Everyone give a warm welcome to guest blogger, Stacey Klemstein, author of The Silver Spoon and Eye of the Beholder, the first two books in a sci-fi romance series; and, Bitter Pill , which is a mystery that came out just last week. All three are available at Echelon Press.

Stacey is another super client of the Lovely Laura Bradford and a fabulously nice person! Welcome to The Bradford Bunch, Stacey. Make yourself and home and have fun!

Stacey’s Terrible, No-Good…Awesome Day!

Hello! Thanks to the Bradford Bunch for having me here, especially to Marissa and Denise for the inviting me to guest-blog. I must admit, I’m a little nervous. For months before Laura signed me, I was reading this blog and feeling more than just a bit wistful, like the dorky new kid longing to be invited to sit at the cool kids table. : ) And wow, now I’m here.

On my own blog, I ramble quite a bit about whatever strikes my fancy from the Battlestar Galactica half-season finale to Regency bathroom habits (nope, I don’t write historicals, I’m just naturally curious about weird things), but here I thought it might be best to focus a little more. I thought I’d tell you about the day I received “the call.”

It was the Saturday before the big Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, one of my favorites to attend, and the day before I was due to fly out. Things were not going well. I’d just learned that my books, The Silver Spoon and Eye of the Beholder, had not been ordered for the book fair (a long and complicated story), which meant I’d have to pay an ungodly amount of money to ship some from my own stash, and my husband, God love him, would have to remember take them to the post office for me in the middle of the week. Eeeek. On top of that, I was still trying to finalize my prep work for the pre-convention writing workshops, pack my clothes, squeeze more promo items into an already overstuffed suitcase, attend my nephew’s birthday party and make sure I’d covered everything at my day job for the week that I’d be gone.

I think, though, it was the laundry disaster that put me over the edge. It probably wouldn’t really even be considered a disaster by most standards, but it was just the final insult on top of lots of injuries. I love pajamas, and as a writer, I spend an inordinate amount of time in them. Therefore, when I loaded my wash into the dryer and found that something blue (!) had faded all over my favorite new pajama top, the one I was planning to take to RT, I went a little crazy. I did not have the time or the money to go out and buy something new, especially a duplicate of something that had been just fine before I made the brazen move of washing it. I stomped around the house and ranted, scaring my dogs (and probably my husband, too).

At that point or shortly thereafter, I decided it would be a good idea to check email. Um, yeah. That’s when I saw Laura’s email in my inbox, and I thought, “Oh, #$@#.” Because everyone knows, right, that a phone call means good news and a letter or an email means bad news? At least, that’s what I thought. My head, at that moment, was a wild mess inside, and I could barely breathe, thanks to the crushing disappointment. I’d been so hoping that it would work out. (No, I hadn’t actually opened the email yet.)

Keep in mind, I’d been querying for a variety of books off and on since 2003. Almost everyone had something positive to say. Great characters, good voice, tight writing, BUT…it’s not exactly what I’m looking for, I don’t have the kind of time needed to devote to your career in this stage, and, my personal favorite, I just didn’t fall in love with it. Ouch. By the time 2008 rolled around, I was beginning to feel like the longest-running subscriber on the agent equivalent of match.com. “You’re such a nice girl, but…”

The worst part was, I’d been assigned to speak on a panel at the RT pre-con about how to get an agent. Prior to this point, the plan was merely that I would relay my experiences so far, what I’d learned, and how I was hopeful for the future. After this, I just didn’t know if I could pull that off and be believable. Or, at least, not break down into sobbing hysterics and ask a group of stunned beginning writers, “Why doesn’t anybody like me?” or some other such melodramatic nonsense.

Then, I opened the email. “I loved your book. Let’s talk at RT.” Seriously, it was like the Hallelujah chorus sounded and a bright light shone from above. Okay, so it might have been my iPod and, you know, the afternoon sun, but so what, it counts!

After that, there was much screaming and rejoicing. The dogs were scared…again. And my poor husband, who had not learned to differentiate between screams of “An agent likes my book” and “I just saw a mouse and am now standing on my desk chair,” came racing to investigate.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

The lesson is, I guess, to be patient and persistent. It’s worth the struggle to find someone who believes in what you write. Also…the Clorox bleach pen works wonders on removing set-in blue stains from a favorite white pajama top, if you were wondering. : )

Stacey’s Bio:

As an award-winning corporate copywriter, Stacey Klemstein has written about everything from backhoe loaders to breast pumps. But she prefers to make things up instead.

From her first childhood scribbles about a magical necklace that would turn people into cats, Stacey has long been fascinated with what happens when the “ordinary” bumps up against “out of this world.” What if aliens landed on Earth? What if the afterlife is really just another dimension?

She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Greg, and their two retired racing greyhounds, Joezooka and Tall Walker. When she’s not reading or writing, you’ll likely find her parked in front of the television with her Roswell DVDs, staring rapturously at Jason Behr.

Is Your Author Name a Product Name?

By Beth Kery

When your name appears on a book, does the reader have the right to have certain content expectations given your past books? In other words, does the name ‘Beth Kery’ (or insert your name/favorite author’s name) come with certain guarantees, sort of like you might buy or avoid ‘Honda’ or ‘Rolex’ because you know what you’re getting?

These are questions I’ve been tossing around recently. I’ve been considering an additional pen name. Little did I know that there were some larger underlying issues hiding beneath the relatively innocuous seeming question—additional pen name or not? 

Usually I write full length novels with fairly traditional romance elements and heavy sexual content. But I also enjoy writing shorter, raunchy romps once in awhile in addition to mainstream romance. A reader might be disappointed if they buy the romantic novel when they enjoyed the sexy romp and vice versa. Recently I had a situation arise where a reader made it clear she was disappointed in one of my books because of what she perceived as a lack of the romantic and emotional intensity that she’d grown accustomed to in my writing. I started thinking about the possibility of an alternative pen name to address the issue.

At first, it seemed like a great idea. Why not streamline my product?  

Although I have to admit, I’ve had reason to be irritated as a reader when I buy a book under one name only to discover the book I bought is actually authored by someone I’ve decided I don’t prefer. In the particular instance I’m thinking of, it wasn’t content that was the concern but the author’s style of writing. Here, the use of a pen name made me feel mislead as a consumer.

After considerable deliberation on the topic, I’ve decided that my opinion is that an author name does not come with certain guarantees in regard to content. For me, the creative endeavor is fundamental. If I start writing for Reader A and leave out Reader B, I become little better than a book factory chugging out books that appease Reader A and everyone like her. My creative integrity has been forfeited.

.

I admit that I want to sell books. Most authors do. I’m interested in hearing how a book worked for a reader and I sincerely hope I haven’t disappointed or disgusted too many. But for now, I’m going to continue to write the books I enjoy writing under a single author name.

The old saying ‘you can’t please all of the people all of the time…’ certainly holds true in this instance.

What are your thoughts on the issue?

Thanks to the Bradford Bunch for having me here today!  For those who don’t know me, I’m Christie Kelley and Laura Bradford is also my agent.  I sold in a two book contract May of 2007 to Kensington for their Debut Author program.  Every Night I’m Yours was a February 2008 release and I’m currently working on revisions for Every Time We Kiss, which is scheduled for March 2009.So what do I write, you ask?  I write Regency set historical novels that are sexy and emotional.  Or so I think.  Every Night I’m Yours was definitely sexy but Every Time We Kiss is much more emotional.

I was recently asked by a reader why my book was so short.  I was a little confused by the question as my book was about the standard 348 pages or close to 100,000 words.  The reader said she usually only reads longer books and while she loved Every Night I’m Yours, she wanted more.  My first thought was more what?  Sex?  I thought there was plenty.  Emotion?  Again, thought I was okay there. 

She just wanted more story, a bigger plot.

It was hard to explain that most romances are meant to be quicker reads.  But it did get me thinking.  The older romances I grew up on were indeed much longer and more sweeping with exotic settings and bigger external plots.  I kind of miss those stories.  And yet…would I have time to read them today?      

Not a chance.Between working, writing, two boys, a husband and a house under major renovations, I’m lucky if I get five minutes a day to read.  I need those faster paced less complicated stories. 

I’m curious about how others feel.  Do you miss the long, sweeping novels with bigger plots?  Or are you satisfied with shorter, less complicated stories?

I’ll give a copy of Every Night I’m Yoursto one lucky commentor!

THE WINNER IS COMMENTER #4 - ESTELLA!  Estella, please email Christie and get her your address so she can mail you the book!

Thanks so much to the girls here at The Bradford Bunch for having me back! For those of you who don’t know me, my name’s Elisabeth and I write romantic adventure for Dorchester. I sold my first book – STOLEN FURY – just this past February and since then have been on a mini writing roller coaster filled with revisions and plotting, book covers and cover copy, promotional ideas and release dates. To say I’m a little overwhelmed is an understatement – especially with all the things outside writing that go into being a published author – but all in a good way. To finally achieve one of your biggest dreams? Amazing. I’m enjoying every single high and low along the way.

So romantic adventure, you ask? Is that another of those blended genres that doesn’t fit in any one traditional slot? You got it. I’ve always marketed myself as a romantic suspense author, but after my agent (yes, the lovely Laura Bradford) started shopping my book around, we quickly learned my version of romantic suspense and NY’s version of romantic suspense vary greatly.  What do my books have? Murder and mayhem, chills and thrills, lots of hot sex. What do current NY pubbed RS’s seem to have? Murder and mayhem, chills and thrills, hot or not so hot sex depending on the book…but all with one common characteristic. They’re all dark and twisted. Think serial killers and CSI crime scenes. Is that what I write? Um. Nope.

So what do I write? Well, let me tell you. I just received the cover copy for my January 09 release – STOLEN FURY – and I’m thrilled to share it here for the first time:

DANGEROUS LIAISONS

Oh, is he handsome. And charming. And sexy as all get out.  Dr. Lisa Maxwell isn’t the type to go home with a guy she barely knows. But, hey, this is Italy and the red-blooded Rafe Sullivan seems much more enticing than cataloging a bunch of dusty artifacts.

After being fully seduced, Lisa wakes to an empty bed and, worse yet, an empty safe. She’s staked her career as an archaeologist on collecting the three Furies, a priceless set of ancient Greek reliefs. Now the one she had is gone. But Lisa won’t just get mad. She’ll get even.    

She tracks Rafe to Florida, and finds the sparks between them blaze hotter than the Miami sun. He may still have her relic, but he’ll never find all three without her. And they’re not the only ones on the hunt. To beat the other treasure seekers, they’ll have to partner up—because suddenly Lisa and Rafe are in a race just to stay alive.

Obviously, not about serial killers and crime scenes. I write books about everyday people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and this series - my Stolen Series - centers around a Miami antiquities gallery called Odyssey. My sale blurb in Publishers Marketplace compared STOLEN FURY to Romancing The Stone, and my editor’s marketing it to booksellers as “Indiana Jones with all the juicy romance stuff the movie editors cut out.” For years, these “lighter” style RS books were popular in NY – think Nora Roberts’ earlier works like Hot Ice and the plethora of category adventure novels that seem to come and go – but recently it seems NY has tipped toward the dark side. I can’t really remember the last time I picked up a single title RS that didn’t include either a rapist or serial killer or CSI style characters solving a crime step by step. Don’t get me wrong, these are great books written by some phenomenal authors, but they aren’t what I write. And for years I’ve really missed that lighter-variety RS.

There are other authors writing non-cop, lighter-style romantic suspense – Roxanne St. Claire comes to mind – but for the most part, new authors aren’t breaking into the genre right now unless they write dark serial killer/crime scene investigation dramas. Trust me. I know. Before I sold I was so frustrated with the market I tried my hand at it. My agent kindly told me to stick to the light variety. Apparently my voice doesn’t lend itself well to the twisted and creepy. And she’s totally right. So I went back to my first love – adventure and romance and everything in between. And it paid off.

For all of you out there who are writing lighter style RS – or those of you writing in a genre that seems to be blending across lines – my advice to you is to keep the faith. There are editors willing to take a chance on something different. And like you hear all the time, the market will at some point shift, so don’t think it won’t. I’m convinced persistence is key in this business, and when you’re writing something you truly love – as opposed to something you’re just trying to sell – you’ll eventually be rewarded. Likewise, the same goes for readers. If the lighter RS (or blended genres) are the books you love to read, make your dollars speak for you. Support those authors taking chances and writing outside the traditional box.

So now it’s your turn to share. What authors/books have you read lately that cross genre lines or go against the norm? Are you finding these from mostly small print pubs or are any coming out of NY? And are any debut authors?

And since I’m so thrilled to be here, I’m giving out a prize! If you comment on this post I’ll put your name in a random drawing. The winner – to be picked and announced next week – gets an autographed copy of Alice Sharpe’s March Harlequin Intrigue – Avenging Angel. Alice is a very dear writer friend of mine, and her Intrigues are a lot of fun! So comment away!

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!

“Why do southern novels always have a crazy character?” 

That question came from an agent’s reader when I submitted The Sweet Gum Tree to her.  And it left me yelling the indignant response of, “Hey!  That’s my aunt you’re calling crazy!”

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard fellow authors say things like, “I don’t get mad at – insert offending person here – I just put them in a book and torture them.”

Now, I’ll admit I shamelessly eavesdrop on conversations I overhear in public, and I note oddities about people for later use.  But until I wrote The Sweet Gum Tree I’d never actually used real people as character models, and the fact that I did so in this particular novel was an accident. 

It started as a Book-In-A-Week exercise.  I was told not to plot, to just sit down and start writing.  What appeared on the page was a story my grandfather used to tell me about a creature called a Wowzer Cat.  By page seventy-seven, all my aunts and my uncle had made an entrance in the story.  Then my cousins showed up.  So, while the story is fictional, I kept the characters true to the reality I’d grown up with.

And then waited in terror for my family to read it. 

“Aunt #1 (name removed to protect the guilty) is going to hunt me down and hurt me,” I told my daughter, who laughed hysterically.  So much for sympathy.  I was obviously on my own.  And we were scheduled to attend a lunch at Aunt #2’s house the next day in honor of one of the cousins mentioned above who was visiting from California. 

Brave person that I am, I decided my best course of action was to keep a low profile during the event.  In other words, I was going to hide.  Deliberately, I pulled my car into Aunt #2’s back drive instead of the front one.  Then I got my dish of food and hid by the back door until the kitchen was empty.  Carefully, I tip-toed in and put my bowl on the counter. 

I almost made it.  My hand was on the back door, pushing it open for a hasty exit, when my very tall, very loud cousin’s voice rang out.  “There you are!  I can’t believe you made me a sheriff!  And I did NOT get you drunk and leave you at the café.”

“No,” I mumbled, trying to shush him.  “You got me drunk and then laughed when I threw up my socks.”

Of course, all the commotion drew the rest of the family, and before I knew it I was surrounded by Aunts 1, 2 & 3 and my uncle, all of whom wanted to talk about my book and their part in it.

“I can’t believe none of you liked my wife,” my uncle commented.

“It’s fiction,” I said.

“Of course we didn’t,” Aunt #2 said, ignoring me.  “Neither did you, apparently.  You divorced her.”

“I’m not really that bad, am I?” asked Aunt #1, who was portrayed as Aunt Darla in the book.

“It’s fiction,” I repeated desperately.

Aunt’s 1 and 2 laughed loudly.  “You’re worse,” they both replied in unison.  I didn’t mention the readers comment.  I’m too young to die.

At this point, Aunt #3 smirked.  “I certainly know who Piggy is in real life.  I swear, she’s slept her way through every man in town.  Bless her heart.”

OMG!  Piggy was entirely fictional and not based on anyone, so I had no idea who she was talking about.  Okay, I kind of had an idea, but I wasn’t going to admit it.  “It’s fiction!” I yelled.  

By the time I left two hours later, battered and bruised and hoarse from yelling my litany, I’d come to a life altering decision.  Never again would I use real people as characters in a book.  It wasn’t worth the agony.  And I’ve only broken that rule once since then.

In Close Encounters: An Alien Affairs Novel, due out from Eos in February of 2009, there’s one character I modeled after a living being.  His name is Crigo and he’s a three hundred pound rock cat with attitude.  He’s based on my cat, Fuzz.  She only weighs eight pound, but she doesn’t know it.  She attacks dogs, growls at strangers, and tries to save me from drowning when I take a bath.  I figure I’m safe using her as a character.  Unless, of course, she learns to read…

So, do any of you use real people in your novels?  Tell me about it so I won’t feel so alone.

Welcome Elisabeth! Fellow Bradford-Buncher, fabulous writer, and all around great gal! It’s lovely to have you here!

The Dreaded Know-It-All
Things to Remember On Loops, When Blogging, and, Especially, In Person

Thanks to Marissa for letting me guest-blog for her today. It’s fun to be with the Bradford Bunch!

When I first started writing, I was a loop junkie. At the time, blogs were new and I, admittedly, didn’t know much about them. Writer’s loops were where I went to converse with other writers, to ask questions and to search for answers. Even though I was fairly green, it didn’t take long for me to pick out the bad apples in the group. You know the ones I’m talking about, those writers who know all there is to know about writing and publishing, the ones who are more than eager to pass on their oh-so valuable information, the ones who, somehow, are always online and, surprisingly, most of us have never heard of before.

I call it diarrhea of the mouth. We all know people like this outside the publishing industry: The uncle who still calls us by our childhood nickname and thinks it’s hilarious to retell the story of the time we peed our pants in public when we sat on Santa’s lap. The coworker we stupidly let read one of our earliest manuscripts who now blabs to everyone she meets about the porn we write. The neighbor who has the perfect yard and feels it’s his duty to instruct us on what we’re doing wrong with our grass each and every time we step out our front door. Lindsay Lohan’s character in Mean Girls (which I just rewatched this past weekend) called it Word Vomit. When things just spill out of our mouths without our brains keying in to what we’re saying. Honestly, we’re all guilty of it at one time or another, but when does it cross over from simply having an occasional episode of diarrhea of the mouth to turning into a full blown know-it-all?

Trust me when I say, you don’t want to be known as the Know-It-All of the writer’s world. I can name several writers from my early days on the loops who clearly came across as know-it-alls. Do I buy their books now? No way. And I tell my friends not to buy their books either. It wasn’t so much what they said but how they said it. In the way they argued their point like they were the supreme being of writing and selling. They may be the best writer in the world, but with an attitude like that, I don’t want to read any of their work. The question that stayed with me after an episode like this was always, what makes them think they’re experts anyway? At what point in publishing do you become an expert? After your first sale? After your fifth? How about once you hit that 35th book mark? When you hit the USA Today list? When you hit the NYT Bestseller list? What if you make it there but never hit another list again?

I have a very dear writer friend who is working on her 36th published book. What I love most about her isn’t her unending wisdom – though I do love that – but the fact that even after thirty-six books, she still doesn’t know it all. She has the same fears I do – will I sell this book? Will anyone want to read it? Will it progress my career or slow it? Am I a good writer? Each book is a challenge for her, and though she will answer any question posed to her and loves to talk about writing in general, she has never once come across as someone who has all the answers, even though I know she has a majority of them floating around inside that head of hers. Likewise, at the first RWA Conference I attended, I sat in on Nora Roberts’s chat, and a writer in the audience asked her, “How are you able to write such great books that hit the NYT list over and over? What’s your secret?” Nora, who I think we can all agree probably knows more about this industry than any of us, looked at this woman and said, “I don’t know. I just write.”

When you are blogging, on loops, and especially, talking with other writers in person, be mindful of what you say and how you say it. Writers have long memories. We know when you’re spewing word vomit and we know when you’re being genuine. This business is fickle, and the writers who are on top today could easily slide to the bottom tomorrow. You never know who’s listening to your diarrhea of the mouth, be they publishers, agents or the next Nora Roberts. The writers who are honest and helpful and who are truly trying to bolster other writers instead of simply promoting themselves are the ones we will continue to buy from and talk up to all our friends. And really, isn’t that our ultimate goal as writers? To have as many people as possible read and buy our books?

I think so. I hope so. Because from my view point, there isn’t a single advantage to being the one person in the world who thinks she knows everything there is to know about writing and publishing.

Have you ever had a run-in with a know-it-all writer, and if so, how did you handle it?

Welcome another of Lovely Laura’s authors, BETH KERY! *applause*

Destination Where?

By Beth Kery

How I ever ended up writing romance novels is beyond me. Even though I didn’t plot out my author career with the same single-mindedness that I did for the “day job” it’s been an amazing place to end up. It’s been a humbling experience, discovering that I was rubbing elbows with “real” authors, meaning people who not only had been published, but knew the industry like the back of their hand and in many cases had trained to become a writer. My learning curve has gone off the chart in the past year but I’m still embarrassingly clueless half the time.

I read all genres of books but decided that I would attempt to write romance novels. My reasoning was that I thought I could. Whether I was correct or not might be debatable in some corners, but the fact remains that I have written eighteen novels or novellas at this point. Most of them have been published or are going to be published at Ellora’s Cave, but I also have contracts at Samhain, Changeling Press, and Whiskey Creek Press.

Marissa asked me to blog here today because I am officially a member of the Bradford Bunch. Hurray! I joined Laura’s agency in mid-October, 2007. I’d submitted an erotic romance called OUT OF THE ASHES to her. I’d heard wonderful things about Laura, so I was thrilled that she wanted to represent it.

I was—and still am—a bit confused by the New York market for erotic romance, so for OOTA I wrote something that I’d want to read: a passionate, intense love story, tons of steamy sex and a believable conflict that pulls at the heartstrings of the reader. I know that goes against the general strain of advice for getting published. You’re supposed to write what people are buying not whatever you, the author, want to read. But since I was so confused about the market, I just wrote what I enjoyed and prayed for the best.

After I’d signed the agency contract I hunkered down in preparation for another interminable wait while Laura pitched it and editors placed it in their stacks. When she called me a few weeks later and said that an offer had been made on OOTA I was practically struck dumb I was so stunned.

I’m still in shock I think.

I’m happy to say that OUT OF THE ASHES is going to Berkley in a two book deal.

So that’s my first story as part of the Bradford Bunch. Thanks for letting me tell it Marissa. I realize that the experience was the equivalent of waiting for someone in a casino and throwing in a quarter only to win the jackpot. In a profession where waiting is a fact of life, it was incredible to get a sale so quickly. Even though I admitted to being clueless, however, I know that quick sale was a rare, beautiful thing.

At least I’ll have the experience to sustain me in future unbearable publishing world uncertainties and dreadful waits.

Beth Kery

www.bethkery.com