Lisa Scott's Blog, page 2
June 22, 2012
What I’m Working On
So you’ve finished Wedding Flirts! and you want to know what the heck I’m doing in between Flirts! collections? Oh, my nails, of course. Eating bonbons. Refereeing fights over who gets the XBox next.
Okay. Not true. I don’t think I’ve done my nails since my wedding and I prefer truffles to bonbons. (I’m not entirely sure what bonbons are.) Although, the refereeing part is true. But don’t worry, I’m very busy writing. Here’s what I’m up to.
Right now I’m finishing up novel #2 in my Willowdale Romance series that Bell Bridge Books is publishing this November. Man of the Month features best friends Jeanne and Brad who would be a perfect match if not for one small thing: she wants a baby more than anything, and for very good reasons, he does not. In hopes of getting Jeanne out of his system, Brad proposes a unique New Year’s resolution—Man of the Month. He’s going to set her up with a different guy each month until she finds love. Only problem, this fool plan just makes them realize how much they truly love each other.
So this book’s due July 1st and I have a couple key scenes to revise. I feel like Baby in Dirty Dancing when their dance at the Sheldrake is a week away and she starts complaining to Johnny that she doesn’t know the turns or the lift and he takes her to the lake for that lovely scene. (Don’t you looooooove that movie?) Only, no one’s taking me to any lake. In my case, baby definitely needs to be in the corner—writing! But this book has been a lot of fun. I can’t decide which bad blind date was the worst!
I’m also awaiting revision notes from my editor at HarperCollins for my middle grade novel Tomboy Beauty Queen. Those will probably come in right after I finish Man of the Month. Then I’ll get to work making changes on that book. (I actually love the revision part better than the writing-the-first-draft part.)
I’ve also been walking around with ideas in my head for Fairy Tale Flirts 2! which I hope to have out by September 1st. This collection is going to be set around a seaside carnival outside New Royalton. I plan on featuring The Little Mermaid, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and either Rumplestilskin or Peter Pan. I’m very excited to start this collection, but a lot of the writing process is truly done in my head before my fingers hit the keyboard, conjuring up the ideas, and getting to know my characters’ back stories. Don’t worry. It’s all marinating in there.
I’m also working on short story #2 in the Willowdale series that I hope to release this summer. “A Little Hanky Panky” shows us when the characters from Man of the Month meet for the first time. I released “A Fine How-De-Do” this spring. That’s the first short story in the series.
And while all this is going on, I try to corral the many new ideas that are constantly galloping through my imagination.
And very occasionally, writing a blog post or two.
Oh, and I’ve got a short story called “Hot and Bothered” coming out in an anthology with a bunch of great authors this July. I’ll be sure to let you know when that’s out. I also recently bundled three Flirts! collections into one volume I call 15 Shades of Pink! 15 Romantic Short Stories From the Flirts! Collections. This volume contains Flirts!, Beach Flirts! and Fairy Tale Flirts! It’s priced at 5.99. That’s like buying two and getting one free.
So there you have it. I’m knee deep in the thick of it, but should have some new stuff out soon. Happy reading! Hope you have lots of time to kick back with a good story; now I gotta get back to writing mine.
May 29, 2012
Confession Time
When you read the author bios of most romance writers, you’ll discover the majority are lifelong lovers of romance novels. Scads of them smuggled Harlequins into school and snuck beloved gothic romances off of their mother’s bookshelves. Many romance writers have lived and breathed the genre for decades and can spend hours quoting favorite books and authors.
But not me. I grew up loving the Little House series, Nancy Drew, A Wrinkle in Time, all the Beverly Cleary books, and Judy Blume. But I don’t remember much romance reading as I got older. I flirted with V.C. Andrews and Flowers in the Attic, but that just creeped me out. I may have tried—and not finished—a Danielle Steele or two. But I loved the mysteries of Mary Higgins Clark, all the classics I read as an English major in college, and moved on to memoirs and women’s fiction after I graduated. But I’d never tried a Harlequin until I decided I wanted to write one.
I know what you’re thinking! It’s like being a dessert chef who’s never had cake! It’s wrong! It’s immoral! So let me explain how it all happened.
I’ve always known I wanted to be writer since my first creative writing assignment in second grade. But I pursued my TV news career first, knowing there’d be time for writing later. In 2007, I started writing my first women’s fiction novel (which you’ll probably never read unless it goes through some serious revision.) I was not able to land an agent with that one. Frustrated, I tried a different genre. I still loved reading children’s and young adult books, and wrote two middle grade novels, then starting sending out query letters to agents. By this time, it was late 2008.
And then I lost my TV news anchor job. I was devastated, and knew I wanted to move on to something different, but what? So I continued doing freelance voice work, and intensified my efforts to get published. When an agent was interested in one of my middle grade books, I thought, this is it! My new door opening! But then she rejected it. And I stopped writing.
But I needed money. And after a while, I talked with a writing friend who’d been penning short romances that she sold to different magazines, so I thought I’d give it a try. I loved it! Every experience I had was turned into a romantic short. When I took a class teaching me how to install my koi pond, I imagined a woman going to a similar class and falling for the teacher who helped install her dream pond. The magazines were publishing half a dozen of my stories every month and I realized I was writing the equivalent of a category length novel every two months. (50,000-60,000 words is typical for a category length romance put out by publishers like Harlequin.)
So I thought, hey? Why not write a romance novel? And when I saw a hot guy get out of a hot car with California plates in my tiny upstate New York town, I couldn’t help but thinking, “What are you doing here?” And my first romance novel, No Foolin’, was born.
Traditional publishing takes a long time. I submitted the book to Harlequin, and seven months later, they wanted to read the whole thing. Then at the same time, an agent I queried (the wonderful Jennifer Unter) wanted to represent my middle grade novel and sent it out on submission. So I had to wait—and wonder, what to work on next? Book number two in the romance series? Book number two in the middle grade series?
Which is how I turned back to my romantic shorts. I loved writing them, and knew I could turn them out quickly and self-publish them. It was the perfect filler while I waited for the traditional deals to work out. Five collections later, I’m still writing them. And while that first romance novel won’t be out by Harlequin, (they almost never publish books featuring actors or athletes, and mine has an actor in it!) it is being published in November by Bell Bridge Books and I couldn’t be happier. I’m a romance writer and a children’s writer. One genre I knew I loved; one I’ve only just discovered.
So tell me, have you always loved reading romance or are you new to the genre too? Who are you favorite romance writers? In the reading I’ve done since writing romance, I’ve come to love many writers. Who do you love and why?
May 23, 2012
Blog Hop Winners
I’m a little late getting to this, but I was busy get my next short story collection up and published this week. Wedding Flirts! is now available on Amazon and Smashwords.
Tiffany White won the $150 Sephora gift card, and Mimi Rose is the winner of one of my short story collections of her choice. Congrats to the winners and hope you had fun! I’ll be sure to have more fun and contests on the way.
May 14, 2012
CHICK LIT BLOG AUTHOR HOP 2012
CHICK LIT BLOG AUTHOR HOP 2012
“Wanna see my shorts?”
I like my romance short and sweet. More like fifty shades of pink than grey. That’s why I’ve been putting out collections of sweet and sassy, funny romantic shorts I call Flirts! (Beach Flirts! Holiday Flirts! Fairy Tale Flirts! and coming soon, Wedding Flirts!) These stories are perfect for when you don’t have time to commit to a novel, but still want to squeeze in a story or two. I have lots of readers who tell me they look forward to reading them during their lunch break. Or kids practices.
Ok, technically, mine are novelettes. I know. What’s a novelette? It makes me sound as if I use doilies at teatime. Well here’s the deal. Short stories are 1,000-7,500 words in length, so they can easily be read in one sitting. Anything shorter than that is flash fiction. Stories over 7500 words and up to 20,000 words are called novelettes. Novellas are 20,000-50,000 words. Mine are around 10,000 words, so I just go with short stories.
Why give a short story a shot when you’re used to longer fiction? It’s like giving the shy boy on the bus a shot when you know nothing about him. When you didn’t even know he’d been sitting there all this time.
Besides a quick dose of fun, you get to know a lot of characters. My short story collections have five stories in each collection, so you’ll meet lots of different couples in interesting situations. If I’ve done my job, you’re going to feel like you really got to know and care about these folks. As a reader, I love learning about new characters and places, and a few short stories a week will fill that desire, whether from a collection, or a bunch of individual shorts.
It’s a great way to try out a new genres and authors. I’m not a big sci-fi reader, but I recently picked up a short story with an interesting premise that’s getting a lot of buzz online. I’m still thinking about that story a week later. Would I have read it if it had been a novel? Probably not. Too big of a commitment in my crazy busy world. But this short story was the perfect way to pass an hour, and now I have to rethink my stance on “not liking sci-fi.”
And just because it’s a short story, doesn’t mean it’s not a complete story. I think this is the biggest reason people are reluctant to try short stories; like it’s going to be as fulfilling as one bacon wrapped scallop on a toothpick when you really want the stuffed haddock with the rice pilaf. Short stories really can be fun, fulfilling, and totally worth your time. In fact, some of my readers say my shorts collections read as full bodies of work, because my stories link to one another and characters pop up in other stories. (That happened after a moment of serendipity, when one story ended at a charity even and another started at a charity event and I thought, man, I can’t do that. And then realized, oh yes I can!
So even if you’ve never tried a short story, and you’re convinced it’s not for you, give it a shot. Get yourself to your favorite ebook site and start browsing. You’re sure to find one in your favorite genre, or maybe you can try something new. This could be the start a beautiful relationship between you and short fiction. A secret lover on the side whenever you need a little love. Your novels never need to know.
We’re having a party, and you’re invited! In honor of May being International Chick Lit Month, some author friends and I decided to band together to celebrate, promote, and extol the many virtues of this wonderful, entertaining, and underappreciated genre. Chick Lit Author Blog Hop 2012 will be a week-long event, running May 14th-20th, and 34 amazing writers are donating their time, talent, and some very special prizes to make this inaugural event a huge success!
Here’s how the blog hop will work . . .
Each of the 34 participating authors has written a special Chick Lit-centric piece and these posts will go live on Monday, May 14th. At each blog hop stop, you will have the opportunity to enter to win a FREE Chick Lit e-book from that particular blog’s owner/author. All you have to do is leave a comment on the blog post, including your name and e-mail address, and you’re automatically entered to win. If you visit each blog hop stop, that means you have the chance to win 34 different e-books!
The blog hop will start at Natalie Aaron & Marla Schwartz and end at Jen Tucker. You will find a list of all the stops on the blog hop at each auther’s blog. Authors’ blogs will be listed in alphabetical order according to last name.
In each of the author’s blog posts, there will be a “secret word.” This word will be italicized, so it will be easy to find. All you have to do is make note of this secret word at each blog hop stop. Collect all 34 secret words and submit your list to CLABlogHop@aol.com before midnight on Sunday, May 20th and you will be entered into the Grand Prize Drawing! The winner of this drawing will receive a $150 Sephora gift card! $150 to spend on make-up, fragrance, bath and body goodies, skin care, and hair products! How fun is that? This gift card can be redeemed online, or at any Sephora store in the US.
Winners of each of the participating author’s e-books, as well as the Grand Prize winner of the $150 Sephora gift card will be announced on Monday, May 21st.
Contests are open to residents of the United States only.
We hope you’ll join us for this exciting event! Don’t forget to tell all of your Chick Lit-loving friends! The more, the merrier!
Here’s the list of authors:
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May 13, 2012
Happy Mother’s Day! (Wait, where are the moms?)
Hope all the mamas out there are having a great day, and if you’re not one, hope you get to spend some time with yours. When pondering the holiday, it occurred to me 1) that I haven’t blogged in a while (well, I warned you) and 2) that I have very few parents as main characters in my romantic shorts. I came close, featuring an uncle and his niece in “Tingle All The Way.” I took the plunge with single Marnie and her daughter in “Spooked By Love.” There’s also one lurking in my soon to be released “Wedding Flirts!” (Won’t ruin it for you.) But for the most part, I find it difficult to write a romance where the main character has a kid.
Why? Because the kids need to be cared for. And that takes a lot of time, and brings along complications. You’re not going to be able to linger over a blind date that’s going well when the sitter’s waiting at home. Or do the one-night stand thing, unless the rendezvous goes down at their place where the kiddo’s sleeping—and my characters aren’t going to do that. It takes some maneuvering to include a child in the story. Plus, it’s a reminder of responsibility and sacrifice when you might want to be writing about fairytales and romance.
Not to mention what a child does to the character’s emotional motivations. When you’re single and dating, you have to find someone worthy to love you. When you’re a single parent and dating, you have to find someone worthy to love you and your kids. I can’t imagine the pressure of that. The first mean word or hairy eyeball given to my kid, and that guy would be gone. It’s gotta be tough to be single and looking for love. Tough to write it, too.
I even find it difficult to give my characters dogs, because I just got my first dog and one of the top things always on my mind (besides what to feed the kids for dinner and figuring out how to squeeze in some writing time) is getting home to let the dog out. It’s like owning a ticking bomb, really. I feel like those guys on Lost, who had to push the button in that capsule every few hours or the world would end. If you’re single with a dog and meet a hottie on Friday night, you’re not spending the night at their place if you’ve got a dog at home, are you? Cats, no problem. But when writing a character with a dog, I always have that in mind. What about the dog? Doesn’t it have to go out? (Or is it just me?)
But there are plenty of folks out there in the real world who are single parents looking for love. I’m going to make it a point to include a few more in my stories. But not today. Today I’m going to enjoy my own kiddos.
And let the dog out, of course. (Wait, I’ll get the kids to do it. Sometimes, it is good to have kids in the picture.)
March 2, 2012
And you can quote me on that
I’m just going to come out and admit it: blogging has turned me into a thief. (And it’s only post #3! What’s next—kidnapping?) Anyway, I just visited a blog where the author posts favorite quotes from her work once a week. I’m sure she’s the not the only one doing it, but I love the idea and I’m totally stealing it. Arrest me if you can.
This kind of feels like showing off pictures of your kids, especially when they were babies and you snapped a new shot every twenty minutes. “Look at this one! And oh, this one is so funny. Aww, did you see this one?” I’ll have to think of some snazzy name for this feature, like Quote-a-palooza or Quotacular or Quotarama. You know, something a little punny and really obnoxious.
Anyway, let’s share a few this week.
The first is from “She’s Hot Now” a short story from Beach Flirts! 5 Romantic Short Stories.
“The only relationship I’m interested in is a fleeting one—with fries and a hot dog,” Micki said.
And also from Beach Flirts! Here are a few lines from “Hot For Summer.”
“I was about to leave when the bells chimed on the door and someone walked in. Well, not someone. A guy. An incredibly gorgeous, tall, man with head-to-toe muscles. I wanted to tell him the model convention must be somewhere else, since I’d never seen someone like him in here, but I sank onto a stool at the counter instead. “Can I help you?” ‘Cause I can think of a few ways you could help me…’
And from “Ex on the Beach” also from Beach Flirts!
He wondered if she’d ever stop being angry. Then he remembered how she never forgave her sister for dyeing her Barbie’s heads instead of Easter eggs when she was seven, so probably not.
March 1, 2012
Hey, I didn’t quit this blogging thing yet
Look. I made it to post number two. (Mostly because I have to fix something in my WIP and the inspiration just isn’t coming! I knew this would be a great way not to write.)
So, I’m kind of cheating in post #2 by sending you to the post #1 I wrote for Book Luvin’ Babes (a site my friend Dana Taylor started. I’m one of the peeps who’s going to be blogging there. This is so like me—don’t blog for years, then start blogging on two sites, mine and hers. Typical.)
In my first post over there, I talk about the reasons I love my favorite books. Do you know why you love the books you love? Are there certain things you must have in a book for it to be a favorite?
Here’s my take on what I love about a good book. I’d love to hear yours!
February 23, 2012
My first, shiny post
I’ve had a website for years, but this is the first time I’ve taken up blogging. I’ve got lots of writing news brewing, lots of things to share, and I wanted to keep readers updated on new releases, so it seemed like a good idea to bite the bullet and blog. I just worry it’s going to be another way to “not write.” Sure, blogging will, technically, be writing. But I’ve discovered so many ways to not write my works in progress, that I’m becoming better at avoiding it than doing it. (Writing, that is.) I love writing, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes the story stalls, the words just aren’t coming and you need to find an out–fast.
Here are some of the many ways I don’t write:
By cruising ebay for good deals on Swarovski crystal pieces for my hubby. (he likes the stuff, what can I say.) And there are usually thousands of pieces listed on ebay, so that sucks up a lot of time. And once in a while, I snag a bargain.
Trolling stock photo sites for possible cover pictures for books I might write some day. This is a huge writing-avoidance activity, because it’s writing related, and one could call it work. Let’s just say I already have the book covers created for my next 18 short stories.
Pinterest. Oh, how I wish I hadn’t found this website. In case you’re not already addicted, this is a site that let’s you create virtual bulletin boards so you can pin pictures, recipes etc. to boards in different categories. Here are a few of my boards: Yum!, She’s Crafty, and Garden Love. I find myself pinning several times a day.
Surfing writer’s forums. Oh yeah. Major time suck.
Reading other people’s books. This is a toughie, because one really must keep abreast of trends in the marketplace. Plus, it’s always helpful to see what someone else is doing right–or wrong.
When I’m really desperate, you might even catch me cleaning. Yikes. That’s when you know it’s bad.
Or, I think of something I need at Target and come back with twenty things I didn’t need from Target.
And now this. Blogging. Is this where I’m going to turn next time I’m stuck in a scene? I think this may be why I’ve been reluctant to blog. I’m afraid I’m going to like it too much.
But welcome one and all. I suppose you’ll be able to tell how my writing’s going by how many blog posts you see. I do have plans for some fun features and contests. But right now, I’ve got some stock photos to pin on my pinterest boards.