Vixenwriter

Wow. 2005 has been an incredible year of high highs and low lows. I’ve learned a lot about myself and the people in my life and I’ve learned who really loves me. Instead of doing a post about resolutions, I think I’d like to look back a bit and be thankful before I begin to look forward to life in 2006.

Two years ago New Year’s Eve I was pregnant and on bedrest, worried that I was going to lose the pregnancy. I’d decided to give writing a chance. A serious chance and as I would spend the next seven and a half months on bed rest, I certainly had the time.

I look back at those manuscripts and I see how far I’ve come as a writer. My editor at EC, Ann Leveille is really responsible in large part for that. I just want to say publicly that she kicks ass, or rather, kicks my ass and makes me work. Makes me put in the effort to be a better writer. I appreciate that more than I can even begin to explain. So thank you, Ann. Thank you for believing in me and letting me have my own voice. And thank you Raelene, for reading Triad and sending it back to me, telling me that you thought it was great but my dialog tags were a mess and to fix them, LOL. And I did and you bought my baby and it’s now on bookshelves in Borders, how wonderful is that?

But really, all of this started because of my husband (and not just because his super sperm knocked me up through a diaphram, landing me on bedrest). He’s believed in me every day of the last two decades and he’s gotten me through so many times when I wasn’t sure if I could make it. He’s been such a great support and help to me with all of this and I am a very lucky woman. Every morning when I open my eyes and see him there, I count my blessings. I may not always deserve it, but he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

And to my friends who’ve read and critiqued me, who’ve high fived with me when I had good news and helped me be mean and bitchy when I had bad news - your encouragement and love get me through the hard times and keep me bouncy. I’ve heard a hundred times that romance is a cut throat genre and that authors are mean to each other and while I’ve seen a lot of tightassery with regard to erotic romance from other genres, I have to say that I’ve been touched a thousand times more by my fellow romance authors who’ve reached out to do something nice for me. And for my RW who are always there even when I’m busy and I don’t check in as often as I should, I love you all.

My kidlets, who are insanely wild and out of control and a source of blushing at the playground when all of the other kids seem to be so damned well behaved - you are the source of my magic. Because you are filled with love and light and you’re my very best creation. But sweetie, let go of your penis! (god, that boy and his penis!)

And to my readers - what can I say about you that would do justice to what you all mean to me? I still have each and every note I’ve ever been sent about my books and it is my sincere hope that I never become so jaded that each time you send me something like that I am not incredibly touched. How generous you are with me! Thank you for your support and your words of encouragement and praise. I hope that I can continue to write stories that appeal and help to take you away for a little while into another world (where the sex is hot and the men are hotter)

Thank you, all of you. I wish you love, peace, blessings, joy, orgasms and chocolate in great abundance in 2006. And may life bring you a soft pink unicorn.

xxxooo Lauren

Amazon has just released its list of the top ten romances of 2005:

1. Breath of Snow and Ashes, Gabaldon
2. It’s In His Kiss, Quinn
3. The Trouble With Valentine’s Day, Gibson
4. Undead and Unappreciated, Davidson
5. The Smoke Thief, Abe
6. Wait Until Midnight, Quick
7. 50 Harbor Street, Macomber
8. Dark Secret, Feehan
9. Mr. Impossible, Chase
10. Flirting With Danger, Enoch

I would like to point out to a certain author who was just moaning about the horror of a tide of erotic romances, that not one of the list above is an erotic romance. In fact, there are several trads in the list and two vamps.

What do you all think of the list? Agree? Disagree? Have your own additions?

I finished Red Lily last night. It was a nice end to the trilogy even if there were several plot points which left me incredulous and annoyed, which is very rare for me with Nora. I like Haley and Harper and I do like that Lily was a real character in the book unlike so many authors who throw a child into a book and no one ever seems to actually parent her or be sleepless or resentful or less than patient. I like that Harper loved that child too. I won’t go into much more detail because I don’t want to spoil the plot. Anyway, it was a good read but the Ardmore and Born in trilogies and her JD Robb books remain my favorites.

Anya Bast and I are hosting the EC Reader Chat on January 5. You should be there.

There’s an interesting discussion over at Jaynie’s blog that got started when an anonymous comment was made disparaging not just Ellora’s Cave but those authors who did well as “ass kissers.” Essentially the anonymous person said that she knew for a “fact” that EC “loved” to screw their authors over. Now here’s my thing and I said it there too, not every publisher is right for every author. No publisher, EC included, is perfect. But I certainly don’t kiss ass, not anyone’s ass, and I’ve never been treated anything but well by EC. They’ve been very good to me from the day that I sent my submission in and have been unwaveringly so since then.

I’m not an EC top seller (maybe someday), I’d like to think I was “midlist” but who knows? All I do know is that I am treated professionally but also like a member of the family and that I make a nice bit of royalties, I can write what I want and no one bugs me about those gawddamned rules (you know, multiple POV, etc).

I’m quite sure that those who are top sellers get through the process quicker. And? Hello? EC is a business and it makes sense that top sellers in any business go through more quickly. But that’s not making me feel less special in that each and every one of us is a special snowflake sort of way.

I do know what it feels like to feel at war with your “boss” or to not feel valued and supported and it sucks. And if anonymous had that experience at EC, I feel for her. But I don’t like anonymous attacks that generalize one person’s experience as the universal norm, because that isn’t so.

And lastly, seriously people, why would EC “love” to screw authors over? It makes no business sense to screw over your bread and butter and EC has good business sense or it woudln’t be at the top of her game. See, this is what happens with generalizations when they’re made anonymously, you overstate and get all wild because you can’t be held responsible.

Edited to add a bitch about romance authors who write nasty bitter “entries” at certain blogs about how “awful” it is that there are too many vampire and erotica books. Oh for fuck’s sake! Get over yourself! If you look at the romance section of your local bookstore as a whole you’ll see plenty of “traditional” romances, far more than steam. Here’s a clue - if your sensibilities are so damaged by the paranormal and steamy romance, don’t buy them. Don’t read them. But to hope the “trend” goes away, thereby removing the livelihoods of authors like me who write paranormals and erotica, that’s just small and petty and I’m sick of it. I’m sick of these authors who say stuff like that in a whiny voice with a fake smile on their faces.

Smart Bitches is doing a survey - best and worst books, best and worst covers, keepers, etc. Check it out.

You should read Making Light if you don’t already do so.

I’d say bad boy but I’m talking about an archetype here and I’m going to demonstrate the point with Clive Owen, who is in no sense of the word, a boy.

But let’s start with Clive the gentleman shall we? Oh look at him, suave and smelling good. You know that suit fits him within an inch of his life. He knows which fork to use and he drives a very nice car. This man would never, ever wear ratty underwear.

But make no mistake, he’s not tamed. No, the bad man will show this face when he needs to, to make partner or to charm a client. But he’s still bad underneath.

Now here, the bad man shows through a bit more. It’s in his eyes and the set of those naughty, carnal lips. This man would quite happily bend you over the hood of that sports car and fuck you silly.

And you’d love it, too.

The bad man archetype is popular in romance and more especially, erotic romance for a reason - we all want one. No, we don’t want a womanizer (ick). We don’t want a jerk or an asshole. We want the man who’ll clean up nice for our parents, who remembers our birthday and anniversary, but who isn’t afraid to hold our wrists above our heads and give us a sharp nip on the side of the neck either.

The warrior, the barely leashed feral nature, the sense that anything could happen at any time - that’s the appeal of the bad man. Yum

In the last few weeks I’ve finished:

• Kelley Armstrong’s, Haunted.
• My yearly re-read of Jenny Crusie’s, Welcome to Temptation
• Susan Andersen’s, Skintight
• Nora’s, Black Rose (I have Red Lily in my TBR stack)

I’ve got in my TBR pile:

• Kate Douglas’, Wolf Tales
• Nora’s, Red Lily and Blue Smoke
• Jon Stewart’s, America (which I’ve skimmed here and there. I love Jon Stewart, sigh)
• The continuation of the Dune prequels - Dune, the Battle of Corrin
• Richard Morgan’s, Wokken Furies

So much great stuff to read, so little time!

Quick rundown - Skintight - I liked it. It was quick and much more readable than Hot and Bothered (the other two in that mini trilogy rank up there in my favorite romances of all time). I thought that the story was interesting and told from a unique perspective. The trouble of perception between Jax and Treena resolved itself from his perspective fairly quickly (and I HATE romances that have the “hero” think the heroine is some soulless slut but he just can’t stop fucking her, ack! Andersen does not do this, thank god). I think some of the chemistry between them was wasted and Jax didn’t make it up there to where Beau is (but who does?) but I really enjoyed Skintight and it was certainly a fun break from a busy day.

Haunted - I’m waiting to hate a Kelley Armstrong book. It hasn’t happened yet. She takes characters that I wasn’t crazy about like Paige and wows me with them (Industrial Magic) and now she’s done the same with Eve. I won’t bore you with a plot synopsis, you can look at amazon for that, but I will say that Armstrong continues to grow as an author and each successive book is stronger than the last.

Welcome to Temptation - I’ve never had a negative thing to say about a Crusie book. But WTT is my favorite romance novel of all time. It’s witty and smart and the sex is HOT and clever. No one in the book is typical in any way.

Black Rose - You can’t really go wrong with Nora, but I did feel like the chemistry between Roz and Mitch was wasted and while I loved that the HH were not 23, I wondered why the sizzling set ups were not fully realized. I also wonder why Roz’ story was the middle one instead of the last. But I haven’t read Red Lily yet so I can’t say for sure. I thought the middle dragged on for quite a bit but the opening and the end were really well done.

The newest winner is:

WITCHY!! Congrats, Witchy, you’ve won some books I’m going to choose at random from my pile. Just send me your mailing address to laurendane @ laurendane . com

Congrats!

Cascadia Wolves: Rebel

30,000 / 65,000 (46.2%)

As you can see, I’m cookin! I’m really finding myself going in a direction I hadn’t really planned on but I like it. It’s making for more angst than I normally write in my books but Tracy is the kind of heroine who will tear a throat out if someone threatens what’s hers.

Thing is, when I write a menage, I try to make it realistic. It would be complicated, people don’t share their mates without a lot of compromise and some stress and things to work out. I know people in poly relationships and none of them are “easy” - it takes work and I think it’s important that each book shows that. So I’m doing that.

For me, one of my chief issues with romance is that some romance novels are totally unrealistic. And yes, I realize that I write about werewolves, but by unrealistic I mean that the happily ever after is often something that doesn’t take ongoing work. And being in a working relationship does take work.

This doesn’t mean that I have to write about beard hair in the sink or diry socks, but as a writer, I want to try and shine a bit of real world into my books. Being in love is easy, staying there is hard.

I got my cover for Enforcer and I’m in love. This is of course, the print cover and LOVE the wolf on the back. The ebook cover is here:

I really love the colors. Syneca did a fabulous job! It was a nice Christmas present for me.

So yesterday we left our house at 11:30 in the morning on our way to take the kids to get pictures with Santa. But of course everyone else in the universe had the same idea and we get to our local mall and they tell us it won’t be until 4 at least until we can get in (because Santa takes lunch between 1 and 2 dontcha know).

So knowing there is NO way my 16 month old is going to stand in line for five hours (as if I would either) we head to another place, one near our old house. In we load into the mini van, mom, dad, three kids and grandparents. Each time we got in the car it was a seatbelt thing that lasted ten minutes (don’t ask). The boys were annoying and it was raining really hard so traffic was just lovely.

We get there at 12:30 and there’s a long line (although not nearly as long as the other line) and that Santa goes to lunch from 2 - 3 and they’ve cut off the line. Sigh. But we’re there and the kids are reasonably nicely dressed and we grab lunch and my husband heads back to stand in line where we will meet him at 3.

I won’t even go into how awful the next hour and a half was or how slow the time seemed to pass with a screaming 16 month old or how she leapt on a little boy at the bookstore and stole his santa hat and ran with it (that kid is going to need therapy I suspect).

We did get the picture in the end. She cried but my boys looked happy. I needed a drink but didn’t have one, sigh. I loved those moments when my husband and I just shared a look and no words were necessary. My parents seemed fairly immune to my children’s more annoying behavior. I found a Robert Sabuda pop up dinosaur book that I’ve been petting since I took it out of the wrapping last night. I will have to wax squee about Sabuda’s books soon.

Next year I’m doing those pictures on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Or I’m donating my children to the Toys for Tots campaign.

But I did get some writing done, 5 thousand words worth, last night so that was a good thing.

Lookit the lovely Collette holding her copy of Triad! Am I lucky or what that she was willing to run out to get me this picture?

And here it is on the shelves. Two copies of Triad at the Borders on N. Michigan Avenue. Thank you to Collette who ran out last night to get me the picture so I could squee all over the place, LOL.

I’m working on setting up a signing at a local Borders so keep an eye out here for specifics!!