After having my daughter almost two years ago now–holy cow, where did all that time go?–my idea bucket was dead, empty. I had nothing. It took several months before I could write my then contracted and quickly becoming overdue book (Operation G-Spot), let alone formulate ideas for future ones.

As all good things have a way of doing, eventually the ideas started coming back to me. Still, though, there were days I struggled to really pull all my thoughts together into a cohesive storyline. But, as of the last few months, that is no longer an issue. The ideas are popping clean out of the bucket, and I swear I can’t write fast enough to keep all those characters in my head happy.

My most recent idea came to me while watching the Discovery Channel a couple weeks ago, and I just have to write this story! I mean I am so in love with the concept that I am afraid to even share it for fear someone will tell me it isn’t as wonderful as I have myself convinced. The problem is I have two other currently contracted books to write first, and then another couple proposals I would love to see go to contract.

So what to do? How am I to placate these characters in my head and get to this new idea I so love yet meet all these other deadlines? What do you all do, when you have too many things to accomplish (be they writing or otherwise) and know you can never get them all done? In my case I really don’t have a choice but to focus on my current contracts (which I am excited about too, don’t get me wrong), but then how do I keep my love and excitement for that other story fresh while these current ones get written?

I look forward to your thoughts…and in the meanwhile last week’s contest winner is…

Thanks to everyone who shared their villain POV thoughts–They really helped to make the decision of how much bad guy to include in my WIP.

Today is my birthday. Confetti! Champagne! Well, okay, I plan on having a little champagne. I haven’t had any champagne since New Year’s Eve. I have my favorite, Martini and Rossi Asti Spumanti (okay, it’s sparkling wine…not champagne).

In the meantime, my latest Special Investigations Agency (SIA) story, INSTINCT, is out today as well.

Who or what is the SIA? Is it a secret society? A new government agency? If you said government agency, you’d be right. The SIA stands for Special Investigations Agency and it’s the fictional organization created when Rosemary Laurey, Tracy Cooper Posey and I wrote the WINTER WARRIORS anthology for Ellora’s Cave. All three stories featured heroines who are agents.

In the fictional world, the SIA formed twenty years ago to stamp out threats to the world at large, especially those of a supernatural bent. The SIA is an international organization. Although my stories often originate at the SIA main headquarters for the U.S., which is situated at a top secret facility in Colorado, I wanted my stories to include plenty of adventure in other places.

In my story MANEATER featured in the WINTER WARRIORS anthology, the heroine and the hero, both agents for SIA, don’t have supernatural powers themselves. Yet they use their brains and brawn to bring down the genetically mutated creature stalking a high mountain lab. This story had its tongue-in-cheek moments. When I wrote it I wanted the reader to get a laugh along with the adventure.

After the success of the anthology, and major idea brainstorming, I decided to carry the SIA one step farther and shaped full length novels featuring more characters from this premier agency. PRIMORDIAL combines my love for archaeology with a desire to write a story set in a jungle. It is hard to define this book other than to say it is romantic suspense/thriller/and paranormal all wrapped into one. I created Puerto Azul, a fictional Central American country as my setting, then featured an archaeologist heroine and a drop-dead gorgeous agent ready to take on a sinister enemy in order to retrieve a stolen artifact.

In OVER THE LINE, a shorter romantic suspense novel, I gave the classic boss-and-subordinate in-love-story a twist and added a stalker to the mix.

Then came SINS AND SECRETS, which features a hero who isn’t what he appears to be. This story is a complex romantic suspense with one (maybe two) bad guys, and a hero and heroine with psychic abilities. In JUNGLE FEVER, I returned to Puerto Azul, this time with a quickie story that is laced not only with heat, but with a heart-wrenching, romantic story. In HIDEAWAY, I mixed an author heroine who has a severe case of writer’s block with her long time friend and SIA agent. But he’s been injured on a mission and doesn’t remember her.

This June came CLANDESTINE. This story features a character that shows up in quite a few of my SIA novels. She’s finally getting her own romance! Can’t get enough of Scottish men? Not only do I have a Scottish hero in OVER THE LINE, but I also have a Scottish hero in INSTINCT. Here’s a little blurb to get you intrigued.

She can’t release the past…
But the past is about to take hold of her…
SIA scientist Mina Carling shies from contact with Scottish SIA soldier Lucas Sloan. After all, the gorgeous, tough-talking soldier has a reputation for a voracious almost…animal sexual appetite. He’s arrogant, and she doesn’t like him.
He wants nothing to do with a permanent relationship…
Yet one relationship keeps finding him…
Lucas tracks evil entities in the dark places of the world and never seeks more than physical satisfaction with women. Yet something within Mina calls to his deepest male instincts to protect, even though he doesn’t really like her.
Sometimes there are human urges that are just so…animal.
When Mina and Lucas are thrown together at a conference, all the basic instincts they’ve tried to ignore find a way to escape. All the feelings they thought were dislike melt together, in one hot, unbelievably passionate discovery.
**
For excerpts and more information, stop by my website at www.deniseagnew.com. Have a great day!

Is it the cover? A sexy shot of a mysterious man?

Is it the back cover blurb? A teaser of information that makes you want to read more?

Is it the first chapter? Or maybe the excerpt at the front of the book? Do you get drawn in to the tale and you just have to find out what happens next?

Or is it the quotes from other authors that you see on the cover? Does the fact that, oh, say Sherrilyn Kenyon recommends the book matter to you?

I’ve got to say, I’m really curious about just what makes folks pick up books–then buy them.

For me, I’ll admit to being attracted to the cover of a book. Titles also really catch my eye. I love snappy titles. But the cover and title alone don’t sell the work for me. A recommendation by Sherrilyn Kenyon won’t even sell it (though that recommendation will certainly make me snatch up the book for a closer look).

No, I’m a back cover gal. I buy books based solely on the info on the back. If the story sounds intriguing, then I make my purchase. If it doesn’t, well, then the book goes back on the shelf.

I don’t read the first chapter. Don’t even usually look at the excerpt. If the blurb hooks me, I’m sold.

After that, if I’m pleased with the book, then I’m a loyal reader. I’ll search for all the other stories my new author has written and greedily devour them. Yep, a good book usually hooks me for the long haul

And what about you folks out there in blogland? Just what is it that makes you (1) pick up a book and then (2) decide to buy it?

I am back from an exhausting weekend trip, so please excuse me if this rambles a bit and then I fall asleep at the keyboard. My daughter, normally a very well-behaved, lovely and charming child, found her “spicy side” on this trip. Heh. And her lungs. She found her lungs at dinner at P.F. Chang’s last night. It was loud in there anyway, and I think she decided to just add to it. Why not? As a result, there was much yelling. I don’t think our neighbors thought it was cute. Whoops. Hey, it added ambiance…erm, a little.

So I’ve been thinking about my status as a self-proclaimed “plotter” lately. I think I’ve been lying to myself. I’m actually not a plotter, not completely. I’m sort of stuck somewhere on the continuum between plotter and pantster (someone who writes “by the seat of their pants,” without plotting out the story beforehand).

I do plot out my novels beforehand. I figure out the conflicts, internal and external. I make sure they mesh for the hero/heroine so as to get the optimal mix to fuel their relationship. Let’s face it, if you don’t have adequate conflict, you’re in deep trouble. I do character charts and interviews and what not.

And yet….

Here’s the thing, I don’t really know my characters until I write them. I don’t really know them until I put them in sticky situations and see how they react, see what choices they make. AND, since my character’s choices ultimately drive and direct the plot, I don’t really know the storyline until I write my characters. At least a little. It could be as few as two chapters before I really understand what makes them tick. It’s almost like a really in-depth character interview, those first couple chapters. After that, then I can plot out the book.

So, my synopses are more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. I use my synopses as a path to follow, but I might stray a bit here and there because my characters turn out to be different people than I thought they were. Yeeessss, I’m aware that sounds pretty freakish, talking about my characters as though they’re real people. While some might describe me as a little eccentric, I promise I do have all my crayons in the box.

Hope you all had a great weekend! I’m going to go collapse now.

Dirty, low down contest. If you can spot the bit of movie dialogue in here, email me the movie and who says it (which character) to anya (at) yahoo.com. Don’t post it in the comments!!!! I’ll enter you in a contest to win a title from my EC backlist. Winner to be posted next Monday.

I wrote a comment over on Dear Author that I thought was worthy of its own post. I’ll include it here and summarize the context for you. They put up an article about a Pulitzer Prize winner sharing with his grad students how his wife is leaving him to join Ted Turner’s harem. The consensus seemed to be that the professor’s behavior constituted an ethical breach. He stepped over the line in writing this long, overly personal email. Gawker has the full text.

Here’s what I said.

Wow, that’s quite a faux pas. I can’t imagine why he thought it was appropriate to share that. Does he think he’s Henry James? But unless I’m mistaken, James didn’t circulate those letters in a university classroom. However unique or scandalous it may be, it’s a mistake for a professor to allow his personal life to take center stage.

I put forth that such a dearth of discretion can be attributed to modern society in general. We concede basic privacies that would’ve shocked people thirty years ago. Between Google Earth, people being chipped for security purposes at work, data-mining Internet adware, and reality shows that think nothing of televising the most intimate of details, we have developed what I call The Cult of Oversharing.

It doesn’t occur to folks to censor like they used to. We’re accustomed to the media telling us that “people have a right to know” and we’ve all but forgotten an older adage related to the right to privacy. This concerns me, and opens questions regarding what it means to be a public figure, like an author, singer, actor or other entertainer. Because I put books out for public consumption does this mean people deserve to know everything about me? Sift through my life as if panning for gold in a river bed? I sincerely hope not. Though I want to be seen as friendly and approachable, I don’t want to join the cadre of folks who think nothing of talking about their sex lives on their blog, as if readers care or have some vested interest in such things.

In some respects, I think I may be turning into a grumpy old woman. That’s ironic because I appear to be getting younger looking as the years roll on. I look at pictures of me in my 20s and I looked positively ancient. Haggard. I blame it on the drain of small children. On the plane back from Dallas, the guy sitting in my row with my daughter and me hit on me all the way back to Mexico City. He asked if we were sisters. In the car, my daughter told her dad about it. She sounded disgusted when she said, “I never thought I’d see some guy hitting on Mom!”

I only mention this because it happened again this weekend. Well, the sisters thing, not a guy hitting on me. Friday I took Andrea out to the salon for some mother - daughter bonding time, manicures and pedicures, stat! I was making small talk with the stylist and told her I had brought my daughter in for a treat.

She goggled at me and said, “Hija? No! Tu hermana.” She was so emphatic that I thought for a minute I had the wrong word. I had to consider for a minute before saying, “No, mi hija.”

“Really? How old are you?”

I told her. Then she was so shocked she called another stylist in. Said, “That’s her daughter! Can you believe it? Your skin, your face, you look so young. I thought you were 20, 22.”

At which point I giggled. Perhaps she was flattering me, but I’ll take it. So twice in the last month, people have taken me and my daughter for sisters. Bev said I look twelve in a picture of my husband and me. I did not look twelve with all my cleavage on Smart Bitches.

However old I look, I feel like a grumpy old lady inside. I’m tired of reality TV shows that prevent awesome scripts from being turned into pilots. I’m tired of celebrity gossip. I really don’t give a shit whether Brad and Angelina are on the rocks, and I’m even more more tired of the stupid nicknames they give high profile couples.

Where can we go from here? As an author, this concerns me. What do you guys think? Is the Cult of Oversharing here to stay? Have we yielded so many of our basic privacies that they’re never coming back? If so, that’s depressing.

PS - Here’s a picture my daughter took on Friday. I’m going to use it as my official publicity photo. Go on and guess my age. The winner from last week didn’t contact me, so I’m raffling off the mystery gift. AGAIN.

A close friend’s mother died yesterday and along with sorrow for my friend and relief that a sweet lady is now at peace, I’m doing a lot of thinking about the march of time. One thing that brought my friend and me together was that our mothers were going through much the same thing, dementia. Gail’s mother also had COPD and other life-threatening problems while my moher is physically healthy except for the aftermath of a couple of old hip and pelvis breaks. My mother will be 89 this fall, and my sister and I wonder if she might outlive us. Physically outlive us, we qualify, because this career teacher’s mind is slipping away. She lives in assisted living near my sister but we’ll be moving her near me in Sept because after five years of letting my sister handle her affairs, it’s my turn. Part of me is ready to accept my responsibility, and I dearly love our gentle mother. Another part of me is afraid–afraid of the time that responsibility will take.
Life has it’s cycles, doesn’t it. Much as I loved being a mother, I looked forward to my sons growing up so I’d have more time to write. And now that they have, I’m going to be parenting my parent. In other words, responsibility may shift over the years, but we’re never free of it. And I’m not sure freedom is wise, especially for writers.
It’s being a member of society, having roles within families, being a friend, neighbor, employee, etc, etc that truly gives people (and in particular, writers) that vital life experience. Without life’s lessons, hard knocks, joys, and even boredom, I’m positive that writers couldn’t write. We might be able to research locations, careers, historical eras, even psychology and sociology, but our characters can’t truly come to life if we writers haven’t participated in the human experience. I might never write about a heroine who is parenting her parent, but hopefully my journey will allow me to create full, rich characters who understand and embrace emotional committment. And my readers will nod in understanding because on some level I’ve tapped into their personal emotional committment via my characters.
I’m going to get into some trouble here, but I’m going to throw it out anyway. I believe that writers MUST have a number of years of living under their belts before they can succeed in fiction. What we bring to the job, the career of writing is to a large part our take on life, and how can we possibly have a broad view of what life’s about if we haven’t been experiencing it?
Agree? Disagree? Looking for rotton tomatoes?
Vonna Harper

www.VonnaHarper.com

I learned a lot that day. I started a different story, one that is complete in my head, and that very day, within 4 hours, I cranked out 1229 words. I learned that I need to write what comes from the heart, from deep within… what I want to write rather than what I think will sell. I also learned that whether or not I sell, writing is something I love, and damn it, I’m good at it and I’m not giving up!

I’ve written about this before but it struck me today as I read reviews for a book I flat out loved and some of them were of the “oh my god this is the worst book evar” variety. I loved this book so much it changed how I came to think about erotic writing and BDSM in erotic writing - this was before I’d really given serious thought to beginning to write myself.

I wonder then, if books with sex and sexuality at their core aren’t the most difficult to access because they’re not universal. Yes, we all have sexuality in some sense whether it’s none to nympho but at the same time, sexuality is incredibly individual and what made me stop, read the paragraph, stop, read it again and once more while my heart pounded and my brain screamed, “That’s amazing!” - someone else read it and thought “holy crap, this is awful”
And really? That fascinates me. There are authors I’ve read who’ve made me cringe, made me think, “this is terribly executed tripe, unsexy, uninteresting and the heroine is the biggest idiot I’ve ever read” and saw online a discussion about how hot that same scene was.

An example? The Beauty books by Anne Rice’s alter ego. Honestly? I thought they were awful. Not sexy at all. Clumsy and silly and the BDSM play in them made me snicker. By marked contrast, in her Vampire Chronicles, especially the first three books, you have impotent vampires who ooze sexuality. She writes so deftly and with such sensuality that I think all the craft she uses there is totally absent in her Beauty books.

By contrast I’ll bring up Emma Holly’s Velvet Glove and Molly Weatherfield’s Carrie’s Story - these books occupy opposite ends of the spectrum. Velvet Glove is softer and more of an erotic romance while Carrie’s Story is straight erotica. Both books though explore the subject of BDSM from the perspective of the sub who is exploring the issue with an honesty and openness that is intense and very sexy.

To think people look at either book and find the Beauty books superior or more sexy surprises me. It doesn’t offend me, I can’t argue with it because it’s all perception and filters.

This isn’t earth shattering, it’s not something I hadn’t realized before but it still amazes me how the deepest and most common of human behaviors can also be those we cannot see through the same eyes.

WINNER OF LAST WEEK’S CONTEST IS: ESTELLA! Estella, you win a download of your choice of any of my available titles. Email me and let me know title and format!

WINNERS HAVE SEVEN DAYS TO CONTACT ME AND CLAIM THEIR PRIZE.

I am working on my next Kensington Aphrodisia, Sweet & Sinful, and I have reached a point that has me in a bit of a quandary. This is no new quandary, but one I face with every story I write with some form of suspense element. With this story I had planned it to be light and fluffy, and hot obviously, but then throw in a bit of suspense along the way. However, as I was writing the other night, my villain just had to have a say. In fact, they wanted their own darned scenes. Not just one, but several.

And so I was left with that same old question: To reveal the identity to the reader, as I had intended it to be fairly frothy read, or keep the person anonymous?

Well one thing the reader does know regardless of anything is that the villain is a man. So at least I can go the He route as opposed to It, or using some other name like The Stalker, should I indeed let him keep his demanded for scenes. But do you think I should?

As a reader, do you prefer to hear from the villain as well as the primary characters? Do you feel it adds depth to their character, by almost making them a primary character themselves? Or would you prefer that unless it truly is a dark suspense, to keep the villain’s viewpoint as seen only through the hero and heroine’s eyes?

Also, as this is an erotic romance, does the genre reflect your answer in anyway?

Thanks for the input!

And, of course, I must reward those who respond. From all those who comment, I will pick a winner to receive either an ebook or paperback of one my backlist books with a suspense edge or element (Sons of Solaris: Aries, Sons of Solaris: Taurus, Wild Hearts 2, After Hours (technically story 2 in the anthology has one), or Lions Eyes).

~ Jodi

I’m posting this late Tuesday evening because I have some errands to run Wednesdday morning and didn’t want to get home too late to post.

Ahhhh…seeing a photograph like the one above makes me feel humble. I often use this photograph of a beautiful Colorado setting as computer wallpaper.

Yet there are other things that make me humble and inspire me, too. Watching an interview with J.K. Rowling on Dateline NBC inspired me. After all, discovering you have something in common with one of the most successful authors of all time feels kinda good. No, we’re not related. No, I don’t know her personally, though she seems like a lovely person that I’d like to know. I feel l know her in the way many other authors feel they know each other, understand each other on the most fundamental level. She seems like a humble, hard working, kind person who has a tremendously creative mind with a lot of interesting things to say. I’ve noticed that some of the most famous authors on the planet are often the most unassuming. If a person can remain retiring and grateful in the face of overwhelming adoration from fans and heinous censure from critics, I’ve got to admire them.

Newbie writers sometimes fantasize what it is like to be swamped at a book signing by adoring fans. I’ve never been swamped (I think the most people I ever had lined up at one time to buy my books at a signing was ten people) in the epic proportions of a J.K. Rowling signing. I can say the first signing where I sold thirty-seven books in two hours surprised the hell out of me and went a long way to erasing bad memories of signings where I sold one book. When a reader comes up to me and says with a huge smile how much they love my work, there isn’t anything better. I entertained someone for a few hours with my tale. How cool is that? Now, if I’m at a signing where I sell only one book, I’m rarely disappointed. Because I know it happens and there’s no use becoming upset about the situation.

But, I digress.

I’ve seen J.K. Rowling being interviewed before and each time felt that unique kinship that most writers experience when listening to another writer talk about the emotions and situations connected with writing. Rejection, disappointments, hopes, all of those things come into play. I’ve experienced the same feeling listening to and watching interviews that Dean Koontz has done. I find his writing philosophy refreshing and his attitude intriguing. Same with Stephen King. In particular I find myself admiring King’s outlook about genre writing. In his book On Writing, he tells genre writers not to let the literary world sneer at them. Or at the least, not to allow the sneering to tear down their dreams or to feel less worthy because of the general snubbing genre writers sometimes receive in the literary world.

Rowling, King, and Koonz seem humbled by their success, very thankful for it, and above all they must write because they love to write. Not because they are simply trying to secure that next paycheck. Certainly if they decided to quit writing tomorrow they’d be financially set for life. Yet I don’t see them abandoning their creativity, do you? Is there an author who has inspired you?

Denise A. Agnew
Step off the edge…
Into dark, delicious adventure…