Jammin' and It's Late

It's nearly midnight, and I'm jamming to the Black Eyed Peas.My six year old got the music for a talent show he's dancing in. So I figured to play it while I'm working, and it's actually a terrific album. (I like tracks 2 and 8 best.)

I can't write fiction to music. But when I'm updating my website or doing administrative stuff, I love working to upbeat music. I like techno to pump me up, and these guys are really hitting my dance fix.

It especially helps because I've been trying for half an hour to update my newsletter, and the *&^&%#!! thing has a glitch. In my news section, it won't update. So annoying!

Now I'm off to bed to read my revisions before I send them in tomorrow. Then I'm hoping to take a look at the new Snow White movie. Fingers crossed...

Cutting the Fat

There's something to be said for excess. Too much of anything is bad for you. You can drown from too much water, exercise to the point your body breaks down, and eat until you die, whether from rupturing your stomach or getting a disease caused by carrying way too much weight.

That fear in mind, I'm going to the gym this morning. And I know it's going to be painful. See the picture to the left? This is what I see when I think about exercising. It's a hurdle, because that damn doughnut never goes away.

But in order to get healthy and trim some fat, I'm upping my routine from sitting and chewing to actively walking, running, and taking classes.  I'll exercise to get lean, to cut away the excess and get rid of my unhealthy habits. (Cue segue...)

Kind of like trimming those LY words, those annoying adverbs that take the place of strong verbs. Or unnecessary words like really, very, and actually.  If you can read the sentence without those words and it still makes sense, is it really necessary? (Note the irony of this really.)

It's not easy to work out. Once I get back on the wagon, I'm good. But getting there sucks. Drinking more water, eating less sugar, maintaining a healthy lifestyle--total trial. Sitting all day writing for a living is not conducive to good muscle tone and blood flow. So it's a struggle to tell myself that getting in shape is just as important as getting in six to eight  hours of solid writing.

Deleting superfluous words and lengthy passages that do nothing for the story but sound pretty is just as vital.  That's one of my big problems with reading literary fiction. It's supposed to be all artistic and flowery, and I get bogged down in descriptions and run-on sentences just to read about a man walking his dog. Please. What's wrong with "He walked his dog"? 

To that I say, trim the fat. Get rid of the wordiness. I don't write literary fiction. I don't intend to. It's not my thing, just as others don't like romance. No biggie. But when I'm reading my genre, and I find the same burdensome pages, I want to tear my hair out. Keep to the plot, stay true to the characters, and stop overachieving. Write the damn book for the audience, not to show everyone you know a few three dollar words. My two cents for the day.*

*As I write this, I'm still envisioning that doughnut and praying I'll still be able to walk when my workout is done. Wish me luck.

Contests: Do 'em or Don't?

Contests. Everyone does them. No matter what field you're in, someone's going to have a contest to generate buzz. Grocery stores try to get you to spend more. Retailers want you on their mailing list. And authors...  Authors sometimes seem so freakin' desperate for you to buy their books that they're wiling to auction off their young if you'll just read that first chapter.

I know I've gotten caught up in the fever. When I was a newer writer, I tried to generate buzz. I offered great contests, not realizing postage can sometimes cost. One contest I'd left open to everyone and truly picked at random, so when my kid chose the winning entry number, I was stuck mailing a lovely gift basket full of goodies to Finland. Not a great memory considering I nearly had to cut off my left arm to afford the postage. I think mailing it actually cost more than the goodie basket. But hey, it was cool someone from Finland had entered.

This is not to say contests don't offer something of value. More exposure means more people are tempted to give you a look. However, the same contest sharks swim in the waters, and most of the time I had the same people entering. I love readers who care, don't get me wrong, but when I offered contests, it was to snag new readers as well as exciting the older ones.

Now, with postage so high, I try to offer ebooks. There's no mailing fee, and international is no problem. But again, who enters to win? Because there's so much "free" out there today, people don't seem to care about giveaways. And every time I turn around, some author or another is offering a free book, a gift card, a bag of donuts. Hell, a new car AND an ipod, if you'll join her/his mailing list. And that's something that's baffled me. New writers offering expensive prizes. I'm not sure if it's an excitement thing or just an author getting caught up in the publishing frenzy, but if your book hasn't even come out yet, and you're offering something that cost $400, aren't you risking a loss? Because honestly, most epub houses don't pay out in the thousands for a brand new author with one book on her her/his list.

I've slowed down on the contests. I try to offer some stuff just to newsletter subscribers as a thanks for reading me. And I think it helps not to overdo on giveaways. Then again, perhaps I'd up my blog traffic if I gave more stuff away. I don't know. I do know that good books sell. No matter how hard you try, the best advertising for anything is word of mouth. That's how a buzz gets started. And with the Internet bringing the planet together, it's pretty easy to let a friend know if you like/dislike something without ever picking up a phone. Then again, the best book in the world won't move if no one knows about it. Contest do or contest don't? Wish I had the answer.

Now just out of curiosity, does anyone recognize the picture reference above? I saw it and immediately knew, but I'm a rabid fan. Should I offer a contest to see who gets the right answer? haha

Revision Vs Rewrite

As usual, I'm in the middle of one project or another. And as usual, I've gotten edits back on a prior project to complete. Except these are more than edits. I'm doing some major revisions.

Sigh.

I saw this coming. For some reason, this particular book gave me fits. I don't know why. I love the characters, the plot, and the world in which these people come together. But I had an itchy feeling while writing it, as if some part just didn't fit.

So now I'll work on revisions.

I've been through this before. Old stories that never saw the light of day will sometimes inspire me to set them free. But my writing today is very different from what it used to be a few years ago. What sounded so great back in 2008 now feels stale. As I read through older work, I'm always struck between wanting to revise and wanting to rewrite.

There is a huge difference. A revision is taking what's there and majorly moving it around. But it's still basically the same story. A rewrite is just that. A brand new book.

My current "edits" are actually a revision. But the book I'm currently working on is a rewrite. And honestly, the rewrite is easier. I don't have to play inside boundaries I've already created for myself. Instead, I just make up a new story as I go. But my revision adheres to what I already liked about the story and spruces it up. A lot.

So wish me luck. I'm off to grab some coffee, pray I have enough creamer to get me through the day, and then I'll type, type, type my sunny Monday away. (Man, I wish it was raining. Rainy days make the best writing days.)

Happy Monday.

A Recipe for Whatever Interests You

So a friend of mine keeps sending me recipes. She eats very healthy and has a picky family. So when she finds something good that's been tested and approved by her clan, she shares. Last night I made a ham and spinach quiche, except I didn't have any spinach and substituted broccoli. WOW. It was awesome!

I've also made lemon cupcakes with raspberry cream frosting, gypsy soup (my favorite) and Portuguese green soup. It's amazing what you can do with a good recipe.

Which of course, is my segue into writing. A good book has a simple enough recipe. Tasty beginning, flavorful middle, tangy ending. You can add as much spice as you like, and if you've made it to the best of your ability and your readers like it, they'll most likely be back for a second helping of your writing. But though everyone might make a great quiche, we all fiddle with the recipe. Some add broccoli, others put in less cheese. And the actual spices that go into the dish vary from chef to chef.

I remember last year I received a review on one of my Circ books, and the reviewer made a comment that I'd lifted the story from Lora Leigh's breed series--which I love. I usually don't respond to reviews, but nods to copying had me rushing to correct her. Nicely, I might add, I told her that my Circs (shifters) might have some similarities, but that my book had been started years ago (in the 90s), before the breed series first released. And considering I'd only read my first Lora Leigh book two years ago and written my first Circ book in 2009, I didn't see the conflict. I continued to describe my own background in the USMC and family in the Jersey area as my inspiration to write. I would never mind comparisons of my work to Lora Leigh's, but I refuse to be called a copycat. And that's not even getting into all the differences between the Breed series and my Circ series.

But it's all relative.

Take genre. Think of a shifter romance as the recipe.  Some will choose wolves, others cat, and others nonhuman or nonanimal. There can be a teaspoon of funny or a tablespoon of sobriety. No two recipes will be alike, unless you have plagiarism and blatant copying at hand.

The bottom line is that tons of people might have a similar idea, but take way different paths in developing it.
When I submitted to Samhain for their feline shifter anthology back in 2008, I was excited to try something different. I love exercises like this, where people take one simple idea and run with it. My submission was accepted, and the Cougar Falls books were born. But of the six stories, not one was alike except for the fact that the romances revolved around cat shifters.

Same recipe with multiple variations. And they say variety is the spice of life. Too true.

How many vampire books are out there, yet Twilight hit it big? How many angsty YA books, yet The Hunger Games was huge? And if you want dystopian fiction, just walk down the aisle of your local bookstore and check the multitude of supernatural fodder.

Just remember, it might all be from the same recipe, but the variations are endless.

Smut? Porn? Romance? What Do YOU Call It?

My covers typically tend to be racy. Perhaps not this sexy, but you get the gist. The story is erotic romance, whether it be between shifters, men, women, groups or pairs, earthly or not. With the recent buzz about the 50 shades book, I've noticed more women paying attention to books than before, from writing groups to the PTA to the teachers in my kids' school. 

Today my youngest son's teacher mentioned she was thinking about the "smutty" books I write when someone mentioned the shades book to her (though I have yet to tell her specifically my name or any titles, just that my romance is erotically charged--and all that I answered when asked what I do.)

Immediately I wanted to protest the term "smutty." She didn't offend me, and the comment she made was innocent enough, yet the term bothers me because it's always had a negative connotation. Surprisingly, I find that as more women embrace their sexual selves, language doesn't seem to bother many the way it once did. Frank terms seemed to be welcomed or at least preferred over the purple prose of the glorious 80s. "Manhood," "love flower," and "turgid plum root" are thankfully words of the past. 

That aside, I still can't get a grip on how others refer to what I write. At its core, what I write is romance. Romance that happens to be expressed physically, sexually. I don't consider it porn, because to me, pornography is just physical gratification. I write more than tab A filling slot B. There has to be feeling, romance, love. An expression of conjoined emotion that plays out through touch and sensory exploration.  

I couldn't care less about the gender of partners or the number of partners in a relationship. It's about the love that's shared that makes my stories, well, my stories.

Do I then call them smutty? To me, smutty means dirty. Racy? Raunchy? Steamy is a word that seems safe to me. Heck, half the single title romance books I pick up in Target or Costco have the same steam factor as what I write. Yet they're geared as romance and not erotic romance. Semantics, really. 

I wonder how this new buzz about BDSM will affect how people view romances. Will there be more or less attention to other genres? Will the whole erotic tableau become fodder for the masses, or will it remain niche, the way it's pretty much been since long before I started writing?  And when will it be okay to call it smutty or raunchy? Is it okay now? 

I don't know. I do know calling my material porn offends me. Not because I hate porn (for the record I don't), but because I don't feel that term accurately portrays my work. So I'm sticking with steamy. We'll see where this leads. So far so good, because I haven't been tarred and feathered out of the neighborhood yet. Fingers crossed that life out of the Bible Belt is easier to bear.

And the Twain Shall Never Meet

There are a few things I like to keep separate in my life, one of which is my writing life separate from my home life. So this was a definite no-no...

After stifling my laughter, though I'm sure my eight year old caught my grin, I had to tell him--again--not to write in Momma's book. I love my spiral notebook and #2 pencil. I'm still old-fashioned enough to like the actual writing part of writing, though I contain my scribbles and scratches to note taking and chapter breakdowns. I don't use the notebook for anything other than my stories. No personal notes. No grocery lists, and no messages from cute little kids and their monster/alien hybrids. Writer life to the left, real life to the right.

I recently spoke to a group of women, and one of them asked the question I'm usually asked when others find out I write--"Where do you get your ideas?"  Considering I write erotic romance in several genres (paranormal, futuristic, m/m, etc.), I can't say that I pull from real life all that much aside from being able to describe how sex can generate emotion. I don't know any foursomes living it up in a town populated by people from other dimensions. I don't know any psychics, I've never been up close to the BDSM lifestyle, and I don't have any gay friends (that I know of). I've never seen a vampire feed or a werewolf mate, and I haven't done half the crazy things my characters have done. 

I have a vivid imagination. Yes, sometimes I borrow from life. That's what writers do. If your name is John and you're a complete ass, your name might make an appearance in my book as the bad guy. My character might even have some of the same physical characteristics--completely coincidental. I will say I've never used a person I've met in real life and written them completely into a book. I write fiction, and I like to control my characters and plots, well, as much as I can. 

My story, my way. And no more writing in my book unless it's notes about the story. No matter how cute the monster at the bottom.

Check Out The Love Hangover

 

I told my friend Ayla I'd share news about her new contest.  But this is even better!  Ayla and her buddies at Changeling are giving away some awesome prizes. As in, more than one. So click on the banner above to learn about great books and prizes. :) I'm heading over...

A Flight to Coffee

Flight of Fancy is now available at All Romance Ebooks. No idea when it will hit Amazon and B&N, but soon, I'm hoping.

Today I'm having a Bend writers session at my house. This means, a group of us who belong to RCRW (that meets in Portland) but live in Central Oregon get together once a month for coffee, writer talk, and a good time. In a solitary field like writing, it really helps to be around others who go through the same stuff, like: characters who become demanding, publishers who make you want to pull your hair out, and deadlines you just can't seem to meet. Who knew these were universal issues?

Smile. Now, time for coffee and brownies.

The Lure of Anime

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. My kids gave me handmade items crafted at school, which of course I'll keep forever. Then they went out and played all day long, leaving me alone with Black Blood Brothers, a twelve episode anime series revolving around black bloods--vampires, and red bloods--humans.

I have to say, this one was pretty good. Eastern and Western sensibilities can be very different, and sometimes humor and concepts are lost in translation. But I managed to keep up with the storyline, which wasn't hard to understand at all.

I've found that a lot of anime have terrific concepts, philosophical treaties on everything from the individual to the meaning of life to what constitutes a monster. Many people scorn anime as mere cartoons, but they're actually a lot more, as I learned when I first started watching them.

I'm by no means an expert. But I really enjoy a well-crafted world, and the art and creativity that goes into good anime is astounding. I'm usually more blown over by how someone can think of such an idea than the art itself. It's good storytelling, and often it makes me want to write more. And write better.

So if you're new to anime and want to check out some fun, try Black Blood Brothers. Darker Than Black is also a good series, a new one I'm getting into. (Thanks to Netflix, I'm exposed to a lot more than I used to be.)

Happy Monday. Now I'm off to take an allergy pill before my sinuses explode. And then I can get back to writing on this sunny, beautiful day.

Happy Mother's Day

Marvel's The Avengers: A+

Just saw this in the theater yesterday. I have to give The Avengers an A+. WOW. What a terrific picture. The action is nonstop, the plot tight, and the characters larger than life. Mark Ruffalo does a terrific job as Bruce Banner. Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man is snarky and fun. Evans, Johansson, Renner, Hemsworth and Jackson nicely round out the cast. They all have equal screen time, so the movie is never the Iron Man or Captain America show, but a true melding of the Avengers. And a big shout out to Tom Hiddleston, who does a terrific job of portraying the evil Loki. Man, I really hated that guy at the end.

The best parts of the movie are the way the characters play off each other, and the Hulk, for all his monosyllabic greenness, is funny. Humor plays an important part of the charm of this movie, and there are several instances where I laughed out loud, along with the other theatergoers. The special effects are just incredible. 

Another winner from Joss Whedon, the movie has action, humor, drama, and adventure wrapped in a bow. It's violent, but that's to be expected of six superheroes out to save the world. If you haven't seen this, I highly recommend it. I plan on seeing it again, it was that good. I also watched it in 3D, though I hadn't planned on it at first. But I'm glad I did. It actually added to the experience. I think I might take my kids later this weekend. It was violent though, so I'm going back and forth on that. But I did take them to Captain America, and they were fine with that. 
So to recap, (Marvel's) The Avengers A+ .