Join me for three giveaways at Whipped Cream/Goddess Fish Haunting Halloween Blogfest! Comment before 8 p.m. Central Standard Time to enter. ADULTS ONLY PLEASE.
•Trick or Treat Giveaway #3! Goddess Fish Haunting Halloween Blogfest.
•Trick or Treat Giveaway #2! WC Haunting Halloween Blogfest.
•Trick or Treat Giveaway #1! Join me at the Whipped Cream Haunting Halloween Blog Fest.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Launching Your Writing
Todd Stone launched new ideas for me on how to begin a scene in an article at Savvy Authors entitled Tactics and Technique--The Right Words to Launch a Scene--and Yourself. The monologue in an author's head is just as important as the dialogue on the page. Make it count!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
What's in a name? Please help me out!
Biting the Rainbow is written, awaiting a contract. Black Diamond Jinn is nearing completion of edits for resubmission. So what's next?
I'd love to start on the next Biting Love story but I have a problem. I have a theme and some basic plot ideas and a little mini-story for the middle (Twyla and Nikos never got their happily-ever-after). But I don't have the most important element--the heroine's name.
To me, that's vital. I'm part programmer, remember. The name is the handle by which I call the whole subroutine, or access the whole program. As a writer, the name is the letter-tag that MEANS the heroine. It should resonate with her personality, her looks, her issues.
Please help me out! In this case, I'm trying to find a handle for Twyla's second cousin, a woman who's a quarter black, has the face and body of a Scandinavian model, and is a trained physician but may have to leave the profession because people are distracted by her looks. Oh, and X's name has to be different enough from the heroines I've already introduced: Elena, Nixie, Twyla, Liese, Junior, and Rocky (whose book is after X's).
Some possible names for this character are in a poll to the right. This one you can pick multiple favorites. If you've got other suggestions, comments here are appreciated! Vote through the end of October. Thanks!
I'd love to start on the next Biting Love story but I have a problem. I have a theme and some basic plot ideas and a little mini-story for the middle (Twyla and Nikos never got their happily-ever-after). But I don't have the most important element--the heroine's name.
To me, that's vital. I'm part programmer, remember. The name is the handle by which I call the whole subroutine, or access the whole program. As a writer, the name is the letter-tag that MEANS the heroine. It should resonate with her personality, her looks, her issues.
Please help me out! In this case, I'm trying to find a handle for Twyla's second cousin, a woman who's a quarter black, has the face and body of a Scandinavian model, and is a trained physician but may have to leave the profession because people are distracted by her looks. Oh, and X's name has to be different enough from the heroines I've already introduced: Elena, Nixie, Twyla, Liese, Junior, and Rocky (whose book is after X's).
Some possible names for this character are in a poll to the right. This one you can pick multiple favorites. If you've got other suggestions, comments here are appreciated! Vote through the end of October. Thanks!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Guest Sarah Grimm Opens the Bedroom Door
Please help me welcome Sarah!
When it comes to love scenes in a romance novel, I am SUCH a voyeur. Shocking, but true. A voyeur. I never thought that term would apply to me, but it does. If a love scene takes place behind closed doors, I feel…cheated. I’ve invested time into this book, fallen in love with the hero right along with the heroine, and for what? To have the bedroom door slammed in my face? Noooo!
So I’m a voyeur, a ‘leave the bedroom door wide open, thank you very much’ kind of reader. I don’t want to use my imagination about what is going on in the bedroom. I want the details! Lots of details. So it would only make sense that this is how I write.
If you’ve been following my blog tour, you most likely already know this, since I’ve come right out and warned readers in my interviews. I write sizzling, dangerously sexy contemporary romance and romantic suspense—no intimacy hidden behind closed doors in my books. With me you get detailed, explicit love scenes. Heck, sometimes my heroes and heroines don’t make it to the bedroom at all. Instead they find themselves atop a desk, against a wall, or in front of a trio of mirrors…
~*~
“I’m not the type of woman men fall for.”
“I’ve fallen for you.”
Heat flooded her system. She forced herself to breathe, to keep her eyes locked with his. “No you haven’t. You …”
He pushed off the mantel and stepped in her direction. “I—what?”
“Never mind.”
“Finish the sentence, Isabeau.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then let me.” He closed the distance between them. “You were going to say I haven’t fallen for you, weren’t you? You actually believe him? That you’re nothing more to me than convenient?”
Her pulse throbbed thick and hard. Heat radiated off his body. The scent of him filled her head. She wanted, more than anything, to press herself against him and relive the pleasure of his mouth against hers. Instead, she lifted her chin.
“Maybe.”
He leaned in close. So close his breath brushed across her lips. “You believe him, but not me?”
“You are here only temporarily.”
“Yes.”
“And I am just down the street.”
“I suppose.”
She ran her tongue over her dry lips. “So the whole thing does seem rather—”
“Don’t say it.”
“—convenient.”
Something dangerous came and went in his eyes. “Now I’m getting angry.”
His hands skimmed down her sides, slipped under her shirt and settled on her lace-covered bottom. Her breath went uneven. Searing need swarmed her.
“You want something to believe, believe this.” He pulled her into the solid ridge of his erection. She lost her concentration. “There is nothing convenient about the way I feel about you.”
“I…no?”
“You think you’re not the type to draw a man’s attention, think again. I can’t stand in the same room as you without wanting to taste you. I can’t taste you without wanting to taste all of you.”
Oh, God. Her knees turned to jelly. A hot, wet pulse came to life between her legs.
“If you can’t see in yourself what it is that I see, feel what you do to me.” Taking hold of her wrist, he placed her hand in the center of his chest.
His heart was racing. She tipped her head back and looked into his eyes. Her bones began to liquefy.
“The way you’re looking at me,” she whispered.
“How am I looking at you?”
“Like I’m important.”
“You are.”
She swallowed hard, wanting to believe him. “Like I’m beautiful.”
His lips brushed across her temple and her eyes drifted shut. “I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. Then you would know how beautiful you are.”
Her eyes snapped open as he spun her in his arms. His hands settled on her shoulders, drawing her back against his chest. She gasped at their image reflected in the trio of mirrors that hung on her wall. When had this become a seduction?
After Midnight
Thirteen years—that's how long Isabeau Montgomery has been living a lie. After an automobile accident took her mother's life, Izzy hid herself away, surviving the only way she knew how. Now she is happy in her carefully reconstructed life. That is until he walks through the door of her bar...
Black Phoenix singer/front man Noah Clark came to Long Island City with a goal--one that doesn't include an instant, electric attraction to the dark-haired beauty behind the bar. Coaxing her into his bed won't be easy, but he can't get her pale, haunted eyes nor her skill on the piano out of his head.
Can Noah help Isabeau overcome the past? Or will her need to protect her secret force her back into hiding and destroy their chance at happiness?
Sarah Grimm is an award winning author of contemporary romance and romantic suspense. She lives in West Michigan with her husband, two sons and three miniature schnauzers. Between mom's taxi service, parts runs, and answering the phone for the family marine repair business, Sarah can be found curled in her favorite chair, crafting her next novel.
Find Sarah here:
Website: http://www.sarahgrimm.com
Group Blog: http://www.smutwriterssoapbox.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SGrimmAuthor
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The future of publishing--back to basics
Lots of blogs and articles talk about where publishing is going in the next few years. Lots of people are feeling shaken by what they see as rapid changes in the publishing world. But I can tell you where publishing's going--where it's always been. Publishing is about getting stories to readers.
Let me say it again. Publishing is about Getting Stories To Readers.
Ebooks taking off doesn't surprise me. Indie publishing taking off doesn't surprise me. Both are well equipped to get new stories into reader hands faster and cheaper. Moreover, independent authors and small presses are often closer to the reader. They work with readers one on one, visiting with them through email, blogs and reader-intensive sites like Goodreads, Smashwords and Amazon.
Smaller-footprint groups in general are leaner, more nimble, and can not only adjust faster to changes, but without the large infrastructure to support, can afford to offer stories that are fresher, edgier, chancier. They can fill the niches that publishers who must sell tens of thousands of copies of a book just to break even can't.
Speaking of prices...how did you find your favorite authors? Many of mine came recommended by friends. But however I heard of them, I still first check them out the same way I always have--at the library. Here's another example of the future being in sync with the basics. Kindle books are now available at many libraries, giving readers a wider range of authors to fall in love with.
My go-to person on Indie writing is Edie Ramer of Cattitude and Dead People fame. She writes regularly for Lori Devoti's How To Write Shop and I find her articles both entertaining and highly useful.
Of course the biggest problem cited with lean-published books is lack of good editing. Anything but clean, crisp copy will come between the author and her readers too. Filling the gap are many quality independent editors, as explained in this Freelance Editor Panel.
So, whether it's a blockbuster published at a large traditional house or a small indie ebook, the bottom line has never changed. It's all about getting stories to readers who want to read them.
Let me say it again. Publishing is about Getting Stories To Readers.
Ebooks taking off doesn't surprise me. Indie publishing taking off doesn't surprise me. Both are well equipped to get new stories into reader hands faster and cheaper. Moreover, independent authors and small presses are often closer to the reader. They work with readers one on one, visiting with them through email, blogs and reader-intensive sites like Goodreads, Smashwords and Amazon.
Smaller-footprint groups in general are leaner, more nimble, and can not only adjust faster to changes, but without the large infrastructure to support, can afford to offer stories that are fresher, edgier, chancier. They can fill the niches that publishers who must sell tens of thousands of copies of a book just to break even can't.
Speaking of prices...how did you find your favorite authors? Many of mine came recommended by friends. But however I heard of them, I still first check them out the same way I always have--at the library. Here's another example of the future being in sync with the basics. Kindle books are now available at many libraries, giving readers a wider range of authors to fall in love with.
My go-to person on Indie writing is Edie Ramer of Cattitude and Dead People fame. She writes regularly for Lori Devoti's How To Write Shop and I find her articles both entertaining and highly useful.
Of course the biggest problem cited with lean-published books is lack of good editing. Anything but clean, crisp copy will come between the author and her readers too. Filling the gap are many quality independent editors, as explained in this Freelance Editor Panel.
So, whether it's a blockbuster published at a large traditional house or a small indie ebook, the bottom line has never changed. It's all about getting stories to readers who want to read them.
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