Sara Reyes | Bridging the World | Scenic Travels, Thousand Authors, TONS of books!!!

My trip to California (and back to Texas) is over. On one hand I say thank goodness, on the other, I miss the cool air of Northern California. According to husband it was in the 100s while I was gone. It's "cooled" down to just 100 since I've been home. Just call me "bringer of cool temps" LOL Gwen and I saw lots of the country on our twelve day adventure, and it's a BIG country if you were in any doubt. Still many many miles of beautiful vistas, no houses or lights and awe-inspiring landscapes! It nourished my soul to be able to see it closer than 40,000 feet through a small dirty porthole.

Our main objective on this trip was the annual Romance Writers of America convention in San Francisco. We arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon and spent the rest of day relaxing and getting ready to go-go-go. We closed down on Saturday night after FOUR JAM PACKED DAYS!!! I'm not sure how to cover it all, so I'll just try to hit some of the highlights.

Fresh Fiction staff - Sara, Gwen, Suan, Mindy, Faye, Tanzey
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

Wednesday, July 30th. The Fresh Fiction team met, some of us for the first time face-to-face, and had dinner before the big literacy signing on Wednesday night. We were all in pink -- except for Gwen who had an incident with a tire and "gup-covered" luggage at the airport -- so we were easy to spot! And had our gold name tags! I think was a first no one forgot theirs (since I'm usually the culprit, I've gotta mention this triumph!). From dinner it was off to the signing, a MASSIVE crowd in the main ball room!

The GIANT Literacy Signing on Wednesday
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

We missed the long lines but arrived by 5:50pm so no one had left as they tend to do when they've sold all their books, or don't have any to sell. We've gotten smarter over the years and have our lists all ready so we can cover most of the authors. So if we missed any, we're sorry, we did try really really hard! And then of course, our first catastrophe of the night struck. The battery on Gwen's camera gave out. As it's one of those rechargeable ones, we had to rely on Mindy, Faye, and Tanzey to carry with the rest of the evening. I'd type up a list of authors I saw, but that would take the rest of the space. So check out our RWA photos on Flickr and get an idea! Also we're missing some names for the photos, if you can help us match them up, we'd be grateful!

After the signing, and YES THEY TURNED OFF THE LIGHTS ON US, we went up to the bar to regroup. Tanzey and Suan headed for bed as they'd been at the librarian meetings all day, but Gwen and Mindy went to a few parties, Sherrilyn Kenyon's, the Romance Bandits and another they can't remember. Faye and I rested at the bar -- do NOT ever get a green tea tini, it tastes worse than bad cough syrup -- and chatted with authors.

Broken Hearts quilt by Marie Bostwick
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

Thursday, July 31st Meetings, workshops, luncheons and dinners. It was jam packed from 8am to midnight. The editorial staff (editor Mindy Ewing, editor Tanzey Cutter, reviewer Suan Wilson plus content manager Faye) met with some authors for a coffee break in the morning. Authors included: Sabrina Jeffries, Melody Thomas, Elizabeth Boyle, Mary Burton, and Roxanne St. Claire as well as others. It was a great time for authors and reviewers to meet and chit chat about publishing trends and their books.

Faye, Tanzey and Suan joined the fabulous Nancy Berland team for dinner! They are all TRULY a delight to work with. Gwen, Mindy and I went to Famous John's Steak House where Gwen managed to confuse the server with her cowfish request. She was tired, and wanted "meat." A fun time was had by all!

Ally and her date D'Alessandro
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

Friday, August 1st More meetings, publisher meet-and-greets, meetings, and PARTIES!!! We split up with all the team members doing different things: attending some workshops, one-on-one with authors, publishers and others. In other words, work work work. But Friday night is the traditional evening for networking and celebrating. We did some of that on Friday night at the Ballantine party, St. Martin's party -- I missed the St. Martini their signature drink. I am assured it was deLicious! On to the Berkley / NAL party -- crowded and noisy but fun seeing Angela Knight, Christine Feehan and Celeste. Then it was on to the Harlequin Party at the Four Seasons. With dancing, great food, decadence chocolate and a great crowd of people, the HQ party is the one not to miss! Check out the infamous tree falling as well as the conga line. I'm only sorry I can't find photos of the handsome men in kilts! A great time was had by most!

Saturday, August 2nd More meetings, publisher meet-and-greets, dinner with one of my favorite authors, Marie Bostwick and then the sad departures. We admired our friends in their festive RITA outfits and wished them all the best! Bringing us books we love to read and talk about is the top in our minds!

See all the photos from our RWA SF Adventures Be sure to comment and help us fill in the blanks!

Sara Reyes
Fresh Fiction.com ...for today's reader

Don't miss THE Fresh Fiction Readers Conference on October 11th, 2008! With Sherrilyn Kenyon and many other favorite authors. Details at Readers-n-ritas.org -- celebrate passionate literary obsessions

Sabrina Jeffries | Rakes Are Just Hell on a Writer

I don’t write many rakehell heroes. The hero of my upcoming book, Let Sleeping Rogues Lie, is really only my third. And why is that, you may ask?

It’s simple, really. I like my heroes to have compelling reasons for what they do, and I tend to think of rakehells as skirt-chasers who just want to have fun. A guy like that is hard to reform, and if he doesn’t reform, well, I worry that he’ll go on chasing skirts after the wedding. That would certainly put a damper on the whole happily ever after thing.

Still, I’ve managed to create a few by digging deeper. For Gavin Byrne in One Night with a Prince, I gave him a fear of rejection that made him skittish of anything but the most basic of physical relationships. Jordan, the Earl of Blackmore from Forbidden Lord, saw himself as unable to love. And my latest hero Anthony Dalton …

Well, I’ll leave that to you to find out. But I must admit that I have a soft spot for Anthony. His chickens have come home to roost, and they’re laying eggs all over his comfortable rakehell life. He handles it pretty poorly at first, which is where my heroine comes in. She shows him it can be fun to be responsible, respectable, and, most of all, monogamous.

Of course, that doesn’t keep them from finding enjoyment in the bedroom. My characters always do. But then, that’s what we like about those rakehells, isn’t it? That they reform while still holding on to the fun aspects of their character?

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you have another reason entirely for liking rakehell books. Maybe you don’t like them at all.

Here’s your chance to voice your opinion. Do you like those rakehells in romance? If you do, then why? If not, then why not? And what would a rakehell have to do for you to decide that he’s irredeemable?

-Sabrina Jeffries, author of Let Sleeping Rogues Lie

http://www.sabrinajeffries.com/

Sabina Jeffries | Why Write Series?

Why NOT write them? The connected series is a staple of most genre fiction. Mystery series have abounded for decades, as have fantasy and science fiction series, but only in the last fifteen years has the romance series become popular. At the beginning, they were rare. When an author did write them, as with Johanna Lindsey’s Malory series, they weren’t necessarily planned out ahead, the way they are now, with publishers announcing the series connections from the beginning. More often, authors wrote isolated connected books here and there, like Jayne Ann Krentz's Gift of Gold and Gift of Fire (two of my all-time favorites).

Eventually the romantic series came into its own, and now authors write them more often than not. My own School for Heiresses series, Regency-set historicals featuring the spirited graduates of Mrs. Harris’s School for Young Ladies, is the fourth series I’ve written. These unconventional heiresses who prove a match for society’s most irresistible rogues are connected only by their association with the school, but I’ve also written series where the characters were friends, royal half-brothers, and sisters. Here’s why I like writing them:

1. The over-arching themes—in this particular series I include a running thread in the epigrams, of letters between Mrs. Harris and her anonymous benefactor, “Cousin” Michael. It’s such fun to play around with those two characters without actually revealing who Cousin Michael is.
   
   
2. Seeing the same world through the eyes of more than just one book’s hero and heroine gives me a broadened perspective of the milieu.
   
   
3. For faithful readers of the whole series, I can include inside jokes that only they would get. It enhances the experience, for me AND for them, while hopefully not alienating readers who pick up only one book.
   


4. If I fall in love with a secondary character, I can have a second go at him or her. That’s what happened with Eliza, a minor character in ONLY A DUKE WILL DO. She just sprang off the page, so I had to include her in a future story, which turned out to be the novella in the SCHOOL FOR HEIRESSES anthology.
   


5. I can explore a character outside his/her relationship to the heroine/hero. That’s hard to do in one book. I can also explore a character’s growth over a longer period than one book.

So what about you? Do you read series? Do you like them? If so, why? If not, why not?

Sabrina Jeffries

http://www.sabrinajeffries.com/