Deanndra Hall's Blog, page 7
July 26, 2014
Bring it, Big 6 - we're ready and waiting
I’m pretty gullible, I’ll admit. You can pull a fast one on me pretty easily. Yes, often it's obvious that’s exactly what you’re doing, but I want to believe you wouldn’t do that to me. Stupid, I know, but there you have it.
So I had a very, very difficult time believing the crapola that I was fed by a recent article in the BookBub Bulletin (http://tinyurl.com/BigPubWoes). In case you haven’t heard about this, you should probably listen up. Why, you ask?
Because under the guise of “helping readers,” it appeared to me that big publishing had decided to take one of the few things we as indie authors have as a marketing tool and try to decimate us. So here it is.
They’ve started giving books away.
No shit. I never thought I’d see the day. Take, for instance, the one mentioned in the article, a huge giveaway of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code by mega-publisher Doubleday. They ran it right before the release of The Inferno. The free ebook even had the prologue and first chapter of The Inferno (sound familiar?). According to The New York Times, the giveaway is “part celebration and part marketing experiment.”
Sorry – I call bullshit. They prattle on about how ebooks are a full thirty percent more than hardbacks (exactly what planet is this taking place on?) because of formatting, etc. I’m not that stupid. I know exactly what it is.
They’ve been watching bestselling indie authors and they see what’s being done. And what’s being done is offering the first book in a series free to get the readers into the story line. I do it. You probably do it. We’ve been doing it for awhile. And up until now, big publishing would never, never even try that. To hear them tell it, giving away books would be the absolute wrong thing to do. So why the big change of, er, heart?
Because they’re feeling the squeeze. They’ve invested enormous amounts of money on hardback books and their business is failing. Their stables of bestselling authors are getting the rights to their catalogs back and republishing their older books themselves so they actually pocket some of the profit. They’ve almost fallen behind in marketing for ebooks. They’ve tried to charge so much for their ebooks that no one will buy them; readers will look for indie authors instead. So their idea to offset their losses in paper book sales is to give away some books, draw attention to new ones, and recoup their expenditures. Hey, it’s worked for us so why not take advantage?
So here are some predictions. I can’t wait to see what I’m right about.
First of all, brick and mortar stores are soon going to be no more. The ones that do survive will do so by offering service (a novel approach, pun intended), discounts on a wide assortment of in-stock and readily-available ereaders, and maybe even terminals/kiosks where readers can go to sample ebooks, then buy them immediately and have them downloaded to their ereaders. With the prices of their ebooks so high, they can’t hope to recoup the loss of the investment in the paper book trade. Besides, since they claim ebook production costs them thirty percent more than that of paperbacks (leaving me to assume they’re paying too much for their formatting and cover art), they’ll never recoup that loss anyway.
Second, we’re fast. We write our books over a course of months. (Unless we don’t give a shit, and then it takes about two weeks and we just slap it on a page. But that’s another post.) Once that book is written, it’s a very short time to publication. For them, it’s an agonizing process where the book passes numerous editors, many of whom have no idea what they’re doing and apparently barely speak English, a dozen or more cover concepts before one is chosen, and through probably two dozen departments, not to mention legal, before it finally, finally, hits the shelf. We can get more out there faster because we don’t have all the hoopla to put up with and hoops to jump through. And because of this slowness, well-known authors are choosing to become “hybrids,” taking a portion of their books straight into the self-publishing arena. There goes half of their talent. My message to them: Streamline or perish.
Third, our costs are comparatively minimal. The squeeze is being applied to them by indie self-publishing authors. We can now buy formatting just like the type they use, sometimes better. We can also hire cover artists to make personalized, specific covers, often for a series so it’s thematic. Our product is getting better (well, some of it anyway). And for the reduced prices at which we offer our ebooks, we’re getting a huge chunk of reading public and leaving them in the dust.
Fourth, putting us out of business would be a delight to them. They’re sick of us taking their sales and making them have to lower prices and work harder to sell product. They’re used to being the only game in town. Well, move over, big publishing. We can do what you do and do it even better, faster, and cheaper, so we can offer our work to a larger audience. Yeah, that’s what they think we’re doing when, in reality, we’re just trying to stay afloat like everyone else. It’s not personal against them for us. Okay, well, maybe it is for a few authors who’ve been screwed over by publishers, but for the majority, it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with trying to get the story out there.
I can't fault them, really. When his street team was accused of "spying" and "stealing ideas," one author on Facebook was very clear about it. In his mind, there was no thievery going on; they were simply doing what any prudent business does, watching what's working in the market and duplicating it. That's been going on forever. Otherwise, there'd only be one commercial on television and one ad in the newspaper. There'd only be one telemarketer (oh, I can dream, can't I?). It's not stealing. It's called learning and applying what you've learned. And big publishing is doing just that.
And so, indie authors, I’ve got one word for you: Work. Work like you’ve never worked before. Look at your prices and see where you can cut corners on publication. Get busy and write the rest of that series you’ve started so your readers don’t have to wait so long. Most of all, get to know your readers. Stop publishing a book and then just sitting back and waiting for the money to roll in. It won’t. You have to work at it. And if you’re not willing to, for the love of god, don’t publish your damn book. Keep it out of the market so the ones of us who are really trying to do a good job don’t get lost in your deluge of stagnating work. We’d really, really appreciate that.
Sorry, big publishing. We’re not going away. So here’s my warning to you, and you’d do well to heed it. It’s two simple words. Believe them when I say them.
Game on.
So I had a very, very difficult time believing the crapola that I was fed by a recent article in the BookBub Bulletin (http://tinyurl.com/BigPubWoes). In case you haven’t heard about this, you should probably listen up. Why, you ask?
Because under the guise of “helping readers,” it appeared to me that big publishing had decided to take one of the few things we as indie authors have as a marketing tool and try to decimate us. So here it is.
They’ve started giving books away.
No shit. I never thought I’d see the day. Take, for instance, the one mentioned in the article, a huge giveaway of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code by mega-publisher Doubleday. They ran it right before the release of The Inferno. The free ebook even had the prologue and first chapter of The Inferno (sound familiar?). According to The New York Times, the giveaway is “part celebration and part marketing experiment.”
Sorry – I call bullshit. They prattle on about how ebooks are a full thirty percent more than hardbacks (exactly what planet is this taking place on?) because of formatting, etc. I’m not that stupid. I know exactly what it is.
They’ve been watching bestselling indie authors and they see what’s being done. And what’s being done is offering the first book in a series free to get the readers into the story line. I do it. You probably do it. We’ve been doing it for awhile. And up until now, big publishing would never, never even try that. To hear them tell it, giving away books would be the absolute wrong thing to do. So why the big change of, er, heart?
Because they’re feeling the squeeze. They’ve invested enormous amounts of money on hardback books and their business is failing. Their stables of bestselling authors are getting the rights to their catalogs back and republishing their older books themselves so they actually pocket some of the profit. They’ve almost fallen behind in marketing for ebooks. They’ve tried to charge so much for their ebooks that no one will buy them; readers will look for indie authors instead. So their idea to offset their losses in paper book sales is to give away some books, draw attention to new ones, and recoup their expenditures. Hey, it’s worked for us so why not take advantage?
So here are some predictions. I can’t wait to see what I’m right about.
First of all, brick and mortar stores are soon going to be no more. The ones that do survive will do so by offering service (a novel approach, pun intended), discounts on a wide assortment of in-stock and readily-available ereaders, and maybe even terminals/kiosks where readers can go to sample ebooks, then buy them immediately and have them downloaded to their ereaders. With the prices of their ebooks so high, they can’t hope to recoup the loss of the investment in the paper book trade. Besides, since they claim ebook production costs them thirty percent more than that of paperbacks (leaving me to assume they’re paying too much for their formatting and cover art), they’ll never recoup that loss anyway.
Second, we’re fast. We write our books over a course of months. (Unless we don’t give a shit, and then it takes about two weeks and we just slap it on a page. But that’s another post.) Once that book is written, it’s a very short time to publication. For them, it’s an agonizing process where the book passes numerous editors, many of whom have no idea what they’re doing and apparently barely speak English, a dozen or more cover concepts before one is chosen, and through probably two dozen departments, not to mention legal, before it finally, finally, hits the shelf. We can get more out there faster because we don’t have all the hoopla to put up with and hoops to jump through. And because of this slowness, well-known authors are choosing to become “hybrids,” taking a portion of their books straight into the self-publishing arena. There goes half of their talent. My message to them: Streamline or perish.
Third, our costs are comparatively minimal. The squeeze is being applied to them by indie self-publishing authors. We can now buy formatting just like the type they use, sometimes better. We can also hire cover artists to make personalized, specific covers, often for a series so it’s thematic. Our product is getting better (well, some of it anyway). And for the reduced prices at which we offer our ebooks, we’re getting a huge chunk of reading public and leaving them in the dust.
Fourth, putting us out of business would be a delight to them. They’re sick of us taking their sales and making them have to lower prices and work harder to sell product. They’re used to being the only game in town. Well, move over, big publishing. We can do what you do and do it even better, faster, and cheaper, so we can offer our work to a larger audience. Yeah, that’s what they think we’re doing when, in reality, we’re just trying to stay afloat like everyone else. It’s not personal against them for us. Okay, well, maybe it is for a few authors who’ve been screwed over by publishers, but for the majority, it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with trying to get the story out there.
I can't fault them, really. When his street team was accused of "spying" and "stealing ideas," one author on Facebook was very clear about it. In his mind, there was no thievery going on; they were simply doing what any prudent business does, watching what's working in the market and duplicating it. That's been going on forever. Otherwise, there'd only be one commercial on television and one ad in the newspaper. There'd only be one telemarketer (oh, I can dream, can't I?). It's not stealing. It's called learning and applying what you've learned. And big publishing is doing just that.
And so, indie authors, I’ve got one word for you: Work. Work like you’ve never worked before. Look at your prices and see where you can cut corners on publication. Get busy and write the rest of that series you’ve started so your readers don’t have to wait so long. Most of all, get to know your readers. Stop publishing a book and then just sitting back and waiting for the money to roll in. It won’t. You have to work at it. And if you’re not willing to, for the love of god, don’t publish your damn book. Keep it out of the market so the ones of us who are really trying to do a good job don’t get lost in your deluge of stagnating work. We’d really, really appreciate that.
Sorry, big publishing. We’re not going away. So here’s my warning to you, and you’d do well to heed it. It’s two simple words. Believe them when I say them.
Game on.
July 23, 2014
My Reads: A Deadly Waltz by Sophia Queen
Yes, I did it again. I decided a while back to try something in a genre that was completely new for me. It’s a Victorian gothic romance. I had no experience with these when I started this book, and for a minute I thought I’d made a grave mistake. But I’m glad I hung in there, because I thoroughly enjoyed the read. It’s called A Deadly Waltz, written by Sophia Queen.
After her parents died, Karina’s uncle promises her hand in marriage to a man she doesn’t love just so he can get his hands on her inheritance. But Karina has other plans. She slips away in the night after clopping her intended upside the head with a huge, heavy science book. My kinda girl.
Karina winds up at the Garrott Agency, where she trains rigorously for the position of an undercover investigator. Her first assignment? A position as governess at Westford Castle where the owner, Lord Sebastien Blackwell, has been accused of the murder of his wife, Isabel. And here’s where things get interesting.
But you know me – no spoilers. So let me tell you what I really, really liked about this book.
She has a knife in her glove. Her parasol is really a gun. I got really excited at this point because, with kids who grew up in the 80s, you know what I’m thinking . . . Inspector Gadget. Yeah. I always thought he was cool, and Karina is no exception. It’s like something right out of “Wild Wild West” with Will Smith and Kevin Kline, and I found the whole thing incredibly appealing. What I found most appealing was that the setting was a time when, as the greedy lothario to whom she was betrothed said, “Don’t think for a second I will allow any wife of mine to dabble in scientific experiments. They are much too complicated for the female mind. Dangerous, in fact.” In that time period, a young woman being trained as an undercover investigator would’ve been more than forbidden, it would’ve been scandalous. And that’s exactly why I loved this book.
As I’m sure you’ve guessed, in the course of time Karina comes to know and appreciate Lord Blackwell, and she’s pretty sure someone else killed his wife, even though all the evidence points to him. She and Sebastien share the story with a great many characters, some of which are grand and some of which are gross. I’m not going to tell you how it ends – I’m sure you can probably guess – but I was surprised at the solving of the crime. I had some inkling, but I still wasn’t sure. So bravo to Sophia for making me wait right up until the end!
If you’ve never tried a Victorian gothic romance, this might be one to experience. Karina is smart and personable, and Sebastien is just angst-ridden enough to steal your heart. I’m waiting to see if there’s a sequel. I’m hoping so. She’ll draw me back to Victorian gothic romance, I just know it.
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After her parents died, Karina’s uncle promises her hand in marriage to a man she doesn’t love just so he can get his hands on her inheritance. But Karina has other plans. She slips away in the night after clopping her intended upside the head with a huge, heavy science book. My kinda girl.
Karina winds up at the Garrott Agency, where she trains rigorously for the position of an undercover investigator. Her first assignment? A position as governess at Westford Castle where the owner, Lord Sebastien Blackwell, has been accused of the murder of his wife, Isabel. And here’s where things get interesting.
But you know me – no spoilers. So let me tell you what I really, really liked about this book.
She has a knife in her glove. Her parasol is really a gun. I got really excited at this point because, with kids who grew up in the 80s, you know what I’m thinking . . . Inspector Gadget. Yeah. I always thought he was cool, and Karina is no exception. It’s like something right out of “Wild Wild West” with Will Smith and Kevin Kline, and I found the whole thing incredibly appealing. What I found most appealing was that the setting was a time when, as the greedy lothario to whom she was betrothed said, “Don’t think for a second I will allow any wife of mine to dabble in scientific experiments. They are much too complicated for the female mind. Dangerous, in fact.” In that time period, a young woman being trained as an undercover investigator would’ve been more than forbidden, it would’ve been scandalous. And that’s exactly why I loved this book.
As I’m sure you’ve guessed, in the course of time Karina comes to know and appreciate Lord Blackwell, and she’s pretty sure someone else killed his wife, even though all the evidence points to him. She and Sebastien share the story with a great many characters, some of which are grand and some of which are gross. I’m not going to tell you how it ends – I’m sure you can probably guess – but I was surprised at the solving of the crime. I had some inkling, but I still wasn’t sure. So bravo to Sophia for making me wait right up until the end!
If you’ve never tried a Victorian gothic romance, this might be one to experience. Karina is smart and personable, and Sebastien is just angst-ridden enough to steal your heart. I’m waiting to see if there’s a sequel. I’m hoping so. She’ll draw me back to Victorian gothic romance, I just know it.
July 19, 2014
The Writing Life
Writing looks so romantic. A lot of people think it’s a cushy job and that we sit in front of a computer all day and just dream up stuff.
Yeah. I wish.
A member of my street team was visiting with me and we were talking about my books and the things I have to do every day. She watched me do promo – I was working on it when she walked in the door and I had to finish. Yes, I had a guest. And yes, I have to work.
Just as she was leaving, she made a suggestion: Tell people what you do. What your life is like. What it takes to be an author, especially an indie author. So here goes.
Three days a week I do promo. That consists of posting through Hootsuite to Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Then I have to go and post that post from my Facebook timeline to groups specifically for promo. That takes me about an hour.
I also do this blog post every Saturday and it goes to my street team page. From there, they take it and do their magic.
Speaking of which, I have a street team. They’re awesome. Really, really awesome. So shout out to Deanndra’s Construction Crew! I try to spend some time with them when I can.
I spent a good part of this last week designing swag. Then ordering swag. Then looking at the prices and having a stroke. Then getting a beer and trying to forget.
I do a blog post every Wednesday to feature a book that I’ve really liked. It’s not a review – it’s a chance for me to expose people who read my blog to books they might not otherwise know about. I don’t have to, but I usually talk to the author and tell them what I’m going to do so they can tell others to read it. I also ask them for a high-resolution cover shot I can put on the post so it’s really attractive.
I read a lot. I usually read in my genre, but sometimes I read other genres just to see how they’re constructed. That’s a real learning experience, especially if it’s paranormal or supernatural. That also gives me fodder for the Wednesday posts. Because of that, it’s important. I also believe that to write, you have to read, so I do, as often as possible.
I talk to my promo people. I have the best promo people in the world. We plot and strategize. It’s fun, but it’s time-consuming.
I have to design and buy a banner to use at signings. I design the banner. I redesign the banner. I order the banner, then have sticker shock, and then have another beer just because I can.
I write. I try to write. If I have time.
There is a lot of time spent looking for author events and sending out interest forms. Then I pray that I get in. Most of the time, I don’t get in. Maybe indie events, yeah, but others are populated by writers whose publishers bought blocks of tables, or they were there the previous year. You’d think they’d want new blood, but no. So there you have it.
I attend all kinds of things that will give me exposure or help me in the craft. I know some of you think your writing is so damn good that you don’t need that but, trust me, EVERYONE could use help in that arena. The ones of you who think your writing is so good that you don’t need a workshop or retreat are the exact ones who do. As I’m writing this, I’m rolling down the road with another writer, headed to my RWA chapter’s monthly meeting two and a half hours from my home. It’s the closest. That’s sad but true.
I do takeovers. For those of you who don’t know what that is, if someone is having a cover reveal, or a release, or any other type of event, they take a day or days or hours or whatever they want, divide it up, and give slots to authors or bloggers or anyone who will draw attention to them. During my slot, we play games like captioning a funny picture or finishing a sentence, and I award prizes. They’re not big prizes, but they’re good. And we have fun, so much fun, in fact, that I get asked to do them a lot. But it gets my name out there.
I talk to other authors. I actually try to help some of them. Some thank me. Some ask for help and never thank me. Some ask for help and it’s obvious they’re not listening; those don’t get any more of my time.
And there’s much, much more. Doesn’t sound particularly romantic, now does it? It’s not a lot of fun. But the research sure is fun!
P.S. My mobile hotspot isn't working, so I'm out in a library hallway, squatted down in front of a tiny little table because it was the only way I could get a signal to load this post. Ah, the things we do for the craft!
Yeah. I wish.
A member of my street team was visiting with me and we were talking about my books and the things I have to do every day. She watched me do promo – I was working on it when she walked in the door and I had to finish. Yes, I had a guest. And yes, I have to work.
Just as she was leaving, she made a suggestion: Tell people what you do. What your life is like. What it takes to be an author, especially an indie author. So here goes.
Three days a week I do promo. That consists of posting through Hootsuite to Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Then I have to go and post that post from my Facebook timeline to groups specifically for promo. That takes me about an hour.
I also do this blog post every Saturday and it goes to my street team page. From there, they take it and do their magic.
Speaking of which, I have a street team. They’re awesome. Really, really awesome. So shout out to Deanndra’s Construction Crew! I try to spend some time with them when I can.
I spent a good part of this last week designing swag. Then ordering swag. Then looking at the prices and having a stroke. Then getting a beer and trying to forget.
I do a blog post every Wednesday to feature a book that I’ve really liked. It’s not a review – it’s a chance for me to expose people who read my blog to books they might not otherwise know about. I don’t have to, but I usually talk to the author and tell them what I’m going to do so they can tell others to read it. I also ask them for a high-resolution cover shot I can put on the post so it’s really attractive.
I read a lot. I usually read in my genre, but sometimes I read other genres just to see how they’re constructed. That’s a real learning experience, especially if it’s paranormal or supernatural. That also gives me fodder for the Wednesday posts. Because of that, it’s important. I also believe that to write, you have to read, so I do, as often as possible.
I talk to my promo people. I have the best promo people in the world. We plot and strategize. It’s fun, but it’s time-consuming.
I have to design and buy a banner to use at signings. I design the banner. I redesign the banner. I order the banner, then have sticker shock, and then have another beer just because I can.
I write. I try to write. If I have time.
There is a lot of time spent looking for author events and sending out interest forms. Then I pray that I get in. Most of the time, I don’t get in. Maybe indie events, yeah, but others are populated by writers whose publishers bought blocks of tables, or they were there the previous year. You’d think they’d want new blood, but no. So there you have it.
I attend all kinds of things that will give me exposure or help me in the craft. I know some of you think your writing is so damn good that you don’t need that but, trust me, EVERYONE could use help in that arena. The ones of you who think your writing is so good that you don’t need a workshop or retreat are the exact ones who do. As I’m writing this, I’m rolling down the road with another writer, headed to my RWA chapter’s monthly meeting two and a half hours from my home. It’s the closest. That’s sad but true.
I do takeovers. For those of you who don’t know what that is, if someone is having a cover reveal, or a release, or any other type of event, they take a day or days or hours or whatever they want, divide it up, and give slots to authors or bloggers or anyone who will draw attention to them. During my slot, we play games like captioning a funny picture or finishing a sentence, and I award prizes. They’re not big prizes, but they’re good. And we have fun, so much fun, in fact, that I get asked to do them a lot. But it gets my name out there.
I talk to other authors. I actually try to help some of them. Some thank me. Some ask for help and never thank me. Some ask for help and it’s obvious they’re not listening; those don’t get any more of my time.
And there’s much, much more. Doesn’t sound particularly romantic, now does it? It’s not a lot of fun. But the research sure is fun!
P.S. My mobile hotspot isn't working, so I'm out in a library hallway, squatted down in front of a tiny little table because it was the only way I could get a signal to load this post. Ah, the things we do for the craft!
July 16, 2014
My Reads: One to Hold by Tia Louise
If you’re here, you probably already know what I write, but in case you don’t, well, let me just define it this way: There is no word too “dirty” for my work. No, I don’t write erotica and erotic romance all the time, and not all of it is raw and scary, but a good deal of it is. When I read, I usually read in that vein, not always as raw, but still along those lines. So I don’t know how I came across it, but I found this read last year and decided to give it a go. Even though the sex wasn't as crazy and hot as that to which I've grown accustomed, I’m glad I gave it a chance.
Tia Louise was an unknown name to me. I bought the book blind. I have no idea how I did that. Maybe it was one of those “customers who bought this also bought that” things. I find a lot of books that way. However I found it, there it was on my iPad while I was sitting at the garage waiting for a ton of stuff to be done to my SUV. I wondered if it would be interesting enough to keep my attention.
And I didn’t stop that day until I’d finished it.
One to Hold is a story about wrong assumptions, misunderstandings, and eventual resolution. The first thing that drew me in was the point of view: First person past tense. Editors and publishers will tell you not to write in first person, that readers won’t read it, that it won’t sell. To that I call bullshit. FSOG is first person. I’ve read a lot of really good first person over the last year. I wrote a book in first person; matter of fact, I wrote four, and I’ve got seven or more waiting for me, all of which will be written in first person, and a great many of them in present tense. (If you want to do something that will have your shoulders in knots, write in present tense. It’s not for the faint of heart.) Lots of books are being written that way, and I, quite frankly, like them much better than third person. That said, I was glad to see this one written in this voice, and Tia did it well. It wasn’t stiff or odd at all. It was very comfortable.
The second thing that cemented the read for me was the likability of the protagonists. I’ve read quite a few books over the last few years that had protagonists I could never really care about. To me, that is the epitome of poor writing. I can forgive a lot of things, but that I cannot. If you can’t pull together a couple of characters I can have some kind of emotion for, don’t bother. That said, I really liked both the male and female protagonists in this book. Tia did a very good job of character building, not as detailed as I usually prefer, but still good compared to others I’ve read (I like lots of detail on my characters). Besides, let's face it: It's first person. How many people are going to fill you in on their own details? Only narcissists. That said, I knew enough about the female protagonist, Melissa, to want to choke her when she got on that plane, even though I knew she had to. And I knew enough about the male protagonist, Derek, to know something was going on there that no one could guess.
And with that, I’m going to tell you my favorite aspect of this book. I’m not into spoilers. I just don’t do them. And I don’t think this will be one. But I have to say, the first time Derek told Melissa “thank you,” my heart melted into a puddle. There was something about the way Tia handled that scene that left me saying, “Oh, my god, that poor guy.” And those of you who read my work know what I’m going to say next, don’t you?
Derek? Yes - he’s Vic. He couldn’t be more like Vic. He’s the big, tough, strong guy who’s really soft and warm and cuddly. And you know he’s carrying a load of pain – it just smacks you in the face from the very first time you’re introduced to him. You know it, just know it, and you’re waiting to find out what it is, how bad it is, how deep it runs, how broken your heart will be when you find out. You’re hoping that she won’t just leave. You’re hoping he’s gambled soundly. And so you wait.
Let me just say, you won’t be disappointed. Even though this was a slightly softer read than I usually pick up (oh, yes, the word "cock" gets used more than a few times, so I'm good with it), I was so not disappointed that when I finished One to Hold, I immediately one-clicked One to Keep. More about that later. But first, jump into this sweet little read and let it work its magic on you. I guarantee that it will.
A huge thanks to Tia for sending over the high-resolution cover art to go with this piece.
Tia Louise was an unknown name to me. I bought the book blind. I have no idea how I did that. Maybe it was one of those “customers who bought this also bought that” things. I find a lot of books that way. However I found it, there it was on my iPad while I was sitting at the garage waiting for a ton of stuff to be done to my SUV. I wondered if it would be interesting enough to keep my attention.
And I didn’t stop that day until I’d finished it.
One to Hold is a story about wrong assumptions, misunderstandings, and eventual resolution. The first thing that drew me in was the point of view: First person past tense. Editors and publishers will tell you not to write in first person, that readers won’t read it, that it won’t sell. To that I call bullshit. FSOG is first person. I’ve read a lot of really good first person over the last year. I wrote a book in first person; matter of fact, I wrote four, and I’ve got seven or more waiting for me, all of which will be written in first person, and a great many of them in present tense. (If you want to do something that will have your shoulders in knots, write in present tense. It’s not for the faint of heart.) Lots of books are being written that way, and I, quite frankly, like them much better than third person. That said, I was glad to see this one written in this voice, and Tia did it well. It wasn’t stiff or odd at all. It was very comfortable.
The second thing that cemented the read for me was the likability of the protagonists. I’ve read quite a few books over the last few years that had protagonists I could never really care about. To me, that is the epitome of poor writing. I can forgive a lot of things, but that I cannot. If you can’t pull together a couple of characters I can have some kind of emotion for, don’t bother. That said, I really liked both the male and female protagonists in this book. Tia did a very good job of character building, not as detailed as I usually prefer, but still good compared to others I’ve read (I like lots of detail on my characters). Besides, let's face it: It's first person. How many people are going to fill you in on their own details? Only narcissists. That said, I knew enough about the female protagonist, Melissa, to want to choke her when she got on that plane, even though I knew she had to. And I knew enough about the male protagonist, Derek, to know something was going on there that no one could guess.
And with that, I’m going to tell you my favorite aspect of this book. I’m not into spoilers. I just don’t do them. And I don’t think this will be one. But I have to say, the first time Derek told Melissa “thank you,” my heart melted into a puddle. There was something about the way Tia handled that scene that left me saying, “Oh, my god, that poor guy.” And those of you who read my work know what I’m going to say next, don’t you?
Derek? Yes - he’s Vic. He couldn’t be more like Vic. He’s the big, tough, strong guy who’s really soft and warm and cuddly. And you know he’s carrying a load of pain – it just smacks you in the face from the very first time you’re introduced to him. You know it, just know it, and you’re waiting to find out what it is, how bad it is, how deep it runs, how broken your heart will be when you find out. You’re hoping that she won’t just leave. You’re hoping he’s gambled soundly. And so you wait.
Let me just say, you won’t be disappointed. Even though this was a slightly softer read than I usually pick up (oh, yes, the word "cock" gets used more than a few times, so I'm good with it), I was so not disappointed that when I finished One to Hold, I immediately one-clicked One to Keep. More about that later. But first, jump into this sweet little read and let it work its magic on you. I guarantee that it will.
A huge thanks to Tia for sending over the high-resolution cover art to go with this piece.
July 12, 2014
Cyberbullying . . . or not
I decided that I just had to address this here. I couldn’t pass it up. It’s a hot-button topic, and I’ll probably get into trouble for this one, but what the hell. I stay in trouble with somebody all the time. Might as well go for broke.
And the topic is cyberbullying. Everyone’s talking about it and it’s happening all around us, all the time. Cyberbullying happens when someone decides to destroy someone else using the Internet as their primary weapon, and they set about undermining that person at every available turn.
One of the cyberbullying issues I’ve seen in the last few months involved reviewers and authors. It went something like this:
* Reviewer gets a book, either just picks it up or has it given to them by the author or the author’s agent.* Reviewer reviews book and gives an honest review.* Author decides they don’t like the review and sets about to destroy the reviewer.
Before we go any farther, I want to say that I do know there are some hinkey reviewers out there. I accidentally found one not too long ago. For all intents and purposes, this person took a belief system mentioned in one of my books and used it to belittle and degrade an entire community of believers, some of whom are the proud men and women of our armed forces. Despicable. My mention wasn’t an exposition on the belief system – it was merely mentioned in passing. Those kinds of reviewers? Yeah, I know. They’re why I make it a policy to never engage a reviewer or I’d be in big, big trouble.
But there are also a lot of hard-working bloggers and reviewers out there who truly try to do a good job. They try to be honest in their reviews. Some of them miss the mark. By that, I mean if you don’t like erotic romance and you pick one up and read it, don’t give it a bad review because you don’t like erotic romance. Just pass on it and do a review on fluffy bunny books or cookbooks or whatever it is that you like. But most of the reviewers do a pretty good job of it.
Conversely, there are a lot of crap authors out there today, throwing stuff together that’s barely legible, doing cover releases without books, releasing books they’re still writing, shit like that. There are authors who don’t know what the word “conjugate” means and get bent out of shape when you mention the Chicago Manual of Style because they’re so damn sloppy that they don’t want anyone telling them to use any kind of reference manual – they’re brilliant, their writing is brilliant, and they don’t need no stinkin’ thing or person telling them what to write. Be afraid – be very afraid. And when these same crap authors get a one- or two-star review (and a lot of times that’s generous), they attack the reviewer or blogger. Even more disturbing, I’ve seen authors who got a four-star review attack a reviewer because they just knew their book was worth five stars.
Yeah. Really.
Then there are the billions of guys out there who are throwing up fake profiles to troll for women. If you don’t know what I mean, congratulations and good luck, because you’ll find out soon enough.
Here’s a good example. I try very hard to look at all the friend requests I get. With women, I check to see who our friends in common are and what, if anything, they’re doing. If they’re selling Mary Kay or spending all their time talking about Jesus, then nope, not getting in. But I’m very wary of the guys. And sometimes they still slip past me. Here’s an example of a message I got recently from a guy I’ll call Jim Bob. Note that I've tried to preserve the idiosyncrasies of his side of the convo so you can tell that if he's from the UK, he obviously didn't go to schools like the other people I know from across the pond.
Jim Bob: Hi.Me: Hello.Jim Bob: How you doing, which country are you from?Me: I’m in the USA.
This is very clear from my timeline.
Jim Bob: Ok, am from UK, what do you do for a living?
At this point, I’m already tipped off because if you’ve seen my Facebook timeline you know that the banner is huge, has an enormous fuchsia bra and panties, and says “Proud Weird Smut Writer.” And he asks what I do for a living? I fry pickles at the Dairyette. What the hell do you think I do for a living?
Me: I’m a writer.Jim Bob: Okay Am a business man, are you married?
This from a guy whose profile picture is a not-spectacularly-attractive man with what appears to be his wife. Yes, I know they do this all the time, but read on.
Me: Yes. 33 years. To a spectacular guy who treats me like a princess.Jim Bob: Hmmm, that's nice, are you the one on your profile picture?
Now I’m laughing out loud. Am I the one in my profile picture? Well, let’s see . . . the pic is obviously not of a Hollywood actress or a model from a magazine so, no, I just went out and picked a random picture of a woman with her dog and put it on my profile. Yeah, that’s it. Of course, asshat, it’s me. And things just deteriorate from there.
Me: Yes.Jim Bob: You are looking nice babe, i appreciate your beauty, keep it up....Me: Thanks. I'll be sure to tell the hubs that you think so.Jim Bob: Okay, can i be your friend?Me: Only if you understand that if you don't respect my marriage, I'll block your ass and report you so fast that it'll make your head spin. Otherwise, yeah, sure.Jim Bob: Just to be your friend onlyMe: Exactly.Jim Bob: Okay
I never heard another word. I’m sorry, but I consider this type of shit to be cyberbullying. It forces women to put up with come-ons that they wouldn’t have to tolerate in public. It’s usually a guy in a developing nation looking for a woman to snare to get him into the country. They try to pass themselves off as being from the UK or Japan or India. Insufferable.
Except for the Italian pervert who wanted to see my . . . never mind. That was interesting or something like it.
And then there’s the idiot who friends you and then starts PMing you while they’re drunk or high. They won’t stop. It’s pinging constantly. I just love those. I think that’s cyberbullying too.
Shamefully so.
And yes, there are just those people who decide they’ve taken a dislike to a particular person and try to make their lives hell. They follow the person around, make accusations against them, call them names, garden variety things like that. The worst of these find a way into the accounts of the object of their hatred and pretend to be that person, sending out vitriolic messages and generally fucking with the person’s life. Oddly, sometimes they don’t even know each other. The bully just picks them at random. Maybe they look like they’d fold easily and the bully wants someone to torment. Maybe they remind the bully of someone. Who knows.
But there’s a phenomenon that’s started recently, and it just rankles me to no end. I’ve heard about a few of these. I’m not going to call any names, because I know in some of the instances, there are two sides to the story. It still disturbs me, so I’ve got to say this.
If you have to stage your own cyberbullying to sell books, just cut it the fuck out. What a pathetic, lame-ass way of getting your name out there. You’re being persecuted by Person X, Person X is threatening you, Person X is threatening your children, Person X is breaking into your accounts, stealing your identity, badmouthing you all over the Internet.
Yeah, well, we’ve had a couple of instances recently where the person being persecuted got caught falsifying emails, messages, etc., and made it look like they were being cyberbullied when, in fact, they’d made the whole thing up to sell books. Drama draws in readers, who buy books for the drama in them anyway. People got hurt. The person being reported as the bully got hurt. The people who’d supported that writer got hurt. Promo people had their reputations tarnished. Readers felt foolish because they’d treated the supposed bully badly. Worse yet, the reported bully took the brunt of the nightmare, and all for who-knows-what reason.
In the end, the writer ended up looking like a lunatic and lost a huge number of their fans and friends. Was it worth it for a few sales? I'd like to hear the answer to that question.
If you’re having trouble selling books, work harder. Get some people to help you. Study some books on marketing. Go to some conferences and seminars. But for god’s sake, do not fake a bullying episode. That’s just juvenile and stupid.
And besides, I hate drama. Go back to junior high and get that mess out of your system before you come into the publishing world and make us all sick. All you cyberbullies out there, here’s your notice: A lot of us are onto you and when you cross over into our realm, we’re going to expose you and send you packing because we don’t want the drama. We’re over here actually trying to work at our jobs instead of letting a bunch of made-up hype get the attention of potential readers.
So here’s a novel idea to keep you busy. Why don’t you try writing a book? If you do it right, it’ll keep you busy for a long, long time.
And the topic is cyberbullying. Everyone’s talking about it and it’s happening all around us, all the time. Cyberbullying happens when someone decides to destroy someone else using the Internet as their primary weapon, and they set about undermining that person at every available turn.
One of the cyberbullying issues I’ve seen in the last few months involved reviewers and authors. It went something like this:
* Reviewer gets a book, either just picks it up or has it given to them by the author or the author’s agent.* Reviewer reviews book and gives an honest review.* Author decides they don’t like the review and sets about to destroy the reviewer.
Before we go any farther, I want to say that I do know there are some hinkey reviewers out there. I accidentally found one not too long ago. For all intents and purposes, this person took a belief system mentioned in one of my books and used it to belittle and degrade an entire community of believers, some of whom are the proud men and women of our armed forces. Despicable. My mention wasn’t an exposition on the belief system – it was merely mentioned in passing. Those kinds of reviewers? Yeah, I know. They’re why I make it a policy to never engage a reviewer or I’d be in big, big trouble.
But there are also a lot of hard-working bloggers and reviewers out there who truly try to do a good job. They try to be honest in their reviews. Some of them miss the mark. By that, I mean if you don’t like erotic romance and you pick one up and read it, don’t give it a bad review because you don’t like erotic romance. Just pass on it and do a review on fluffy bunny books or cookbooks or whatever it is that you like. But most of the reviewers do a pretty good job of it.
Conversely, there are a lot of crap authors out there today, throwing stuff together that’s barely legible, doing cover releases without books, releasing books they’re still writing, shit like that. There are authors who don’t know what the word “conjugate” means and get bent out of shape when you mention the Chicago Manual of Style because they’re so damn sloppy that they don’t want anyone telling them to use any kind of reference manual – they’re brilliant, their writing is brilliant, and they don’t need no stinkin’ thing or person telling them what to write. Be afraid – be very afraid. And when these same crap authors get a one- or two-star review (and a lot of times that’s generous), they attack the reviewer or blogger. Even more disturbing, I’ve seen authors who got a four-star review attack a reviewer because they just knew their book was worth five stars.
Yeah. Really.
Then there are the billions of guys out there who are throwing up fake profiles to troll for women. If you don’t know what I mean, congratulations and good luck, because you’ll find out soon enough.
Here’s a good example. I try very hard to look at all the friend requests I get. With women, I check to see who our friends in common are and what, if anything, they’re doing. If they’re selling Mary Kay or spending all their time talking about Jesus, then nope, not getting in. But I’m very wary of the guys. And sometimes they still slip past me. Here’s an example of a message I got recently from a guy I’ll call Jim Bob. Note that I've tried to preserve the idiosyncrasies of his side of the convo so you can tell that if he's from the UK, he obviously didn't go to schools like the other people I know from across the pond.
Jim Bob: Hi.Me: Hello.Jim Bob: How you doing, which country are you from?Me: I’m in the USA.
This is very clear from my timeline.
Jim Bob: Ok, am from UK, what do you do for a living?
At this point, I’m already tipped off because if you’ve seen my Facebook timeline you know that the banner is huge, has an enormous fuchsia bra and panties, and says “Proud Weird Smut Writer.” And he asks what I do for a living? I fry pickles at the Dairyette. What the hell do you think I do for a living?
Me: I’m a writer.Jim Bob: Okay Am a business man, are you married?
This from a guy whose profile picture is a not-spectacularly-attractive man with what appears to be his wife. Yes, I know they do this all the time, but read on.
Me: Yes. 33 years. To a spectacular guy who treats me like a princess.Jim Bob: Hmmm, that's nice, are you the one on your profile picture?
Now I’m laughing out loud. Am I the one in my profile picture? Well, let’s see . . . the pic is obviously not of a Hollywood actress or a model from a magazine so, no, I just went out and picked a random picture of a woman with her dog and put it on my profile. Yeah, that’s it. Of course, asshat, it’s me. And things just deteriorate from there.
Me: Yes.Jim Bob: You are looking nice babe, i appreciate your beauty, keep it up....Me: Thanks. I'll be sure to tell the hubs that you think so.Jim Bob: Okay, can i be your friend?Me: Only if you understand that if you don't respect my marriage, I'll block your ass and report you so fast that it'll make your head spin. Otherwise, yeah, sure.Jim Bob: Just to be your friend onlyMe: Exactly.Jim Bob: Okay
I never heard another word. I’m sorry, but I consider this type of shit to be cyberbullying. It forces women to put up with come-ons that they wouldn’t have to tolerate in public. It’s usually a guy in a developing nation looking for a woman to snare to get him into the country. They try to pass themselves off as being from the UK or Japan or India. Insufferable.
Except for the Italian pervert who wanted to see my . . . never mind. That was interesting or something like it.
And then there’s the idiot who friends you and then starts PMing you while they’re drunk or high. They won’t stop. It’s pinging constantly. I just love those. I think that’s cyberbullying too.
Shamefully so.
And yes, there are just those people who decide they’ve taken a dislike to a particular person and try to make their lives hell. They follow the person around, make accusations against them, call them names, garden variety things like that. The worst of these find a way into the accounts of the object of their hatred and pretend to be that person, sending out vitriolic messages and generally fucking with the person’s life. Oddly, sometimes they don’t even know each other. The bully just picks them at random. Maybe they look like they’d fold easily and the bully wants someone to torment. Maybe they remind the bully of someone. Who knows.
But there’s a phenomenon that’s started recently, and it just rankles me to no end. I’ve heard about a few of these. I’m not going to call any names, because I know in some of the instances, there are two sides to the story. It still disturbs me, so I’ve got to say this.
If you have to stage your own cyberbullying to sell books, just cut it the fuck out. What a pathetic, lame-ass way of getting your name out there. You’re being persecuted by Person X, Person X is threatening you, Person X is threatening your children, Person X is breaking into your accounts, stealing your identity, badmouthing you all over the Internet.
Yeah, well, we’ve had a couple of instances recently where the person being persecuted got caught falsifying emails, messages, etc., and made it look like they were being cyberbullied when, in fact, they’d made the whole thing up to sell books. Drama draws in readers, who buy books for the drama in them anyway. People got hurt. The person being reported as the bully got hurt. The people who’d supported that writer got hurt. Promo people had their reputations tarnished. Readers felt foolish because they’d treated the supposed bully badly. Worse yet, the reported bully took the brunt of the nightmare, and all for who-knows-what reason.
In the end, the writer ended up looking like a lunatic and lost a huge number of their fans and friends. Was it worth it for a few sales? I'd like to hear the answer to that question.
If you’re having trouble selling books, work harder. Get some people to help you. Study some books on marketing. Go to some conferences and seminars. But for god’s sake, do not fake a bullying episode. That’s just juvenile and stupid.
And besides, I hate drama. Go back to junior high and get that mess out of your system before you come into the publishing world and make us all sick. All you cyberbullies out there, here’s your notice: A lot of us are onto you and when you cross over into our realm, we’re going to expose you and send you packing because we don’t want the drama. We’re over here actually trying to work at our jobs instead of letting a bunch of made-up hype get the attention of potential readers.
So here’s a novel idea to keep you busy. Why don’t you try writing a book? If you do it right, it’ll keep you busy for a long, long time.
July 9, 2014
My Reads: Dark Love by Olivia Howe
The book I chose this week is one in a genre I don't usually read. It's rare that I even open a book with characters under the age of 25, but I was curious about it and decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did. It's Dark Love by my young friend Olivia Howe.
I didn't really know what the book was about when I started it. I'm not sure what I expected, quite frankly. I just knew that I was curious and wanted to read it. I'd already decided that if I didn't like it, I would say nothing. Olivia is a lovely young lady and I didn't want to discourage her from writing.
I didn't have to worry about that. And it wasn't at all what I thought it would be.
First, it's a Young Adult book. I don't read YAs - I just don't. Second, it's a fantasy romance. Sorry, but the first thing that went through my head was Twilight. And then I found out there was a vampire and I got really discouraged. All I could think was, Oh, great. Another vampire book. How many of those are there?
Turns out there's not another one like this one, at least not that I've seen or heard about. As you well know, I don't give plot synopses or spoilers in this blog. That's just not my style. But I wondered if there would be sparkly vampires. There weren't. That was a relief.
So I dived in. I was surprised at the way it started; not at all like I'd expect a YA book to start. When I got to all the high school parts, I almost lost faith, but I forged ahead, and I'm glad I did. Because somewhere around the end of the first quarter of the book, that thing I love above all else happened: I started to wonder what was going to happen next. See, I have this thing about that phenomenon. It wouldn't have mattered if it was the most poorly-written thing on the planet (and trust me, it was not!). As long as it makes me wonder what's going to happen next, I'm happy. And I was pretty damn happy.
I was even happier as it all unfolded. I was asked last night by a member of my street team which scene was my favorite in the book. I'd have to say when Nina goes to talk to her mother. She's afraid to tell her mother what she knows she has to divulge, but the surprise is on her - her mother already knows. I suspected she did, but I was curious to see how she was going to react, and I liked the way it was written. It was perfect, and the dialogue was very realistic.
Oh, and did I mention there's a witch? There's a witch. Well, not one that you see, but, well, you'll understand when you read the book. Suffice it to say, it made me very happy.
All in all, I liked it. I was pleased with the way it progressed, and I'm curious to read the next one. It's already out, and I haven't had a chance to pick it up, but I will and when I finish it, you'll see it here. I don't know how many books Olivia's planned in this series. I just know I'll read them all. So thanks, Olivia, for a YA that I actually enjoyed! I'm going to one-click Seeing Red!
I didn't really know what the book was about when I started it. I'm not sure what I expected, quite frankly. I just knew that I was curious and wanted to read it. I'd already decided that if I didn't like it, I would say nothing. Olivia is a lovely young lady and I didn't want to discourage her from writing.
I didn't have to worry about that. And it wasn't at all what I thought it would be.
First, it's a Young Adult book. I don't read YAs - I just don't. Second, it's a fantasy romance. Sorry, but the first thing that went through my head was Twilight. And then I found out there was a vampire and I got really discouraged. All I could think was, Oh, great. Another vampire book. How many of those are there?
Turns out there's not another one like this one, at least not that I've seen or heard about. As you well know, I don't give plot synopses or spoilers in this blog. That's just not my style. But I wondered if there would be sparkly vampires. There weren't. That was a relief.
So I dived in. I was surprised at the way it started; not at all like I'd expect a YA book to start. When I got to all the high school parts, I almost lost faith, but I forged ahead, and I'm glad I did. Because somewhere around the end of the first quarter of the book, that thing I love above all else happened: I started to wonder what was going to happen next. See, I have this thing about that phenomenon. It wouldn't have mattered if it was the most poorly-written thing on the planet (and trust me, it was not!). As long as it makes me wonder what's going to happen next, I'm happy. And I was pretty damn happy.
I was even happier as it all unfolded. I was asked last night by a member of my street team which scene was my favorite in the book. I'd have to say when Nina goes to talk to her mother. She's afraid to tell her mother what she knows she has to divulge, but the surprise is on her - her mother already knows. I suspected she did, but I was curious to see how she was going to react, and I liked the way it was written. It was perfect, and the dialogue was very realistic.
Oh, and did I mention there's a witch? There's a witch. Well, not one that you see, but, well, you'll understand when you read the book. Suffice it to say, it made me very happy.
All in all, I liked it. I was pleased with the way it progressed, and I'm curious to read the next one. It's already out, and I haven't had a chance to pick it up, but I will and when I finish it, you'll see it here. I don't know how many books Olivia's planned in this series. I just know I'll read them all. So thanks, Olivia, for a YA that I actually enjoyed! I'm going to one-click Seeing Red!
July 7, 2014
Baton blog hop!
What the heck is a Baton Blog Hop?
Each writer involved answers four questions and then passes the baton on to another person. I received the baton from my friend Olivia Howe, author of the Dark Love series. Her second novel in the series, Seeing Red, just came out this past Tuesday on her twentieth birthday, June 24!
What am I working on?
Wow – what am I notworking on. Let’s see . . . the fourth novel in the Love Under Construction series, Planning an Addition, will be coming out on November 1. It will be followed by the Citadel series, a series of three novellas, with each book having a main character(s) who was a minor character in the Love Under Construction series; the first one is already well underway. There will be more Harper’s Cove novellas; one’s almost finished. So many readers asked about the other characters in Adventurous Me, one of my stand-alone novels, that I’m planning two more books from it. And there will also be a new series starting. I don’t want to give the name of it yet, but let’s just say it’s a departure from my usual. It’ll still be steamy, but it’ll be different.
How does my work differ from others in its genre?
It’s unusual in that most of the main characters are well over forty. They’re not kids. They’re also working people; they didn’t mysteriously become millionaires from unknown sources. They worked hard and rose up through the ranks to be where they are. I’ve also discovered that I do something that few romance writers really do – I write villains, really nasty ones, psychologically damaged ones. I love them. So my work tends to be very different from the rest of the genre.
Why do I write what I do?
That’s a good question. I guess it’s because I love people, and I love to watch people fall in love. Plus I’m well over forty, and I get tired of 22-year-old sexual experts and billionaires. That’s so unrealistic that it makes my head hurt just thinking about it. I want my romances to be realistic, to be something that could actually happen to a reader. I want them to be hot; I want those over-forty characters to have the wild, passionate, uninhibited sex that I know people that age have, because I am one. And I want it to be as entertaining as humanly possible. Plus I try to always build in a “wow, I didn’t see that coming” moment. I love those!
How does your writing process work?
I wish I could tell you, because I honestly have no idea. My plots come to me fully-formed, and they usually only need some detail work to make them not only work but to be fully plausible as well. I start writing, and the characters just come out of the woodwork and make it all interesting. When that happens, I stop and get out a three-page character dossier and start filling it out on the character. It covers everything, physical description, personality, age, parents, siblings, kids, work history, everything. Then once I’ve got the plot pretty well settled, I go back and start doing detail work. I also work heavily off of recognizable holidays for time placement, and I go back with a calendar and do a timeline so I know everything is in the order it needs to be. Once that’s done, it’s time for hardcore revisions, then proofing and editing. That can take me longer than the writing (as it should). For a 170,000 word novel, it’s usually an eight-month process.
Time to pass the baton!!!!
I will be passing the baton to Liz Crowe, author of the Stewart Realty and Black Jack Gentlemen series. Liz is an outstanding author and loves to write books featuring soccer in which Spain never loses a game! Just kidding. But she is a soccer super-fan and a beer aficionado. Check out her work and go and visit her blog to see what she’s up to and watch her pass the baton on July 14!
July 5, 2014
Erotic romance, erotica, or porn?
I was standing in the receiving line at a funeral, of all places, when someone I hadn't seen in at least twenty years smiled and spoke to me, then asked me if I knew the deceased. I smiled and said, "Well, I should hope so. He was my uncle." I got the funniest look from her because she's my cousin. She had no idea who I was, not a clue. When I finally told her, after forcing her to squirm for several minutes, she asked the question I always dread:
"So, what are you doing these days?"
Aww, yeah, there it is. So I say, as I always do, "I write." And then comes the other question I always dread:
"Really? So what do you write?"
You knew that's what I was going to say. Of course, first they must get past their shock that I might actually be able to string a group of words into an intelligible sentence. That's sometimes funny and sometimes just downright infuriating; guess that depends on how many idiots from the Middle East have sent me PMs on Facebook that day calling me "bb." So I hem and haw and look at the floor, and then they ask the next question that I always dread, because I know as sure as there's rain on my birthday that it's coming:
"Oh! You don't write something naughty, do you?"
I got that from a guy at Home Depot too, only I think it was more like, "You don't write them dirty books, do ya?"
So I tell them, yeah, that's exactly what I write. I'm not ashamed of it. I write under a pseudonym but, as you might remember if you've read my blog posts before (and shame on you if you haven't), it's not because I don't want anyone knowing what I write. It's because my real name is so damn long and hard to pronounce - difficult enough, in fact, that I've had people argue with me as to how to pronounce it. (What's wrong with me? How could I be this old and still not know how to pronounce my own name? I must be a real imbecile.) And I certainly don't talk about it in the presence of certain family members, mostly my daughter's inlaws, because I really, truly don't give a fuck what anyone in my own family thinks. Seriously. Couldn't care less.
They usually ask me about it. Honestly, they most often ask me for a business card. I don't apologize, and I don't consider that pimping. Any other business person, when asked for their business card, would gladly share one, and I'm no exception. For me, this IS a business, or at least I treat it like one, even though by looking at my bank statement you'd never guess it. But I digress. So, when they ask me what I write, erotic romance or erotica doesn't cut it. They have no idea what that means. I have to find some way to describe it without being descriptive. That makes no sense, but here goes.
I usually say something like, "Well, let's see . . . have you read 'Fifty Shades?'" I almost always get an affirmative on that. Then I say something like, "If you've read that, then mine are like that, only on steroids. And maybe with 'roid rage. Just sayin'."
You know, I didn't know so many people had the talent of being able to jack up one eyebrow, but it seems they do. Amazing.
Anyway, that's usually followed by a "really?" Or maybe a "you're kidding, right?" Sometimes it's followed by an "oh, my." But that's pretty rare.
So I've been grappling with a way to explain to people what I write. To do so, I had to really, really figure out what the words meant.
I write erotic romance. It's pretty damn raunchy. There are lots of naked people, lots of body parts, and LOTS of sex. Lots. Not kidding. And it's pretty wild sex too. A lot of it includes fetishes. If you don't know what that means, look it up - that's an entire blog post for another time. Lots of positions, some only for the double-jointed. Lots of combinations, as in couples, ménages (you can look that up too), singles, etc. Weird locations. Strange situations. If you can think it up, it's okay because, basically, it's an "anything goes" kind of thing. Except for one.
There is NO CHEATING. Not cool in erotic romance. If your hero or heroine cheats on the love interest, that's almost always a death sentence for the work. Nobody wants that. Regardless if the guy is an undercover mob boss and has just had three guys snuffed for stealing his kid's lemonade stand, have him put his willy in any other heroine than the one he just snatched from his sworn enemy and is holding hostage because it was love at first sight, and your readers are going to turn on you like Boehner on Pelosi. That will be the end of your literary career.
Why, you ask? Because in erotic romance, readers expect a "happily ever after." Doesn't matter that they may be the most despicible individual in the world. As long as they have one redeeming quality, just one, they deserve what we in the business call an HEA. Gotta happen. And the joy is in the journey: Readers enjoy the ups and downs that it takes to get the two individuals together forever, for at least a "happily for now," which is also acceptable, as long as there's going to be another book in which they'll have their HEA.
Oh, and please note: I said hero and heroine. It can just as easily be hero and hero, or heroine and heroine, or hero and heroine and hero, or hero and hero and heroine and hero, and . . . well, you get the idea.
I also write some erotica. It's pretty much the same as above, except for two things. The first is that it's a lot raunchier - I mean A LOT. We're talking orgies, swapping, things like that. The second is that there are not "happily ever afters" required in erotica. Matter of fact, most readers don't expect or want that in erotica. Mine usually have just a touch of romance, because most of my readers are romance readers and I want them to enjoy the erotica too. Which I'm pretty sure they do. But they'll never tell.
What I DON'T write is pornography. In porn, there are no personalities. There is no story line. There is no hero or heroine. It's just sex. Nothing else. Sex for the sake of sex. No regard for feelings. No concern for safety. It's just sex.
"Well," you might say, "there's sex going on in your books, so it's porn." Yeah, and that thing that keeps you from pulling your pants up correctly might just be a stick up your ass. No, don't pull it out on my account. I don't give a shit if it hurts like hell when you sit. It's your stick and your ass and you have the right to have it up there as far as it'll go in your business if that's what you want.
But don't get mad if I make that part of a scene in a book, okay? And no, I'm not going to give you any of the profits.
So when they blush as they get the answer to the question of what I write, I don't. I don't see a damn thing wrong with it. I enjoy it. Does it arouse me? Yeah, sometimes. Do I do my own research? Tee-hee-hee, yeah, sometimes. Okay, most of the time. And I'm still not blushing. But when I answer their questions, do you know what usually happens?
They turn to whomever they're with, show them the business card, and whisper and giggle. Or, most often, they ask for more business cards so they can share them with their friends, and I do my best to stifle a laugh or, at the least, a cheesy grin. Because I know the truth.
We're all having those thoughts. Go ahead and deny it, but you know it's true. Quit fighting them and embrace them. Have a little fun. Okay, have a lot of fun. Sex is only dirty if you don't shower before and after; otherwise, it's all the good, clean fun you can stand (that is unless you're bound to a St. Andrew's cross being flogged and then buggered from behind, and then it's more fun than you can stand).
So that's what happens when I'm asked what I do. I've learned to be truthful and accept the consequences. And carry a lot of business cards. Speaking of which, it's time to order more.
"So, what are you doing these days?"
Aww, yeah, there it is. So I say, as I always do, "I write." And then comes the other question I always dread:
"Really? So what do you write?"
You knew that's what I was going to say. Of course, first they must get past their shock that I might actually be able to string a group of words into an intelligible sentence. That's sometimes funny and sometimes just downright infuriating; guess that depends on how many idiots from the Middle East have sent me PMs on Facebook that day calling me "bb." So I hem and haw and look at the floor, and then they ask the next question that I always dread, because I know as sure as there's rain on my birthday that it's coming:
"Oh! You don't write something naughty, do you?"
I got that from a guy at Home Depot too, only I think it was more like, "You don't write them dirty books, do ya?"
So I tell them, yeah, that's exactly what I write. I'm not ashamed of it. I write under a pseudonym but, as you might remember if you've read my blog posts before (and shame on you if you haven't), it's not because I don't want anyone knowing what I write. It's because my real name is so damn long and hard to pronounce - difficult enough, in fact, that I've had people argue with me as to how to pronounce it. (What's wrong with me? How could I be this old and still not know how to pronounce my own name? I must be a real imbecile.) And I certainly don't talk about it in the presence of certain family members, mostly my daughter's inlaws, because I really, truly don't give a fuck what anyone in my own family thinks. Seriously. Couldn't care less.
They usually ask me about it. Honestly, they most often ask me for a business card. I don't apologize, and I don't consider that pimping. Any other business person, when asked for their business card, would gladly share one, and I'm no exception. For me, this IS a business, or at least I treat it like one, even though by looking at my bank statement you'd never guess it. But I digress. So, when they ask me what I write, erotic romance or erotica doesn't cut it. They have no idea what that means. I have to find some way to describe it without being descriptive. That makes no sense, but here goes.
I usually say something like, "Well, let's see . . . have you read 'Fifty Shades?'" I almost always get an affirmative on that. Then I say something like, "If you've read that, then mine are like that, only on steroids. And maybe with 'roid rage. Just sayin'."
You know, I didn't know so many people had the talent of being able to jack up one eyebrow, but it seems they do. Amazing.
Anyway, that's usually followed by a "really?" Or maybe a "you're kidding, right?" Sometimes it's followed by an "oh, my." But that's pretty rare.
So I've been grappling with a way to explain to people what I write. To do so, I had to really, really figure out what the words meant.
I write erotic romance. It's pretty damn raunchy. There are lots of naked people, lots of body parts, and LOTS of sex. Lots. Not kidding. And it's pretty wild sex too. A lot of it includes fetishes. If you don't know what that means, look it up - that's an entire blog post for another time. Lots of positions, some only for the double-jointed. Lots of combinations, as in couples, ménages (you can look that up too), singles, etc. Weird locations. Strange situations. If you can think it up, it's okay because, basically, it's an "anything goes" kind of thing. Except for one.
There is NO CHEATING. Not cool in erotic romance. If your hero or heroine cheats on the love interest, that's almost always a death sentence for the work. Nobody wants that. Regardless if the guy is an undercover mob boss and has just had three guys snuffed for stealing his kid's lemonade stand, have him put his willy in any other heroine than the one he just snatched from his sworn enemy and is holding hostage because it was love at first sight, and your readers are going to turn on you like Boehner on Pelosi. That will be the end of your literary career.
Why, you ask? Because in erotic romance, readers expect a "happily ever after." Doesn't matter that they may be the most despicible individual in the world. As long as they have one redeeming quality, just one, they deserve what we in the business call an HEA. Gotta happen. And the joy is in the journey: Readers enjoy the ups and downs that it takes to get the two individuals together forever, for at least a "happily for now," which is also acceptable, as long as there's going to be another book in which they'll have their HEA.
Oh, and please note: I said hero and heroine. It can just as easily be hero and hero, or heroine and heroine, or hero and heroine and hero, or hero and hero and heroine and hero, and . . . well, you get the idea.
I also write some erotica. It's pretty much the same as above, except for two things. The first is that it's a lot raunchier - I mean A LOT. We're talking orgies, swapping, things like that. The second is that there are not "happily ever afters" required in erotica. Matter of fact, most readers don't expect or want that in erotica. Mine usually have just a touch of romance, because most of my readers are romance readers and I want them to enjoy the erotica too. Which I'm pretty sure they do. But they'll never tell.
What I DON'T write is pornography. In porn, there are no personalities. There is no story line. There is no hero or heroine. It's just sex. Nothing else. Sex for the sake of sex. No regard for feelings. No concern for safety. It's just sex.
"Well," you might say, "there's sex going on in your books, so it's porn." Yeah, and that thing that keeps you from pulling your pants up correctly might just be a stick up your ass. No, don't pull it out on my account. I don't give a shit if it hurts like hell when you sit. It's your stick and your ass and you have the right to have it up there as far as it'll go in your business if that's what you want.
But don't get mad if I make that part of a scene in a book, okay? And no, I'm not going to give you any of the profits.
So when they blush as they get the answer to the question of what I write, I don't. I don't see a damn thing wrong with it. I enjoy it. Does it arouse me? Yeah, sometimes. Do I do my own research? Tee-hee-hee, yeah, sometimes. Okay, most of the time. And I'm still not blushing. But when I answer their questions, do you know what usually happens?
They turn to whomever they're with, show them the business card, and whisper and giggle. Or, most often, they ask for more business cards so they can share them with their friends, and I do my best to stifle a laugh or, at the least, a cheesy grin. Because I know the truth.
We're all having those thoughts. Go ahead and deny it, but you know it's true. Quit fighting them and embrace them. Have a little fun. Okay, have a lot of fun. Sex is only dirty if you don't shower before and after; otherwise, it's all the good, clean fun you can stand (that is unless you're bound to a St. Andrew's cross being flogged and then buggered from behind, and then it's more fun than you can stand).
So that's what happens when I'm asked what I do. I've learned to be truthful and accept the consequences. And carry a lot of business cards. Speaking of which, it's time to order more.
July 2, 2014
My Reads: Suicide Ride: The Platinum Man by Elizabeth Llewellyn
Last week I brought you here to my page to hear my take on a book I'd just read in the last couple of weeks, Dee Kelly's Breaking Kate. It's a book that pretty much any romance reader would enjoy.
This week's read? Not so much. I don't mean that readers won't like; on the contrary. They should love it, but they should also be prepared to read something that's not only not their typical read, but also not sweet, smooth, or pretty. I decided that I wasn't going to go easy on any of you - oh, no. Instead, you're going to get an in-your-face read that just won't stop. It's Suicide Ride: The Platinum Man by Elizabeth Llewellyn.
First off, take a look at that cover. Is that not some kind of freakin' gorgeous? It's dark, mysterious, seductive - all the things that make me want to open a book. I mean, if it's got a cover like that, it's got to be heavy-duty, right?
Let me assure you, it is. This is no light reading here. Set in Los Angeles, we begin the tale with gorgeous Johnny Gellis, a man on the run. It's only until much later that we learn what has set him on the path he's taking, but when he reaches the end of the line, he, his Vette, and his guitar go looking for someone to make him a star and save him from the miserable life of a gynecologist. It doesn't take long before casual small talk leads him to Norman Dimond, owner of Dimond Records, started by his late father, Preston Dimond. When Johnny goes to Norman's club - a gay club, no less - to look for the infamous producer, Johnny finds him. Or perhaps Norman finds Johnny. The reception the hetero Johnny receives from the always homo/sometimes bi Dimond is disconcerting, but it's even more disconcerting to Norman, who falls ass over tea kettle for the beautiful, troubled young man. The plot unfolds and we watch as the two verbally tangle and untangle over and over.
Yes, the plot is unusual in its message and structure. Yes, the story is very worth reading. But none of that was what struck me about this book. You see, I started reading and I simply couldn't stop. Because this isn't your typical read, no sir. This is something else entirely.
This is high literature. I'm careful in my writing to not go completely over the heads of my readers, but Elizabeth didn't use those brakes, and I'm glad she didn't. What you get is prose that flows, almost qualifying as poetry constructed in a swollen stream. It's gritty, raw, elegant, stark, brutal, and lyrical, all together inside the covers of one book. By the end of the book, you know exactly how Norman feels about Johnny. What we're not sure about is how Johnny feels about Norman, or himself, or life in general, except to say that young Gellis takes an approach to solving his problems that I would not advise.
But regardless the outcome, the art in this hard-driving volume will leave you breathless. It's a ride like no other, and soon I'll bring you the second in the series, Suicide Ride: The Fix. Give The Platinum Man a chance, but have a dictionary handy. Fortunately, you'll need it.
And if you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, you might want to. The first edition will be out soon and you just might miss something important!
Keep reading - don't ever stop.
This week's read? Not so much. I don't mean that readers won't like; on the contrary. They should love it, but they should also be prepared to read something that's not only not their typical read, but also not sweet, smooth, or pretty. I decided that I wasn't going to go easy on any of you - oh, no. Instead, you're going to get an in-your-face read that just won't stop. It's Suicide Ride: The Platinum Man by Elizabeth Llewellyn.
First off, take a look at that cover. Is that not some kind of freakin' gorgeous? It's dark, mysterious, seductive - all the things that make me want to open a book. I mean, if it's got a cover like that, it's got to be heavy-duty, right?
Let me assure you, it is. This is no light reading here. Set in Los Angeles, we begin the tale with gorgeous Johnny Gellis, a man on the run. It's only until much later that we learn what has set him on the path he's taking, but when he reaches the end of the line, he, his Vette, and his guitar go looking for someone to make him a star and save him from the miserable life of a gynecologist. It doesn't take long before casual small talk leads him to Norman Dimond, owner of Dimond Records, started by his late father, Preston Dimond. When Johnny goes to Norman's club - a gay club, no less - to look for the infamous producer, Johnny finds him. Or perhaps Norman finds Johnny. The reception the hetero Johnny receives from the always homo/sometimes bi Dimond is disconcerting, but it's even more disconcerting to Norman, who falls ass over tea kettle for the beautiful, troubled young man. The plot unfolds and we watch as the two verbally tangle and untangle over and over.
Yes, the plot is unusual in its message and structure. Yes, the story is very worth reading. But none of that was what struck me about this book. You see, I started reading and I simply couldn't stop. Because this isn't your typical read, no sir. This is something else entirely.
This is high literature. I'm careful in my writing to not go completely over the heads of my readers, but Elizabeth didn't use those brakes, and I'm glad she didn't. What you get is prose that flows, almost qualifying as poetry constructed in a swollen stream. It's gritty, raw, elegant, stark, brutal, and lyrical, all together inside the covers of one book. By the end of the book, you know exactly how Norman feels about Johnny. What we're not sure about is how Johnny feels about Norman, or himself, or life in general, except to say that young Gellis takes an approach to solving his problems that I would not advise.
But regardless the outcome, the art in this hard-driving volume will leave you breathless. It's a ride like no other, and soon I'll bring you the second in the series, Suicide Ride: The Fix. Give The Platinum Man a chance, but have a dictionary handy. Fortunately, you'll need it.
And if you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, you might want to. The first edition will be out soon and you just might miss something important!
Keep reading - don't ever stop.
July 1, 2014
RELEASE DAY BLITZ - Next to You (Life #2) by Claudia Burgoa
Title: Next To You (Life #2)Author: Claudia BurgoaGenre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult
Him
…I need time. Time to heal those wings and learn to use them…
Was part of the letter Rebecca Trent, Daniel Brightmore’s fiancée and best friend left when she ran away. The person he trusted the most for the past decade disappeared without giving him a second glance. She taught him how to love, believe in family and that everyone deserves a happily ever after. Now he’s struggling between wiping any traces of her from his life and drowning his sorrows away with the help of his new best friends—Don Julio and Jack Daniels.
Her
Rebecca’s past suffocated her to the point of not wanting to continue, her lifeline and the only reason to live began to withdraw from her. She wished it had been her imagination, but heard it loud and clear: “If not, there’s always a divorce, nothing is forever.” This time it became a leave or die situation. Something has got to change—she had to change. Packing light and leaving a letter behind, she takes a journey that can help her find herself through the shards of her painful childhood.
As letters, memories and stories are exchanged, two once inseparable people reconcile what’s left of their relationship. Beyond the confines of everything they built together, they’re left with two lonely people searching for what it means to be whole. Will they find meaning under their bruised psyches or will their pasts get the better of them?
Born on the mystical day of October 30th in the not so mystical lands of Mexico City, Claudia grew up with a childhood that resembled a caffeine-injected soap opera. Seventeen years ago she ventured to the lands of her techie husband—a.k.a. the U.S.—with their offspring to start a new adventure.
She now lives in Colorado working as a CFO for a small IT company, managing her household filled with three confused dogs, said nerd husband, two daughters wrought with fandoms and a son who thinks he’s the boss of the house. To survive she works continually to find purpose for the voices flitting through her head, plus she consumes high quantities of chocolate to keep the last threads of sanity intact.
Connect with Claudia:
Twitter: @yuribeansWebsite: http://www.claudiayburgoa.com/Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/yuribeans/Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaYBurgoaGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7202946.Claudia_Y_Burgoa
Where Life Takes You (Life #1)
Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Kobo ~ iTunes
Amazon ~ Amazon UK ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Kobo ~ iTunes
