No, not the television show. Dear Author has already blogged about it, twice even. And, in case you have no clue what I’m talking about, agent Lori Perkins is working with some of her clients on a new e-publishing venture. As in she’s editing and apparently, buying material.

We’ve already done a deal with the Harvey Klinger Agency for one of our launch books.

With the caveat that the lack of information and the vagueness of it all kind of bothers me, I’m totally intrigued with the idea of Ravenous Romance, and here’s why… Will having an agent and a long-time publishing professional at the forefront of this endeavor raise the bar in e-publishing? ( Will more quality e-publishers rise to the top while the more questionable ones fall to the wayside? Is this another huge step in the evolution of original* e-publishing? )  

Now, before you get all psycho-cheerleader on me, hear me out. I’m not saying all previous e-publishers suck…or anything else equally as narrow-minded. I started out in e-publishing, and I have my loyalty to it. I also think e-publishing has done a lot to change the face of publshing as we know it, but I’m not dumb and I’m not blind. And while I think we can all agree that questionable books get published by New York every week, I think it’s also safe to say that, by and large, quite a bit of questionable material gets pushed out of the gate in e-publishing as well. Because, well, anyone can set up shop as an epublisher, anyone can call themselves an editor and anyone can call themselves a cover artists, but that doesn’t make it true, or *gulp* wise.

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*I say original as in original release, not e-book versions released by NY publishers.

*snicker* I made a funny! Okay, seriously…..

Our good friend, Sasha White will be here on Wednesday promoting her new book, MY PREROGATIVE!

Kelsey Howard is happy with the single life. She has friends, a job tending bar, a nice apartment, and the freedom to enjoy wild sex games with strangers— the riskier the better. But what she really wants is love.

Then Kelsey realizes she’s got a voyeuristic neighbor watching her every move—and every move she makes is arousing them both. Not only is she not scared, she thinks she may have found her soul mate. Especially when she meets the mystery man in the flesh. That’s when the fun really starts, and Kelsey realizes just how far she’s prepared to go for love.

I would like to introduce you to one of my guilty little pleasures.
(Don’t give me that look—we all have them).

A few years ago I was channel-surfing, not really paying much attention.  I noticed that I’d landed on a station that was showing a marionette-type program, something obviously meant for children.
And then I started watching…

I saw a tiny little service station attendant walk up to a tiny little sports car and fill the tiny little tank.  Suddenly, the tiny little driver backed his car over the attendant who screamed in agony, his body flattened beneath the wheels, and the tiny little driver sped away without paying.

Oh yeah.  I was immediately on board.

The show was called “Captain Scarlet”.  It was produced in the 1960s, and featured something called Supermarionation.  And they were not kidding.

There were tiny little people living in LIFELIKE tiny little homes, driving tiny little cars, flying tiny little jets.  And whoever was in charge of making this thing was very fond of blowing things up—and yes, they were REAL explosions, and done very well.

I confess, I was fascinated.  Tiny little guns fired tiny little bullets that left holes in tiny little bodies (when they weren’t wearing tiny bulletproof vests).  Tiny little furniture with tiny little drawers that really opened.  There were tiny little video screens, tiny little landscapes, tiny little waterfalls, tiny EVERYTHING, done in AMAZING detail. 

Captain Scarlet was the hero with rugged jaw and blue eyes, who sounded amazingly like Cary Grant.

He, of course, had backup, which included the jet-flying Angels.  Destiny Angel, a hawt little blonde, was obviously Scarlet’s favorite.

And then came the fateful day…

Captain Scarlet and his gang celebrated a victory.  And there was Captain Scarlet dressed to the nines, coolly sipping a tiny flute of champage, and Destiny Angel, decked out in a skin-tight dress with a tiny feather boa.
Naturally, I imagined the rest.
Captain Scarlet woud ply Destiny with champagne from his tiny little bottle.  He’d slip into his tiny smoking jacket, fondle her pert, tiny breasts, proceed with a tiny bit of foreplay, then whip out his tiny little erection to the sound of her tiny, high-pitched cries…

The interesting thing is that, although I watched a number of the programs, and I remember that the detail was INCREDIBLE—I couldn’t tell you what ANY of the storylines were about.

Morals of this story?
1) Don’t get TOO bogged down in the details.  You may impress your reader for a while, but overload is a distraction.  The details should EMBELLISH the story, not overwhelm it.
2) You can come up with a blog that equates writing to just about ANYTHING if you try hard enough.

Imagine you’re in a theater or reading a book. You’ve invested a large chunk of your time immersed in this fictional world. The plot, the characters … everything about the story has got you wound tighter than a corkscrew. You can’t wait to get to the end, but then once you do, the unspeakable happens…

You hate it. In fact, you have a particularly violent reaction. You scream foul. You breathe fire. You fantasize about doing bad things to the writer, director, whatever. I’ve had this experience before. In each case, it wasn’t that the writing was bad, (on the contrary, it was so good, the characters sprang to life).  It’s just that I’m a romance writer. My idea of a satisfying ending doesn’t always jibe with the fiction I read or the movies I watch. That’s why I sometimes imagine my own endings, and you can bet they’re way different than the originals.

What novel or film ending do you wish you could rewrite and what specifically would you change?

Here are just a few of my rewrites. Spoilers abound … so you’ve been warned.
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They say never say never, but we do, don’t we? Only to prove the old adage.  For instance there are book type that I’ve said I’d never write or read, only to find myself reading or writing that book months or years later.

I’ve always said I’ll never write a hard science sci-fi and I think I’m pretty safe with that one. Every time I pick one up–because the cover, title or blurb–I rarely get through the first paragraph of technobabble before putting it back on the shelf.  More accessible sci-fi/futuristic stuff I have no problem with, though.

Also, I’ve always assumed I’d never write a menage a trois book. I’ve read and enjoyed them, but in terms of my writing I’m more a one man/one woman (at a time) gal. At the very most I could see myself writing a love triangle.  At yet, there will be a menage scene of sorts in the current wip. It fits for many reasons of character and plot, but won’t be the standard, expected fare.

So what type of book would you say, as of today, that you’d never read/write?

What type of book have you said in the past that you woudn’t read/write, but did?

Fits and spurts. . . sounds gross doesn’t it. I guess it is. It’s my creativity level and it comes in fits and spurts. I have yet to have the benefit of a contract so any and all of my writing is sold as a finished project. Which means, if I don’t finish the project I don’t HAVE anything to sell.

Last week (well actually the week before last week) I thought I would be writing up a storm and have half a book finished. You laugh. I can hear you. Don’t worry, it only hurts a little, but I won’t hold it against you. School started last week and I really thought I would hunker down, spend the week in front of my laptop and crank out the book (or 3) I’d pitched at Nationals.

Yeah, well, no. 

I think last week I watched 4 or 5 movies on HBO/Showtime. 2 or 3 on Lifetime (which is actually probably more like 10). And at least 3 trips to the store–four boys EAT A LOT, even when they are in shcool! I did six loads of laundry, 7 loads of dishes and wrote excatly ONE PAGE–over several days. I will say I DID have a migraine so that was part of the problem–but only an excuse, not a real book stopper.

It’s just that for the most part, I am still in that Writing-takes-a-back-seat mode. How does that work for movie watching, well, again, it’s just an excuse not to write. I do have an extremely supportive husband and the family is so braggy it’s embarrassing. But I still don’t feel like a full-time writer. I could be if I could keep my ass in the chair, but, well. . .  fits and spurts.

Sometimes, you (meaning me) get all hung up on the psychology of the story. What makes so-and-so tick. What is the underlying motivation, blah, blah, blah. You can overthink things. And then you get paralized with the mind crap that engulfs you. Then when you least expect it, like say sitting in your child’s class orientation, you get an idea that puts the book back on track and you’re scribbling notes on the edges of the school traffic route hoping the teacher–who knows you well thanks to older brothers being in her class–doesn’t call on you by name. (It smacks far too close to high school daydreaming.)

I need to find a way to make it spurt more that fit (again with the gross). I’ve tried the different, timed writing–which actually did work because I am competitive so had to get more pages than Ames or Lynn, but I can’t look for those 5 or 6 times a day until I get the book done–they are busy gals. I’ve tried the poster board plotting, but then I get claustrophobic feeling pigeon-holed into something and I rebel. You name it, and I have probably tried it–and owe Lynn a few lunches by now–learn to stop betting after oh, say, they first two or three times you miss your deadline!

It may come down to good old, sit your ass down and DO IT. I just have yet to train the dogs or fish to remind me of this throughout the day!

My friend Jackie Barbosa has issued a challenge! 30 k in 30 days! Can’t do it you say?

Lemme break it down for you.

7500 words a week.

1000 words a day.

That’s 4 pages a day people!And at the end of 30 days you could have a) a proposal for your agent*cough* or b) a completed novella for submission!

Are you in? I’m in. I’ll be reporting on my blog and I have at least one proposal I could use 30k on.  I’d prefer two buttttttttt the other needs lost of worldbuilding so it’ll have to simmer (as much as I hate to leave it).

This will be a short, simple post.

I’m basically just asking for an opinion—however long or short you wish to make it—on a subject that came up in my own writing, but might prove valuable to other authors or readers.

In other words…input, please?

At one point in my latest manuscript, my hero suffered a devastating loss, something he felt personally responsible for.

I toyed with the idea of doing something with the character, and just couldn’t make up my mind.

The question?

Do you have a problem with heroes who cry?

Whether they’re Alpha, Beta, Gamma, whether it’s a misting of the eyes or flinging the forearm across the face weeping—how do you feel about it?

I recently rented the first three episodes of AMC’s award-winning show Mad Men. It’s titled after the self-ascribed nickname given to Madison Avenue marketing execs during the golden age of advertising. Set in the early ’60s, the series chronicles the politically incorrect shenanigans of the men and women at Sterling Cooper, a fictional ad agency.

FWIW, Mad Men is a GREAT show. It’s beautifully shot. The costumes, hair, makeup and scenery are gorgeous. Not only that, the snappy dialogue shines, and the acting is first rate. Given all these pluses, I’d be crazy not to like this show right? Well, call me crazy because I just love to hate it.

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. . . on what I wrote last week, I have still been thinking: Rules. Are they neccessary? Needed? Important?

I think they are to a degree. Sure you can break them. But the thing is, you still have to know the rules in order to break them.

Driving home the other night, some SOB shot out in front of me and I had to lay on the brakes and the horn because the dumb f*&#*er apparently didn’t know what the red octagonal sign in front of him meant. My mind flashed to my 13-y-o and all the talks about “when you take driver’s ed” and how he would understand some of the road nuances once he learned the rules. If he then chooses to ignore them he has to face the consequences that come with it–like say the red and blue flashy lights that raced after the SOB . . .  hehehe.

If you don’t take driver’s ed, you may follow some rules, but you will also break rules, even if by accident. You will see other drivers doing certain things and you will follow their lead, so to speak, and use your common sense as to how and where the appropriate roadways, directions or even parking spaces are. But you may not neccessarily know why these things are important–like turning your tires the correct direction when parking on a hill–trees are not very forgiving to bumpers once that baby picks up speed!

Same goes for writing. You may happen to do some things correctly–common sense is a wonderful thing, but some of the “rules” per se, are particular nuances of writing such a POV/head-hopping, show don’t tell, even something as simple as “filter” words (knew, thought, saw, figured). But you have to know what is what BEFORE you can actually break it. Shoot even something as simple as formatting can be a nightmare if someone doesn’t know to double-space and to use fonts that are readable–my first typed WIP was single spaced and I found the “funnest” font I could–OMG!

Then I learned the rules.

Side note: POV is truly my biggest pet-peeve, mainly because when I joined a critique group years ago, it was the very first thing I was called out on. I was all over the place w/ my POV. Once I understood how dizzying it could be to jump from one person to the other and back and back, I learned how to write scenes from one person, do a page break and go to the next character.

Writing rules are a good jumping off point I think. Many, many people when they hear you’re a writer say, “I want to write a books some day.” (because we all know it is SOOOOO easy) I often tell them, that’s great, read up in the genre you’re interested in and make sure to get really craft books to learn what’s what.

But at the end of the day, the only true, steadfast rule for writers is: The story must be good. If you have a good story/stroy telling ability the other things are easy to fix.