Heather Thurmeier's Blog, page 35
October 18, 2011
NaNoWriMo 2011
In case you are unfamiliar, November is known as NaNoWriMo month by writers. That stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each year, during the month of November, writers from all over the place take on the challenge of writing 50K in 30 days. It's fun and crazy and makes you find writing time where you least expect it.
Last year I participated in NaNo and won! Woot! That just means I got my word count to be at least 50K new words in November. In fact, that book I wrote last year is going to be my next new release! How cool is that? I have yet to decide if I want to participate in the craziness and fun that is NaNo this year.
What 50k words would I write?
~Would I finish the wip I'm currently 45K into?
~Would I come up with a totally new novel and write that? Except for the fact that I don't have a story in mind at the moment.
~Would I write the next Meadow Ridge Romance book I already have an idea for even though it will leave me short on the world count? Each Meadow Ridge Romance is between 30-40K.
~Would I do some crazy combo of projects?
What do you think? Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Have you ever done it before? Are you scared to try?…
October 13, 2011
A Silver Bestseller!
I was just wandering around the Silver Publishing website and look what I found when I clicked on the Male/Female category…
LOVE AND LATTES is #1 on the bestsellers list! How fricken' sweet is that?! This was such a nice surprise to find. 
You can check it out for yourself by clicking HERE!
October 9, 2011
A Quick Break
Hey everyone,
You may have come here looking for a Six Sentence Sunday post today, but I'm taking a quick break from the Sunday fun. I can tell you it's not easy! I miss you all!! I miss the snippets!! I miss…the pictures…
*sigh*
But I'm skipping the fun and games and delicious eye candy for a few weeks for a very good reason…
I'm prepping my first full-length novel for Amazon and Nook! Woot! That's right folks, I'm going to dip my toe—yes, just one little toe—into the self-publishing world and see how I like it. It's very exciting! And busy. I have a lot to do. I've learned a ton working with my editors at Silver Publishing on my Meadow Ridge Romance Series, and I've learned from working on edits/revisions with my agent on a different manuscript. And yet, I still feel like I have so much to learn! So I'm studying and taking notes, and making it happen.
My exactly release date hasn't been finalized yet, but as soon as I know, I'll let you all know too!
See you back here in a few Sundays…hopefully with some cover art and a release date!
October 5, 2011
Ask an Author: Brenna Lyons
Heather: When I went to check out your website, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of titles you have available! How long ago did you start writing?
Brenna: Writing or writing novels?
The first writings of my own I have saved in an old trunk are poetry from when I was 7. Whether that was the first of my writing, I can't really say, since my father tells stories about me making up stories when I was 4 and 5. Not to get out of trouble, of course. I was…well, no…I was incredibly annoying but not a rule-breaker by trade. I was honest to a fault, it seems.
My teachers started entering me in every teen writing contest they could find when I was 11. I became the youngest winner ever (at that time…someone MAY have bested me in the years since) of Taproot that year. I was included in every writing project my elementary/middle school had to offer and owned my own typewriter by the time I was 12. When I was 13, I won a place in the first year of Boy Scout Explorers for Journalism and had my first article in a local newspaper. When I was 15, I won a place in the Young Poets Symposium at the University of Pittsburgh. When I was 19, I had my first public poetry reading of my own work.
As a young adult, I wrote poetry included in Navy family support group newsletters that I still get requests for permission to use today. One of them is included in a line of military-themed cards. I also wrote poetry included in SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) collections and articles that were published in an ezine named GoHamptonRoads.com and another called Wyer Live.
I'd written fiction for a long time, but it was largely first-person journal style fiction. If you asked me in college, I would have sworn I wasn't capable of writing a novel. I'd tried several times and never made it past the 4 chapter roadblock. So, I gave up on it.
Fast forward to April 1, 2001. I was playing the role of geographical single mother to my three children (all under the age of 6), packing for a 600 mile move to join my husband, working 50+ hours a week outside the home, taking care of three large dogs and two cats… And I woke up from a dream that I THOUGHT would end up a short story. One scene became two, three, four….three chapters, five chapters… The four chapter block was gone! By sometime in late April, I was at 50K and realized I had no idea how my characters got where they were, so I went back and started asking questions about how they got there. My mid-May, I was staring at 100K and still moving on the story. By mid-June, I had 214K and set out to edit that massive amount of work into a serial novel called PROPHECY, which is still on sale today. By the first of August, I was trying to find an agent…and launched into my second novel, FAIRY DREAMS (which reached its full length – it has since been pared down a bit – of 165K AND was edited for the great agent search in about 2 months).
At that point, the books started attacking me in packs…TYGERS (the first of the Renegades series) and the first three books of the NIGHT WARRIORS series in unison. After 80+ agent rejections, I started looking at indie press for publication and sold PROPHECY and FAIRY DREAMS to the first publisher I tried in May of 2002.
Heather: And when was your first title published?
Brenna: Oddly enough, the first title published wasn't from that publisher OR one of those first two signed books. The initial publisher for PROPHECY and FAIRY DREAMS had a long, slow lead-up to publication and did both print and ebook at the same time. While I was putzing around with that process, I moved on and started writing another new series (the Kegin series).
I belonged to several writing groups, and I happened to put out an excerpt of LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE on one of them. The EIC at that time for eXtasy Books was none other than Lora Leigh. She saw the excerpt and asked me for a full. It wasn't finished yet, but I promised her first look when it was. Three weeks later (Nov 2002), LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE was complete (my eighth novel in 19 months). I submitted it as promised, and the acceptance letter was in my inbox the next day. I was the first author signed to eXtasy Books that was neither a staff member nor had transitioned to eXtasy from Zumaya (now separate but then the parent company of eXtasy), and they dated the company by signing my contract. While I was in edits with LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE, I wrote SECOND SON and then SCHENTE NIGHT from the same series (both novellas). When eXtasy learned that SCHENTE NIGHT was a historical era prequel to LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE, they changed the order of publication. SCHENTE NIGHT released Jan 30, 2003. LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE released Feb 28, 2003, and SECOND SON released Mar 7, 2003. By that time, I could count the hours to a contract on one hand, and they even started publishing new subgenres to take my work.
By the time PROPHECY released in Sept/Oct 2003, I had about 7 releases from eXtasy in at least three series worlds.
Heather: What's one thing you wish you would have known before you were published?
Brenna: How to vett and choose a publisher. In short, there were no resources out there for indie press. Everything written on the subject of finding a publisher was written for NY conglomerate and assumed you would get an agent, let the agent take care of the details, and so forth. The books and articles would tell you how to query but not that an agent wouldn't take a serial novel and a plus-sized novel from a first-time author. Nor would the conglomerate presses. None of the existing resources dealt with indie press. EPIC had their model contract, of course, but as a first-time novelist, I didn't know how to find EPIC or that I would want to.
I signed my first few contracts blind. I had no idea if the contracts were good or if the companies were. I didn't know how to find publishers on the web. I trusted that the companies were good, because Lora Leigh was vouching for eXtasy, and Jacqueline Elliott was vouching for Treble Heart. When I tried my hand at New Concepts, I did so, because Myra Nour was vouching for them. Sometimes, these associations were good ones. Sometimes they weren't. It took a long time before I knew how to separate the grain from the chaff for myself, and that's why I teach new authors to do it now. The more resources they have available, the less painful lessons they have to learn for themselves later.
Heather: You have a lot of different series available, which is great. I'm a huge series fan. But, how do you keep all the characters, worlds etc straight when you have so many series ongoing at one time?
Brenna: Simply put, I have a character-driven process. I'm a pantser. Each character is unique in my mind…and opinionated (rolling eyes), and they tell me the stories. I do keep some background records and timelines on series that will aid me in making sure that someone isn't pregnant for a year (want to know what NYT Bestselling BLOCKBUSTER author has that error in a book?) or that an astrological event happens at the right time every occurrence, depending on the world rules. For the most part, I just write down the story…in pieces, as it comes to me…and then weave it together. I can throw things at the characters and watch them react to them, but I can't change how the characters react, because the process demands they act "in character." That means the characters win all the arguments.
Heather: And last, the most important question of them all… If you could be one mythical/supernatural creature or being, what would you be and why?
Brenna: Tough question! Probably some sort of magic user or magical creature that can shift into a magic user. I really like dragons and big cats, so one of those that is also a wizard or sorceress sounds incredibly cool to me. Having the benefits of being such a powerful creature (especially dragons, who are resistant to both physical attack and magical attack) and being able to appear human and walk among humans is just too appealing to pass up. Besides…think of what fun it is when people don't realize you are the animal?
Thank you so much for being here today, BD!!
Blurb for Monsters of Myth (which I THINK will be my newest release at that time…from Mundania Press, LLC.)We've read about them. We've watched movies about them. They've haunted our nightmares and tantalized our imaginations. They are the monsters of myth and legend. You know them: vampires, Frankenstein's monster, zombies, ghosts, and all manner of mischievous creatures that cause inexplicable mayhem. Welcome to my worlds, and may the magic of the myths never die.
Bio-
Brenna Lyons wears many hats, sometimes all on the same day: former president of EPIC, author of more than 95 published works, Administrator for Silver Publishing, columnist, special needs teacher, wife, mother…and member in good standing of more than 60 writing advocacy groups. In her first nine years published in novel-length, she's won 3 EPIC e-Book Awards (out of 15 finalists) and finaled for 3 PEARLS (including one Honorable Mention, second to NY Times Bestseller Angela Knight), 2 CAPAS, and a Dream Realm Award. She's also taken Spinetingler's Book of the Year for 2007. Brenna writes milieu-heavy dark fiction, mainly science fiction, fantasy and horror, straight genre, romance and erotic crosses, poetry, articles, and essays. She teaches everything from marketing to choosing an indie publisher, and she's been called "one of the most deviant erotic minds in publishing today" by Fallen Angels. Find out more about Brenna at Youtube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b61pN_MzszI] or her site [http://brennalyons.com]!
Web site- http://brennalyons.com
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/brenna.lyons
Blog- http://brennalyonsden.blogspot.com/
Ask an Author: BD Lyons
Heather: When I went to check out your website, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of titles you have available! How long ago did you start writing?
BD: Writing or writing novels?
The first writings of my own I have saved in an old trunk are poetry from when I was 7. Whether that was the first of my writing, I can't really say, since my father tells stories about me making up stories when I was 4 and 5. Not to get out of trouble, of course. I was…well, no…I was incredibly annoying but not a rule-breaker by trade. I was honest to a fault, it seems.
My teachers started entering me in every teen writing contest they could find when I was 11. I became the youngest winner ever (at that time…someone MAY have bested me in the years since) of Taproot that year. I was included in every writing project my elementary/middle school had to offer and owned my own typewriter by the time I was 12. When I was 13, I won a place in the first year of Boy Scout Explorers for Journalism and had my first article in a local newspaper. When I was 15, I won a place in the Young Poets Symposium at the University of Pittsburgh. When I was 19, I had my first public poetry reading of my own work.
As a young adult, I wrote poetry included in Navy family support group newsletters that I still get requests for permission to use today. One of them is included in a line of military-themed cards. I also wrote poetry included in SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) collections and articles that were published in an ezine named GoHamptonRoads.com and another called Wyer Live.
I'd written fiction for a long time, but it was largely first-person journal style fiction. If you asked me in college, I would have sworn I wasn't capable of writing a novel. I'd tried several times and never made it past the 4 chapter roadblock. So, I gave up on it.
Fast forward to April 1, 2001. I was playing the role of geographical single mother to my three children (all under the age of 6), packing for a 600 mile move to join my husband, working 50+ hours a week outside the home, taking care of three large dogs and two cats… And I woke up from a dream that I THOUGHT would end up a short story. One scene became two, three, four….three chapters, five chapters… The four chapter block was gone! By sometime in late April, I was at 50K and realized I had no idea how my characters got where they were, so I went back and started asking questions about how they got there. My mid-May, I was staring at 100K and still moving on the story. By mid-June, I had 214K and set out to edit that massive amount of work into a serial novel called PROPHECY, which is still on sale today. By the first of August, I was trying to find an agent…and launched into my second novel, FAIRY DREAMS (which reached its full length – it has since been pared down a bit – of 165K AND was edited for the great agent search in about 2 months).
At that point, the books started attacking me in packs…TYGERS (the first of the Renegades series) and the first three books of the NIGHT WARRIORS series in unison. After 80+ agent rejections, I started looking at indie press for publication and sold PROPHECY and FAIRY DREAMS to the first publisher I tried in May of 2002.
Heather: And when was your first title published?
BD: Oddly enough, the first title published wasn't from that publisher OR one of those first two signed books. The initial publisher for PROPHECY and FAIRY DREAMS had a long, slow lead-up to publication and did both print and ebook at the same time. While I was putzing around with that process, I moved on and started writing another new series (the Kegin series).
I belonged to several writing groups, and I happened to put out an excerpt of LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE on one of them. The EIC at that time for eXtasy Books was none other than Lora Leigh. She saw the excerpt and asked me for a full. It wasn't finished yet, but I promised her first look when it was. Three weeks later (Nov 2002), LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE was complete (my eighth novel in 19 months). I submitted it as promised, and the acceptance letter was in my inbox the next day. I was the first author signed to eXtasy Books that was neither a staff member nor had transitioned to eXtasy from Zumaya (now separate but then the parent company of eXtasy), and they dated the company by signing my contract. While I was in edits with LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE, I wrote SECOND SON and then SCHENTE NIGHT from the same series (both novellas). When eXtasy learned that SCHENTE NIGHT was a historical era prequel to LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE, they changed the order of publication. SCHENTE NIGHT released Jan 30, 2003. LAST CHANCE FOR LOVE released Feb 28, 2003, and SECOND SON released Mar 7, 2003. By that time, I could count the hours to a contract on one hand, and they even started publishing new subgenres to take my work.
By the time PROPHECY released in Sept/Oct 2003, I had about 7 releases from eXtasy in at least three series worlds.
Heather: What's one thing you wish you would have known before you were published?
BD: How to vett and choose a publisher. In short, there were no resources out there for indie press. Everything written on the subject of finding a publisher was written for NY conglomerate and assumed you would get an agent, let the agent take care of the details, and so forth. The books and articles would tell you how to query but not that an agent wouldn't take a serial novel and a plus-sized novel from a first-time author. Nor would the conglomerate presses. None of the existing resources dealt with indie press. EPIC had their model contract, of course, but as a first-time novelist, I didn't know how to find EPIC or that I would want to.
I signed my first few contracts blind. I had no idea if the contracts were good or if the companies were. I didn't know how to find publishers on the web. I trusted that the companies were good, because Lora Leigh was vouching for eXtasy, and Jacqueline Elliott was vouching for Treble Heart. When I tried my hand at New Concepts, I did so, because Myra Nour was vouching for them. Sometimes, these associations were good ones. Sometimes they weren't. It took a long time before I knew how to separate the grain from the chaff for myself, and that's why I teach new authors to do it now. The more resources they have available, the less painful lessons they have to learn for themselves later.
Heather: You have a lot of different series available, which is great. I'm a huge series fan. But, how do you keep all the characters, worlds etc straight when you have so many series ongoing at one time?
BD: Simply put, I have a character-driven process. I'm a pantser. Each character is unique in my mind…and opinionated (rolling eyes), and they tell me the stories. I do keep some background records and timelines on series that will aid me in making sure that someone isn't pregnant for a year (want to know what NYT Bestselling BLOCKBUSTER author has that error in a book?) or that an astrological event happens at the right time every occurrence, depending on the world rules. For the most part, I just write down the story…in pieces, as it comes to me…and then weave it together. I can throw things at the characters and watch them react to them, but I can't change how the characters react, because the process demands they act "in character." That means the characters win all the arguments.
Heather: And last, the most important question of them all… If you could be one mythical/supernatural creature or being, what would you be and why?
BD: Tough question! Probably some sort of magic user or magical creature that can shift into a magic user. I really like dragons and big cats, so one of those that is also a wizard or sorceress sounds incredibly cool to me. Having the benefits of being such a powerful creature (especially dragons, who are resistant to both physical attack and magical attack) and being able to appear human and walk among humans is just too appealing to pass up. Besides…think of what fun it is when people don't realize you are the animal?
Thank you so much for being here today, BD!!
Blurb for Monsters of Myth (which I THINK will be my newest release at that time…from Mundania Press, LLC.)We've read about them. We've watched movies about them. They've haunted our nightmares and tantalized our imaginations. They are the monsters of myth and legend. You know them: vampires, Frankenstein's monster, zombies, ghosts, and all manner of mischievous creatures that cause inexplicable mayhem. Welcome to my worlds, and may the magic of the myths never die.
Bio-
Brenna Lyons wears many hats, sometimes all on the same day: former president of EPIC, author of more than 95 published works, Administrator for Silver Publishing, columnist, special needs teacher, wife, mother…and member in good standing of more than 60 writing advocacy groups. In her first nine years published in novel-length, she's won 3 EPIC e-Book Awards (out of 15 finalists) and finaled for 3 PEARLS (including one Honorable Mention, second to NY Times Bestseller Angela Knight), 2 CAPAS, and a Dream Realm Award. She's also taken Spinetingler's Book of the Year for 2007. Brenna writes milieu-heavy dark fiction, mainly science fiction, fantasy and horror, straight genre, romance and erotic crosses, poetry, articles, and essays. She teaches everything from marketing to choosing an indie publisher, and she's been called "one of the most deviant erotic minds in publishing today" by Fallen Angels. Find out more about Brenna at Youtube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b61pN_MzszI] or her site [http://brennalyons.com]!
Web site- http://brennalyons.com
Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/brenna.lyons
Blog- http://brennalyonsden.blogspot.com/
October 1, 2011
Six Sentence Sunday 10/2
Welcome to another fun Sunday of reading snippets. Check out all the fabulous authors participating HERE! This week I'm away from my computer for most of the day. I'll do my best to read as many snippets as I can, but I make no guarantees.
This week you get the last little snippet of LOVE AND LATTES I'm going to offer. I think I've posted a nice selection of snippets from the novella and I hope you'll check it out. Next time I'll have something new for you to read!
Chase stared at Julia standing in the doorway. She looked more beautiful than he remembered—tear-stained, puffy-eyed, and obviously angry, but amazing. A crumpled tissue peeked out of her front pocket. Behind her, a pillow and fuzzy pink blanket lay in a puddle on the couch. He sighed. He had done this to her and now he had to make things right.
Buy LOVE AND LATTES:
September 29, 2011
Mailbox of Terror!
So over the weekend I grabbed the mail out of the mailbox and as I withdrew my hand, a spider chased me. Chased me I tell you! I sent Mike to kill it but of course the little F-er hid. I told Mike to look harder. He claimed it was gone. But I knew… I knew…
Today, I figured I had to bring in the mail since the box was now overflowing. What? I knew he was in there waiting for me. I hoped that if I waited long enough, he would magically go away. But I can only wait so long.
I reached in and carefully removed the four bundles of mail, praying with each that I won't get chased again and be forced to litter my mail across the street when I inevitably scream and run for the house, tossing the mail into the air as I flee.
But no spider.
I shook the bundles a little on the way in to the house in an attempt to shake the bugger loose just in case.
Nothing.
I put the mail on the counter and said a little prayer that it's safe to go through it since it's been sitting in the box for four days and there could be bills that need paying. Then I spied a package I know contains the sweater I ordered months ago that has been on back order and know I can't resist opening at least that one piece of mail. It's just one little package. Surely I can look at my sweater safely, right?
I reached for it with a trembling hand. I can't help it, I'm terrified of spiders. I cut open the package and slid out the swearer, fresh and new and beautiful. And as I lifted it from the counter to take a closer look, I noticed a beige movement on my counter where there should be no beige movement.
It's him.
I screamed and the girls screamed because I screamed.
And then I dropped my new sweater that I've waited literally months for…
…on the fucking spider!!!
I couldn't let him have my sweater. It's my sweater, spider, keep your eight creepy legs off of it! So I tried to take it back and he crawled after me! So I dropped my sweater again, narrowly missing the peanut butter knife I'd just made the girls sandwiches with. And the spider scooted across my counter and down onto the lip of a drawer. While I stood at the doorway a few—FIVE!— feet away, scanning the room for a makeshift spider-squishing device, he saw an opportunity and took it.
He disappeared!!!
Now my kitchen is off limits until the spider is found and my sweater is laying in a lump on the TV stand because after saving it from the kitchen, I'm too scared to try it on because well, you know… He could be hiding in it!
I blame my husband for my not cooking dinner for my children tonight because my new spider houseguest is 'somewhere' in my kitchen.
September 26, 2011
Setting New Goals and Jogging Tunes
So I recently got the brilliant idea that I would set a new goal for myself to work on while both kids are at school three days a week. Jog the Couch to 5K program. Why, why do I do this to myself?
Because I'm a glutton for punishment of the most unpleasant kind?
No. I just want to be healthy.
Healthy blows.
Anyway, I started the program just about two weeks ago and I have been making myself go on the jog every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning right after I drop the kids off at school. When I get up in the morning I get straight into workout clothes so I have no excuse not to go. I recruited a jogging partner since I've never really jogged outside before. I thought it would be good to have a little extra motivation and support.
Indiana Jones. Doggie Jones.
Too bad I picked Doggie Jones to be my partner.
He's a little on the lazy side. He gets tired running around our yard for a whopping 5 minutes with the kids. If there's anyone in the house who needs to exercise more, it's him. (And hubs, but he's very busy with work. His exercise is walking from meeting to meeting and running through airport terminals to catch flights.)
So Jones sucks as a workout partner. At least once on our 30 minute jog/walk C25K program, he'll do the following…each of the following:
-Pee on a bush.
-Pee on a rock.
-Pee on a leaf laying in the road.
-Get distracted by a squirrel/chipmunk/worm/or butterfly.
-Stop to do #2 (at which point I have to stop to pick up #2 in a baggie and then run with it in my pocket the rest of the trip. Ew. Thanks for that.)
-Lag behind while I jog.
-Cross the street while I jog and trip me.
-Lag behind AND cross the street behind me, therefore throwing me off my stride, thus almost causing me to take a header into the bushes that Jones peed on earlier.
-Look at me with pleading "take me home, mama, I haz a tired" eyes.
To all of which I reply, "Move it or lose it, Jones!"
*Sigh*
I set my goal and it's a sucky one, but one I feel the overwhelming desire to prove I can do. Sort of like writing a book. It's hard. It really sucks at times. Motivation to finish what you started is key to success. And often times there are people or outside sources or real life slowing you down. But somehow we, the lonely and sometimes delusional writers write on because we have to meet our goals.
Now tell me, WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE WORKOUT TUNES?? I've decided that half of my music on my playlist just isn't cutting it for a jog. So I'm in desperate need of some new, fast-paced tunes. I'll be here, waiting for your suggestions…with a heating pad on my aching shins and drinking my coconut water mixed with phytoberry powder to rehydrate and hopefully recoup.
P.S. I've been doing about 2 miles each time so I've already logged approx. 12 miles! SCORE!
September 24, 2011
Six Sentence Sunday 9/25
Thanks for stopping in for another Sunday of snippet fun! Check out the other authors participating by clicking HERE!
This week you're getting a little more from my new release LOVE AND LATTES. If you read the snippet and want more, please check out my links! BUY FROM AMAZON
He reached for his belt, eager to speed things up, but she batted his hand away. His body grew hard with her touch on his waist as she slowly unlatched the buckle. As she lowered the zipper, her hand brushed against the length of him and it was everything he could do not pounce on her.
Julia slid his pants over his hips, pausing for a moment to stroke his awakened flesh. Finally, when he could wait no longer, he stepped out of his pants and joined her on the bed. He pulled her shirt over her head and kissed the sensitive flesh between her breasts.
September 23, 2011
Chatting about Baby Names and Books!
I'm over at Victoria Blisse's chatting about baby names and characters. Stop by and find out my go-to site for character naming help!
