Shoshanna Evers's Blog, page 19

Why Editors Rock

Hello Fellow Writers!
So we're on day 13 of NaNoWriMo. I've got 28K words of my post-apocalyptic erotic romance Protecting Emily - my goal is 80K. I've got a *lot* of writing to do!

Today I went to the monthly Hudson Valley chapter of RWA meeting. It was great seeing everyone I usually only see online, and we had a guest speaker - Trish Owens from Wild Rose Press. She seemed to know her stuff, and since I've read a book she edited (Taryn Kincaid's Sleepy Hollow Dreams) I felt comfortable asking her if she'd be interested in having me send her a short story (10K words). Yes, she is, so I'll be polishing and sending it off to her soon.

One of my fellow Ellora's Cave authors, Christie Butler, just had her first book come out! It's called Look at Me. Of course, I emailed Christie to ask her some questions!

Shoshanna: Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? I'm doing it for the second year in a row and it's all I can think about lately...

Christie: This publishing business is new to me, so I have to confess I didn't know what NaNoWriMo was. So, no, I'm not doing it. After looking it up, it seems like a fun thing to do. Unfortunately, I also have a full time job and the cutest, most lovable dog in the world who demands a lot of my spare time! I think it would be tough to do, writing a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. I applaud all those authors who are able to do it. Maybe someday, if I can make enough money writing so I can quit my day job, I'll give it a shot.

Shoshanna: So you sold your first book - but the work doesn't end there, as you know. How was the editing process for you?


Christie: The editing process was fairly painless, much thanks to (my Ellora's Cave editor) Jilly. She gave me some things to think about, tips on how to make the story more logical and consistent. I was able to use her comments and make some minimal changes to benefit the story and make it better. Jilly also helped me with my main character, making suggestions that I initially resisted, but I came to see the wisdom in her words! Overall, I enjoyed the process and saw it as just another step in getting my story out there, but new and improved.

Shoshanna: Oh, Jilly will be glad to hear that! I feel the same way - I'm happy to do whatever it takes to make the story the best it can be. So, here's another question for ya. How do you combat writer's block?


Christie: When I get writer's block, my first tactic is to pour a glass of wine! Often that will help my mind expand. When that doesn't inspire me, I just put it away, close up the laptop and do something else. Sometimes I'll get an idea of how to move forward form something I hear someone say at work, or on television, or read online. Because I work during the day, I do my writing at night. When I get stuck, it stays with me and often I'll find myself in bed trying to fall asleep, but thinking about my predicament. And then it will come to me. I've gotten some of my best ideas in those few minutes at night just before I fall asleep. I just need to remember them when I wake up in the morning.

Shoshanna: I keep a notepad and pen at my bedside for just that reason, lol! Thanks for being on The Writer's Challenge, Christie, and good luck with your new book, Look at Me.

Read an adults only excerpt of Christie Butler's new book here.

Free read on Whipped Cream!

Hello Fellow Writers!
I have a free short story available on The Long and Short of It Whipped Cream site. Click here to read Hannah's Consequence for free! And please, let me know what you think :)

Do Reviews Affect Overall Book Sales?

Hello Fellow Writers!

I was on the Ellora's Cave chat loop and multi-published, NY Times and USA Today best selling author Allyson James (who also writes as Jennifer Ashley and Ashley Gardner) made some really great comments about how reviews, as heart-breaking or as exhilarating as they may be for us as authors, actually have little impact on sales for that book. I asked Allyson if I could share her comments with you here and she agreed!

Allyson James:

"I've been around the publishing block several times now and have had every reader rating from 5 (this is the best book ever and all other books should cease to be) to a 1 (I took it back to the bookstore and demanded an apology).

"I've had people rip me apart for too much heat, not enough heat (usually about the same book), too much plot/not enough plot (again, same book), dialog, character, word choice, cover model, lettering on the cover, driving distance, you name it. I once had a reader give me a 1-star because my couple wasn't white. I've been trashed on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, and Twitter; and have been trashed by RT, Publisher's Weekly, and others, sometimes weeks before the book comes out.

"The point is that having bad reviews hasn't marred my overall career. I've had terrific sales on books that got bad reviews, plus terrific reviews and awards on books that tanked. Many, many bestselling authors out there have had the same experience.

"There are plenty of nasty things that can totally ruin your career (publishers closing, booksellers severely cutting the number of books they carry, readers unable to find your books, pirating, and many, many other uncontrollable factors--isn't that nice to know?), that it's kind of futile to stress about reviews, good or bad. I know it's hard, but please, please don't let worry over your reviews stop you from writing.

Allyson (been kicked around) James
http://www.allysonjames.com

What do you guys think about reviews - reader reviews, official reviews? Do they make a difference on your decision to read something, or buy something? Authors, do reviews make a difference in your sales?

I gave up on my NaNo and Started OVER!

Hello Fellow Writers!
It's Day 6 of NaNoWriMo, and you'll never guess what happened yesteray. I got to 15,500 words and just was like, this isn't working! I can't do this! So I saved those 15K in another document and started fresh. Yup. I know it's not in the spirit of NaNoWriMo to disregard words, even bad words, but I just needed to start over. And then I found that I was actually able to salvage about 5K from what I had written, so I'm already back up to 10K. And this time, it's a good 10K.

How's your NaNo book coming along? Have you had that moment yet where you felt like trashing everything?

Oh, and my author friend KB Alan has a new book out, which, while I haven't read it yet, if it's anything like her other books is going to be really good. Check out the blurb below - and if you have an questions or comments for KB I'll be happy to pass them along to her!



Keeping Claire
by KB Alan

The blurb:

Claire's been fantasizing about the owner of her company since she first saw him. Ryan is gorgeous, confident and sexy as hell. In other words, so not her type. With the crazy life she leads, it's best to stick to men who are happy to do what she tells them to, then disappear. Since Ryan would never abide by those terms, it's best to keep him right where she's got him-in her dreams.

Ryan gets up close and personal with Claire while investigating a threat to his company. Once he's convinced she's not out to hurt what he's helped build, he refocuses his more-than-human energies on his intriguing employee. When she quits, insisting it's best if she leaves town, he's determined to convince her otherwise. At least long enough to get a taste of her. And the more he tastes, the more he touches, the more he wants. Now he just has to convince Claire that what they have is worth fighting for, and he's more than up to the task.

Available now at Ellora's Cave

Another sale (um, sort of!) and NaNoWriMo Day 4

Hello Fellow Writers!
A while back I got an offer from Whipped Cream, (who recently gave me a kick-ass review for my Ellora's Cave book Punishing the Art Thief) that if I wrote a short erotic story (1K words) to offer for free on their website, they would offer me an ad for two months.

I love a challenge - and creating something hot and "Sexily *Evers* After" in just 1000 words would be a challenge. But it was so much fun, and this morning I got an email saying they'd like to publish my story on their site on November 11th.

I'll be sure to link to it when it comes up! So that's my "sort of" sale :)

Today is Day 4 of NaNoWriMo! I'm at 11,000 words as of last night. I plan to add at least 3K today, and then tomorrow my father will watch DS for me all day so I can have uninterrupted writing time!

How's your Nano project coming along?

Author Kate Hill writes a LOT (and NaNoWrimo Day 1)

Hello Fellow Writers!

NANOWRIMO!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, I'm excited. Just a little. As many of you know, my goal for this year's National Novel Writing Month is to write 80K instead of 50K. Am I setting myself up for failure? Who knows. And who knows how many of those 80K will actually be usable.

Part of me is thinking - don't waste *any* time! Get started! Why are you even blogging? Tweeting? Facebooking? Playing with your child?

Well, I still need to do all that stuff. And I'll miss DS if I ignore him for a whole month. So writing this novel in a month will have to happen like I write everything else - during bits of stolen time, and late at night.

 You know who knows a little something about writing a lot? Kate Hill. Her Ellora's Cave author page has like 40 books on it or something. Holy Moly. Fortunately for us, she stopped by The Writer's Challenge to chat.

Shoshanna: Hi Kate! How often and how much to do you write? Do you make a daily goal (pages, word count?)

Kate Hill: I write every day. How much depends on what my goals for the month are. Sometimes I have one story to finish, other times it's two. At other times I work on short stories and a novel at the same time, so the amount I write each day depends on my workload.

Shoshanna: What's the best way to cure writer's block?

Kate Hill: For me the best way to cure writer's block is to step away from the story I'm working on and write something different. If I write something just for pleasure, it relaxes me and I'm usually able to get back to the story I need to finish. Not that I don't enjoy working on all my stories, whether for fun or to sell, but writing a story for fun can be very liberating.

Shoshanna: Do you have an agent? Do you want one?

Kate Hill: I don't have an agent. A few times I tried to find one but none were interested. I can't say I tried diligently to get one because at this point I don't feel an agent is necessary for the markets I'm focused on.

Shoshanna: Do you have problems with e-book pirates? What should be done about that?

Kate Hill: I have a problem with theft in general, whether it's stealing ebooks, music or anything else. To me stealing online is no different than walking into a physical store and taking the merchandise.

I agree! Thanks for stopping by The Writer's Challenge, Kate!

To check out Kate Hill's latest Ellora's Cave release, Much More than Blood - click here.
To read an (adults only!) excerpt of Much More than Blood, click here.

Rejections made me a Better Writer: New Author Eliza Lloyd

Hello Fellow Writers!

Can you believe we have only 2 more days till NaNoWriMo? One of my friends told me that as far as she's concerned, there's no such thing as the month of November anymore. We just call it NaNo! I'll be writing an erotic romance set in post-apocalyptic New York City. I intend to write 80K instead of the usual 50K, so I'm already freaking out a bit more than I should be, perhaps. But that's all part of the fun.

You can follow my progress by following me on the NaNoWriMo site. My user name is ShanaWriMo.

In other news, I signed my contract for the Berkley Heat anthology, called Agony/Ecstasy. WOOT! So it's official. It's a friggin' dream come true :)

Now - for those of you out there who are still "pre-published authors" - I have found a very inspirational story for you. Eliza Lloyd just had her very first book ever published by Ellora's Cave. She stopped by The Writer's Challenge today so I could ask her about how she went from aspiring writer to published author!

Shoshanna: Hi Eliza! Congrats on your first book! Tell us about how long it took you to get to this point. I wanna hear about rejection letters too, the bane of the writer's existence. Eliza: I've been writing for several years (please don't make me say how long) using the two-steps forward, one-step back method. I'd finish a book only to realize there were glaring plot holes. I'd go on to the next one, finish it, and find out I'd egregiously head-hopped. So yes, I got rejections, but the mistakes along the way have only helped me become a better writer. As for a specific rejection, I must tell your audience that Ellora's Cave rejected this very work perviously (Wicked Desires) but then, a new line came open and it was a perfect fit! So, no matter how many rejections and no matter who they are from, one must keep writing, polishing and submitting.

Shoshanna: When did you start writing? Do you write other stuff other than erotic romance? Eliza: When I thought about my dream job, the two things that always came to mind were being an author or being a 19th century archeologist. While I always knew the one was impossible, I woke up one day and asked myself, why are you not writing? So I did. And I am! Yes, I do write several genres. I have several short stories published in contemporary romance and science fiction. Plus, I like writing romantic suspense and contemporary, both of which are a great relief after writing a research-heavy historical. Historical romance is my true love though, and even my erotica is historical.

Shoshanna: What do you love to read? How important is it for a writer to be an avid reader, do you think? Eliza: One must read to write! I've heard of writers who 'hate' to read books from the genre they write in but not me! I can't get enough of historical romance. I read them all the time and hope to emulate some of the great historical writers…some day. And as a secondary read, provided it is a total distraction with lots of sizzling, sexy vamps, would be a hot paranormal. 

To read the blurb for Wicked Desires, click here.

To read the excerpt (for adults only!) click here. 
To purchase Wicked Desires on the Ellora's Cave site, click here.

How Author Lily Harlem Found her Genre

Hello Fellow Writers!

As you can see I've changed the design of the site. It was starting to get annoying going to other people's blogs only to see that we all were using the same template! It was a nice template, don't get me wrong, but I wanted something a little more customized. Thoughts?

Author Lily Harlem is here today with tons of advice for writers! This is her second time joining us - read her first interview here.

Shoshanna: Hi Lily! So, tell us what made you want to be a writer in the first place?
Lily: I have a very vivid imagination and ridiculously detailed and complex dreams at night that I recall to my husband at breakfast in tiny detail. He was always telling me 'you should write that down!' and so one day I did. I also do a great deal of reading. Romance of the sensual kind but I do lose myself in just about anything and there are so many times over the years I have finished a book and thought I wish I'd written that or come up with that idea. Of course writing is one of the most time consuming things to do on the planet - except for going into huge malls, they're possessed by a weird time warp - so until I reduced the hours in my day job I didn't have the energy to write just the ideas.
Shoshanna: When did you first get published? What was getting that acceptance letter like?

Lily: My first story in print - or rather e-book format - was a competition win. An odd introduction I know. I'd been doing a creative writing course and coming up with all sorts of short stories, but when I saw an erotic fiction competition with a healthy cash prize I set about writing something steamy. The result was 'Madam President', sort of an erotic West Wing style story about the first female US president having an affair with the UK prime minister. (You can read it for free by following the link on my website). I was so excited when I got the phone call to say I'd won, they were like "wow, where on earth did you get that idea?" I was on a high for days and realized I'd found my genre - erotic romance.
Shoshanna: Did you get rejections before that?

Lily:  So after I won the competition I started rattling off all sorts of steamy short stories. Lots of hot little scenarios which had been rattling around my head for goodness knows how long! One kind editor who rejected a story - not sexy enough - advised me to check out www.erotica-readers.com for call for submissions. It was like finding treasure. There is so much on that website, everything you need to know about sensual writing, all the links, interviews, which publisher/editor is looking for what, word count, payment etc. I sent off a ton of stuff, some got accepted, some didn't, when they didn't I just looked around for someone else who was looking for that sort of thing, usually a bit more tweaking of the manuscript first, and the result is I feature in several really amazing anthologies.
Shoshanna: Do you have an agent? Do you want one?
Lily: I don't have an agent. I did send some full length manuscripts off to agents in the very beginning, but they weren't interested in my genre. Looking back I probably just picked the wrong agencies. Now I'm not sure if I would want an agent. I'm settled in my writing routine and with my publishers. I guess when you do it all yourself you become a bit of a 'jack of all trades', learning about web design, contracts and marketing as well as the actual process of writing.

Shoshanna: Thanks Lily!

Here is the buy link for Mattress Music, coming November 9th to Ellora's Cave.http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-8777-50-mattress-music.aspx  A quick introduction to the book  ' Mattress Music' is an e-book due for release on 9th of November at Ellora's Cave. It's the first in a set of three short stories focusing on the London 'rock and roll' scene in a very literal sense! Look out for the others coming soon ' Mirror Music' and ' Ménage à Music' they bring a whole new meaning to the lyrics.
Brief bio Lily Harlem lives in the UK with a workaholic hunk and a crazy cat. With a desk overlooking farmland, she allows her imagination to run free and revels in being able to use the written word as an outlet for her creativity. Lily's stories are made up of colorful characters traveling on everyone's favorite journey — falling in love. If the story isn't romantic, sexy and exciting, it won't be written, at least not by this author. website www.lilyharlem.weebly.com

My First Review *Ever*

Hello Fellow Writers!


I am so excited - I just got my first ever official review for Punishing the Art Thief. I have been nervous, since I know I can't please all the people all the time - someone's bound to not like my book. I'm just *so* glad that my reviewer did like it! Four cherries, whoo hoo!


Whipped Cream Reviews gave Punishing the Art Thief 4 cherries and said: 

"Fast paced, intense, and sexual. This book is every naughty fantasy come to life for the reader. Ms. Evers has done an amazing job creating characters and a world her readers can escape into and enjoy some "me" time. The storyline is an attention getter and will be hard to put down. Not only is it full of sexual fantasies but there is a great story behind it all. You have suspense, wonderment and excitement. You have a painting that was stolen then stolen again. Who is the real owner of this painting? You'll have to read to find out.

After reading this story and enjoying these characters I cannot wait to read more from this author. Shoshanna Evers, you have a fan for life with me!!"

Read the whole review here.

Let's talk POV

[image error] Hello Fellow Writers!
Let's talk Point of View (POV). Most fiction these days is written in first or third person POV.

As a quick reminder, first person POV is when the author writes "I stared at the man across the room - what would he look like naked?". 1st person POV uses "I".

Third person POV uses he or she, although we can still be in a person's head in the third person. For example "She stared at him, wondering what he would look like naked."  When using third person it's important not to "head hop" - as in She wondered this, then he wondered that, then she thought this, etc. If you want to hop to another head, you can use a section break.

Oh, I think I just used second person POV there - "You" - as in "You can use a section break." So I suppose while second person POV is quite rare in fiction, it may have  place in non-fiction how-to books, perhaps?

I loved Meg Cabot's YA books The Princess Diaries. They were all written in first person. The problem with first person is that if your protagonist doesn't see it happen or think about, then the reader doesn't know about it. With third person, something can happen plot-wise in your book on the other side of the world, and we the reader can still learn about it.

Which is better? There's no answer - it's whatever works for your book. I think that first person POV often flows easier for many people since that's the sort of writing we're used to - in diaries, in emails, blogs, etcetera. It's almost an instant way to build rapport with your reader. On the other hand, there's all those darn restrictions. What if I really need to know what my Hero is thinking? Too bad, no can do.

I was thinking about this because I'm still pondering what to write this year for NaNoWriMo. An urban fantasy, which I would write in the first person? A contemporary romance written in the third? An abstract piece written entirely in 2nd? J (Don't worry, I'm just kidding about the last one!)

What POV do you prefer to read? To write?