Nicole Helm's Blog, page 5
December 9, 2013
Hey, Hey, I’m on Facebook!
I’ve decided to start posting excerpts of my books (both available and soon-to-be-released) on my Facebook page every Monday. So, if you haven’t already, come over and like my author page: www.facebook.com/AuthorNicoleHelm
I’ve finally emerged from edit-palooza and that means I’m back to writing! At least for the time being. I’m waiting to hear back on a couple proposals and working on the third Flight book (Em’s story) while I wait.
Also, TOO CLOSE TO RESIST is starting to pop up places like GoodReads and Amazon. The blurb, cover, etc will come within next few months, but for now, I am there! And I am so excited about that. This book.
Anyway, I’ll be taking it easy through the rest of the year, which means I won’t be blogging again until 2014! Have a happy continuing holidays, everyone, and a very happy new year!
Filed under: excerpts, What I'm Up To
November 11, 2013
The World According to Nicole
In the two years since I’ve been a contracted author, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve changed a lot. And some things remain very much the same,
I thought I’d share some of my lessons along the way, whether from observation, making the mistake myself, or just common sense.
So, here you go, the world according to Nicole:
1. Like what you like and, as long as it’s not hurting anyone, be okay with that.
2. Dislike what you dislike and, as long as it’s not hurting anyone, be okay with that.
3. Don’t diss #2 in order to make yourself feel better about #1.
4. If you have to tell people you’re intelligent, successful, caring, wonderful, chances are you’re missing something.
5. You can’t succeed if you give up.
6. Writing may be my passion, I may be lucky to do it, but it’s still my job.
7. All jobs come with certain expectations and responsibilities not expressly related to the good part. (Teaching is not just teaching, it’s grading and conferences and paperwork. For example).
8. You can choose not to do those things expected or take on those responsibilities.
9. There will be consequences for that choice. So, if you make the choice, be okay with the consequence.
10. Just because there’s an article on the Internet, a mandate from your publisher, a gentle suggestion from a friend saying you should do x, y, or z, does not mean you have to do it. Again. Consequences. Be okay with them.
11. Getting angry at the people who do do it, belittling them, or asking them “no really, why do you waste your time on that thing. I’m too busy to do something frivolous so I’m genuinely curious” is a dick move. Period.
12. Comparison is the thief of joy. (Okay I stole that one from good old Teddy Roosevelt) Subtitle: Don’t worry so damn much about what other people are doing and focus on what you’re doing and what you want to accomplish. Then put your head down and accomplish the shit out of it.
13. To thine own self be true. (You know) Subtitle: Be okay with the choices you make (without being the jerk who has to validate your choices by putting down other’s).
14. To a hammer everything looks like a nail. Subtitle: some people are just A-holes. It’s okay to not be nice to A-holes. In fact, it’s okay not to like anyone, just don’t be a dick about it.
As my grandpa likes to say, “different strokes for different folks”, so your mileage my vary. BUT, let me leave you with one last thought, a quote from Conan O’Brien:
Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.
Have a great week!
Filed under: life, publishing
October 27, 2013
The Agent Quest
So, last week I achieved yet another big career goal I’d set for myself many moons ago. I signed with an agent. Yay! I’m so, so, so thrilled to be working with Courtney Miller-Callihan from Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.
I’m excited for this for a lot of reasons. Having a business partner, so to speak. I’m so proud of the book that got Courtney’s attention. I feel like I’ve managed to unhook any limits I have control over from my career.
The first query I ever sent to an agent went out in April of 2011. It received a form rejection. I didn’t query any more agents with that project, but I did later sell it to The Wild Rose Press and it became my first published book.
The second query I ever sent was in May of 2011. A different project, but the same agent. I got a partial request! It later received a rejection with brief feedback. I retired this project after it was also rejected by a publisher. It’s one of the few manuscripts I’ve finished in the past three years that I decided to put away rather than continue to work on and eventually sell.
My next set of queries were for the manuscript that would become my third published book (FLIGHT RISK). I queried six agents, got one partial request and one full request. In the end, all responses were form rejections.
Kind of concurrent to querying that third project, I was querying SEVEN NIGHT STAND. Four agents, four form rejections, no requests. Then it sold to Entangled, after a few other publisher rejections.
At the end of 2012/beginning of 2013, I queried 14 agents with my Superromance. I received three full requests, but in the end all received rejections with no specific feedback.
In 2013 I queried All I’ve Got, my Harlequin Digital title, to five agents. 2 full requests and 1 partial. I did get feedback from one agent who called me despite not offering representation. This agent gave me feedback and advice and though I did not take all of her advice, I’ll always appreciate the time she spent in reaching out to me.
For the manuscript I got my offers of representation on, I sent out roughly 30 queries. I had quite a few partial and full requests and more than one offer of rep.
In the end, I learned a lot from the seeking-an-agent process.
1. Just because a manuscript is rejected does not make it unworthy of publication. All of the books rejected by agents I later sold on my own, and that’s not a “haha, those agents are dumb” response. I would never want to be with an agent not one hundred percent sure they loved my book. But just because you don’t find an agent who loves your book whether from query or partial or full, doesn’t mean you won’t find an editor who will. This is a very, very subjective business. If you believe in your book, keep trying.
2. An agent MAY call you and not offer you representation. It only happened to me once, but it did indeed happen. (Also, no matter how nicely your children are playing or napping, do not take said phone call with them around. Chances are the minute you start really talking they will start shrieking uncontrollably).
3. Feedback is never guaranteed. I used to think if I got as far as a full request I’d definitely get feedback if it was a pass. But, more offe than not, the response was a form “this is not for me.” It’s frustrating because that can mean so many things, but agents have a heck of a lot of reading and feedback on their plates, and the best agents give the bulk of that attention to their clients.
4. Learning to write a good query is very different from writing a good book. I found that I got the most requests from queries that had a one to two line hook. These are so hard and I hated writing them, but both All I’ve Got and my current project started with two-sentence “hooks” and they got the most requests. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. It took me a while to really “get” the point of he he query. To get beyond the mindset, “oh once they read the sample pages they’ll want to dive right in.” That query is a tool and whether or not you LIKE it, it’s the tool that gets your foot I the door. Put your best foot forward.
5. Know WHY you want an agent. Especially if you’re already published. By the time I signed with my agent, I had three books released and six more sold. What I heard from more than one agent was why did I want one if I could already sell (they wanted to know, not that they were questioning my choice). I had reasons, but it took that first agent asking me the question for me to truly understand why I wanted this. It wasn’t just to say I had one or because I thought my agent could make me a bestseller overnight. I think one of the best things you can do for yourself is know what you expect from an agent, what you want from an agent, and discuss those with any offering agent.
In the end, some people will get agents quickly, on their first try, on their first book. Some it will take multiple projects and years of trying (she says, from experience). Don’t let rejection shake your confidence or color what you want.
Know what you want. Work for what you want. Believe in your work, yourself, and keep striving to be better, understand more. Truly, that is the best advice.
Filed under: Uncategorized
October 21, 2013
Yay! Boo. Yay! Boo.
It has been a whirlwind few months on the writing front. I have been on a crazy roller coaster of good-bad-good-bad. Mostly good. I’m focusing on the good.
Last week, my editor pointed me to this review of Flight Risk in the Library Journal. It made me very happy.
Friday night my Cardinals won and moved on to the World Series (setting up what Cardinal fans hope to be redemption for 2004, when the Red Sox swept the Cards in the WS). (Yes, not writing related, but awesome related).
My newsletter comes out this week! Don’t forget it will include instructions on how to obtain a free novella from me! Details here. Sign up here. I’ve been posting snippets on my Facebook page, too.
More good news will be traveling down the pipeline soon. And hopefully all that good news will get me through the crap that I’m also wading through.
Happy Monday!
Filed under: Uncategorized
October 14, 2013
Free Read Details
Have you read Seven-Night Stand and want to read the next installment for free?
Would you like a peek into the Harrington world before deciding if you want to buy one of the books?
Want to read a free novella with a grumpy Luke-from-Gilmore-Girls-esque hero?
Just like free stories?
Well, I’ve got something just for you!
On October 24th, my next newsletter will go out. If you sign up for the newsletter before then, you’ll get special details on how to get this novella for free right away! (Basically it will involve emailing me your email address/file preference and I will email it to you).
If you’re not big on newsletters, I will post it on my website or on Wattpad (or possibly both) in November. By signing up for the newsletter, you’re just guaranteeing an early look (and also contests, other early looks, news about releases etc). The newsletter will only come out once a month and I promise not to spam you.
Here is a blurb and small excerpt for Finding You, Harrington Book 1.5
Blurb: Ellen Stephens lives for adventure. Quitting her job at a production company in LA to go with a startup in small town Kansas, of all places, is just the fresh start she’s looking for after a life of privilege and a very famous father leaves her feeling like she can’t be herself. She’s going to make friends and a life that are about her, not who she’s related to.
Hank Green has had enough adventure to last him a life time. An ex-Marine who completed four tours in the Middle East, he’s seen everything there is to see. Add in a lifetime of taking care of people, including his clinically depressed father, and Hank just wants peace. Taking a job as a security officer for a TV production company at Harrington Airfield seems like the perfect way to spend the rest of his life.
Until he meets Ellen. She’s too young, too happy, and too…bright. He wants nothing to do with her or anyone like her, so why does he find himself constantly drawn to helping her out? Ellen can’t help but be intrigued by her grumpy neighbor. Aside from being hot, it’s hard to resist a grumpy guy who’ll shovel your walk, even if he’s intent on not making friends.
Though they might be opposites, they also might be just what the other needs.
Excerpt
Chapter One
Ellen Stephens looked at the pretty new row of townhouses and grinned so wide it hurt her cheeks. The first step in her next grand adventure, and nothing put her in a better mood than an adventure.
Even if that adventure was in Kansas.
It was kind of Wizard of Oz in the opposite. She’d left the bright lights and dazzling colors of LA behind for a tan newly constructed home on a plot of brown overturned earth. A grey sky and more tan newly constructed houses beyond.
It was the picture of a suburbia she’d never known, growing up in a bustling, busy city. So, it was an adventure. A new job awaited her tomorrow. Well, technically it was the same job she’d been doing back home for the past three years–assistant at a production company.
But now she’d be working for a friend, working toward an idea she’d helped come up with. It was no backpacking through Europe or sightseeing through Thailand, but she’d had enough of that in her early twenties. Now she was newly-turned twenty-seven. No more backpacking the world living off Daddy’s considerable dime.
No more LA and pretty much getting her way because of who her dad was. No one here knew. She’d managed to keep that a secret at her old job at Tyson Productions for two and a half years, and that was in the heart of Hollywood. She was pretty sure her secret could be kept forever in the middle of nowhere Kansas.
The idea of a fresh start was impossible not to be excited about. She loved her family, but she was eager to make a life for herself that wasn’t connected to her dad’s fame. Wasn’t connected to the wealthy and influential friends she’d made growing up.
She was eager to leave the bubble of all that, not because it had been awful, just because she’d never felt…real. Somewhere along the line she’d stopped feeling like a real person in charge of her own life.
And somewhere along the line the friends had faded away, her sister had all but cut her out, and she’d found herself…lonely. LA might be full of people, but when everyone she’d counted on drifted away to focus on their own lives…all those people packed into the city just added to the feeling she was alone.
She was going to change that here. She would find friends who lasted and a life that was solid and fulfilling. Vivvy had done that here, surely Ellen could follow suit.
She turned back to the moving van. It had taken her fifteen minutes to get it parked on the street close enough to the curb it didn’t impede traffic without actually being in her little postage stamp yard.
Of course there was now a little rut in said yard from her parking attempts, but, hey, that was just part of the experience. Nothing could get her down today. With her own money, with her own two hands, she’d driven from California to Kansas in an oversized van packed full of almost all her worldly possessions.
Late winter cold snuck around her legs as she pushed the back door of the moving van open. Though she’d known Kansas would be considerably colder than California, the way the frigid air seemed to sneak right up inside her jeans was a surprise.
Ellen whistled as she picked up the first box from the overcrowded back, too happy with all the opportunities in front of her to be worried about the weather. By the time she was through half the boxes, she was no longer cold. She was sweating under her layers of sweaters and her coat.
As she picked up the next box, a car pulled in front of the townhouse on the corner. One of those sleek, intimidating black SUV things that the paparazzi or cops always seemed to drive.
The man who stepped out could have been a cop. He was big and intimidating, just like his car. She couldn’t imagine him being paparazzi, especially in Kansas. Oh, maybe he was like the sheriff of the little town. How cute would that be?
Cute, but probably not reality. She didn’t imagine cops in small town Kansas made enough to afford that kind of car.
He glanced at her, then the moving truck, his expression completely blank as he did so.
“Hi!” Ellen greeted with a wave, setting down her box. “Do you live there? I’m the new neighbor.” She gestured toward her house.
The man stopped his walk up to his house and looked at her again, his forehead a maze of deep lines as his dark eyebrows drew together. He had pretty blue eyes on a tanned face. He had to be older than her, judging by the deep grooves around his frowning mouth. There might have even been some stray strands of grey in his close-cropped brown hair.
“Yes.” His voice was rough, as if he didn’t use it all that often. He probably didn’t, in fact, because instead of saying anything else, he simply walked away. Didn’t even give her a minute to introduce herself.
Ellen frowned after his impressive form–tall, broad, in good shape, very good shape judging from the way those jeans hugged his butt. Ellen’s lips immediately curved at that thought.
In the plan she had in her head, she made great friends with all her neighbors. Block parties and borrowing sugar and all that. Wasn’t that what a subdivision in the Midwest was supposed to be like?
Well, she still had plenty of neighbors down the line of townhouses to find a friendly one. There was probably a grumpy neighbor in every subdivision. In fact, that’s what she’d call him. Grumpy. It suited his stiff strides and his rough voice and the lines on his face.
Man, Grumpy was kind of hot. Too old for her. Too grumpy for her. But, hot nonetheless.
Filed under: excerpts, Finding You, Harrington Airfield Series, romance, Seven Night Stand
September 30, 2013
Three-Fourths and a Free Read
After today, the year is three-fourths over. Three months left of 2013. That is really REALLY hard to believe.
I’m sure these last three months will zoom by, and I’m kind of okay with that because I should have SIX books coming out next year!
Right now, I only have a set-in-stone release date for one. TOO CLOSE TO RESIST will be coming from Harlequin Superromance in June.
My second Antiques in Flight book, FLIGHT DELAY, has been offered a contract, and it’s looking like it may come out in the spring.
My two farmer’s market books (Book 1) will also probably come out next year, but everything is dependent on the launch date of the HarlequinE contemporary line. I’m currently working on the second book and loving this little world I’ve created.
As for my Harrington series, well, I’m not sure what’s going to happen there. Books 2 and 3 are finished, but I don’t have any release dates. I’m very hopeful they’ll both come out in 2014, but it’s all beyond my control. I’m in waiting mode right along with you guys. 
For those of you who have been waiting so patiently for Ryan’s story, since I can’t do anything about that, I’ve decided to make the novella I wrote in the Harrington world a free read. You’ll get a little glimpse into the setup of Ryan’s story, but mainly the book will be a stand alone about Vivvy’s friend Ellen (who appears in Seven-Night Stand). The hero isn’t someone you’ve met before, but he’s like a grumpier version of Luke from Gilmore Girls if Luke was an ex-military security guard instead of a diner owner.
I’m still working on the logistics/format. In my newsletter? A pdf downloadable from my website? Or maybe use Wattpad as it seems more and more publishers are using Wattpad for different promotions.
How do you prefer to get your free reads? Any votes/suggestions are very welcome!
Filed under: Uncategorized
September 16, 2013
Mid-September
It is now the middle of September. We’ll probably take the kiddos apple picking this week or next, and everyone seems to have a cold. The days are getting moderately cooler and I am dreaming about sweatpants.
I’m also working on my second farmer’s market book, and once I finish the proposal for that, I’ll be working on the proposal for the third Flight book (that’ll be Em’s book, for those of you who’ve read Flight Risk).
My submission list is dwindling down to two projects, and I’m feeling pretty good about next year’s prospects.
I’m still toying with the idea of doing a free read. I have two novellas as candidates, but I have to work out formatting and logistics before I can put that into place. One of the possible venues will be my newsletter, so if you’re interested in reading something from me for free, or want to be kept up to dae on upcoming titles/sales etc, feel free to sign up here: http://ymlp.com/xgbbsbqmgmgj
You will not be spammed, and the newsletter will come out (at most) once a month.
So, that’s what’s up with me. What’s up with you?
Filed under: What I'm Up To
September 9, 2013
First Place
If you know me at all, you’ll know what this title refers to.
Yes, the Cardinals are in first place after a weekend sweep of the Pirates. I almost feel bad, because the Pirates happen to be my critique partner’s team. But the Pirates have their winning season, so they’re good, right?
I kid. I kid.
But, I did want to bring it up because today my critique partner has a new release, and it features one bearded, grumpy baseball player. My three favorite hero descriptors! Change My Mind is one of my favorites of Elley’s, and though it’s the second in a series it can stand alone. (But I recommend the first, Save My Soul, too of course).
Change My Mind by Elley Arden: (Amazon) (BN) (Elley’s Site)
I’ve also read some really good books in the past few months. (Links will take you to my Goodreads Reviews)
The Derby Girl by Tamara Morgan
Her Favorite Temptation and Her Favorite Rival by Sarah Mayberry
The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan
Black Knight, White Queen by Jackie Ashenden
The Chocolate Thief by Laura Florand
Filed under: Friday Reads, Monday Me
September 5, 2013
Reviews
September 3, 2013
Fiction Meet Reality
Over Labor Day weekend my family traveled up to Iowa to my grandpa’s airport and his annual fly-in. We also got to see extended family and had a great (albeit exhausting) time.
If you’ve read Flight Risk or plan on reading it, I thought I’d share some pictures that give you an idea of what Antiques in Flight looks like in its real life form as Antique Airfield.
At the beginning of chapter two, Callie is driving to the airport. That’s what her drive looks a bit like.
Or you can check out this vine video.
Here are my two sons looking out over the runway from the window in my grandpa’s office. In Flight Risk Em and Callie look out this window. Of course, they see something a little more interesting than planes.
This is the main office.
Under this overhang is where Em’s mandatory lunches take place.
And a beautiful sunset, much like the night of Shelby’s graduation party.
Here’s a plane landing on the grass runway.
And some planes flying over the “big house”
It’s been fun to populate a real place with fictional people, and I’m so happy I get to keep doing it. Lawson’s story has just been approved and will come out next year, and I’m currently working on Em’s story. There’s even a little possibility Shelby may get a book of her own as well.
Filed under: Flight Risk, What I'm Up To, writing
