Happy Christmas and Giveaway Winner

Well, this year has been a pretty fantastic year for me. Six sold books and one agent is a pretty good effort huh?

But I wouldn't have got this far if it hadn't been for the wonderful network of friends and family who have given me so much support.

To all of you who read my blog, who've left me messages of support and encouragement, thank you so much. I've managed to achieve my dream this year, which means so can you. 

The answer is simply this:

Write. Submit. And write and submit again. 

And never, ever give up. 

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!! *balloons* *streamers* *confetti* *chocolate martinis*

P.S. Kimberlyindy, congrats! Thanks for commenting on the blog, you've won a copy of Finn for Christmas. Either leave me your email address in the comments or contact me via the form, and I'll send you a copy.

 

The Next Big Thing - And a Christmas Giveaway

Well, I've been tagged to do a Next Big Thing post by three fabulous people. First up is my awesome friend and CP  Maisey Yates! Check out her post about her amazing new cowboy story - it's....OMG, I can't even.... Second and third are two wonderful fellow Entangled authors and Kiwis, Michelle deWinton and Bronwen Evans. Both these fine ladies have Indulgences out (Bronwen's imminent I think) so if you're after a bit of Xmas indulgence, you can't go wrong...


Firstly I know this post should go up next week but it's Christmas and I want to do a giveaway so I'm doing it now. If you would like a copy of my debut book Falling for Finn to test the Ashenden waters (so to speak) before you decide on whether you may like the below ms, I'm giving away a copy to one commenter. And just to make it fairer, the more comments I get the more books I'll give away. Will draw the winner(s) on Sunday night.

To enter just leave a comment saying 'yo'.  :-)

Where did the idea for the book come from?

My Samhain editor tweeted that she wanted to see more virgin heroes and Maisey nudged me. I got thinking about why a guy would remain a virgin...et voila. 

 What is the working title of your Book?
 
Working title is Dirty Virgin Hero. Hehe. Or if you're on Twitter #dirtyeffingvirginhero. ;--)

What genre does your book fall under?

Contemporary romance.

What actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I wouldn't. No actors are ever right for my characters. Lame huh? However I do have a Pinterest board here.

What is the one sentence synopsis for your book?

Ugh. Sorry but I'm going to cheat.  Taking Him - Game designer Ellie's last mission before she leaves the country is to seduce her older brother's best friend, the man she's loved for years. But little does she know that construction company owner Hunter has a past darker than the black feathers tattooed on his back and a secret he'll do anything to keep.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It'll be published by Samhain in November 2013 and is represented by Helen Breitweiser from Cornerstone Literary.

How long did it take you write the first draft of your manuscript?

Probably about 3-4 weeks.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Um. I don't really know to be honest. I guess I would compare the screwed-upedness of the hero and the emotional intensity of it with Sylvia Day's Bared to You.  Except the hero isn't quite as screwed up as Gideon Cross.

Who or what inspired you to to write this book?

Well, the idea of the virgin hero is something I wanted to write about because you don't see many books about male sexual shame. It's an interesting issue and a challenging one to write.

What else about your book might pique a reader's interest?

A geeky girl game designer, a man with wings on his back, motorcycles, hot construction workers, cosplay, hookers, tattoo parlours, and some hot how's your father. How's that for starters?

I'm supposed to tag people now but I'm not sure who has been tagged and who hasn't so if you haven't, consider yourself tagged!

 And if you want a copy of Finn in your stocking, don't forget to yo me! 

Monday Morning Inspiration - Or Not

In the quest for blogging inspiration, I've been going over my old posts from December last year to see what was happening in terms of writing back then and I came across a post about my chess player.  At that stage I was in the process of rewriting him for SYTYCW, planning to submit the whole manuscript for feedback. I'd done a few stats for the ms:

*Number of times entire ms rewritten - 3
*Number of times beginning rewritten - 6
*Size of 'deleted scenes' folder - 227k
*Number of times hero/heroine conflict changed - 3
*Number of times I wanted to kill hero/heroine - 20
*Number of tantrums pulled while writing - 50
*Number of times I wanted to give up in disgust - 100
*Number of times I DID give up in disgust - 100
*Number of times cried while writing - 5
*Number of working versions of present ms - 8
*Number of titles decided on - 0

That was in December last year.  After I'd finished that post and finished rewriting the story, I sent him off to SYTYCW, plus entered him into the Aussie Emerald competition.

He got precisely nowhere.

Didn't get ANY feedback at all from SYTYCW and because one judge in the Emerald absolutely loathed him, I didn't get anywhere with that either.

Here's some stats for my Talking Dirty book from around the same time:

*Number of times entire ms rewritten - 5 - 6
*Number of times beginning rewritten - 4
*Size of 'deleted scenes folder' - Rewrite folder 37k, Original folder, 20k
*Number of times hero/heroine conflict changed - 6
*Number of times I wanted to kill hero/heroine - 100
*Number of tantrums pulled while writing - too many to count
*Number of times I wanted to give up in disgust - too many to count
*Number of times I DID give up in disgust - too many to count
*Number of times cried while writing - too many to count
*Number of working versions of present ms -50 million
*Number of titles decided on - 3

Oh and I should add one more line.


*Number of times rejected - 3

As you can see, both of these books nearly did me in. For the chess player I berated myself daily for the fact that I'd decided on a chess playing hero who everyone CLEARLY hated. For Talking Dirty, I berated myself daily for the fact that I knew I had a good story there, yet I couldn't seem to find it.

BUT

I am a stubborn-ass b*tch sometimes. And I'd be damned if I let these stories - one of which got to the 2nd revision stage with M&B - languish.

So I started rewriting Talking Dirty for the 7th time and pitched it in a competition. It got a request for a full - which I wrote in a week (from chapter 3) - and then four months later, it sold to Entangled. It's going to be out sometime in 2013 (May tentatively).

And then with my chess player, I rewrote it for the 4th time and submitted it to my editor at Samhain and that sold too.  Black Knight, White Queen, will be out in July 2013.

Why am I telling you this? Well, sometimes it's a good thing to give up on a story. Sometimes you don't have the experience at the time to be able to make it better. Or sometimes you're too close to it to see it objectively. I first wrote Talking Dirty back in 2008, but it wasn't until 2012 that I finally had the experience and knowledge to turn it into a book that sold. The chessplayer I started at the beginning of 2011 but didn't sell it until a year and a half later. Again, it wasn't the fact that my hero was a chessplayer that didn't work, it was the fact that I still hadn't got a handle on conflict or character.

But some stories you can't let go of. Nor should you. Some stories deserve to have their time in the sun. I don't know if this inspiration or not, but for those of you who have stories that you just can't let go of, keep going. Keep working on them. Keep learning your craft. And one day, a year and a half, or four years, or even ten years later, eventually someone's going to say yes.

And then you can shock everyone with your stats too. :-)

Monday Morning Freak-Out

I'm having a bit of a freak-out at the moment. Nothing new for me I guess but a 'thing' has happened and it's left me feeling all weirded out.

I've had this idea for a series in my head for at least a year now and I always thought I'd write it as category length. However, since I've written my Dirty Virgin Hero, I've been wondering if I couldn't take it longer. The DVH was 63k and I have to say I enjoyed writing long, so I kind of thought this idea could maybe stretch to Single Title length.  I've always had it in my head that I'd like to give ST a go but I've never had a really good enough idea that would make me want to write it. Until it occurred to me that this series idea could be an ST.

I've kind of been put off ST till now because over the various conferences I've been to, agents and publishers were saying that ST Contemporary was a hard sell and that readers wanted sweet, small-town stories. Which annoyed me cos I don't write sweet, small-town stories.  So I steered clear of it, wrote what I wanted to write which was angsty urban contemporaries.

And then 50 Shades hit. And angsty urban alphas were suddenly in again. And the CPs were telling me to run the idea past the agent to see what she said. I kind of thought the agent would probably say no and I prevaricated a lot - mainly because I liked my idea and didn't want it to be rejected before I'd even got a chance to write a word. But in the end I sent her the idea and dammit, she liked it! And so now I have to write a series outline, a synopsis and a partial of the first book!

This is geat news - I'm thrilled about it honestly - but I'm also freaking out because I've never written an ST (we will not speak of my 320k opus) and the idea I have is complicated, dark and extremely angsty, and I'm really, really hoping I can pull it off. I'm going to be majorly writing out of my comfort zone and that's kind of scary.

But I guess challenging yourself is all part of growing as a writer isn't it?

Who else is writing out of their comfort zone at the moment? Anyone want to join me in the freak-out??

Being a Speed Demon - My Last Minute Nano Project

You'll have to forgive me if I haven't been online much in the past week but that's because I've been writing. I decided to take on a last minute Nano project in the last two weeks of November and in order to meet the deadline, I had to write fast. Very, very fast.

I've always been a fast writer but as I've learned new skills my speed slowed down over the past year or so and I admit I got worried I'd lost my speediness forever.  Which is really, really overdramatic of me but as most of you already know, it's not unheard of for Jackie A to be totally overdramatic. 

Anyway, turns out I haven't lost it. A deadline can make me a speed demon.

I'm not going to tell you what my word count was in a week and a half cos actually, I'm a little bit embarrassed and Kiwi about it. But I HAD to do a small boast somewhere so I put it on FB if you're interested.


So how did I do it so fast? Here's a few tips. 

1. I can type exceptionally fast. This is HUGE. Being a hunt and peck typist limits your speed. So if you don't know how to touch-type, now is the time to learn.

2. I spent at least a week thinking about the story before I wrote a word. Not the plot - I'm a pantser - but because my stories are totally character driven,  I HAD to know the characters and their conflicts intimately, otherwise my story would collapse. I had already written 5k to start with and as beginnings take me the most time since that's when I'm finding my way into the characters, I already had a pretty good idea about the hero and heroine.
 
3. I didn't do anything else other than write. I'm lucky in that my day job is writing and my kids are at school so once they were out the door, that's what I did.

4. The times I wasn't writing (in the evenings) or when I had to stop to get the family food (instant meals you can do in 10 minutes) I thought about my story and what I was going to do next with it.

5. I stayed off Twitter (mostly) and the rest of the net. I kept my emails to a minimum.

6. I didn't reread what I'd written. I didn't fuss over my words. I just kept on writing.

7. When the words started to get hard, I would stop and go and do something else for ten minutes while I worked out what was wrong. I know my process and I know that when something is difficult to write it's usually because I'm not sure about something. Thinking about what I'm missing helps.

8. My husband was a godsend over the weekends, letting me write while he did kid-stuff to keep them out of my hair.

9. The times my husband wasn't there, television was. And takeout.  I feel no guilt about this. None at all. :-)

10. Housework? You're kidding me right?

Now some people might think that fast writing equals crap writing. But that, quite frankly, is bullsh*t. I've written books waaaay slower and they've been just as big a heap of crap as ones I write really fast. ;-) Seriously though, just because you write fast does NOT mean you don't write quality. Sometimes the things I write faster are better because I'm not overthinking everything. Oh and you know Falling for Finn? I wrote that in 2.5 weeks and it sold. So there.

Anyway, those are some of the ways I managed to get it done. But really, I think the biggest part of getting it done so fast for me was having a deadline. I need them in order to push myself. Without them I'm a faffer.

So, does anyone else write fast? What are your tips?

Falling For Finn Excerpt

Well, FINALLY, I'm on the Samhain website as 'coming soon'.   On the last page but there I am!

So if you want to read an excerpt, go...

HERE!

Very First Author Interview Eva!

So...uh...I have my very first author interview with Sasha at Caribbean Accent. There's also a giveaway of Falling For Finn if you'd like to enter. So...um...yeah....go along and check it out.

*shuffles feet nervously*

I really need to get over this not wanting to toot my own horn thing.

*tries again* *with extra American-ness*

YA'LL!! I am being interviewed because I am so effing awesome!! And my amazing, effing incredible book is being offered as a giveaway and you can READ IT EARLY. 

So go read. And enter. Otherwise I'll set Hoo on you. ;-)

More New Author Confessions

Being a writer is SUCH a funny/weird thing. Firstly you angst about your book when you send it to the publisher. Then after the joy of acceptance has worn off, there's the angst about the revisions. About the cover. Then the copy edits. And then once you've finished angsting about that and you have your ARC copies, there's the angst about people actually reading your work.

Obviously that people WILL read your book should come as no surprise. That's why we write, yes? So that other people can read it. But after years and years of no one but family members and/or crit partners reading your stories, the time comes when COMPLETE STRANGERS get the chance to cast their eye over your scratchings. And even though you think you've prepared yourself for this moment, it's actually bloody terrifying. Especially when you know that these strangers will also discuss your book with OTHER COMPLETE STRANGERS! People you don't know will be having discussions about your book and the characters you've created and they will have opinions about them! 'Scuse me while I go and be sick in the corner...

Finn on the iTunes store!!

Yeah, I'm neurotic, can't you tell? Anyway what brought this on is the fact that Falling for Finn has been sent out for review and am feeling anxious about it. It's also now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. And soon should be up on the Samhain website too.  It's everywhere basically.

But that lovely period between acceptance and release date is drawing to a close. Those lovely months when only you and your editor know how brilliant (or otherwise) you are. Where you can tell yourself you have a masterpiece on your hands and can fantasise about what you're going to buy with the millions of dollars in royalties that you're going to get. Or write down your acceptance speech for when you win the Man Booker prize or get your Nobel medal. Yep, those days will be over soon and then everyone's going to see behind the curtain and you'll either be outed as a fraud or, worse, people will just shrug their shoulders and wonder what the fuss is about.

Of course there is the option that you'll be hailed as the next Nora but let's not mention that. 

Right, so,  despite the fact that I'm terrified of ya'll reading it, it would be remiss of me NOT to point out that iTunes has a first chapter sample of Finn that you can download. I'm not sure how to link to this (and it's not on the NZ iTunes bookshop - Grrrr!) but if you're in the US (not sure about UK) and you're keen to read the first chapter, then feel free.... :-)

The Delicate Art of the Synopsis

I wanna talk about synopses. Well, not really, you understand, because synopses SUCK.  But I wanna talk about them because I was complaining about them on Twitter and someone mentioned they'd looked at my blog and asked me if I'd done a post about them. And I realised it's been a year since I've done something about synopsis writing. So I thought I'd do an updated post after having sold and 'apparently' knowing what I'm doing.

Which is a total lie of course. I have a better idea about what I'm doing but I'm still learning.

That's the tedious reason behind this post. I know some people love writing synopses (yes, there are people who do. Strange, strange people) but I am not one of them. I kind of wish I was because it would make life easier.

Alrighty, I don't usually write a synopsis before starting the book because I'm a pantser. But I do after 3 chapters, depending on the editors. It's actually quite a good time to write one for me because after 3 chapters I've figured out my characters and have a general idea about the direction of the book. In fact, I often find it harder to write a synopsis once I've finished because I have a more difficult time working out what to include in the synopsis and what to leave out because EVERYTHING seems very important! Groan.

Anyhoo, I think the major thing I've learned is that different editors require different things from a synopsis. Some want a quick and dirty glance to see if you've got a story there. Some want to know more than that. This you won't know beforehand but the length they require is a giveaway. If you can't ask the editor straight out, follow the guidelines on the submission page.  In some ways, a one page synopsis is EASIER because you simply can't put exterraneous detail in. You have to keep it short and very basic.

The tricky thing is always figuring out what to put in and what to leave out. For me, since I'm writing romance (obviously), that's what I concentrate on when I write the synopsis. How the romance starts. How it develops. How it nearly comes to grief. And how it ends.  That's all. Because the romance is the backbone of the book. Not how the heroine gets from one place to another. Or the sassy conversation she has with her sassy best friend. Or how the hero has a fight or plays with his kid or whatever. Your main story happens when the hero and heroine interact with each other and that's the story your synopsis should follow (in my humble opinion naturally).

The way I do it is I basically write an emotional synopsis, concentrating only on the feelings of the hero and heroine. How they feel when they meet each other. What makes this feeling change. What makes it grow. What brings this feeling to crisis point. And what makes this feeling too strong to deny. The external plot comes into my synopsis only when it changes the feelings of the characters.  The turning points of your story (in a romance) are the instances where the feelings of your characters change towards each other. Okay, so maybe I told a lie and the fight the hero has with someone IS important. Maybe the fight changes the feelings the heroine had toward him some way. Maybe it causes her to change her opinion of him (either good or bad). If it does, include it. If it doesn't, don't put it in. Don't put anything in that doesn't cause major change in the character's emotions in other words.

It sounds kind of easy now I've written it down but it's not. I always have to write a very long synopsis (3 pages single spaced - long for me) first before I can distill it down. Somehow once you've got it down you can see what's needed and what isn't. And of course there's nothing like a synopsis for making you realise your conflict is missing something (but we won't go there).

What I try and make sure I have in each synopsis is this:

1. Hero/heroine - one paragraph each on who they are, plot set up and conflict.   

2. How they meet. Their attraction and why they're attaracted.

3. A few more paragraphs on how their attraction builds and the the first time they kiss/make love

4. Why their feelings for each other deepen.

5. Why their deepening feelings are bad and what they do in response (black moment).

6. What makes them decide to change and embrace love (HEA)

Now, this is just what I do so it's not a 'this is the way you MUST do it' guide. I've done it this way with two books and two different editors, and one editor sent me back the synopsis with screes of questions. The other bought the book off the partial and synopsis. So, y'know...it's a delicate art depending on the editor and the publisher.

What really helps though, when it comes to the synopsis, is knowing your characters well. And knowing your conflict, and how the character and the conflict connect. For me the easiest synopses to write have been the books where I know those things very well. 

So...uh....there you go. Synopses. Anyone got any other tips??

Breaking World Shattering News - Jackie is On Amazon

Ridiculous noobishness happening here but.....

I AM ON AMAZON!!!!

Here is the link.

Falling for Finn Jackie's bestest debut book evah and better than at least 1% of books on Amazon....

Yes, I am squeeing and being utterly ridiculous but you can only enjoy these things for the first time once so I am taking the liberty of fully embracing the moment.

*embraces moment*

Ahem.

At some point I will also be on the 'coming soon' part of the Samhain website but not yet. 

Anyway, bubbles all round I say what?

The Difficulties With Passions

Okay, I confess. Some days the rainbows and unicorns and shiny baubles of finally getting a publisher who wants to publish your book aren't enough. They scare away your doubt crows right enough but the bloody things keep coming back.

So what you sold six books this year? That doesn't mean readers will buy ANY of them.

You're just one of thousands trying to get people to buy your book. You'll never get noticed.

You only write boring contemporary romance and not even erotic contemporary romance at that. No one's interested in  that kind of thing.

Your characters are too left field. People won't identify with them.

Write much hotter otherwise you'll miss the 50 Shades boat.

Write something else otherwise you'll miss the 50 Shades boat.

You're missing the 50 Shades....Oh, too late. It's gone. Sucker.

These are just some of the wonderful crows that have been pecking me of late. Now I did know that everything suddenly wasn't going to get magically better upon having something accepted (I DID! It's true!). Or that I'd never have crises of confidence again. Or that things would get a hell of a lot easier. I DID know that.  It's just that, well, all the above doubts didn't really become real until your release date looms closer and you realise that following your passion and making it your profession has some unforseen difficulties. Like the stakes becoming a LOT higher and the possibility of failure that much more frightening.

Because I don't write to make a little bit of pin money to fuel my habit for antique doilies. Or because dashing off a couple of romances into between G&Ts is a good way of passing the time. Or because I can't find a real job and have to do something.

No. I write because I have to. Because I can't stop. Because after years of being a good-ish librarian, I want to be a GREAT writer. (okay, so not great as in Tolstoy/Hemingway great. Great as in 'woohoo, that was a damn good read' great. Got it? Good).

Oh yeah and I'd like to make a living from it. If that's not too much to ask.

And this is the difficulty with passions because if it doesn't come to pass, then you've got so much more to lose.

Anyway, given my personality type and my ability to worry about/over-analyse everything, I've decided that being a writer is very probably the worst thing for me to be doing. But what else can I do? It's the only thing I've ever wanted to be.

I guess the only thing to do, when the doubt crows circle, whether published or unpublished, is to keep writing more stories. Try not to let the doubts and fears and worries paralyse you. Keep looking forward, not back. *tells self*

What do you guys do with the doubts? Chocolate? Retail therapy? Alcohol???

It's My Process Man!

I'm not doing Nano this year - at least not officially - despite starting a brand new story as of yesterday. And since Nano tends to make people think about their process a lot more and since Maisey did an awesome post about writing process and being fast, I thought I'd totally copy her and do one about my process. Mainly because it's kind of been the opposite of Maisey's experience (and also because I was scraping around for a topic to blog about).

I've always been a fast writer but I didn't realise quite how fast until I started writing to get published. Before, I would go on writing binges and write for days on end, then stop and not write for months, so the last story I wrote before I actually committed to writing romance took about a year. Then again it did end up being 320k so there's that. ;-)

But when I started writing for publication, I found that  if I wrote every day, I could do a 50k story in a month. Or even 2 weeks if I planned it well enough. Which I found very pleasing. However the fatal flaw in the works was that because I didn't know much about character or conflict, or plot, or anything really, that 50k wasn't a very good 50k. So I used to end up having to rewrite over and over. This, I thought, was my process. That what I do is write my way into my books, I write fast to get it all down, and rewriting fifty million times was just part of it.

Since then, I've found that actually it's not and that my process has changed. Now, I know I haven't been published very long but one thing I've noticed is that subsequent to publication, I feel like I write slower (unlike Maisey who's got faster). This is kind of frustrating but I know that I'm writing slower because I'm thinking much more about character and conflict and pacing that I ever used to. Not in a conscious, second-guessing way. More in an analytical way as I complete each scene. It IS  frustrating, but the up side is that I don't have to do multiple drafts anymore. My Dirty Virgin Hero book - which I felt took ages and ages for me to write - I'll probably do a bit of editing with but nothing like the full on rewrites I used to have to do in the past. It's pretty much done in first draft form. 

The other thing I do now that I never used to do before and probably saves me from lots of rewriting is that I actually spend a lot of time thinking about the characters before I start. Yeah, I know, I should have done that years ago but I was always too impatient to start writing. These days I actually CAN'T actually get very far into the story until I have a feel for the character because I've learned what happens to a story when I don't (pants happens in other words). I do have to tell myself it's okay to spend time thinking and not writing, but never underestimate the power of a good think while you're doing the laundry or walking or having a shower (showers are especially awesome!).  It's helped by the fact that I now know what I have to figure out about each character, which 'why' questions I have to ask. And that I also have to go with my gut on some things and not second-guess, and that sometimes I have to let go the vision I had about a certain charater and let them be the way they want to be.

I hope this process will get faster the more I write and the more I learn, because it feels slow to me at the moment. Though some books are slower than others because some characters are harder to pin down and conflicts more complicated. What's for certain is that your process isn't set in stone and you can change it. This may happen naturally or it might be something you consciously do.

It just depends on how you want to write and how comfortable you feel about doing it.

So how does everyone else do it? (and I mean that not suggestively hehe, though feel free to share...).

Post-Book Hangover - The Reality of Having a Deadline

Have finished my Dirty Virgin Hero for Samhain - yay! Honestly, I loved the guy but he was one hell of a complicated hero to write. He had ISSUES man. Serious issues. And it was one of those stories where I had to stop and think through every one of his reactions and responses because maaaaaan, he so many complex things going on with him.

It was kind of one of those books where you go 'this is idea is cool and angsty. Sweet. I'll write it'. And then you realise what you've taken on. And you think 'crap'. Then you want to back out but you can't because hey, you're published now and you have a contract and a deadline and you can't email your editor saying 'you know that book of mine you bought? Well, I've decided it's too complicated and I can't write the rest of it. Sorry.'  Not when the title is in the Coming Soon part of your debut book (see that promo that I just kind of whipped in there?? hehe).  No, this is where the rubber hits the road and the warm, happy glow of being newly published becames the cold, damp embrace of reality.

You can't just fling up your hands and say 'eff it. I don't wanna write this crappy idea. It's way too hard,' and go and play Halo 4 instead.
You can't put it away and go on with the other two really neat story ideas that have popped up in your head and you REALLY want to write more.
You can't get your friends to write it for you.
You can't put it away and go back to it when you feel like it. 

What you have to do is sit down and write that mofo yourself. Because you are a PROFESSIONAL now and writing is no longer your hobby, or even just your passion, it's your job and if you don't do it there will be consequences.

Eeep.

Now I have to write my next book which is for Entangled and the third in the Talking Dirty series I sold to them earlier this year. It's not due till May but I am going to do it now because I DO have another couple of ideas I'm more excited about but neither of them have deadlines. Somehow I'm going to have to put them aside and muster up some enthusiasm for the story I have to write now - which is proving somewhat difficult. After the angst-fest of my last book, you'd think I'd be raring to get into something lighter and flirtier but no. There's something quite daunting about starting a new story, especially one you're kind of meh about writing.

Anyone got any tips on how to get excited about a story you HAVE to write?

BTW, if you're bored with me wibbling on, check out the Samhain video below. It's much sexier than listening to me rant. :-)  (oh and apologies for the dodgy formatting).

ARC Love!!

I haven't posted for ages because I wanted to wait until I got my ARC! And now I have! Yay! It looks like an actual booky book thingy that actual people might (will!) buy! It's got copyright info and an ISBN and a dedication and everything! *falls over with excitement*

My mission with my ARC is to read over and make sure the formatting is okay and there are no serious typos.

The problem with this mission is that I've already read the story fifty million times in the process of editing and line editing. And I'm pretty sure my eyes are now burned out of their sockets with it. Sigh.

I've also noticed that I now want to rewrite portions of it. Have cringed at repetitions I didn't notice, cliches I should have taken out...you know what I mean right?  I'm consoling myself with the thought that I always get like this after I've read an ms far too many times and that it's not as bad as I think. Anyway, it's too late now. The die is cast, etc. 

Reading my ARC on my iPad. Like an actual book!

So...uh....yeah. That's my excitement for the week and I'm basking like a basking shark.

What about you? Anything exciting happened for you this week so far?

The Story of a Story

I'm on the Entangled Authors blog talking about the looooong four year journey my story went on before it was accepted by them for publication. So if you fancy reading a novel length post about what happened, pop over to say hello. :-)

Dealing with Disappointment

Post SYTYCW I thought I might put up a little post about disappointment. Because I KNOW what disappointment tastes like and it's not bitter aloes. It's dog meat. Or cat's breath. Or dinosaur turds. Or like your most hated food doubled. Crap in other words.

Anyway, I know I didn't enter but I do feel the pain of everyone who didn't make it into the top 28. Believe me, I've been there. I entered SYTYCW and New Voices twice. Both times with both comps I got precisely nowhere. Not even a callback. And that's not even counting all the rejections and knockbacks I've had both before and since.

And you know what? It doesn't matter how many times someone says, 'competitions are so subjective'. Or 'it doesn't meant your story is crap'. Or 'it was just a popularity contest'. Or 'hey, I didn't get anywhere and look, I've sold fifty bajillion books'. Not getting anywhere STILL SUCKS!  And you're allowed to feel bad about it, just like you're allowed to moan about it to trusted friends and family and like-minded CPs.

But the one thing you must NOT do is give up. What you have to do is figure out a way to deal with the disappointment and carry on.

Because being disappointed doesn't stop with getting a rejection or not placing in a contest. It follows you through once you've been published too. You might not get the sales you wanted. You don't like your cover. You don't want to have to do the heinous revisions that have just landed. Your next story idea has been nixed by your editor. You didn't get the agent you've been hanging out for. You didn't win the Rita or get the Nobel Prize for Fiction.There's a whole host of disappointments just waiting around the corner in other words. So you kind of have to accept that if you want to be a writer, disappointment is something you'll have to live with.   

My method, at first, was chocolate. Then shopping. Then alcohol. Then crying on the couch. Then more alcohol. Then weeping over my computer to my CPs. Then more alcohol. You get the idea...But despite all that, the best way of dealing with disappointment for me was writing.  Getting excited about a new story, immersing myself in that instead of thinking about what I hadn't achieved. And then sending out another submission because while a submission was out there, I had hope. Pathetic maybe, but true.

It was about this time last year that I'd just about had enough. I'd had a few contest successes locally but only one partial request - that I angsted about so much the writing of it became terrifying rather than exciting. Then came nothing with New Voices and along with it another rejection. I'd just about had it with writing. It wasn't fun anymore, it was a chore. I was so scared to write anything because I found myself second guessing EVERYTHING I wrote. Did I have conflict? Were my characters acting consistently? Was it just about sex again??? My passion in life had become an unpleasant task and it was awful. I hated it.

If you've been following my blog, you'll know what I did after that. But I'm going to say it again because it bears reminding. What I thought  was 'bugger this' and flung all my craft out the window and wrote something that I didn't think I'd ever submit anywhere. It was for me and me alone. No one was going to read it so I could write whatever the hell I wanted. If I wanted lots of angst? Go for it! If I wanted lots of sex? Go for that too! Tough alpha male? Yep. Sweet. Friends to lovers? Do it. So I did. I wrote my story and completely broke out of the fear trap I'd got myself into. And the key to it was that NO ONE was going to see this so it didn't matter what I wrote.

And it became my first sale.

So that's why I say don't give up. Do whatever you have to do to deal with your disappointment. Then get back in the saddle and keep going. It's the ONLY way it's going to happen.

Awesome Book Cake!

I wanted to post this awesome photo because I have had some good news over the weekend which I can't tell anyone about yet but shall taunt you with mercilessly (and no, it's NOT another sale).  Anyway, the kids decided a celebration was in order and so - as a surprise - made me a book cake.  They got NO help. This was all their own work. My oldest daughter's idea, ably assisted by her younger sister and a friend.

Yes, it's a Falling for Finn cake. I've already shared this on Facebook and it was so good that I had to share it here too. As you can see, there wasn't enough room for 'Ashenden' so I'm just Jackie. The brown thing off to the left is a 'chocolate fish award' so as you can see, I am an award winner already.  Aren't they fabulous children??

Jackie Ashenden, Chocolate Fish Award Winning Author! 

Definitely has a certain ring to it.:-)

Anyway, while you help yourself to some virtual Finn cake, may I also bring to your attention a fabulous post on writing emotion by Maisey. It's a must read, no matter what type of romance you're writing.

PS. If you're desperate to know my news, you can DM me on twitter. Bribes of chocolate, expensive champagne, and diamonds gratefully accepted. ;-)

Putting the A in A-Hole

I've been writing more of my dirty virgin hero and pondering the mysteries of what makes a hero an a-hole for some readers and yet not for others. It's an interesting question. I've read books where the readers hated the hero and I haven't really been able to understand why because he seems fine to me. And yet I've also read others where I think the hero is a douche and yet readers rave about his dreaminess (not looking at anyone in particular FSOG).

I guess I'm pondering this more as I'm doing final edits for Finn and knowing that after these are done, he'll be going out to reviewers and OTHER PEOPLE will be reading my book!! People who might think he's a total douche and don't get why he should be with my heroine.

As well as being totally freaked out by this, I'm also kind of sanguine because hey, not everyone is going to like your books or your characters. But that being said, I'm interested to know what pushes people's buttons when it comes to a hero.

Myself, I'm very forgiving of heroes.  If the motivation is there, he can get away with anything basically and I hate it when writers water their heroes down in the name of political correctness or because they're trying to make him overly sympathetic. If he's angry, I want to be shown his anger and if he's angry with the heroine then so be it. Because why should heroines be the only ones who are allowed to get angry? Male anger is just as valid as female anger. Emotions like that, the 'flawed' emotions, also make them more real. Because I don't want to read a book about perfect people. Perfect people are boring. Political correctness is boring. Too sympathetic is boring.

I read a Presents a week or so ago and some of the reviews on the M&B site said that the hero was awful and some said the hero was awesome. So I bought the book to see what it was about the hero that polarised people, and well, now having read it, I can see why. He was wonderfully, gloriously arrogant and selfish and some of the things he said made me laugh because they were SO outrageous. I thought he was adorable because he'd totally embraced his selfishness and was out and proud about it. I loved it from a writer's perspective because the author did not pull back on him and I loved it from a reader's perspective because I could see how completely he was deluding himself.. You know he's going to fall HARD. In fact, for me, the more arrogant and jerky the hero, the more I love it simply because of that payoff.

And I suppose that's the rub for me. If there is no payoff, if he doesn't fall hard, if he doesn't grovel, then that's where he crosses my line into douche-land.

So, I guess that's what I'd like to know - what puts the a in a-hole for you when it comes to heroes?

Um....Another Sale

I am starting to feel a bit weird now. Like it's a dream and someone's going to rudely shake me away and tell me it's not real. That I didn't just sell six books in one year. Yes, that's right. Six.

Because I sent in my proposal (three chapters and a synopsis) of my Dirty Virgin Hero ms to my Samhain editor and the next day - along with my Finn edits - she says she loves it and also the idea for the linked book that I included. Oh and also she'd like it for print so make sure it's over 50k.

AAAAARRRRGHHH!!!!

I do not know how this has happened. I'm sure the ride is going to stop soon because it HAS to.

I do know that I am extremely pleased that my Russian chess player hero - whose story I wrote and rewrote so many times because I'm a stubborn bitch and I WANTED it out there because he's cool, and how can you not love a chess playing dude?? - is sold. Black Knight, White Queen is currently slated for release in July next year.

And now my tattooed virgin bad boy - tentatively titled Take Him - also has a contract. Plus the possibility of print which I NEVER expected at all.

I am...well....rather gobsmacked.

Even with all this, I'm still hoping the ride will contine because I'd love my sheikh to be released into the world. But I'm not sure real life happens that way. Right???

Anyway, I also just want to reassure those of you entering SYTYCW that if you don't get through to the next round, it's NOT the end. All of you who read this blog know I entered both New Voices and SYTYCW, and I got nowhere. However, my first New Voices entry now has a three book deal with Entangled and The Chessman - which was an SYTYCW entry last year - sold to Samhain (admittedly, as a very different story but same concept).  I also know of several people who also didn't get anywhere with their contest entries and yet sold the same book to M&B later.

The main thing really is to believe in your story.  Believe it deserves to be read.  And if you can't do either of those things then just being as stubborn as hell does the trick too. :-)

Right....*delivers chocolate martinis* *raises glass* A toast to my virgin hero! Who's with me?

Writing A Virgin (Hero)

I didn't enter SYTYCW this year and now I am suffering from a severe case of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). To distract myself from possibly slipping up and quickly whipping in a last minute entry (I think the deadline is up anyway) I thought I'd do a post on.....

dun dun dunnnn....

THE VIRGIN HERO!

Yes folks, it's true. My current WIP contains a virgin hero. A tattooed, bad boy virgin hero to be exact and no, that is not a contradiction in terms. Now, I know some people will shriek that it's not possible to do a sexy virgin of the male persuasion but those that do so have obviously never read A Royal World Apart by the inimitable Maisey Yates (yes, spoiler, sorry).  It is possible for a man to be a virgin and be sexy. Oh, yes it is. It is all, as they say, in the execution.

However. Writing a female virgin in this day and age is difficult enough, let alone an alpha male in his early thirties. I mean, are there even men like that around who aren't geeks, weirdoes or still living with their mothers? And why would you even want to write about that kind of guy?

Well, for me it came about because my Samhain editor said on Twitter she was looking for more stories that contain virgin heroes. And of course Maisey was listening and told me about it, and naturally - because I ALWAYS want to tackle the hard subjects -  I thought excellent, there's my next Samhain story. Easy.

Not. Because it's fine to think 'I know, I'll write a virgin hero'. It's not fine when the time comes and you actually have to think up a reason for why a tattooed bad boy would be a freaking virgin. I know, I know, I could have made him a priest. Or a sexy geek who's never really been interested in women before because he likes science too. But oh no. I like to do difficult (yes, I am stupid) so I wanted him to be a bad boy. With tattoos. And a dirty mouth. Because the contrast between that and his virginity was just too, too delicious to resist.

But then, naturally, I had to think up a reason for his holding out. A reason that would encompass his bad dude appearance too, because that's a part of his conflict as well. This, gentle readers, was not easy and has resulted in a seriously screwed up individual. It's kind of scary how messed up he is. And yet really interesting at the same time. Role reversal has always been a particular interest of mine and I'm intrigued by how my non-virgin heroine will deal with this guy and what she'll say when his virginity is revealed. Already I'm feeling very protective of him and my heroine (who has loved him for a long time) is getting kind of pushy and I want to tell her to back off and leave him alone. He has issues, man. :-)

Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that his virginity is NOT his conflict. It is a consequence of his conflict. And it is his conflict that is the important bit. Because when you have a consequence like this - and let's face it, it's an unusual one in this era for men - if the conflict doesn't make sense or is not deep enough, then the reasons for his virginity won't be convincing. He'll come across as either being a martyr or a cry-baby or a whiner. None of which you want for your hero (and I'm hoping to God that my poor hero won't be any of these.

So maybe there is a lesson here for SYTYCW. Make your conflict simple. Make your conflict deep. Make it about your character. Once you have those things, the story will follow.

Alrighty so who is intrigued by the thought of a virgin hero? Who is crazy pants like me and wants to write one??  (oh and who entered SYTYCW??)

Fear - If You Can't Handle It Then Writing Isn't the Job for You

Here's a few things I've learned about fear after I sold:

It never goes away - I used to think that once I sold my first book, I'd never feel afraid of sending my writing out again. Wrong. Somehow the thought that the editor loved the last book makes sending in the next book harder. Because what if you've somehow stuffed up the next book?  It was diffcult to write - does that mean it's worse? What if the editor hates the story? What if she hates everything else I send in to her ever???

Sending stuff out to other publishers after you've been accepted by one is STILL scary - I'm waiting on a couple of other things and even though I've sold a couple of stories, I'm still as anxious and neurotic as I was before I sold those other ones. In fact, in many ways, fear of rejection was easier when I was unpublished because I kind of had nothing to lose. Now, I've sold a couple of times which means that theoretically it should be easier to sell again. Right? Right??? And if I don't sell, does this mean I suck? That the other publishers were wrong to accept me??

People will read my books - some people will love them. Some people will hate them. Some people will be disappointed because the books weren't as good as they assumed they would be. Some people will be pleasantly surprised because they were better than expected.  Some people will love the first one and yet hate the second. And vice versa. Some people will form opinions about me as a writer and some people will not hesitate to let me know what those opinions are. Which is scary.

Or what if no one reads my books? What if I don't sell and disappear into oblivion? There are thousands and thousands of writers out there - what makes my book any more special?
 

Skiing downhill really fast....

This whole year has been like skiing downhill very fast and knowing there's a turn coming up - you'll either fly off the edge of the mountain and crash spectacularly with lots of broken bones. Or you'll do a magnificent parallel turn in a shower of snow. One thing's for sure though, the turn is coming up and you don't know how it's going to go until you get there. And that's kind of scary.

With all this fear stuff, maybe I'm just neurotic and need to chill. Maybe no one else worries about these kinds of things and I'm being over-dramatic. Whatever the case, just know that if fear is something you don't want to have to deal with or is something that paralyses you then writing isn't the job for you. Because it doesn't go away once you've sold. It just changes. The stakes become higher. The further up the mountain you get, the further you have to fall.

After five years of this, I thought I'd become pretty good at handling all the worry and the fear. But nope. I think I've just got better at drinking wine. :-)

Anyone else find the fear difficult to deal with? What do you do in the face of it?

   

Wot I have Been Doing

Chocolate! From the Armani shop! Armani chocolate!

Haven't been blogging much these past couple of months. Mainly because I've been up to my neck in conferences, rewrites, submissions, edits, Dr Jax going to Milan and me being a solo mum, and deadlines. It's been a thing.

Anyway, I thought I'd give you an update on where I'm at so people don't think I've dropped off the earth or have stopped blogging or anything completely INSANE like that.

So here's what I've been doing:

I rewrote the Chessman. Took out the stuff I put in to make it more category. Darkened the conflict, hotted up the sexy-times, put in lots of angst, and then sent it to my editor at Samhain.
 
Then I rewrote most of the sheikh and included a couple of scenes that freaked me out to write and made wonder whether I am actually insane to put them in a M&B manuscript. Possibly I am. Anyway, only time will tell about that because I send it off.

Then turned my attention to my second Entangled book - working title The Player. I finished this before I left for Australia but I knew I'd done a completely pants job of it so had to rewrite most of it. Sigh. Sent the partial to my Entangled editor and got her thoughts and yes, I did have to rewrite the last half. Double sigh. Have just finished the rewrite today and will send that off tomorrow.

Next up is my third Samhain project - which is affectionately known as DVH AKA Dirty Virgin Hero. Yep, he's a hero! He's a virgin! And yet he's also dirty!  Have no idea how that's going to work out and I may yet be off my tree in thinking it will but I'm going to give it a go anyway. Got to keep yourself challenged.

THEN, once I've finished the partial of the DVH, I am going to look at starting my third Entangled book - working title The Boss.  Uptight, OCD hero. Naughty heroine. Am hoping it's going to be fun.

So there you have it. Wot I have been doing. And in there somewhere will be Falling for Finn edits and maybe paying more attention to The Gambler, another Presents ms that I had to put aside for all the other stuff.

Phew.

Oh and one other thing, just quietly because I'm not sure I can announce yet. So just pretend you didn't hear this. I sold the Chessman. :-)

Finn Blurb!

I have a tagline and blurb!  I am excited! And here's some more exclamation marks to show just how excited I am!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. Okay, so here we go...

Falling For Finn

When you’ve been burned, the heat of the moment is the scariest place to be.

Six months after a sexual assault, Anna Jameson has decided enough is enough. She’s sick of being a victim, of letting the experience have power over her. She wants her fear of physical intimacy gone, as in now. 

In the quest to reclaim her sexuality, she needs a man. A man she trusts absolutely. A man like her best friend, Finn.

Finn Shaw is all about taking risks. He does it every week on his extreme sports TV show. But there’s one boundary he’s never pushed, and that’s his friendship with Anna. When his hyper-intellectual family kicked him to the curb over his dyslexia, Anna stuck by him. 

Her request to become friends with benefits throws him for a loop. He can’t deny her anything, but this is a whole different ball game. Once they’re skin to skin, there will be no hiding the fact that he’s loved her for years.

When their chemistry burns out of control, Finn decides he’s the one who’s had enough. It’s time to break out of the friend box—and show Anna that risking her heart is a risk well worth taking. Even if it costs him her friendship. 

Warning: This book contains a strong-willed heroine who knows what she wants, a daredevil hero intent on showing her how much more she could have, sexy love scenes that’ll melt your heart, and a grand gesture you’ll need a tissue for.

This story has all my favourite things in it: friends-to-lovers, angst, sexy times, angst, an extreme sports, alpha hero, angst, single malt whiskey, oh yes and some more angst. :-)

I await February (19th everybody, mark it in your calendars! This instant, I tell you!) with trepidation and excitement...

Blogs: Are They Dead?

Okay so I'm bad. I haven't done a post for a while but that's because all my social media falls off my list of things to do when I have writing that needs doing. So really, I'm not bad. I'm good. :-) For those interested, I'm now working on edits for the next in my series for Entangled and will hopefully get that away in the next couple weeks.

But that's not what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to talk about was blogs.

Now, I love blogging. And I've been doing so for the past four years, sharing my whines and my angsts and the roller-coaster that is pre-publication with all of you kind enough to read this blog. But in these days of Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest and stuff, are blogs still relevant? I'm only wondering because apparently my blog should be on my website, which got me thinking about moving it. And that got me thinking about blogs in general and whether they're still of any interest to people.

My blog has always been geared towards writing and other writers but when my first book comes out, I'd like to think that maybe the ten or so people who buy my book who don't know me, might come along and have a look at the blog. And perhaps what they see won't interest them because, if they're not writers, why would they be interested in reading about the writing process? About craft and whatnot? Which means I probably should do posts about other stuff. *cue panic*

So what I want to know is this - is it worth it? Will people still want to read blog posts when everything is on Twitter or Facebook? 

I happened to be sitting with Randy Ingermanson, the snowflake guy, at the RWNZ conference during lunch one day (namedrop, namedrop), and I asked him what he thought about blogs since he'd just done a great presentation about online marketing. He thought blogs were better than Twitter, mainly because a blog post stays here online forever, whereas a tweet is gone in an instant. Blog posts do your marketing for you in other words. But this only works if you enjoy blogging and if you're good at it.

So anyway, I'm still thinking about this. I probably should move my blog off Blogger and put it onto my website whatever I decide, but I don't want to go through all the hassle if blogs are indeed dead.

What does anyone else think? Do you still look at blogs? Or do you prefer other media?

When Your Characters Scare the Pants Off You

Screamy is scared

I really love my sheikh but honestly, in the process of rewriting Mr Sheikhypants, he and the wretched heroine decided to go to a place I was NOT comfortable with. And no, it wasn't Huntly (though they do go into the desert, which is also not comfortable). It skated close to a line that pushes all sorts of hot buttons and to be honest, I REALLY didn't want to write it.

Which meant, of course, that I HAD to.

I'm always of the opinion that if it's scary to write and you don't want to go there, then you have to write it.  Believe me, the times I haven't gone there and pulled the characters back, have been the times when the story gets derailed. It becomes mediocre and flat. Because you can't trick your characters. They want what they want and if they don't get it, they get pissy with you and just lay there like cardboard cutouts.

So, I anyway, I wrote the scene they wanted. And it was intense. And I'm scared to death of keeping it in because it could be a rejectionable offence. But it could also be the scene that sells the book. Oh and also, if I take it out, their whole relationship falls apart since they needed that scene to happen in order to fall in love.

This is why pushing those boundaries they're always talking about is hard. Because you don't know which side of the boundary you're standing on and it could be the wrong one. But it's also why you have to write those kinds of scenes and not pull back. Those scenes are the ones that can be the most emotional, the most wrenching, the ones that take your book from being 'okay' to 'unputdownable'. They're not easy scenes to write and they shouldn't be. The best ones never are.

Of course, I don't know what side of the boundary I'm on but I do know that the scene was intensely emotional and I cried  while writing it so at least that's one person who likes it. :-)

So I'm going to advise you to write the uncomfortable scene. If your characters want to go where you're afraid to take them, take them anyway and don't pull back. Ignore the voices that are telling you the hero/heroine can't do that, that it's not PC, that it's not sympathetic. Just write it, push it as far as you can. Then see what you have. Pulling back is easier than ramping up and if you don't go as far as you can, then you don't know how far it actually needs to go.

It's scary but it's worth it.

So have you ever had characters do something that scares you? Did you let them do it?

Ten Things I learned at the RWNZ Writers Conference

1. The sky is NOT falling. The future for authors is bright because the world will always need stories and stories never die (Randy Ingermanson).

Carol Marinelli, Frances Housden, and Amanda Antonio at the dinner

2. Eloisa James is who I'd like to be when I grow up. Inspirational and funny and shared hot NYT author bestselling tips. The most important of all being: the bigger you are the harder it gets and the harder you have to work.

3. There must be something in the water in London because every single M&B ed that I've met is drop-dead gorgeous. And also extremely, extremely nice.

4. Sophia James must be a long-lost writing sister because her pantsing method is exactly the same as mine! Hot tip for layering your story - make sure you have questions in the first five chapters of your book. Questions that jolt the reader with surprise, that make them curious, intrigued and want to know more about your characters.

5. That I am crap at talking myself up and telling people what I'm good at. I totally blame the fact that I'm Kiwi.

My third place certificate!

6. That no one cares about you or your book. You have to make them care. And that like it or not, you have to sell yourself because your publisher won't do it for you these days. (Randy Ingermanson).

7. Over analysing your five minute pitch to DEATH afterwards is not helpful.

Jilted!! At the RWNZ Conference!!

8. Hotel staff blush very easily when they walk into a room to change the water just in time to hear about an  intimate sexual encounter being read aloud. Note to hotel staff - don't run out of the room because you will be laughed at.

9. It is possible to get a coffee stain on your name badge EVEN when it is totally encased in plastic.


10. That your writer friends are awesome and belonging to your national writing organisation who puts on conferences like these is a very, very good thing indeed.

And because everything ALWAYS goes up to 11... (hands up if you're a Spinal Tap fan?)

11. That my mother is the greatest for looking after my kids while I was at conference (in the absence of the good doctor), for putting on my electric blanket when I came home exhausted, and for making me soup so I didn't have to cook.

RWAus12 - The Pantomime

I think I said 'the musical' last year so this year it's a pantomime. Sorry, I'm not going to sing or dance. That would be far too much. But I shall post photos instead. Had the bestest time evah on the Gold Coast for the Romance Writers of Australia conference. My third year and this time I had a bright shiny (okay so it was blue and not shiny) first sale ribbon to stick on my conference badge!  As you can see I look rather tired - I blame Rachel Johns and Pink Ladies at the cocktail party the night before... Anyway, the conference was fabulous. Had a great time catching up with the lovely Rach and Bec, meeting again fabulous Madeline Ash, Helen Lacey, and Leah Ashton. Saying hi to fellow Entangled peep, Annie Seaton. Also meeting for the first time Fiona Marsden (sharing our love for Maisey Yates' tortured heroes) and Melissa Smith.

The workshops too were interesting, with Eloisa James giving a very inspiring keynote speech about putting your emotion in your writing.

One thing especially stood out this year and that was the sense that there were a lot more options for unpublished authors than there ever has been. Editors were actively selling their publishing houses to authors in a way I haven't seen before which was actually very exciting and I think contributed a lot to the positive feeling of the conference.

What else happened? Well lots. I lost my phone twice. Yes, twice. I know, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, once is a tragedy, twice starts to look like carelessness (or stupidity depending on your pick).  I went to the theme parks and screamed on the rollercoaster (it was a very small rollercoaster and my six year old did not scream). Dr Jax dragged me along to a timeshare presentation purely so he could get cheap tickets to Seaworld which meant I was almost late to my agent pitch appointment. Luckily I made it on time and got a full request for Mr Sheikypants from said agent. Dr Jax was forgiven...

And now I have to gear up for the RWNZ conference this weekend, where I get to pitch to an M&B editor but since they already have Monseiur Sheikh, I have no idea what I'm going to say. I guess 'hi' would be a good start. :-)

Sorry if I've left anyone out of my shoutouts. Suffice to say that I really enjoyed meeting and talking to everyone at the conference and can't wait till Perth next year!!

It's Conference Time

Well, I've been a bad blogger. Haven't been posting much but in my defense, have had lots on with getting Mr Sheikhypants into a fit state for sending, while angsting about my next Samhain submission and also the editing of the next Indulgence that I'm planning to send off soonish.

Oh and in the middle of that there's the Romance Writers of Australia conference that I'm going to and then the week after that the New Zealand Romance Writer's conference. Not to mention Dr Jax being an international jetsetter and flying off to Milan in a week or two - without me, I may add.

It's all very busy. 

Hopefully when I get back from the Gold Coast I'll have some good goss to relate and blackmail pics to post. I'm pitching to an agent there - first time evah! - so wish me luck.

In the meantime I'll leave you with a link or two:

This is to the Hot Pink Typewriter where fellow Indulgence author Victoria James is talking about torturing your characters. Okay, so she doesn't put it quite like that, but that's the essence of it. And since she posted this the same time I was putting my sheikh through the emotional wringer, I thought it was very appropriate.

Also see here, where the fabulous and talented Maisey Yates has her story of selling to Berkley with a cowboy story! So proud of you girl!

Ummm...and that's about it. Might do a post later about what to do when your characters take you places you really don't want to go (not looking at anyone in particular Mr Sheikhypants!). Should you go there or rein them back??  (I let him go there and still can't work out whether that was a bad thing or not).

 Have a good week, y'all.

Oh, I'm on Fire

A few people have said that I'm on fire recently and I graciously took the compliment, feeling pleased with myself. Little did I realise that that my hotness would soon spread to other areas - namely Dr Jax's man-shed. In other words, we had a fire last week and poor Dr Jax lost his shed.

 I'd come home late from seeing a friend and the hubs and I were cursing the neighbours party because it was loud and we wanted to sleep. Then there came a hammering on our back door. Thinking it was the neighbours being drunk and obnoxious, Dr Jax sallied forth to tell them to get lost. When he didn't come back inside I thought it was odd. Then I heard crackling. I went to the back door and well....there was his shed down the back of the garden, flames shooting out of the roof!

The neighbours far from being drunkenly obnoxious were hammering on our door to tell us the shed was burning down and they'd called the fire bridgade.

It was actually pretty bloody scary. The firemen seemed to take forever to get to our house and in the meantime Dr Jax had got out the garden hose and was waving it futilely at the flames. But by this stage the trees were alight and we needed some big blokes in firemens outfits with big hoses (no double entendre intended hehe).

Eventually the firemen came but it took them a good 30 minutes to get the fire under control and then another couple of hours to make sure it was fully out. The neighbours hung around and took videos on their phones (as you do) while I angsted about the huge wooden chest of photos - 20 years of them - that was on the mezzanine floor of the shed. No doubt lost, I thought. Until the firemen hauled the chest out, charred and burned, and opened it up to find all the photos completely perfect (except a little water damanged).

Anyway, the fire inspector seemed to think that the fire had started with a laptop that had been left on. Not quite sure how it had spread, whether it had sparked or burned the desk underneath where it was sitting, but I guess that's something we may never know. But you know the first thing I did while the firemen were putting out that fire? After thanking God that no one was in the shed and that our kids were safe (they slept through the entire thing) I ran up into our house and quickly emailed the WIPs I'd been working on to my Gmail account! You can tell where my priorities lie right?

Did get me thinking though. Dr Jax lost his computers - this photo to your right is the remains of one. The charred stuff on the top is the keyboard. But the majority of the important documents on them had been backed up to our home server. But then, what if it hadn't been our shed that burned down? What if it had been our house and the home server with it? That would have been a whole other story but it just goes to show that sometimes even backups to home servers or to memory sticks or discs can be lost just as easily as if your work was on your computer.

I think the best answer to this is cloud storage. Which is why I now make sure to back up my files to Dropbox - also very handy when swapping files between computers. Backing up is very easy, especially when the alternative is losing all your writing... The trick is remembering to do it.

Anyway, that's my excitement for the week. Time for a beer! (yes, those are beer bottles that somehow survived). Anyone had a similiar experience?

Giveaway winner - The Boss and Her Billionaire

And the winner of Michele's book is Jess A!!  Jess, can you either contact me with your details via the 'contact' form on the blog. Or leave a comment below.  Congrats!

Mr Sheikhypants Goes Through to the Semi-Finals!

In keeping with the Olympic theme of the post before, before last, I'm delighted to announce that Mr Sheikypants, the Presents ms that I won a pitch with on eHarlequin, has had a full request! *happy dances*

Needless to say I am thrilled. It's been a while since M&B have asked for a full from me so I'm feeling extremely pleased with myself. There are still a few issues with the partial which I'll have to address but since the ed was absolutely clear about what they were, I'm hoping fixing the problem won't be too much of a mission.

But I'm feeling just a tad overwhelmed since the ms requires quite a bit of rewriting - which I will have to fit in with my contracted stuff for Entangled and my next Samhain submission.

Never rains but it pours eh? So let that be a lesson to you all, you have to be ready whatever happens because when it happens, it HAPPENS!

PS: will be announcing the winner of Michele's book soon - leave a comment on the previous post to be in with a chance. Will draw names on Saturday!

Giveaway - Michele de Winton and The Boss and Her Billionaire

Doing another giveaway today - for a fellow Kiwi and Entangled author Michele De Winton.  She's talking about receiving the magic Call. Leave a comment for a chance to win her fabulous book, The Boss and Her Billionaire. This is currently burning up the Barnes and Noble charts so get in quick before they're all gone! Ahem...no, they won't be all gone of course but you know what I mean. ;-)

It’s what we all want isn’t it? The trilling of the telephone, probably at night, when we’ve settled in with a glass of wine (or one of Jackie’s magnificent cocktails) and that nice warm glow is starting to coat our skin.
You pick up the phone, expecting the neighbour to be complaining about how your dog ate their rubbish again and instead you get:
“Hello? Is that my all time favourite debut author? I just loved your submission and I can’t wait to make you so famous you’ll have to hire an assistant to keep track of all your fan mail. Oh, and when you’re ready I think we should talk about film rights.”
Dream.
Okay, so I don’t know any publisher that would start a conversation like that. No one knows what is going to make a best seller. If they did publishing would be a lot less challenging (and probably slightly boring) and there wouldn’t be so many self help books on how to write a best seller. Doesn’t stop us all dreaming though ;-)
There have been three memorable ‘calls’ for me. My very first publication call was for a short story. It was a finalist in a competition, along with the stories of EVERYONE in my writing group and came out in a neat compilation book. Rather than making it less special though, the shared glory was, well, glorious. And it was the first step in me believing that writing really was something I could do.
The second call was for my first novel. The managing editor from my mainstream publisher called me himself and I could tell he loved making these calls. Unfortunately for him I was in a meeting and had to hold back my excited yelping until after I left the building. I called him back and we had a little on-the-phone happy dance together in a stairwell. Well I happy danced. He probably chuckled.
And when I finally ventured into romance and signed with Entangled Publishing for The Boss and Her Billionaire I didn’t even get a call. I got an email. A shiny, happy dance email. That one was a bit of a dream. And a bit of right time, right place. I submitted. An editor came back to me within a week asking for the whole MS and then they accepted it really quickly. As it was the first romance I’d ever written I was over the moon. It had a few holes in it (no doubt because of my lack of experience in the genre.) But they have worked with me to hone it to its shiny steamy self. Now I’m doing quite a lot of happy dancing as I watch the rise and rise of the Entangled Publishing catalogue – and my book with it.
I guess that’s the thing about doing what you love. When you put yourself out there and someone comes back confirming that the thing that you love is something they love too, it’s magic. But even a small confirmation is enough sometimes. If you’ve been writing for years and feel like you’re never going to get anywhere maybe it would be helpful to stop a moment and check out just how far you’ve already come. Because if you keep writing, keep honing your craft, you can’t help but improve. And maybe with your newly trained eyes you might see the holes in something you wrote years ago. Take it out. Shake off the dust. Fill in the holes. And submit it. Getting a short story published was enough to make me keep going. And going.
For you it might be something different. But I think the call is waiting out there for most of us. What do you think? Would publishing a short story be enough to make sure you didn’t down your pen again? Or will nothing less than selling a novel suffice?
Thanks for stopping by
X Michele


 
Cruise director Michaela Western has everything she wants—everything except a sex life. But there are no secrets on cruise ships. She risked her job once for a dalliance with the Captain, and won’t do it again for a few minutes of toe-curling pleasure. Until a devilishly handsome new staffer with a body made for sin tempts her to walk on the wild side...

Investment billionaire Dylan Johns always gets what he wants. He is used to giving orders—not taking them—until he’s forced to go on hiatus from his investment company. To bide his time and carry out an old dream, he takes a job on a cruise ship—and ends up taking orders from his gorgeous, but uptight, new boss. He is determined to loosen her up with a fun onboard romance, but their no-strings fling turns serious and Dylan is forced to confess his lies.

When the affair threatens to shatter Michaela’s own career dreams, she finds herself caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Buy Michele's book here:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble 

Contact Michele here:

 www.micheledewinton.com
http://micheledewinton.blogspot.co.nz/
https://twitter.com/MicheledeWinton
http://www.facebook.com/michele.dewinton

Cover Squee!

Okay, I can finally post my Samhain cover! Woots all round!!  I can't tell you how exciting this is and I just love it. LOVE IT!!

Is it not gorgeous?? It's got my name on it and everything!

Publication as an Olympic Sport

Congrats to Gillian who won a copy of Robyn's wonderful book! I'm also going to be running another giveaway on Wendnesday for a fellow Kiwi and Indulgence author, Michele de Winton so be sure to check in then for a chance to win her book too!

In the meantime, I've been watching the Olympics (and no not just the men's swimming, though....phwoooarrrrr...hehe..) and all the commentary about the self belief and determination that athletes have to have etc, etc has got me thinking about that in conjunction with writing and getting published.

I mean, it really is an Olympic sport isn't it?

If you're exceptionally  lucky you might win gold on your first go and that's fantastic. But if you're like the majority of us it'll take a lot longer than that.  In order to get that coveted medal - a contract - you have to have the kind of focus, determination and self belief that top athletes have.

I have never thought of myself as being a particularly determined or self confident sort. I'm actually full of the insecurities that most writers have, that my writing sucks and no one will ever want to read or even, God forbid, like it. But what I've always had is a healthy dislike of being told what to do, especially when someone tells me 'no'. When someone tells me 'no', I just have to go out and make them change their minds. This made me hell on wheels when I was a kid (yeah, I was a whiner, no surprises there eh?) but it helped a lot when it came to getting published.

Last year I pretty much lost a lot of belief in my abilities as a writer. Every single day I thought about giving up - I kid you not. But dammit, I just couldn't. I couldn't let 'no' be the final word in my writing journey. I couldn't let all the grief the rejections caused be for nothing. I had to keep whining to the grown-ups for my ice cream and I didn't want to stop until they gave in and bought me one.

I leaned pretty heavily on my wonderful CPs in the interim and had lots and lots of moans about how hopeless I was. That was my way of dealing with the feelings of frustration. But that stubborn, whiny  determination kept me writing, kept me learning my craft and kept me sending out stuff. And I guess, deep down, I did have enough belief in myself that I would do it eventually. 

Sure enough, a couple of publishers gave in to my whining and now I have my ice cream. ;-)

So what about you? What keeps you hanging in there on your writing journey? Is it the dream of winning gold? Or something else?