Dani Collins's Blog, page 66

Live Chat

I was on Blog Talk Radio April 13th for their Beyond The Book Spotlight hosted by Sara from Harlequin Junkies and Sasha from Caribbean Accent Book Reviews.

They put me on the spot a few times–I still can’t think of a famous figure–but we had some laughs. Listen to it here.

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Catching Up

I’m in a bit of a scattered head space this morning. Saturdays are usually a head-down writing day. I wait all week for this stretch of hours where I can make serious progress on the current project. It’s also rain/snowing right now and both kids are at work. No distractions. A perfect writing day in my books.

But I’m also at a point where I’m waiting for some feedback on a couple of things. I can start something new–great time for it, by the way, with the recent New Moon. I also have a dozen blog posts to write for May/Jun/Jul to promote my next Harlequin Presents, Proof Of Their Sin. (Ha! I just tried to link to its page on this site and discovered I have yet to make one. Here, read about it on Amazon and feel free to preorder, lol.)

I have two more books under contract that I could start and kinda did already. I have certain files I like to set up for each new project and some outlining tools that jump start my synopsis… I’m actually itching to get into three new stories, plus I have one unsold manuscript I want to review/revise and find a home for. Okay, three.

Then there’s the social networking on the Facebook and Twitter. I’m nine friends away from 100 on my author page and only twenty-two short of 1000 on Twitter. A race worth watching, right?

I also started a Pinterest board, but please don’t visit it. It’s so spare. I’m hoping my daughter will take pity on me and offer to jazz it up, but since she has never bitten on my pleas for help with the Facebook or Twitter, I’m going to guess Pinterest will also never happen–which is a pity. She’s good at it.

Oh, and I’ve begun looking for someone to design bookmarks and other promotional items. Tell me, are you into Romance Trading Cards? I love the idea and have some thoughts on how I’d like them to look for The Healer, but I don’t know if anyone is clamouring for these so I’ll need feedback from readers before I go to the time and expense. Let me know if you’re keen.

I also have a workshop for RWA National to prepare and I’m on Beyond The Book Spotlight on Blog Talk Radio, with Evie, Sara, and Sasha tonight (April 13th) at 8pm PDT.

Did I mention my To Be Read pile? Nine in my office, two on the coffee table downstairs and one in the car. That doesn’t include the marketing books.

You can see I’m not without Things To Do. Let’s not even mention the Spring Cleaning needed around this house. Garage sale season is right around the corner and I’m determined to get rid of that telescope.

So, do you have an opinion? Please weigh in. Where should I spend my time?

Maybe I’ll make lunch and think about it.

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#SampleSunday – The Healer

Vaun has returned to his kingdom to make his report to King Elden, who is also his brother. The news that he has brought an Alvian does not sit well.

The modest meal on the brightly woven tablecloth was nothing so decadent as even the most casual snack prepared for the previous king and queen, but times had not been so lean then. He imagined Gunar taking insult over the plain meal Vaun had arranged to be delivered to the southern colonel’s chamber, but it was reality and something the Southern Kingdom needed to see to understand.

With the whole of the Northern Kingdom starving, Vaun could have foregone this meal, but out of courtesy he reached for a plank and some dried fruit, noting he had missed a streak on his wrist when he had washed. Hopefully Athadia was being more thorough with her bath. She had argued his leaving her in the servant’s chamber with a wash bucket but he had set a pair of guards on the door and left, ignoring the guilt that assaulted him. She was frightened and had a right to be, but as uncertain as she was at his abandoning her, his people’s future was even more so. This meeting couldn’t wait.

“What news have you?” Elden sat again and lifted his feet to the fire.

“None so joyous as the news with which I am greeted,” Vaun said, smiling when the queen blushed. He sobered. “None joyous at all, I’m afraid. The heavy rains that ruined crops in the Eastern and Western Kingdoms leave those Kerfs contemplating taking in wealthy Shote traders so they can afford to buy from the south. Alliances grow strong while they ask what the rest of Kerfdom offers that the Shotes do not.”

“We starve alongside them,” the queen said.

“As I told them,” Vaun said. “They were not comforted.”

“What of this captive you brought back?” Elden asked.

“Hurrying my wash was obviously futile. Gossip still precedes me.”

“She wears Shote robes, but apparently you rescued her? So she’s Kerf? Southern, perhaps?” Elden asked with a lift of anticipation in his voice.

“I had hoped Kerf.” Vaun set down his plank and explained his error.

Elden grasped the consequences immediately but the queen was distracted by Athadia’s ancestry. She sat taller and became the imperious lady few dared cross. “Here? You brought one of those creatures into the castle?”

Elden turned to regard her, plainly surprised to hear her take such a tone with Vaun. Indeed, he couldn’t recall her ever aiming such temper at him.

“Don’t let old conflicts alarm you, Petal.” Elden reached for her, not patronizing that

Vaun could see, but she seemed to take it as such, snatching away her hand.

“I meant no insult, Highness,” Vaun said. “To the best of my recollection, my father always claimed we had no reason to fear Alvians.” He looked to Elden. “Is that not your memory? He said they were simply a people who once lived here and the stories of their bloodthirsty ways was a myth.”

“It’s not a myth,” Fallon stated with cold outrage. “Those animals slaughtered my great-grandfather’s village. Tell me you jest about bringing one here.”

“We needed her to make the journey. There was no food. Nights were cold, the marches long. We would have frozen to death in last night’s storm if we hadn’t held onto her as we crossed the pass.”

“You came through the pass? I wondered how you arrived without warning.” Elden tugged his beard plait. “Our watch should have noted that, even in a storm.”

“Where is she now?” Fallon asked. “Not in the castle? No, Vaun.” She stood.

“Petal–” Elden said, catching at her again.

“No, I forbid it.” Her lips whitened.

“Calm yourself,” Elden said with gentle command. “This hysteria isn’t good for the babe. And perhaps Vaun was mistaken.” He turned to his brother. “What makes you so certain this woman is what she says?”

Knowing he’d only incur more disfavor from his queen, Vaun nevertheless told the truth.

“She doesn’t have to say. Look at me. Not a scar anywhere.”

“You never scar easily. I’d like to see her.”

“Elden!” Fallon hugged her belly with her free hand. “They’re killers. I told you this would happen if you made me live here. They come through that pass to murder us in our sleep!”

“One, Fallon.” Elden held up a finger. “Not a fleet of boats looking to take back the lands of the Western Kingdom.”

The second Settlement Wars, Vaun recollected. The Kerfs had succeeded in expelling all Alvian tribes, driving them into the lower plains. The Shotes had pushed upward, squeezing the Alvians east and west. They’d attempted to come into Kerfdom again by sea–through Fallon’s grandfather’s village, apparently.

“It only took one to wipe out my grandmother’s people,” Fallon said. “When they had an outbreak of lung croup. A so-called healer agreed to help them then disappeared, leaving everyone to die. You can’t trust them, Vaun.”

He set his jaw against insulting the queen by defending Athadia. He didn’t think her capable of such treachery, but how well did he know her?

“What did you intend by bringing her here?” the queen asked. “You’ll only have to…well, you’ll have to kill her.”

Vaun’s jaw slacked open, but he found no words. He had known there would be unseen costs to snatching Athadia the way he had, but… “I would have lost men to starvation or cold if she hadn’t been with us. I’d sooner take her back through the pass once it opens and leave her on the other side.” He appealed to Elden.

“And she would come straight back with an army of her kind,” Fallon said. “She knows the way now.”

“They’ve always known the route,” Elden said, steady and calm while his wife trembled and Vaun’s heart climbed to pound in his throat. “I’d begun to hope they’d forgotten it existed, since they haven’t used it in two generations. But you have shown this one a direct route to our door,” Elden pointed out with a troubled frown. “She’s seen the size of our village. Give her a few days of waiting for the pass to open, and she’ll have a sense of our routines and arms. That’s a few too many secrets for me to be comfortable releasing her.”

“I had hoped she’d increase our knowledge of Shote arms, but she didn’t know much,” Vaun admitted, which was a pity. It would have given her value in Elden’s eyes. “I don’t think there’s a danger of invasion,” he added, fighting to keep his tone steady and empty of anger or plea. “She looked for her kind constantly but we saw none.” He suspected her tragic weeping yesterday had been provoked by severe disappointment over that and now almost wished she’d had a better outcome. “Terc’s blood, Elden, I can’t countenance killing her when I brought her here by force.”

It wasn’t like him to look to his brother to countermand his queen, but–

“You really couldn’t survive without her?” Elden tilted his head, his gaze keen.

Vaun smoothed a hand over his freshly shaved jaw and what was likely a bleak expression, trying to disguise the terror he’d experienced when Athadia had dropped over the cliff edge yesterday, or the distress he’d experienced when she’d seemed lost to hysteria until this morning. “We wouldn’t be here otherwise. I stand by that. She deserves to live.”

“Let’s see,” his brother said.

~ * ~

Vaun had locked her in a little cell of a room with a tiny basin and a bucket of water. A wide-eyed maid brought a stiff gray cloth and a brown dress, then escaped past the pair of giants guarding the door. The guards wore a banner of honor and carried long spears they weren’t afraid to point at her to keep her in the room.

Vaun had told her to bathe, but she wasn’t about to fall for that trick. Not until the whips appeared. A lack of personal cleanliness didn’t stop all men from using a woman, but it turned away some. With her gift, she had no trouble overcoming the infections provoked by eating from dirty hands or closing a wound over dirty skin, therefore, dirty and repulsive she’d remain.

Except, when the knock came and the door opened and Vaun looked at her with disappointment, she felt embarrassed. He had cleaned up well, despite still wearing his traveling clothes. His hair hung loose and damp, but the angles of his cheek and brow seemed less harsh, his shoulders less tense.

He held the door for another man, one of rank if his furred robes and brightly colored sash were anything to go by. There was great similarity of coloring in the men’s dark hair and green eyes, in their bearing and jaw shape, though the other man was shorter by half a head. He looked of a close age to Vaun, and she wondered which one was older. It was always hard to tell because Alvians didn’t show their age as readily as Nulls. Was he Vaun’s brother? Was this man a Latent Alvian as well?

The ranking man frowned in assessment and circled her.

Athadia caught her breath in shock. She knew what this kind of inspection meant and closed her eyes against the sting of betrayal. Vaun meant to sell her.

~ * ~

You can find buy links for The Healer here or pick up The Healer through Champagne Books, Amazon US, Amazon CA, Kobo, or ARe.

 

 

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#Thursday Thirteen – Things To Blog About

This one has likely been done to death, but I just had an email conversation with a friend about keeping up on blog posts and how hard it is to think of a fresh topic sometimes. So I thought I’d create this cheat sheet and offer it up to you as well. Thursday Thirteen is, of course, a given.

To Do List (Done it. Gotta multi-task!)
Encouragement (C’mon, how hard is it to think of nice things to say?)
Interview awesome people (I could start with Audra for helping me think of this topic.)
Recently read books (Include a review and link for extra karmic points.)
Favourite movies (yes we spell favourite with a ‘u’ in Canada. Also neighbour and colour. I don’t know why. There is no ‘I’ in Canada, but lots of ‘u’s.)
Great quotes (You’ve come to the well once too often. –Jim Ignatowski, Taxi)
Any sort of savings tip–money, time, etc. (See above remark about the well. I’m a mess in this department.)
Great places to visit. (I just saw a Thurs13 on castles in Ireland. It was fantastic.)
Feminist rant. (People say you shouldn’t bring politics into your blog, that you can alienate readers, but seriously, quit telling us to shut up.)
Gratitude. (I had a #30DaysOfThanks going on twitter and I loved it. So did my friends. I fell out of the habit, but I am thankful for this post for reminding me to start it up again.)
Excerpt from your work in progress. (Note: this can be your life or hobby, not just a book. Working on a designation or adult education course? Talk about where you’re at. Perhaps you’re a painter or a carpenter. Post a photo or piece of whatever you are working on. Before and after is always interesting.)
A Bucket List moment. (Anything that you have achieved that was on your Bucket List.)
Giveaways! (Seriously, I have a telescope in my bedroom I am so sick of looking at. I’m told it’s worth approx $75 if I want to put it on Craigslist. Contact me if you can make it go away.)

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Simple Sunday

I didn’t have (didn’t make) time to prep a #SampleSunday this week. I was sick last week and have been playing catch up since then. Now here we are at Easter and certain bunnies have certain duties even when their bunnikins are teenagers.

These are the things I am making time for because my writing life is beginning to burn me out. So this is a Simple Sunday when I shall hang a load of laundry on the line, walk down for a newspaper (which probably won’t be there, now I think of it) and have dinner with my parents. Yes, I will probably have a glass of wine.

I’m here now, though, so I’ll catch you up on a bit of my news before offering up an Easter Treat. This weekend I finished what will be my fourth book with Harlequin. Watch my Facebook Page for excerpts.

Tomorrow I hit the ground running with revisions on it so I can turn it in before receiving revisions from a new editor I’ll be working with on a different project. Stay tuned for a proper announcement when I’ve got all my fuzzy ducklings in a row on that.

I did my first chat with the Fantasy Folk over at Coffee Time Romance on March 23rd and because we’re an ambitious bunch, the one hour turned into all day. It also turned into us hosting a webpage, Worlds Of The Imagination, with a soon-to-be regular blog.

See? It’s not just me who lets these things grow fast and furiously. I think it’s the active imagination of a writer that runs down the path of possibility, taking everything as far as it can go. At least I feel normal now.

My own fast lane has me hitting these locations in the next few weeks:

April 3rd, The Writer’s Vineyard, Blog about Tag Lines
April 3rd, I Heart Presents, Top Tips for their Pitch Contest
April 12th, Worlds Of The Imagination, Intro (If I figure out how to log in)
April 13th, Blog Talk Radio, Beyond The Book Spotlight with Sasha, Evie & Sara
April 18th, CoffeeTimeRomance, All Day Chat
April 26th, Romance Beckons, Author Focus

I know, why would I possibly be feeling burnt out? My problem is, these things are FUN.

In the interest of bringing a little fun into your life, I’ve just created a coupon code (BL79W) to download Hustled To The Altar for 99 cents off Smashwords. It may not be active until April 1st or 2nd and it expires April 30th, but please share as often as you like.

 

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#SampleSunday – The Healer

After freeing Athadia from the Shotes and discovering she’s Alvian, not Kerf like him, Vaun realizes they need a healer if they want to survive the long march home. Over night, he holds her to keep her from escaping. She allows it because she needed the deep healing of contact with her kind. This is the next morning:

Vaun woke to an unpleasant peeling sensation on his front, as if his skin was pulling away with the removal of a bandage adhered to a wound. He opened his eyes to find Athadia trying to ease herself from his embrace and reflexively tightened his hold. “Where are you going?”

“I’m thirsty.”

He glanced at the slumbering men, the dead fire, the fading stars. They’d only slept a few hours, but he felt ready to march for hours. He was thirsty too, though.

Relaxing his hold, Vaun winced at the chill as Athadia moved away. Odd. The cold didn’t usually bother him, certainly not to the point where he would consider dragging a woman back into his arms when he had men’s lives on the line.

Motioning her to wait, he shook Chador awake. “Ready the men. I want to move.”

Chador sat up while Vaun followed Athadia to the stream below the slope of the bank that edged the camp. They cracked ice that curled in jagged teeth over boulders and drank deeply. Then Athadia harvested algae, letting it hang in black strings from her fingers as she offered it.

“To eat?” he asked, askance. “No.”

“It tastes better stewed, but it’s nourishing.” she said, eating it herself.

Since she hadn’t touched the Shote food, he waited patiently while she ate her fill, watching her gather small pebbles and arrange them into a marker while she did.

“For your people?” he asked, debating the danger of Alvians tracking them versus Athadia’s need to rejoin her people. “Do you have a family to return to? A husband?”

“Family, yes.” In the climbing light he thought he saw sorrow flicker over her face. Stark doubt was disciplined into a mask of determination to hope before she looked up with inquiry. “Husband? That means life-mate?” She shook her head then asked with interest,

“You?”

“No,” he said, relieved there’d been no transgression last night, holding another man’s wife. “I have sons, but my wife is gone.”

As she nodded thoughtfully and turned to wash her hands and face, he told himself he had simply wanted to ensure she didn’t escape last night and offer reassurance she was in no danger from the other men. But the men wouldn’t touch her and he could have tied her up to keep her from running. No, his motive for holding her hadn’t been so innocent. He wanted her, this unusual woman. The desire to steal a kiss now, without his men nearby to witness it, engulfed him.

But he only had to recollect the dread in her eyes when she had thought he’d make her whore for their entire party and he found the will to restrain himself. Besides, they were merely fellow travelers. She had people to return to. Parents, it sounded like, who deserved to know she lived.

Nevertheless, as she led him back to camp, he hung back and kicked over her marker. He’d already lost men. The challenge of this march motivated him to keep her as long as possible.

Back in camp, however, that fool Gunar questioned her use even as he sat with his boot off, his sole gray and pocked with running blisters. Obviously he had dodged Vaun’s order last night for all the men to present for healing as necessary.

He looked at Athadia and jerked his head toward Gunar.

“No,” Gunar said with a stubborn scowl in her direction.

Athadia held up splayed hands, saying in Shote, “I can’t help him if he refuses.”

Vaun set his hands on his hips, regarding Gunar. “You refuse my orders?”

It was a transgression grave enough for the rest of the men to slow their movements, quieting so they could hear without appearing to.

“I refuse to be disloyal to my Ducetta. Isolda would not approve of my consorting with the instrument of her brother’s death.” He aimed a filthy look at Athadia.

Anger and culpability were twisting Gunar’s view of the situation. Vaun saw it and knew this ripple was only the first of the swamping waves of repercussions that would eventually roll from this folly of a march. However, he had a party of men to hold together and bring home safely. He wouldn’t let Gunar jeopardize that.

“You won’t survive if you don’t accept healing and I assure you, if you die from refusing the orders of a Kerf general, your loyalty will forever remain in question.”

Gunar snorted, and his mouth twisted in a sneer behind his stubbled beard. “My dying would work in your favor, wouldn’t it, General? Then your actions wouldn’t be questioned at all.” He cast a contemptuous look around the group of northerners, plainly dismissing them as Vaun’s co-conspirators.

The men shifted, glancing between Gunar and Vaun, no longer pretending they weren’t listening, anxious to see how he would react to Gunar’s insults.

“I shall answer to my king for my actions,” Vaun said. “Whether I also answer for using my sword to silence a seditionist is up to you.”

You can pick up The Healer through Champagne Books, Amazon US, Amazon CA, Kobo, or ARe.

You can also download a map of Kerfdom along with a Reading Guide and Character Guide from The Healer’s book page.

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Thursday Thirteen Reasons to Read Your Spam

Feeling down?

I just 86′s a delightful 231 comments listed as spam by my filter, but had a quick glance at some of them and realized they’re quite a Pick Me Up Bouquet.  Read my top thirteen and tell me you don’t feel better after this:

You are so cool! (Thank you for noticing!)
Highly nice. (You are too.)
I’d need to check with you here. (Please do.)
Great post, buy my stuff. (Direct, but complimentary. I’ll take it.)
Really like your content. (From an archeologist. It was attached to a really old post.)
I actually do have a few questions for you, if you usually don’t mind. (Not usually, no.)
You would unquestionably get money. (For….?)
Heya, I am for the primary time here. (Yoyo, me two.)
You understand so considerably, it’s just about challenging to argue with you. (I’m gonna guess this was from my husband.)
Continue to maintain up the particularly good operate. (Definitely from Mr.C. No one else talks that sexy to me.)
Thank you for the good write up. (Thank you for your excellent taste.)
They’re really great and then creates my toes decent. (I have that effect.)
Extremely nice post, i surely love this website, maintain on it. (You bet I will.)

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Chats

Please join me for some online chats in the next few weeks:

March 23, 2013, CoffeeTimeRomance, “Fun With The Fantasy Folk”
April 18, 2013, CoffeeTimeRomance, Latte Lounge
May 3, 2013, LoveRomancesCafe, “Worlds Of The Imagination”

Some of my friends from Champagne will be there:

Rita Bay
Graeme Brown
R.J. (Ron) Hore
L.T. (Leia) Getty
Audra Middleton

Check our webpage for further information and giveaways.

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Hustled Made the Quarter Finals

Amazon just announced the Quarter Finalists for their Breakthrough Novel Award and Hustled To The Altar made it into the next round!

I entered the contest on a lark, basically because Create Space sent me an email that said, “You’re eligible and it’s free because you published this book with us.” Con, the hero, is fiercely competitive and has done well in contests for unpublished manuscripts (Golden Heart, American Title) so there didn’t seem to be a downside to entering this one.

The first round was judged on pitch and I knew I had a killer set up with this story.

The day before her wedding, a reformed con artist teams up with her ex-lover to sting a professional swindler.

I know, right? I was confident the book would make the first cut. Overall, they took the top 2000 manuscripts from a maximum of 10,000 so the odds were pretty good.

I felt my chances were decent for getting to this second level, too. The stories were judged on the first five thousand words and the opening scenes of Hustled To The Altar contain some of my snappiest dialogue ever, plus it’s polished to within an inch of its life.

Still, the judges had to narrow the field from 2000 to 500, approximately 100 in each category, so it’s pretty thrilling to see my story make it through.

Now it becomes a nail-biter.  From the contest FAQs:

Publishers Weekly editors will then read the Quarter-Finalists’ full Manuscripts to rate and review them based on the following Judging Criteria: originality of idea, plot, prose/writing style; character development; and overall strength of submission.

Publishers Weekly….  (gulp!)  …full manuscripts… (gulp!)

And they’re whittling that pile of five hundred down to twenty-five, over five categories. Basically, that’s 5 books out of 100 that will advance to the next round.

You’ll have to sweat right along with me until mid-April to find out whether Con and Renny fast-talk their way to the next level.

Meanwhile, here’s what the judging reviewers had to say about the book so far:

“I enjoyed being drawn into the story and being entertained by their conversations. Dialog is always the big teaser in a romance situation. The author does this well and I enjoyed the banter between the guys, it makes for an unapologetic relationship between the two.”

“Characters are likable, easy to follow along but still part of a mystery. I would just even out the banter a bit more. Wouldn’t change anything else!! The love triangle is super exciting and although we can see where it might be going, the ride looks fun as well!!”

The book is available in print and electronic formats. See the buy links here.

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The Healer – Book Launch

The Healer began long-hand in a notebook beside my bed about ten years ago. I wasn’t finding a lot of writing time what with the day job and small children, so I scribbled a page or two each night before I went to sleep.

A few years later, we moved to a small town and I didn’t have a job yet so I felt I had time to finish the manuscript. Trouble is, it’s really hard to write a story when you don’t know where it’s set, why things are happening, who the characters really are (deep down), or where you want things to end up.

Well, it’s hard for me. Some writers love that feeling of ‘flying into the mist.’ I like a map.

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) was coming up. I decided I would challenge myself to finish this story even though I only had a few thousand words. Nano coaxes you to aim for fifty thousand and I knew The Healer would end up at more than a hundred. (The published book sits at one-twenty, actually.)

Another obstacle: this was my first attempt at writing a fantasy world. How does one invent a believable setting that is completely fictional?

Enter 30 Days of World Building by Stephanie Bryant. I worked through these exercises during October and loved it, especially the part where I drew my own map of my world.

Mine looked like this:

ie. Primitive

But it did the job. I finished the book and a bunch of stuff happened and I sat on it for a few years.

Because of its length, I believed the book would do best electronically. It seemed like a tough sell to the big print publishers when it was around four hundred pages so last year I sent it to small press Champagne Books. They said, “Here’s a contract. Please sign it.”

I did, and working with them has been wonderful. Then, however, I came to the part where I had to find ways to entice Readers to want my book. Hmm.

I looked at what made The Healer stand out from my other work. It’s a Big book and not just in length. While it is very much a romance, it has a lot of mainstream fiction elements: the plot is full of political intrigue, back-stabbing jealousies, tested loyalties and grave consequences.

For some reason I really love to do that to my characters: let them make a really awful mistake and watch them crawl out of the hole they’ve dug themselves into. Writers are very mean people.

I try to be nice to real people and to that end, decided one way to make my story a fraction more interesting and appealing among the myriad of fantasy and historical romances out there was to provide some background material.

Thus, I prepared a Healer Reading Guide, a Healer Character Guide (contains spoilers) and enlisted the amazingly talented Rob at Cartocopia to evolve my Neanderthal chicken scratch map into a gorgeous, printable map of Kerfdom and the surrounding territories.

Check it out (If you right-click and open image in new window, you can print it):

I know. Pretty fabulous, huh?

He went even further and overlaid it on a textured background so it looks like the map that Vaun gains from his battle with the Shotes in the beginning of the book. That’s the one you see at the top of this post.

I hope this enriches your reading experience and would love to hear what you think.

 

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