Rie Sheridan Rose | Write What You Want To Know

I was sitting here thinking, trying to decide what wisdom I wanted to impart in this blog. I finally decided that there is a bit of advice that more experienced writers are always giving to budding authors trying to break into the business. You’ve probably heard it already. "Write what you know." I think-particularly in these days of internet access-that this needs to be revised. I think the advice now should be "write what you want to know"-particularly if you write in the speculative genres.


To me, there’s always been a problem with "write what you know." It’s so limiting. I have always considered myself fairly educated, but if I stuck to only the things that I have direct knowledge of, I would never have written any of the novels I’ve had published. I’ve never seen a dragon, met an elf, traveled to fairyland, or played a lute. But I can imagine them. I can, in other words, "speculate" about what would happen if I were to do any of those things.

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Michele Dunaway | What works for me…

Might not work for you. It’s a concept I’ve been mulling lately as I get ready to teach another year of school, where I have to individualize learning to best reach all my students. I was thinking about this concept as I read an article in a writing magazine that said, “write every day, even if it’s for 20 minutes” and also gave other such advice as “keep a journal”.

It’s great advice, sure. But I don’t do either and I’m a published author of 21 novels. I write in big spurts, and then will go weeks and sometimes months without writing a thing. That “20 minutes” the author advises is spent doing all those things I didn’t do during that intense focus on writing.

But that’s me. My big on and off spurts are how I balance and prioritize my time, and that’s what I’ve learned works best for my life. During the school year my priority is on my family and my teaching job. Writing is third. Over the summer, I can easily make writing number two and devote 40+ hours a week to my craft.


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Jessica Inclan | A Window Seat of Light

When I was in college, I found myself sitting in the grove of trees by the classroom building with a friend.  We'd just left our class on Ibsen, Strindberg, and Mann, and we weren't very happy.  How could we have been?  In Ibsen's Ghosts, Oswald was just crying out for "the sun," and so were we.  The sun hadn't been out for a month, the dank Tulle fog all around us like, well, dank Tulle fog.

It was there that my friend proceeded to tell me a story that almost made me jump out of my skin.  She must have needed to tell me, letting me into the dark side of her life, a life that maybe had only a window seat of light in it.  I was 22-years-old and hadn't heard much at that point, sheltered in mostly good ways.  In later years, I tried to write about my reaction to her story in poetry, essay, and short story, until the writer Grace Paley told me that I wasn't able to write about it because it wasn't my story.

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"It's hers to tell," she said, so I never tried again.

And the fact is, by the time Grace told me that ten years after my friend told it to me, the story didn't seem as bizarre and horrible and sick as it had in 1984 in the winter fog and chill.  Maybe I had taken in her story and Ibsen's and Strindberg's and Mann's, sort of a Death in Turlock kind of thing, and made it this big black ball of a story that seemed to haunt me.  It was a group literary haunting, with her story in the lead.

But yesterday, I realized that people can tell me anything, and I pretty much accept it all.  In the course of reading 15 student essays during conferences, I learned about dead mothers and siblings and alcoholic fathers and disturbed sisters.  I learned about lost blue cars and anorexia nervosa, and pretty much what I did when I heard these facts was nod and say, "Great detail."

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Beth Kery | Beth Blabbers About Book Marketing

I not only have to write this darn book, but sell it too?

My sweet husband bought me several books about marketing my book for Christmas. I’m relatively new at the business of writing, having first been published at Ellora’s Cave in 2007. My New York debut, Wicked Burn, came out in December of 2008. The amount of time (and money) that a writer spends marketing a book came as quite a shock to me, as it must for many authors. Before I entered the writing arena, I always envisioned an author plucking her next novel out on her keyboard, not plugging her published works.

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Kate Douglas | Will I get them all written?

I’ve been working on Wolf Tales IX for the past couple of months which, counting the novellas in anthologies, is the seventeenth title in my erotic tales of the Chanku. It’s due for release in January 2010. I remember wondering when I signed the contracts for the third set of novels and novellas if I’d ever get them all written. Now, all of a sudden, the stories I’m contracted for are almost done and I’m waiting to hear from my publisher about plans for more of the series. Characters who were new to me less than four years ago have now become old friends. I know their secrets, their loves, their needs and their fears. I wonder what the future holds in store for them, and I worry about them as if they’re real flesh-and-blood people who matter to me in the way of those I love in real life.

I’m either desperately in need of a good therapist, or totally involved in my imaginary world...and I’m hoping it’s the latter, because it’s such a great world to hang out in. For one thing, it’s filled with fascinating (to me, anyway!) characters with a strong sense of family and a natural code of honor that appeals to me. And, it’s a matriarchal society. Women, quite literally, rule. It begins with their ability to control reproduction and extends to an innate sense of leadership the males are genetically programmed to recognize. While the men are physically stronger and think they’re in charge, when it comes down to a final decision, the women have the last word. For some reason, I find that terribly attractive!

The latest in the series, Wolf Tales VII, has just released. For readers not familiar with the story line, this book might be a good place to begin, as there’s enough backstory to bring everyone up to date. I write the series like an ongoing soap opera, where it’s possible to jump in at any time, but it’s definitely more gratifying to start at the beginning. The one I’m writing now has been nothing but backstory—all the Chanku shapeshifters have gathered for the birth of a new baby, and during the course of the long night, they’re telling the stories of how they first discovered their shapeshifting birthright.

I’m learning things about my characters I never even suspected, so it’s really been a fun book to write. That’s the joy of not plotting. When I sit down to write, every story is a surprise to me. Even more fun, in this particular book I’m telling the stories my readers have asked for—the members of my newsletter were invited to request the stories they wanted to hear, and the response was phenomenal. Wolf Tales IX will be a direct result of their wishes. If you’re at all curious about the series—and if you’re eighteen or over—I have the first chapters of all my books posted at www.katedouglas.com/eroticromance.

Thanks to Fresh Fiction for giving me the chance to blog, and thanks to my readers, who are the only reason I have the privilege of writing my series. I want to wish all of you the very best in the coming year, and don’t forget to make time to read a good book! To help you along I am giving away a copy of Wolf Tales VII on my ONE DAY ONLY blog contest.

Kate Douglas
http://www.katedouglas.com/
www.myspace.com/katedouglas_wolftales

Jeaniene Frost | For love or money?

When I was twelve, I was bitten by the reading bug. It wasn't long after that when I decided to write my own book. I'd already written lots of poetry and short stories, so the idea of making the leap from those to writing and selling a novel seemed easy.

Yes, I had a lot to learn.

Fast forward around fifteen years to the day I told myself, "quit procrastinating and do it already." And so I finally did take one of the many ideas churning around in my head and wrote a novel from it. What I found out after I'd typed The End was twofold: one, I'd accomplished something I'd dreamed about by finishing that novel. Two - and equally important, in my opinion - was that I loved writing.

That doesn't mean pursuing a career as an author was as easy as finally writing that first novel. In fact, if I could rewind the clock and talk to former self on the day I'd finished my first book, I'd say, "Great! Now comes the hard part."

Huh? you might think. Isn't writing a book the hardest part of pursuing a career as an author? Well, for me, it was the easiest and the most fun part, actually. In fact, I've heard several authors say (and I've been guilty of this myself at times) that if they didn't love writing so much, they'd pick another career. There's a lot more to writing than finishing a book. That's where it starts, of course, and if you don't have a completed manuscript, you're reducing your odds of publication to about zero. Yet there are some people aiming for a writing career who say they don't love writing. To me, that's like saying you want to be an artist, but you don't like to paint. Or you want to be a pilot- except you hate to fly.

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Writing is fun for me. I get lost in the worlds I create, and I am happy when my fingers are busy on the keyboard. Without that, the challenges of breaking into publishing would have been too much for me. For starters, most aspiring (fiction) authors have to get a literary agent before they can shop their novel. The reason is that many of the large publishing houses don't accept unagented manuscripts. Rejection is a common part of the agent querying process and yes, it can hurt. Expect rewrites, too, or writing a new book and trying to break in with that if the first one doesn't make it. It's not uncommon for a writer to finally get published on their third, fourth, or fifth book, instead of their first one. Once an agent is secured, you go through the submission process with editors. If you achieve the Nirvana of a publishing contract, then you bite your nails and wait to see if your book is a success or a failure – all while not making very much money to start out.

*grin* Sound dismal? Don't despair, if you love to write, the joys outweigh the challenges.

I know writers who've been trying to get published for well over a decade, yet it hasn't happened. Have they quit writing? No, because it's what they love, so their happiness isn't predicated by a contract.Are there quality writers who may never get published? The harsh answer is yes. I don't believe that compared to every book rejected in publishing in 2006 when my novel was sold, mine was better than all those rejected. Instead, I think mine was put in front of the right editor at the right time.And even though I've been lucky enough to have success with my series, I don't think everything from now on will be champagne and roses. But whatever may happen, I'm investing my time and effort into something that makes me happy, which, when the rough patches hit, makes the whole process worthwhile.

So there's a lot of work involved in a writing career that goes well beyond writing that first book. Without the magic of loving what you do, it's just a job, and one that may or may not ever pay you back the time you put into it. But if you love writing, the good news is that you'll be happy no matter how things turn out, and that, to me, is something worth investing in.

Jeaniene Frost
jeanienefrost.com/

Sandi Kahn Shelton | Finding Characters

One of the most fun things about writing a novel (or as my uncle put it, “telling lies for profit”) is coming up with characters. People are always asking writers where the characters come from — it’s the #1 question when you go for readings and signings — and I’m afraid they always seem disappointed by the truth, which is, “I have utterly no idea.”

With my new novel, Kissing Games of the World, the main character, Jamie McClintock, showed up one morning when I was taking a bath. I was lying there concentrating on keeping the tub filled to the top with hot water using only my big toe (a delicate balance of draining and refilling which practically requires a degree in engineering and physics to keep it just right), when I noticed somebody wafting around over by the shower head, explaining to me about how she was an artist and a single mom raising her 5-year-old boy, Arley, who had asthma. They lived in a farmhouse in Connecticut with Harris, an older man famous in town for his rascally womanizing, who was now redeeming himself by raising his 5-year-old grandson, Christopher, whose father had run away.

I really appreciate it when a character arrives with her trouble already spelled out; it’s much harder to work with somebody who insists that life is just fine. And Jamie had a whole bunch of trouble. Right at the beginning, Harris dropped dead unexpectedly, and his estranged, hated son (Christopher’s father, Nate) came back to claim the house and his little boy, and move him back to California. As Jamie explained the situation, Nate was a jet-setty, arrogant kind of guy, a salesman, and his plan was to drag his kid along on his business trips and educate him in hotel rooms. Jamie went hysterical over this. (I didn’t mind; I’ve learned finally that you have to put your most beloved characters in lots of trouble, or there’s no story.) I was having lots of fun writing about Jamie’s view of this guy when one day, while I was driving to work, I heard this voice in my head say to me, “Wait just a minute. Would you just hold on a bloody second? I’d like to tell my side of things, if you don’t mind.” It was Nate.

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And — well, he proceeded to take over the whole book. (Kind of like when you let a man drive your sports car for a minute. You have to be careful or you won’t get the keys back.)

At first I thought I would just give him a chapter, let him explain a couple of things Jamie couldn’t possibly know about, but then his voice was so strong, and he had such an interesting story, that he and I just kept going together. He had things to tell me about his father, and about his mom and his wife, and why he played baseball as a kid, and who he slept with in high school, and why he thought traveling and sending money was the best thing he could do for his son. He told me about his fiancée and his charismatic boss, and even some of his favorite sales strategies.

And — this is a little embarrassing — but I kind of fell for the guy. In a good way, of course. Whenever I’d be writing his scenes, it was like taking dictation. I honestly could hear his sarcastic, take-no-prisoners tone of voice. He made me laugh.

“Let me just write this book,” he would whisper to me at night when I was falling asleep. “Come on. Let’s do this together!”

I went and looked at the contract from my publisher. It said I had a book due in the category of “women’s fiction.” My editor would freak out if I called and said a guy had hijacked the book, and I’d now be writing about HIM.

So we compromised. I limited him to every other chapter. One for Jamie, one for him.

And an interesting thing happened. While his chapters were exciting and funny as hell and practically came to me faster than I could type them, Jamie realized she was being outdone and had to step up and start making her story deeper and more dramatic, too. I mean, this woman had issues. Not just the kid with asthma either. Trust problems, ex-boyfriend troubles, a wish to use her art to hide from human beings. And when little Arley ended up adoring Nate, while Christopher would have nothing to do with him, Jamie found herself actually hoping that Nate, whom she loathed, would stick around.

He didn’t, of course. Not at first anyway. But I can’t tell you any more than that. Except that it was a real ride, being in these two different heads at all times. It was fun exploring love that comes out of nowhere and slams people right upside the head, as my mother would have put it. I hadn’t ever written a real love story before. I was afraid of being too Hallmark card-ish or sentimental. You know how that can be. And honestly, there were times when I was writing this book that I thought this love story was so unsentimental that it wasn’t going to work out at all, that everybody would go their separate ways and be better for it.

But then — well, a whole bunch of stuff happened. It always does, if you’re lucky. You’re at the mercy of these characters who show up in the bathtub with you, or sitting next to you in the passenger seat of your car, or chatting you up from your pillow in the middle of the night — and suddenly they take on a life of their own, and you’re just along for the fun of it. That’s the thing you can’t ever really explain to people who think the character is really you, or your best friend, or a guy you went to high school with.

They’re nobody you know, but for a little while, they move into your head and explain life to you — and then one day you finish the book, and you look around for them, but they’re gone. And soon, somebody else is lurking by the shower fixture, saying, “Pssst. I have something to tell you…”

Sandi Kahn Shelton
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Karen Harper | RESEARCHING THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

No, I don’t write vampire novels, but I do write both contemporary and historical fiction. For the last ten years of my twenty-five-year writing career, I have written one romantic suspense novel and then one historical novel—back and forth. I have a writer’s split personality since it takes different skills and research techniques to do both. I love reading and writing in two genres and in two times, but it does have its challenges as well as its rewards.

For my contemporary romantic suspense novels, I can visit the settings for my story and interview people who live there or have the same careers as my hero and heroine. For THE HIDING PLACE (Nov. 2008), I spent a week in the Rocky Mountains outside Denver. I was able to interview men with dogs trained as trackers. I took two classes to learn about how my female P.I. would work, one class from a tracer who looks for lost people, and one from a female private investigator.

When I write my Elizabethan novels (most recently, THE LAST BOLEYN and MISTRESS SHAKESPEARE), I can, at least, still visit my settings. Nothing like a research trip to England! The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Greenwich—and museums, of course—help me to understand Elizabeth Tudor and her times. Although I can’t interview anyone from that era, the Elizabethans were great recorders of their lives: diaries, lists of their possessions, wills, books, and, of course, their literature such as poems and plays. I even have a reference book of the poems, prayers and speeches the queen herself wrote. All of that helps my characters to come alive for me, and, hopefully, for the reader too.

One of the great things about being a writer is that I learn so much about things I would not ordinarily know. I hope my readers not only enjoy my books for great entertainment and emotion, but also for a fun, easy way to become more educated. Whether writing the past or the present, that’s my goal.

Karen Harper

www.karenharperauthor.com/

Lisa Black | SERENDIPITY AND THE WRITING LIFE

Any writer, I’m sure, has had the experience of a great idea striking them while engaged in an activity that had nothing to do with writing and nothing to do with whatever plot their minds were currently worrying at—like being at your child’s ballet recital and noticing the teacher’s son, pressed into doubling as the sound engineer, hustling back and forth trying to weed that static out of the speaker precariously mounted stage right…suppose this were a ballet competition and not just a chance for parents to see why they’ve been writing checks all year…a particularly competitive stage parent might get very upset over a break in their kid’s music quality…maybe even kill….

Or you’ll be teaching your daughter to knit, guiding her little fingers over the pointy edge of the needle and you realize what a good murder weapon it would be…knitting isn’t as common as it once was but what if there were a group of knitters, a club…easily concealed, innocuous in a normal setting…untraceable? Do knitting needles have serial numbers?

Or just as you are writing the scene where Dudley runs his rival down in the street and wonders how to conceal the damage to his car, a commercial comes on for a revolutionary new car body with flexible bumpers…get a dent and it pops right out.

With me and my latest book, Takeover, this happened a lot. Just as I’d be mulling over some aspect of my plot—in which my forensic scientist Theresa becomes involved in a robbery/ standoff where her homicide detective fiancé is one of the hostages—someone or something would come along and prod me into the next few chapters.

Not the basic plot, which is a robbery gone bad: Theresa goes against the flashy negotiator by giving the robbers something they want in order to free her wounded and dying fiancé. I am embarrassed to report that it grew out of a recurring daydream about gorgeous Rory Cochrane on CSI Miami. The scene never occurred on CSI Miami, but somehow my brain synapsed the cute guy and the brilliant sunlit street and the desperate situation together and worked at it until I had it perfect, not that thoughts involving Rory Cochrane were difficult to return to. Just a daydream. (Okay, fantasy, I admit it, are you happy now?)

From there, I happened to go to the Sleuthfest convention in Fort Lauderdale and happened to attend the Sisters In Crime dinner and happened to sit next to an older man and his wife, people unknown to me. In the course of making polite conversation (my mother did teach me a few manners, despite what others may tell you) it turned out the man had been a New York police officer for years, many of them on the hostage rescue squad, and he had written an article on negotiation that was still used to teach classes at the FBI Academy. Through him I tracked down a copy of it, which I used and listed in my bibliography in the book.

Then, I was sitting on the couch watching TV with my husband (a scene which, unfortunately for our waistlines, occurs all too frequently in my house) when a commercial for the 2006 Harrison Ford movie Firewall aired. I sat up and said aloud, “I won’t make my robbery at an ordinary bank. I’ll make it at the Federal Reserve bank.” Having walked past the Fed in downtown Cleveland many times on my way to the library, I knew it was a large and distinct location. What I didn’t know was that there are only 12 in the country and that a Fed is completely different from your corner savings and loan, so that no one in their right mind would rob a Federal Reserve. This, however, eventually worked in my favor, adding another layer of things-are-not-what-they-seem to the story.

Of course the movie Firewall has absolutely nothing to do with the Federal Reserve. Perhaps the wiring in my brain has a few shorts.

These facts and ideas and half-baked scenes were floating around in my head when we went over our friends’ house for a party one evening. We live in Cape Coral, Florida, so that while my husband and I are in our 40s, most of our friends are retired. I like partying with retirees. They cook well, don’t cancel because they couldn’t find a babysitter, never show up ‘fashionably late’ and have lived long enough to have an endless supply of interesting stories. One such man had been an elevator repairman, one of those guys allowed into even high-security buildings because, of course, no one wants to take the stairs. He could tell me quite a bit about the layout of the Cleveland Fed. Another person at this same party had worked in a bank for all of her professional life and as an examiner for the latter portion of it. She had been to the Fed many times in the course of her work. I had been struggling to come up with a significant title and asked for any inside terminology regarding banks, or robberies, or the Fed. At first she said no, thought about it, got another drink and said, “Well, when we had the kind of robbery where the guy waited in the parking lot for the first employee to show up in the morning, usually the manager, and walked them in at gunpoint to open the safe, we would refer to that as a Morning Glory. When there was a single robber, he was a Lone Gunman, and when there were two or more, we called that a Takeover.”

You never know where or when this kind of help will fall into your lap. Talk to the people you meet, and ask questions. Lots of questions. Even if you don’t even know yet what it is you want to know, ask, talk, and most of all, listen.

Oh, and go to parties.

Lots of parties.

Lisa Black
http://www.lisa-black.com/

Cynitha Eden | Getting Lost In A Book

I love to get lost in a good book. Love to let the hours slip away as I become drawn into a great read. I love to laugh and cry and have my husband look at me like I’m crazy. Oh, yeah, sometimes getting lost in a book can be a wonderful thing.

When I’m reading—I want to get so drawn into a story that I consider myself lost. But, when I’m writing a book, well, getting lost can have a whole new meaning for me…

I’m finishing up work on my latest novel, part of my "Midnight" paranormal series for Kensington Brava. And I have to say—I think I’ve gotten lost in this book—but not necessarily lost in the good way. You see, all of my free time is consumed by this book. I’m so deeply into my demon story that all my energy is consumed by the tale. So that means the rest of my life is getting a bit lost, too.

I walked into my dining room earlier and wondered when all of the lights in the chandelier (there are twelve of them) had stopped working. Surely not all at once. This had to be a gradual thing—and I missed it.

I looked in the closet and realized there were no clean clothes to be found—but the pile of dirty laundry is large enough to eat me now.

I’ve got phone messages from friends that are over a week old—and calling them with an apology that I was lost might not cut it.

Sigh. Getting lost in a book—sometimes, it’s so easy to do.

So tell me, have you gotten lost in a good book lately? Or, if you’re a writer, too—has your own story pulled you in so deeply that your family has written you off as being lost?

Cynthia Eden
http://www.cynthiaeden.com/
HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT—Available now from Kensington Brava
"Wicked Ways" in WHEN HE WAS BAD—Available now from Kensington Brava
Believe in monsters. They believe in you.

Denise Swanson | School Psychologist, Writer, and People Watcher

One of the first questions I’m often asked when I speak about my writing is why I chose to write mysteries instead of romances (I assume this is because I have such an innocent, baby face). My answer is simple: after twenty-two years in public education there are a lot of people I want to kill, there are very few I want to have sex with.

Seriously, although I enjoy writing mysteries because I like knowing that the bad guy is going to get caught and pay for his crime at the end, I would like to write in other genres such as romance and fantasy.

On the other hand, I love the sense of justice a well-written mystery brings to its readers. One thing I’ve learned from being a school psychologist for so long is that justice rarely happens in real life, so it gives me a sense of fulfillment to have it happen in my fiction.

Having worked in almost every type of school setting, from the poorest areas surrounding Washington DC to upscale suburban Chicago, and from rural to urban, I’ve heard so many stories and seen so many bizarre situations I’ll never run out of plots.

My Scumble River Mystery series is set in a fictional small town in Illinois, and features a school psychologist-sleuth named Skye Denison. It's got a lot of humor, a bit of romance, and I’ve based many of the stories on my personal experiences—although I've never found a dead body—at least not yet.

When I decided to write a series, one of my goals was to highlight the profession of school psychologist. Most people have no idea what a school psychologist does, or even that they exist. I still get reviews where they call Skye a school counselor or a psychiatrist, both of which are very different jobs.

One of the reasons I enjoyed being a school psychologist is my abiding interest in people. I love studying them and figuring out what makes them tick. This is also, why I enjoy writing. My books are character-driven, and one of the things I like most is examining the relationships. Throughout the series my sleuth is torn between two men, and my readers seem very interested in this relationship. When I do book signings there have even been some skirmishes between readers who have different opinions on which guy Skye should end up with.

Another aspect of writing that is similar to school psychology is that the characters surprise me every time I write about them. In Murder of a Sleeping Beauty, which deals with body image among teenagers, I was surprised by my research when I found a large number of parents living their lives through their kids, as well as by the rising number of teenage girls who think they are only a pretty face and thin body. (Girls should be judged for something besides their looks. For that reason I made Skye a plus-size woman who is comfortable in her own skin. I’m hoping that the teens that read my books will come to understand that people come in all sizes, and weight is just another attribute, like hair or eye color. Skye shows that whether a woman looks like a Barbie doll or a Rubens painting, she can do anything and experience life to the fullest.)

In Murder of a Barbie and Ken, Skye’s then boyfriend, Simon’s mother appeared out of nowhere. I had thought she was dead up until that point. In Murder of a Smart Cookie, nearly all my characters surprised me, especially Simon.

In my newest book, Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry, Skye’s current boyfriend, Wally’s father comes to town and reveals their family secrets.

--Denise Swanson writes the Scumble River mystery series published by Penguin/NAL/Obsidian. Her books have been nominated for the Agatha, Mary Higgins Clark, Daphne du Maurier, and RT Reviewers Choice awards. She is married to classical music composer, David Stybr. To hear some of David’s music go to Denise’s website http://www.deniseswanson.com/

Farrah Rochon | Anticipation

I’m not sure how I feel about that word. Just saying it conjures feelings of expectancy and excitement, but it can also lead to anxiety and good ol’ fashion worry.

My life is filled with anticipation. Whether it’s wondering what will happen next on my favorite TV shows (Seriously, aren’t we all wondering if McSteamy will end up with Nurse Rose or go back to Meredith Grey?), or waiting with bated breath for my niece to be born (FYI: She was born on April 30th after a twelve day delay, and she is the most precious child to ever grace this planet), anticipation has become a constant life companion.

My writing journey has been filled with anticipation. Finishing the book, finding an agent, landing my first contract, finally seeing my debut novel, Deliver Me, on the shelves, et cetera. I though the edgy, bumble bees fluttering around in my stomach feeling would ease up after the first book, but no such luck.

As I anticipate the release of my next novel, Release Me, those bumble bees are having a field day and that excited, ready-to-jump-up-and-cheer-one-minute-and-lose-my-lunch-the-next feeling is keeping me up at night. The anticipation of receiving reviews, wondering if fans will think the book lives up to the first one, and whether the book will even get out on bookstore shelves on time is enough to make me overindulge in highly fattening, but delicious and expensive chocolate to help ease the worry (hey, I need an excuse, okay!).

Of course, the best thing to do would be to accept that what will be will be, and just put it all out of my mind. I’m anticipating the day when I’m smart enough to do just that. As for now, I’ll stick with chocolate covered anxiety.

Cheers,

Farrah Rochon
http://www.farrahrochon.com/

Richelle Mead | Writing Pressures

The release of a new book is always a scary thing. The debut novel? Especially terrifying. A new series? Yikes. Nail-biting. Yet, none of these compare to the pressure of when the second book in a series is about to come out...

When Vampire Academy was released last fall, I didn't know what to expect. Adult urban fantasy was where I felt most comfortable; I'd kind of stumbled into YA. Fortunately, Vampire Academy had solid sales early on, which was a huge relief. (When you write full time, you always have the weight of the rent and the grocery bill on you!) But then something else started happening. I started getting fan mail--lots of it. I'd gotten a fair amount of it with Succubus Blues, but nothing like this. And reading through these emails, I discovered something. People weren't just buying my book; they loved my book.

That's every author's dream. It was my dream--and is still my dream today. I've often said that I don't need J. K. Rowling fame, so long as I have a large enough group of devoted fans to let me keep writing. I stand by that--only, I didn't realize how daunting that would end up being. Frostbite, the sequel to Vampire Academy, was written while I was in the process of getting divorced. Those writing conditions were, uh, not optimal in the least. I had just about finished its revisions when Vampire Academy really took off, and suddenly, I started freaking out. These fans were telling me how much they loved the first book and how they couldn't wait to read Frostbite. I panicked. Was I going to let them down? Was this manuscript good enough for them? I felt like I should have been locked away in a pristine mountain retreat to write the book, not plotting chapters in the throes of depression and monetary settlements. I was certain I should have done something more in writing the book--only, considering the circumstances, I didn't think there was anything more I could have done.


And it was too late anyway. The book had to go to press. I had a great editorial team at my back, and I had to believe that all of us had done our jobs. Still, the worry stayed. Mail from people who were excited about the book was still coming in, and soon, it was joined by people who were also excited about the third book! I have a new series coming out in the fall, beginning with Storm Born, and friends were asking me if I was nervous about it. My response: "Hell no! That one has no expectations yet. All the pressure's on Frostbite." I so, so wanted it be good enough for my readers.

Then, last week, I got an unexpected email. It was from someone who had apparently gotten a hold of an early copy of Frostbite, and--they loved it. A huge pressure suddenly lifted from me. A day or so later, I heard from someone else with an early copy of Frostbite--and they loved it too. Slowly, it began to occur to me that maybe I had done it after all, that I really had written a book my readers loved as much as the first. It’s an amazing feeling.

Knowing this has suddenly taken the stress off from book 3, Shadow Kiss. I finished it a week ago and had a bit of that same fear while writing it: should I be doing more? Should I be in the mountain retreat to make sure this is perfect? But, the truth is, books aren't written in mountain retreats. Well, not most of them. They're written in chaos, while we're happy and while we're hurting, and that all goes into the pages. That’s how authors write, and that’s what makes good writing.

Thank you so much for letting me blog today! More info about me and my books can be found at: www.richellemead.com/





Richelle Mead

Tawny Weber | Spontaneous Goal Setting

Before the confetti settles, the champagne bottles are tossed into the recycling bin and the sound of fireworks dies away, talk turns to that time-honored New Years tradition... Resolutions.

Or, as I prefer, setting goals. I love goal setting. I’m big on writing lists and color-coding is definitely my friend. There’s something so satisfying about making a plan, setting a goal, and then working through the steps to see it become a reality. Call me a control freak, but it’s the only way I feel like I have much say in this crazy roller coaster that is life.

Isabel Santos, the heroine in my January Blaze, DOES SHE DARE? is exactly the same. She’s all about success and has not only a yearly goal list, but a five year, ten year and life goal list. Wow, even *I’m* not that obsessive. Then again, as goal focused as I am, even I wouldn’t write a Man Plan. But Isabel did. She based her plan on the hottest guy she’d ever known, listed her ultimate sexual fantasies, and created a set of rules to let her maintain control.

This got me to thinking. My planning and goal setting bleeds into every aspect of my life. When I travel, I make a packing list. I write menus for the week so I know what to get at the grocery store. As a writer, I have a career plan and am a die-hard plotter. I can’t imagine doing it any other way. And while this works great for me, I’m a little envious of those totally spontaneous people out there who decide on Saturday morning to take a trip and toss a few things in a tote before running out the door to destination unknown. The pantzers who write with the assured faith that the story they are writing is going to unfold beautifully for them as they go along.

For me, as there was for Isabel in DOES SHE DARE?, goal setting is vital. But that total focus on the goal has some definite pitfalls (as Isabel finds out!). And then there are those spontaneous types who simply live for the moment. Like Isabel’s hero, Dante Luciano. People like Dante have an awareness of opportunity that many goal setters don’t. It’s like a special sense that lets them grab onto a random happening and turn it into a huge success. They don’t need goals or resolutions, they simply make the most of whatever comes their way. And boy does he make the most of what comes HIS way!

Hmmm, ya think that created a few sparks when a total goal setter finds out the object of her Ultimate Man Plan is so spontaneous he travels with just what he can fit in his Harley’s saddlebags. Definitely!! What’s even more fun than watching Dante rearrange Isabel’s plans is watching the two of them fall in love.

My plan for the New Year is to embrace it all – goal setting AND to be more open to opportunities. It’s going to be all about flexibility –which is what both Dante and Isabel had to learn (and no, I don’t just mean to have the wild love scene on the Harley like they did *g* although flexibility did come in mighty handy then, now that I think about it).

How about you? Are you a planner or totally spontaneous? Or maybe like I’d like to be –somewhere in between? Do you make New Year’s Resolutions or set goals? Or do you simply take it as it comes, with that extra awareness of opportunities?

Tawny Weber’s latest Blaze, DOES SHE DARE? is in stores now. Tawny’s so into goal setting, she and her awesome CP, Beth Andrew’s even giving a workshop on it for From the Heart Romance Writers, http://www.fthrw.com/ starting early January. She’s also hosting a chat on http://www.eharlequin.com/ to discuss the Ultimate Man Plan and how to create your fantasy guy. And you can check out more goal setting tips at www.TawnyWeber.com/goals

Tawny