane, even Tolkien was smart enough to make three books!" word counts, digital...