Okay, guys, contest time. In the comments tell me not how you are spending your summer, but how you want to spend your summer. You’ve just won the lottery and have no more debt and no more office job. How are you going to spend the next few months?
I’ll pick a winner by random drawing for a copy of Witch Fire or Witch Blood, or a download from my Ellora’s Cave backlist. Winner’s choice.
Happy dreaming!
I spent the weekend in Cincinnati at Lori Foster’s Get Together, hanging out with people like Laura, Rhonda, Amelia, Annicats and others whom I’ve met before, and also making new friends. I got to see some writers friends I almost never get to talk to, like Jody Wallace. I also spent a lot of time with our lovely agent, Laura Bradford, Megan Hart and Lauren Dane. In short, it was a blast.
It’s funny how I don’t even need to be talking about writing in order to be re-energized to work on my WIP. I just need to be around other writers. Yesterday I chomped at the bit to settle down and write and was able to get out 4k. That’s a lot more than I’m usually able to write in one day. I’m looking forward to doing the same today.
I have pictures posted over on my blog, if you’d like to check them out.
In other news, I’m reading a book I picked up in the goodie room at RT called Seduced by a Spy, by Andrea Pickens. I believe this is the second book in her series, but I don’t think you have to read them in order. This one seems pretty stand-alone. I used to love historicals and lately have acquired a taste for them again (I’m not the only one, looking at reading trends within the romance genre).
This book is set in the Regency period and is chock full of spies, action, and espionage. The premise is intriguing. The heroine comes from a school called Mrs. Merlin’s Academy for Select Young Ladies. All the ladies are orphans taken from London’s slums and taught not only how to comport themselves in society, but also how to spy, wield weapons and seduce. Oooh…cool! I’m so there!
Is the premise historically accurate? Probably not. If it is, please correct me, but I think that if there had really been such a school in real life, learning about it would have kept me awake more often in history class. I’m sure many people have dismissed the series because it’s not true to history, but my attitude is this–it’s fiction I’m reading here. It’s not a history book. I’m reading to be entertained and I am very capable of suspending my disbelief as long as the story is good. Give me interesting characters with depth and a well-written, well-executed plot and I’m more than happy. You can give me the hero, Alexandr Orlov, while you’re at it too. I think I’d forgive him anything. Yum. In any case, so far I’m really enjoying the book.
Do you enjoy historical romance? What are some favs if you do? (Lord of Scoundrels, by Loretta Chase is probably my absolute favorite) And how about that historical accuracy thing? Do you need it, or can you suspend your disbelief enough to leave it?
I finally finished the book video for The Chosen Sin (October, 2008). What do you think?
I love creating these, picking out the music, the images, and planning out how to tell the “story”. For that reason alone, I’d probably never turn them over to a professional book video creation service. Hee!
In other news, I’m about 15k into Witch Fury and it’s clipping along very well. (My writer’s block of a week or so ago has passed, luckily.) I have so much story to tell! I absolutely adore writing this hero, who is the darkest, most tortured of all the men in this series. He doesn’t work and play well with others at all. He’s a loner and can barely force himself to have a conversation with anyone.
Soooo… you know what I did, right? I mean, I had to! She’s exactly who he needs–a bubbly extrovert who talks all the time. *Is evil* She’ll give a proper adjustment to his perspective on life. In the meantime she’s aggravating him like crazy. It’s so much fun.
Let’s see, I also recently finished another erotic menage a trois paranormal romance. This one is a stand alone and not connected to any series. I also agreed to write a short story for next year’s Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance. I’m excited about that.
Okay, so I talked about the things that are currently making me happy. What’s making you happy these days?
Winner of my contest from the last time I posted (by random drawing) is Kammie! Congrats, Kammie! Please drop me an email at anyabast (at) gmail.com with your snail mail and I’ll send you bath goodie bag along.
I don’t get writer’s block very often and when it happens it’s generally fairly mild. Normally I just force myself to write through it, freight train style. Right now I have a case of it triggered by the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in Sichuan province, China. I can usually mark my bouts of writer’s block by tragic world events like these, the ones that make stare in horror at the number of dead and injured and catch my breath in horror.
I’ve been dealing with this bout of writer’s block by baking cookies, cleaning my house like some kind of demon cleaning thing, and taking my daughter to the zoo (basically any distraction distracts me, whereas normally I laugh in the face of things that can take me away from writing…like the laundry, for example).
However, since I just started Witch Fury, the fourth book in the elemental witch series, the writer’s block is being countered by that familiar New! Story! euphoria that I have with every new book. I’ve still managed to get two chapters written in the last week (but my productivity is still much lower than normal). I wish I could talk about Witch Fury, but I can’t talk about Witch Fury without giving away stuff from Witch Heart and I don’t want to be spoilery. But I SO want to! *slaps hand over mouth* Mhhmmm, hmmm, mmmmfth!
I’m not really sure why world events like these destroy my creativity. It’s dumb. I mean, it’s not like I can do anything about them other than give money to reputable organizations, and they’re happening so far away from me geographically. But, then, not really. Through the wonders of modern travel, I could be in Sichuan province in about 24 hours if I really wanted to be. Halfway around the world isn’t far away at all, really. And I think that’s maybe the heart of why I get writer’s block; I don’t perceive these people and places as far away at all.
So, until this funk of mine passes, I’ll write what I can write (I really am very excited by my new book!), garden, and end up with a very clean house. It’s going to be a beautiful day today and a trip to the park may just be in order. I’m looking forward to the summer. My daughter is an outside kind of girl, so I have a feeling we’ll be outside a lot this season, at least until August/September when it becomes far too hot to be outside.
What are you looking forward to this summer? Leave a comment for a chance to win a cosmetic bag filled with bath goodies and chocolate.
A Medieval Scotsman! Woo hoo! 
BRIDGE THROUGH THE MIST
Denise A. Agnew
Available now at Ellora’s Cave www.ellorascave.com
When Alenna Carstairs is hurled through time into 1318, Scotland’s medieval world brings her face to face with hot, sexy Tynan of MacBrahin. Infuriated with his barbaric manners, and yet sensing
vulnerability within him, she vows to discover the heartbreak that has scarred his soul.
World-weary knight, Tynan of MacBrahin lost two loves to the brutality of other men. He can’t forgive himself for failing to protect the women who depended on him. When Alenna saves his life, her independent spirit stirs desires so strong within him he can’t resist her. A depraved baron soon wants Alenna for his own, and Tynan must find a way to conquer this powerful man to save her.
Alenna struggles with soul-staggering desire for Tynan, but most of all, she must convince Tynan his love is not lethal, and she is the one who can bring shine to his armor again.
Buy it here!
“Recommended Read! There is one word to describe Bridge Through the
Mist…sensational…”
Fallen Angel Reviews
“Four hearts…an exceptional tale of medieval times…The sexual
tension between these two characters was scorching…I highly recommend
this to anyone looking for a lot of action, sizzling passion and a
battle of wills that will keep the reader completely engrossed to the
very last page. Great job, Ms. Agnew. I look forward to reading more
from this wonderful author.”
Romance Studio
A water witch, Isabelle Novak has always led a chaotic, nomadic existence. But her life spins out of control when her sister—her only friend and emotional anchor — is killed by a demon. Driven by grief and a desire for revenge, she turns her back on the Coven and the rede they hold sacred: Harm thee none...
When Isabelle first encounters Thomas Monahan, she’s running on pure rage and sorrow, channeling her pain into power — and trying to freeze the life out of a warlock she holds responsible for her sister’s death. Together, they form an uneasy alliance to hunt and destroy a demon of tremendous power. As head of the Coven, earth witch Thomas must thwart Isabelle’s dark impulses, but his very presence stirs deeper desires she never knew she had…
I had everything a woman could want.
My husband James. The house on the lake. My life. Our perfect life. And then Alex came to visit. The first time I saw my husband’s best friend, I didn’t like him. Didn’t like how James changed when he was around, didn’t like how his penetrating eyes followed me everywhere. But that didn’t stop me from wanting him. And surprisingly, James didn’t seem to mind.
It was meant to be fun. Something the three of us shared for those hot summer weeks Alex stayed with us. Nobody was supposed to fall in or out of love. I didn’t need another man, not even one who oozed sex like honey and knew all the secrets I didn’t know, the secrets my husband hadn’t shared. After all, we had a perfect life. I loved my husband.
But I wasn’t the only one.
Why am I displaying my bad reviews from Amazon.com in this blog? Well, it started over here where John Scalzi posts snippets of his one star reviews from Amazon, then issues a challenge to other authors to do the same. Rachel Caine took it up. See? So, I thought, HEY!, all the cool kids are doing it and it’s not like I don’t have some one star reviews to choose from. Heh.
Bad reviews are part of the writing life. It’s not like I expect everyone who picks up my books to like them. People come to their reading with different perspectives, different life experiences. All that stuff colors their reading of the book. Reviews are opinions, nothing more and nothing less. Everyone is entitled to theirs.
I’m very self-critical, (I’m MUCH harder on myself than anyone else is), so if a negative review is well thought out I almost always find a place to agree with the reviewer. I try to learn from those particular negative reviews and make my next book free of the errors the reviewer has said I’ve made. (However, being human, I probably just make different errors.) A good review will make me smile broadly for two hours. A bad review will make me depressed for two days, but I try to use them as a learning tool.
In the end, bad reviews make the good ones all the sweeter. And luckily I have far more good reviews than bad.
So, with no further ado, here are some of my all time greatest hits from Amazon.com. I didn’t have a whole lot of one star reviews, so I took the two stars too.
Witch Fire
One star — “Not romance, not erotica, basically porn - what little plot there is exists to connect the sex scenes, note I didn’t say love making scenes. Altogether distasteful and I won’t waste money on this author again.”
Two star — “The writing was rather…Blah. Not awful, but sort of boring.”
Two star — “I was disappointed in this novel. I found it difficult to get into and kept putting it down.”
And Lady Makes Three
One star: “I was gullible enough to follow an Amazon recommendation on this one; it turned out to be on of my biggest mistakes. I wish I could give less than a star.”
Blood of the Raven
Two stars — “I would have given this book a 1 except it did have a plot. I like my books a little “steamy” but this is a little hard core for me.”
Seasons of Pleasure: Summer and Autumn
Two stars — “I am a big fan of fantasy and romance. My favorite thing about both these genres is the nice escape from everyday life they usually provide. This book did more to annoy me than relax me. The prose style is belabored and switches between “fantasy” and modern style intermittently. Characters are hollow despite the repetition of supposedly meaningful backstory. The author uses the same expressions over and over again, especially during sex scenes. Dialogue feels inauthentic and is ultimately unconvincing. A very unsatisfying read.”
Seasons of Pleasure: Winter & Spring
One Star — Style hasn’t improved from the first in the series. “I am a big fan of fantasy and romance. My favorite thing about both these genres is the nice escape from everyday life they usually provide. This book did more to annoy me than relax me. The prose style is belabored and switches between “fantasy” and modern style intermittently. Characters are hollow despite the repetition of supposedly meaningful backstory. The author uses the same expressions over and over again, especially during sex scenes. Dialogue feels inauthentic and is ultimately unconvincing. A very unsatisfying read.”
Anya says — same reviewer as the one above it, obviously. She read the books in the wrong order.
I own these bad reviews. I revel in them. If I could I would turn them into sudsy soap bubbles and take a bath in them. (Er? Did I just say that out loud?) Point is they are part of the glorious trip of being a writer. If you can’t suck it up and accept your bad reviews as part of your journey, then you should get out of this business.
Okay, I’m challenging authors too. Bring out the baddies! Let your Bad Flag fly! I want to see all your one/two star reviews. Own them, babies. Embrace the failure and make it yours.
HUGE congrats to Denise Agnew who finaled in the Passionate Plume Contest! Go Denise! The book she finaled with was Male Call, the first book in her Hot Zone series available from Samhain. I read it and I LOVED it. Woot!
Her sexy letters are his only lifeline in his dangerous world…
Successful computer software engineer Eve Carmichael melts under yet another hotter than hot letter written by Reserve army soldier Sean O’Callahan. Yet Eve can’t take the thought of his life in danger overseas, and she resolves to get a sex life—and a life period. That means forgetting Sean before anything bad can happen to him. To celebrate her thirty-fifth birthday, Eve plans a trip to Male Call, a male review club. Still, she worries about Sean. She hasn’t received a letter from him in too many weeks. And oh, how she longs for those flirtatious, hot letters.
Sean finds Eve’s letters to be the only lifeline in his increasingly chaotic world. As their feelings grow hot and heavy, he can’t wait to return home and kindle that pure firepower.
When Eve receives a letter from Sean saying he’s been wounded, her fears are realized. But fate and a little mischievous planning by her friends will serve up the greatest surprise of all.
You can buy it here.
Other books in the series. Aren’t these some HOT covers? Wow!
You can buy them here, here, and the next one here- on sale May 20!
Here’s a new release from more Bradford Bunchers!
Behind closed doors, the real games begin…
Winning it big.
That’s the name of the game at Las Vegas’s Liege Hotel and Casino, where the hottest fantasies hinge on a roll of the dice…and the tantalizing knowledge that anything could happen before sunrise.
Cocktail waitress Carinna wants a man to tie her up, not tie her down. Little does she know that her most willing partner yet has something else planned for this fiery Latina bombshell.
Dahlia is a burlesque dancer with a brain for business and a bod for sin. Her latest admirer may be a sweet-talking Casanova, but despite what he thinks she’s not giving anything away free.
Meanwhile, Amy has the perfect plan to rob the Liege Casino blind…until the intimidating owner catches her red-handed. Now she knows she’s going to pay… with both pleasure and pain.
Professional shill Cassidy is ready to experience a breathless rendezvous with her “friend with benefits.” But when he proposes five delicious nights of sexy blackjack, the stakes have never been so high.
Can be purchased here or here.
And last, but certainly not least is Cynthia Eden’s new release! Woot!
In her sexy and suspenseful new novel, Cynthia Eden introduces readers to a seductive world where powerful night creatures ignite dark, dangerous hungers…
Dr. Emily Drake’s patients tend to be a little unusual. Instead of the typical therapist’s caseload of midlife crises and mother fixations, Emily treats vampires with blood phobias and sex-demons looking for meaningful relationships. But her gift for recognizing and healing the Other—those creatures of the night that most humans don’t even know exist—requires a few house rules. First: Never trust a shifter. Especially not one like Detective Colin Gyth whose gold-flecked eyes and predatory air make Emily realize how much she’s been longing to lose control…
Colin can’t believe the doctor he’s been assigned to work with on the Night Butcher murder investigation is the one person who could expose his true identity as a wolf shifter. Smart, sexy, and stubborn as hell, Emily brings out the alpha male in Colin, unleashing a wild, heady desire that takes them both over the edge.
But in the shadows, the Night Butcher waits…eager to spill Emily’s blood and taste her terror. And he’ll use any means to destroy her, including the one person she has grown to trust…
It all started on Tuesday night with this…
This yummy little thing jumped started a fabulous time in Pittsburgh at RT. I had a great time. And can’t complain about one thing. Not even the fact I had a sore throat. I thought I sounded sexy after that.
The best thing about RT….seeing old friends and making new ones.
My bestest buddy Kimberly Kaye Terry and I. Good times!
I loved being on the erotic paranormal panel and holding my own on a panel with Caridad Pineiro and JR Ward. I was nervous as all get out, but managed to get a few laughs. And from that I sold probably 10 books at the bookfair. Very cool!
I had a chance to host a big party with my friends the Allure authors, Sylvia Day, Delilah Devlin, Myla Jackson and Sasha White and we signed books to almost 400 people. It was AWESOME. And I of course couldn’t resist the marjaritas…
Best of all, I loved hanging out with the ladies of the Bradford Bunch. Megan, Lauren, Anya (also sexy super agent man) and Ann rocked big time, and of course the lovely Laura Bradford herself. I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of authors to hang with. Beautiful and talented–every single one of them.
It was so good that I’m already thinking about next year in Orlando!
Well, I’m finally recovering from RT 2008. By this I mean I’ve unpacked my suitcase, paid some bills and organized (though not cleaned off my desk,) and started to get back into the swing of family life. You know. Yelling at the kids, doing laundry, generally being the domestic diva I am.
I didn’t feel well at the convention, unfortunately, and I wasn’t alone. But even so, I came back energized, writing-wise. No, I didn’t come up with a brand-new, shiny, full-fledged idea the way I did last year when Lauren and I brainstormed Taking Care of Business while standing in line. (Though we did talk about a followup to that book!) But I did come home with inspiration and ideas for layering some themes into the edits for my current WIP, Switch.
I finished SWITCH before I left for RT and had planned to let it sit for awhile while I worked on some other things, but while there my mind kept turning back to it. Switch hasn’t been an easy book for me for many reasons. For one, it took me a lot longer to write than usual, partly because I stopped a few times to work on other things and partly because I struggled with the writing of it. I was really glad to have finished the first draft because it meant I could take a break from it, so to discover when I got back from RT that I really wanted to dive back in was…suprising.
Here’s the thing: I take a lot of my work from my life — not things that have happened to me, necessarily, but feelings and emotions and situations that make me THINK about “what if.” I don’t live everything I write about (my goodness, who has time?) but I do…FEEL it. I do feel what I write. Sometimes I feel it first and hold onto that and use it. Sometimes during the writing I start to feel the work, instead, which is also interesting.
I’d had an inkling about what Switch was meant to be for a few months, and it was pretty far from what I’d first anticipated the book to be. In its first incarnation it was a story about dominance and submission, a woman who finds misplaced notes in her mailbox meant for an anonymous person being given increasingly erotic commands. She discovers she likes the content of the notes — craves it, in fact. But when she discovers who the notes are really for, everything changes and she becomes the note WRITER instead of the note receiver.
The book is still “about” that — it’s what happens, anyway. But somewhere along the way a minor, throwaway character became more important, and now he’s an irreplaceable part of the story. I didn’t expect that.
And somewhere, somehow, the book became about choices. The ones we make, good or bad, right or wrong, and how sometimes no matter how much you think you want something, in the end you don’t take it because not having it is better for you. Sometimes, as Paige, the heroine says, you walk away.
So now I have to finish entering all my receipts and put some laundry away and take a shower and have some breakfast, and then I need to crank up the iTunes and get lost in this world again. But you know what?
I feel it.
M
PS — I was so happy to hang with my lurvely agent the glorious Laura Bradford (or LB as I like to call her) and Lauren Dane, Anya Bast and Ann Aguirre and Vivi Anna, and we missed Cynthia! NEXT YEAR IN ORLANDO!!!!!!!!!!!
Some of my favorite photos –
I am incredibly lucky to have Briana St. James as my editor at Ellora’s Cave. Aside from being a great person who is easy to get along with, she makes every one of my books better. Here she offers her insight in worldbuilding in paranormal romances. Enjoy!
Color Your Paranormal World
Briana St. James
Authors often hear about world building in science fiction and fantasy novels. These books need to show a vibrant world instead of the barest bones of a society. Paranormal romance needs an equally colorful world and this is something many new authors fail to achieve. It isn’t enough to take paranormal characters and place them in a world identical to ours without additional details to make the story shine.
Readers and editors want to know what makes your world different and unique from any other paranormal world out there. It isn’t enough to have a vampire hero or a witch heroine, a werewolf clan, or a fairy princess that the reader knows nothing else about. What will pull the reader in are the richly imagined details of your world.
When you create your paranormal characters, there are many things to consider. Before you start writing your book, you may find it helpful to map out the history of your characters. How did they become paranormal? Were they born into this life or created? Is the world known to non-paranormal characters and society world at large? What special powers or enhanced senses do your characters have? Do they think and act differently from the non-paranormal characters in your book? Do they look different, have certain substances or metals that enhance or weaken them, do they have a longer or shorter life span than “normal” characters?
If your vampire can breathe deeply, eat and digest food in addition to blood sustenance, and feels warm to the touch, the reader will want to know how these typical vampire conventions have passed your vampires by. A line inserted here and a couple of tidbits there can go a long way to fleshing out the world.
For shape shifters, your canvas is so much bigger. If one character shifts into a dragon and the other a hummingbird, can they possibly interact well together when in animal form? What are the circumstances in which they shift? Is it voluntary or is the shift dependent upon tides, lunar cycles, or something completely different? And what happens to the clothes a character is wearing when they shift? A nice designer dress could never make it intact through a shift to dragon shape, and that hummingbird would become entangled in the fabric and most likely have a very painful landing.
It is a fine line to create the world without veering into over-description or info dumping. In many cases, a little information goes a long way. Tell the reader that there is a shape shifting clan den or witch coven headquarters without describing everything about that dwelling in detail. Stick to the information the reader needs in order to have a clear and vivid picture of the world without bogging the flow of your story down.
Dynamic world building will help your paranormal romance stand out from the pack. Color your paranormal world brightly!