Michelle Roth's Blog, page 36
April 23, 2014
SNEAK PREVIEW: Just a Taste by Michelle Roth
Sexy, yes?
For those of you that follow me, you’ll be somewhat familiar with the book I mentioned in the title of the post. Mostly because I won’t stop talking to anyone who will listen to me about it. (Picture me making a winky face here, guys) You’ve heard me give a general description of the book, or maybe I’ve given you a snippet.. Tonight? Not one but TWO excerpts. So, without further adieu, I present:
The first excerpt is for general consumption. There’s a little cursing, but nothing that would make anyone blush.
Just a Taste (General Excerpt)
The second excerpt is .. well.. we’ll just say that it’s incredibly adult. Not AT ALL safe for work. If you don’t heed the warning, then it’s not my fault your panties just burst into flames in the work place. It’s naughty. Really.
April 15, 2014
Book Cover Reveal – Lip Service
… and other news.
Just a Taste, my first book, comes out on May 6, 2014. I just finished up the final edits on it yesterday. I’m starting to get SUPER nervous. Three weeks til release date. I’ve tapped all of the people that I can for advance reader copies. Just waiting for Siren to finalize the book so I can release my blurbs and the arc’s.
Lip Service, my second novel, comes out for release on May 28, 2014. I’ve gone through the first round of edits and just got my cover art today. I have to say, I loved the first cover, but this one is FREAKING FANTASTIC!!!
Cover art done by the magnificent Harris Channing
Book Three, yet untitled, is about to undergo some major re-writes. You writers out there know that feeling. The one where you know something is just WRONG with what you’re writing. It’s perfectly acceptable, but not necessarily what you were trying to put on the page. I’ve been having a couple weeks like this. It’s been about two weeks since I started and I’ve done less than 20k words, which is REALLY slow compared to what I’ve done previously.
I was talking it over with a writer friend at lunch. We were talking random nonsense and she asked me about the book. I said, “Meh. I’ve been outlining but something isn’t clicking. Here’s my story..”
As soon as I finished, I was like, “I don’t think my conflict is a valid conflict based on the characters I’m developing. They need something external. Maybe if I..”
Suddenly the story locked into place. We talked through the block and then she made some awesome suggestions to heighten the conflict even more. May incorporate them in. Haven’t fully decided yet. It requires some small detail changes in my initial 17k words, but beyond that, I can totally work with what I have.
A couple of times I’ve had the errant thought over the last couple of days, “Ugh. I don’t want to write this book.” .. That’s how bad that feeling of dislike was. I kind of wanted to put aside the story. Just shelve it.
Granted, my lack of enthusiasm also had to do with work being insane, finishing up two books in pretty rapid succession without really taking much of a break and diving into my third book WAY underprepared, but yeah.. So those are my secret, self-doubting thoughts.
After my talk today, I’m feeling re-energized and ready to make this book awesome.. so I’m going to go do that. But, first, I will leave you with this thought.
I am reminded of a Warren Ellis quote on giving up:
“There is no such goddamn thing. There is only getting up and doing it all over again, smarter and harder, until something ups and fucking kills you, because that’s the only thing big enough to stop you.
This is The Great Work, and all you have to do is choose it, not look back and never fucking stop until you’re in your box, under the dirt and flowers are growing between your teeth.
And that is why I’ll never be asked to do motivational speaking. G’night.”
April 14, 2014
A busy couple of days..
Over the last few days I haven’t gotten much done in the way of writing. I’ve been doing more in the way of promotion. I joined Romance Writers of America and my local chapter Los Angeles Romance Authors. I went to a meeting yesterday where they spoke about query letters. While not immediately important for me since I’ve found a publisher to work with directly (Thanks, Siren), I figure at some point I should find myself an agent. I’ve been kind of waffling about the whole agent thing, though. I think I will wait on it for now and see how it all goes before I decide how to move forward.
I’ve been working on book three, which is going a bit slower than the first two. I think I may need to go back to the drawing board on this one and develop my characters a bit more. Parts of it are writing itself, but others are just.. stuck. This week I’m going to make it my sole focus to fix the gaps.
In amazing news, I got my edits back for book two Lip Service (Private Relations 2) on Wednesday. They made me feel like a freaking rock star. My editor had some small suggestions but for the most part it was like a giant high five.
March 29, 2014
My first official book cover!
The last couple of days have been kind of hectic. I’ve been working on a lot of stuff for book two (got my contract, had to write some blurbs on it, etc). It was so hectic that I forgot to share with you all.. I got the official cover art for book one, Just a Taste!
Sexy, yes?
March 27, 2014
Success!#%$
*does a few victory laps around the house*
My publisher opted to publish the second book in my Private Relations series, Lip Service.
The book will be released some time in either June or July 2014 for the electronic version of the book. The paperback will be available in October or November 2014. More details to come as I have them.
Also, it’s time to get cracking on the third (and last) book in the series. I’m on vacation for two weeks. I should be able to get a few solid days of writing in, at least.
*does another happy dance*
March 24, 2014
WordPress Meet and Greet – All Bloggers Welcome
I think this is a freaking FANTASTIC idea!!
Originally posted on HarsH ReaLiTy:
This website is about connections. Not necessarily with me, but with people you may never have met otherwise. How many connections can be made on a blog? Let’s find out.
I will make this post a sticky for a month.
Reblog, share, connect, and enjoy seeing and viewing other cultures, opinions, and people. I will remove the sticky from the other self promotion thread so this will be the new one. I’ll also connect it to my secondary blog shatteredsmoke.com. This is an opportunity to promote yourself in any way or to simply share a cause. Links and tasteful photos are allowed if you know how. Or maybe if you know how you can share since I have no clue, but people have before on HarsH ReaLiTy. This is an open forum thread, but I have young readers so keep that in mind.
How many connections can we make artists…
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Feeling fabulous
I’m feeling pretty accomplished at the moment. I’ve just finished Lip Service, the second novel in my new series Private Relations. This story follows two of the characters that were introduced in first book, Just a Taste (due out May 6th). Waiting to hear back from my publisher. Wish me luck!
This is a lot less dramatic than a paper manuscript, but a whole hell of a lot cheaper to send to your editor. :)
In other news, I’ve got book three starting to roll around in my brain already. I’ve got a week and a half of vacation from le day job coming up, starting middle of next week. I hope that I can make some decent headway on it. Right now I’m brainstorming the major conflict part of the book. This one is going to be a doozy!
Today’s Pop Quiz:
What are some of your favorite themes in romance novels? Are you into vampires? Sheikhs? Secretary/CEO stories? Surprise pregnancies? Revenge stories? Redemption stories? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
March 18, 2014
Pop Quiz!
I liberated this quiz from Jodie Llewellyn because it looked fun.
THREE THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. My name is Michelle.
2. I’m from Los Angeles.
3. I work in variable annuities by day, and write steamy romance novels by night.
THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Snakes.
2. Spiders.
3. LA drivers
THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Coffee.
2. Lap top.
3. Cell phone
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Writing.
2. Reading.
3. Cooking
THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING/YOU’VE CONSIDERED:
1. An author.
2. A computer programmer.
3. A teacher.
THREE BOOKS YOU HAVE RECENTLY READ:
1. Melting the Ice – Jaci Burton.
2. In Bed with Mr. Wrong – Katee Robert.
3. Savor – Monica Murphy
THREE THINGS YOU ARE WORKING ON, WRITING WISE:
1. Waiting on edits for Just a Taste
2. Working on Lip Service (first edit)
3. Starting to plot book 3 in the series (Untitled at this point)
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Travel the world
2. Have a best seller
3. Go to culinary school or take more classes, at least.
THREE CELEB IDOLS (or crushes):
1. Steven Amell
2. Matthew Bomer
3. Matthew Mcconaughey
THREE QUOTES:
1. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. – Eleanor Roosevelt
2. Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for – Bob Marley
3. Be the change you want to see in the world – Ghandi
Tell me a little about you!
March 17, 2014
My inaugural post
These last few months have been a strange and exciting journey. In mid-December I decided that I would write a book. Considering that most of what I read falls into the erotic romance category, this seemed like a logical choice. Once I hammered out the story line, the book literally FLEW from my fingertips on to the page. In a little over a month.. there it was. My first novel.
I sat down to write fiction. I was incredibly unprepared, though, to put so much of myself on the page. I really wanted the characters to be genuine. Real people, with real problems. It was also important to me that they be people that I’d want to hang out with, or people that would have traits I could admire. I couldn’t see myself investing so much time writing about people that I didn’t like.
When I submitted my book to publishers, I wanted someone to want to publish it. Really, really badly. I was hoping, but not really expecting for much. I had plans to self-publish if I got a slew of rejections.
The first rejection? I gotta tell you, that was rough. Reading the laundry list of reasons why this thing that you wrote, that basically amounted to your GUTS on a page, wasn’t “right” stung a bit. I had already started on the second one in the series, because my brain wouldn’t let me stop. I had a few days of soul searching and inactivity.
Luckily, the second response I got was NOT a rejection. It was in fact, from someone.. who wanted to sell my book and pay me money!
*pausing to let that sink in*
So, here I am. I’ve sold my first book. It’s scheduled to come out on May 6, 2014 (tentative release).
In the next few weeks, I hope to have something more that my emotional ramblings. Cover art, promotional excerpts, details on my next book (which I just finished first draft on. YESSSS!) and much more.
