Just in time for Christmas and Chanukah, you can get Lady Northam’s Wicked Surrender for only 99 cents (normally $2.99). I am participating in a holiday ebook sale at Book Lovers Buffet. Come check out all of the great books that are on sale! We have sexy, sweet, and mysterious books for your pleasure. All books are listed by genre or you can view an author list on the side bar.
Since I like my books on the sexy side, here is the link directly to the erotic romance page.
The holiday promotion will run from December 1 to January 15. You can find Lady Northam’s Wicked Surrender on sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and All Romance eBooks. ARe offers multiple formats of my book for only $1.00 during the sale.
My books are also available now at Sony, Kobo, and Diesel, but due to the way the books are distributed, they are still at the regular price of $1.49.
I hope you will load up your eReader with some awesome titles from the Book Lovers Buffet sale!
The wind whipped around them, lashing Rowena’s hair and making her gray wool cloak fly up and ripple out behind her. It was a dark hour, rather late to arrive for a country visit, but Rowena despaired at the thought of another night at an inn. The inclement weather had already delayed the visit long enough.
Rowena tucked the wild, dark brown wisps of hair under her bonnet. Her hair was too fine and straight to hold a curl the way her sister’s hair did. Even after so many hours of travel, Delphine’s black curls were neatly arranged under her bonnet and her blue pelisse had nary a wrinkle. Thank God no one but Alice, Lady Chilton, was there to see them. Discounting the servants helping them with their things, of course. On a country estate, no doubt they were used to worse.
Three servants shuffled about helping the coachman with the trunks. As she wiped her foot on a stone to get the mud off her boot, she overheard a footman say, “No, it isn’t him. ‘Tis her ladyship’s guests come from Town. But Lord Rutherford is due any day now.”
Rowena spun her head around. No. NO. Simon was in India. He couldn’t be on his way to Cheshire. She dug her nails into her hands as she gripped her fingers into a fist. She had no desire to see Alice’s brother. Six years had not been nearly enough time to forget the way he’d cruelly jilted her then ran off to India when she’d later married his friend instead.
She went to Delphine and gripped her forearm tightly. “Did you hear that?” she whispered. “Lord Rutherford is due here any day.”
A tightness spread through her chest and she rubbed her gloved fingers over her heart for a moment.
“I thought he was still in India,” Delphine whispered.
Rowena tipped forward. Her stays were constricting. She needed to lie down. “Apparently not. God, why did he have to come now?”
“Perhaps the storms will hinder his arrival. If it took us two days, perhaps he may get delayed at sea and you won’t have to see him at all.”
Rowena prayed her sister was right. Please let him be at sea and not already in England. Because God help her, she could think of nothing worse than having to spend two weeks trapped at the Chilton estate with Simon.
They were ushered inside and shown to the parlor while their belongings were taken upstairs. A fire was lit and they warmed themselves beside the huge stone hearth. The charming 16th century country manor was impeccably maintained. Even in the golden glow of the fire, she could see that the settee had been reupholstered in a blue and gold damask and the wallpaper looked new. The furniture was classic, yet made the room somehow feel warm and inviting. Alice’s impeccable taste never failed to impress.
As Rowena removed her gloves, they heard a voice calling to them.
“How lovely to see you both.” A very round Alice gracefully walked toward them. Blonde tendrils peeked from her thin cap. She was still dressed for evening, wearing a pretty, lavender gown that had a sheer overlay, embroidered with gold dots, and a full satin gown underneath. Even out here in the country, with no one to impress but the local farmers, Alice managed to look regal. Rowena admired the lovely gold rope, which trimmed the bodice, empire waist and sleeves. Her white gloves were also trimmed in gold.
Though Alice was in a ‘delicate condition’, she moved with barely a hindrance. She hugged Rowena warmly, and gave each of them a kiss on the cheek. The playful look in her blue eyes and the wide smile she gave reminded Rowena a bit of Simon. Both had high cheekbones, blond curls, and mischievous smiles. The only difference was in their eye color: Rowena caught her breath at the memory of Simon’s blue-grey gaze, heated when he looked at her. Until the last time. Quickly she banished the image of blue-grey steel and brought her attention back to Alice, who was reaching for the bell pull by the fireplace.
My guy is obsessed with manga and anime. He loves all things Japanese. So, one of the things he did when we first started hanging out was to introduce me to two of his favorite manga, Psyren, which is sort of a paranormal alternate world with teens that have psychic powers and Full Metal Panic, which is hard to define but I guess it’s a cross between comedy, sci fi, and romantic suspense, with a mild paranormal element.
One of the things I love about Full Metal Panic (FMP) is the heroine, Kaname Chidori. She’s just the sort of heroine I like: Kaname speaks her mind, is quick on her feet, doesn’t back down from a challenge and she keeps the hero on his toes. She’s also quite fond of whacking him firmly with a white fan and yelling at him when he goes too far (which is most of the time).
Her hero, Sousuke Sagara (pronounced like Sose-Kay), is a teenager who has been raised to be a mercenary since he was a kid. He is the soldier of an elite secret military organization that protects people around the world from dangerous terrorists. He’s socially awkward, extremely adept with weapons and military strategy, and he just cannot fit into high school no matter how hard he tries. He blows up a locker when he realizes it’s been tampered with and when a love letter is discovered inside, he mistakenly assumes that it is a death threat. He carries a gun to school (with rubber bullets) and generally makes Kaname’s life at school one insane episode after another. But, what she doesn’t realize is that she actually IS being hunted by terrorists and Sousuke is over-reacting to normal events for good reason.
It all makes for a really entertaining story, though the early volumes are much lighter and fun and things get quite serious and dangerous toward the end. There are two main manga series for Full Metal Panic: Full Metal Panic! (part 1) and Full Metal Panic! Sigma (part 2). The story is based on a series of Japanese novels and was also turned into an anime.
While Kaname is in some ways a bit more intense than my heroines, I love her strength. I love that she never gives up even when put through hell and that while she loves Sousuke dearly, she also challenges him. Who are your favorite strong heroines? Or, if you also enjoy manga, what are your favorite manga stories with a romance subplot?
This weekend, my local RWA chapter hosted literary agent Laura Bradford. It was a very good 1 hour mini-workshop. The focus of the lecture was author professionalism and ways to nurture relationships with industry professionals and with readers. You could say it was a “Dos and Don’ts” presentation.
There were two things that she repeated during the workshop:
“When you are outlining your goals, do not let others denigrate your goal/career track.” This was very relevant for me as I am currently evaluating my career goals and making decisions about how to best get my work out into the world. It is very easy to compare your journey with that of others and sometimes you can get swayed by well-intentioned friends or family or professional colleagues who have very different opinions on the “right way” to publish, market, build a career, etc.
The other thing she repeated was “Being gracious and accommodating can go a long way with people you work with” and “Decorum and professionalism go a long way.” She said that our reputation is our “currency” and it is very important to maintain professionalism and courtesy in dealing with editors, art directors, reviewers, readers (as well as your agent). Simple courtesies can make a lasting impression on those that you work with and outbursts or knee-jerk reactions can also stick with people many years later. The romance industry is very small and people do talk with one another. The person you argue with or insult or just rub the wrong way could be a person who you need something from later or could be a friend or colleague of someone else that you want to connect with down the road. If you burn bridges, it follows you long after the incident is over. She stressed that it is also easy to say things online in forums, yahoo loops, twitter, blogs, etc. and it is important to always be conscious that once you are a published author, anything you say online becomes public information, even if you think no one will see it.
There were lots of good tidbits in the discussion, but these were two of the main points.
I just returned from a Romance Writers of America conference. It was a crazy, tiring, yet awesome experience. My favorite workshop this year was run by Alexandra Sokoloff. I think it was called Screenwriting Tips for Writers. It breaks down the structure screenwriters use to create movie scripts and shows authors how to pace their novels in a similar way.
Alexandra uses the 3 Act, 8 Sequence Structure and the Hero’s Journey to create books in 8 sections, each ending with it’s own climax. Each sequence moves the story forward in some way and the climactic scene is described as a “set piece”.
At the beginning of the workshop, Alexandra Sokoloff asked us to write down ten movies and ten books that relate to the story we are writing. It could be the same subject or it could be the same genre. For example, if you’re writing a book about a haunted house, then you would list movies connected to haunted houses: The Haunting, Poltergeist, The House on Haunted Hill, etc. By watching these films, you can start to see how the movies are paced and how they follow the 8 sequence structure.
About every 15 minutes or so of screen time, there is usually a set piece scene that contains a climax (cars blowing up, a secret revealed, a murder, a sex scene, etc.) And, the 60 minute and the 90 minute marks will contain the really big scenes because 60 minutes is the midpoint and 90 minutes is when the final climax is presented for resolution.
I’m finding this concept very fascinating. It’s true that most stories/movies follow a certain pattern or rhythm even though the subject matter is vastly different. I like the idea of having a story structure, but one that I can freely move within (because I’m a pantser). It generally doesn’t work for me to have too much outlined ahead of time, but I think if I can roughly have the 8 sequences in my head when I start, then I can pants my way through to each turning point in the story.
We talked about the Hero’s Journey as well, which is another whole blog post. I think it gets used a lot in films, but I’ve never tried to apply it to my own writing.
Another fun highlight of conference was listening to Nora Roberts when she talked about her early books for Silhouette. She said she sold a few and was invited to submit by outline rather than the full book. But, Nora could not outline. She pants her way through all of her books, so she would write the whole thing and then create the outline at the end and submit it to her editor. One day, it finally came out that she’d been doing this and the editor told her to just go ahead and submit the whole thing and forget about the outline. As a pantser, it’s encouraging because I struggle with plotting.
I also loved that Nora goes through several drafts of each book. The spewed draft, then the drafts where she layers everything in and checks world-building and facts, and a final draft when she tweaks the language.
All in all, I’m feeling inspired by my conference experience and hoping these nuggets of wisdom will imprint themselves and smooth out my writing process.
Recently, I decided to extend/re-write an older manuscript. One of the problems with the book is that I have so many characters and plotlines in my head, but many of them did not appear in the hard copy of the story. After talking with Crystal Jordan recently, who suggested that all of these characters and plotlines are fodder for sequels, I decided to create a story bible for the book (or book series).
I debated on whether to do a printed bible or a virtual one. I had visions of both a binder and an excel document with minute details. This weekend, I decided to start the story bible as an excel document.
The first worksheet covers all of the characters and has columns for hair color, eye color, height, astrology sign, what actor the character looks like, and more in depth questions such as: the character’s goal, why they want the goal, why they can’t have the goal, favorite rooms/places to relax, favorite sex positions, their favorite phrases, what their lover(s) say about them, what family and friends say about them, how they show anger, secrets and childhood events.
The nice thing about the document is that I can easily search through it for specifics if I ever forget the best friend’s eye color, for example. I can also remind myself of a particular character’s childhood or physical imperfections if down the road the character appears in a second or third book.
The other worksheets will cover thematic elements and help me track plotlines and scenes that relate to a particular story arc or character arc.
I tend to be a big picture person, so outlining and detailed story notes aren’t usually my thing. But, so far, I’m enjoying the ease and detail of the excel story bible. My friend KB Alan organizes her story notes in One Note.
For those of you who write story bibles for series books or television, how do you usually organize it? Is it an excel or word doc? A scrapbook? A shoebox full of notes and pictures? A posterboard? Index cards? Something else?
My website is currently being redesigned. There will be outages over the next two weeks. If you need to reach me, please contact me here or via Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/vivwestlake.
So in April, there will be a new, shiny website. Courtesy of Jaxadora Design.
I saw a tweet by Angela James this morning that made me think of the idea for today’s blog. What makes readers put down a book–particularly when they are in the book store and considering making a purchase?
Is it the bad cover with the man titty or the half naked people on front? Is it a terrible title? Did they read the first page and decide it was dreck? Was it a poorly written back cover blurb? Or, as simple as the genre not being a fit? Maybe the title made you think contemporary but the book is historical.
So, when you’re browsing for books or maybe digging through your To Be Read (TBR) pile, what makes you throw down one book and move on to the next one?
(For me, a bad cover will make me drop a book like hot cakes and a good cover will make me buy a book without reading the blurb)
On Monday, I went with Rachel Jameson to see two documentary screenings hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The first was a film about the writer-historian David McCullough. This one really inspired me.
One of the most important things David said during the documentary was that art is something that can only be learned by doing. You can only get so much from books and watching. The real knowledge comes from doing it: writing it, sculpting it, painting it, acting it, performing it. That is the only way to truly master a creative art form.
I loved the way David McCullough delved deeply into historical figures he wrote about by going where they went and doing things they did and learning what they learned. Though it sounds so simple, not all writers do this. In some cases, the residence of said historical figure is either far away or no longer exists, but in other cases, we just study as much as we can from books and go from there. But, there is something to be said for breathing the air in the same place as a character and seeing what they see (or saw).
The film made me think differently of myself as a creative artist/writer and about the kind of writer I want to be.
The second documentary featured Phillip Glass. It was about two and a half times as long as the first one and delved into Phil Glass’ family life, composition, friends, and a bit of history surrounding his career. On the whole, this one wasn’t as engaging as the David McCullough documentary, but there was something that I did learn while watching.
Early on in the film, Phil Glass says that sometimes he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He doesn’t always have a plan for what the whole thing will be, he just writes it until it all comes together and sometimes, when the conductor and the musicians play it, he will make adjustments because the notes he writes down are not always the sound he heard in his head when the song first came to him. He talked about having to listen and that there are times when the music is faint in his mind and he has to concentrate to hear the music.
I think this is the experience of most creatives. You hear or see something and you attempt to write it down or paint it but what you heard or saw in your mind is fuller, deeper in context than what you can convey with your translation of it. I find that as I write I don’t always know what the story will be. There are times when I stop and start, when I have to re-group and figure it all out. And, there are times when I start writing, not fully knowing the direction, and yet it all comes together so brilliantly that I can amaze yourself (those are the moments artists all treasure).
So, I leave you with the thought that we must all learn our art by doing, by practicing, by writing, composing, painting, crafting. And, that sometimes, you don’t know when you begin where you are going or where it will end up, but that doesn’t make the effort less valid.
I have some good news to share this week. I found out that I have been nominated for the position of Vice President of ESPAN (the RWA chapter specifically devoted to epublishing). This was a nice surprise as I had not declared for a position. Not too long ago, I did volunteer to be part of a committee.
ESPAN elections will be at the beginning of November.
This past year, I have served on the Board of Los Angeles Romance Authors in the PR position. It has been a hectic year, but I’ve been very blessed to have made wonderful friends. Just this weekend, LARA had its annual Book Fair, featuring fourteen of our published authors. While I won’t be staying on as Director of PR, I will stay an active part of the LARA membership.
I am very excited to see what 2010 will bring and hope I will be given the opportunity to serve on the Board of ESPAN. Wish me luck!
I write historical erotic and paranormal romance. My favorite periods of history to write about are the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Regency, and Victorian England.
This & That
I recently attended the Romantic Times Conference in Los Angeles.
