Vixenwriter

Ellora’s Cave has a number of new series/lines that are open to not as of yet EC authors. So if you’re looking for a way in to EC and have some ideas along these lines – give em a try! I’ve been writing for EC since November 2004 when they accepted Triad – they’re a wonderful publisher and I’ve been very happy with them.

Autumn Animalia Quickie series – Releasing September 2006. Theme is shapeshifters or a strong animal character in the story. Stories must be to your editor for review/acceptance by end of June at the latest, all editing done and final ms turned in by early August.

Wild Winter Quickie series. Releases December 2006. Theme is winter holidays. Stories to your editor by end of September, editing complete by early November.

New erotica line at EC (name tbd): We hope to launch in late 2006, and are accepting submissions now. This will be a line of erotica, not erotic romance. Basically the same sexuality level as E-rated EC stories, the same taboos. But it doesn’t have to be a “romance” – doesn’t need commitment or an HEA – although it certainly can have romantic elements. The focus is on the sexual relationship instead of the romantic one. Stories can be 10K to 100K.

New Traditional Regency line at Cerridwen (name tbd): Standard sweet Traditional Regencies. Story length 50-75K. Historical accuracy is very important. Only new stories, not reprints. Taking submissions now. Particularly interested in authors previously published in this genre. Planning to launch in late 2006.
NOTE: We already accept Regency-set Historicals at Cerridwen, and erotic Regencies at EC.

2007 Tarot theme stories: Stories can be any EC length or genre. Must specify a Tarot card that is the “theme” of the story. For existing EC authors, submit to your editor a detailed full-story synopsis and 8-10K words. Outside submissions must be full manuscript. (I have a novella in this series, it looks to be a really fun series of stories!)

2007 Ellora’s Cavemen anthology series: Submissions close Sept. 30; selections will be made by Dec. 31. Any genre, 10-12K, preferably E rated, send to Martha@ellorascave.com.

New Releases Worth A Look:
Heart of the Woolf
by Kai Andersen – available now from Loose Id

Adrienne runs…

Adrienne’s hard-earned peace is shattered when she receives deadly gifts and threatening messages on her phone. Her first thought is to seek protection from Jake, yet instinct tells her Jake is not what he appears to be. Yet Jake may be the only one standing between her and certain death. Can she risk herself to the heart of the Woolf?

Anya Bast’s -Seduced In Twilight releases on Wednesday May 3 from Ellora’s Cave. This is one scorching hot menage book! I’ll get the buylink up when it comes available but I highly recommend you putting this on your TBB List!

I just received notice of this marvelous review at FAR from Serena today!

She says in part: “I was blown away by the world that Lauren Dane created in Cascadia Wolves: Enforcer. The characters, the hierarchy of The Pack, and the intricacy of the world itself was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Nina Reyes was the perfect mix of moxy and insecurity. Lex Warden was absolutely too yummy to believe. He was willing to do whatever he could to ensure her happiness. `Watching’ these two interact was fun and Ms. Dane’s phrasing made me laugh out loud a few times. I cannot wait until the next book in her series comes out. I gladly give Cascadia Wolves: Enforcer a Recommended Read rating and two thumbs up to Ms. Dane for a fantastic book.”

Thank you so much, Serena!

I was a bit put off by some of the reviews I’d read but I have to say, this is a great book and I’m glad I ignored them and read it. This one is not a traditional romance. In fact, it breaks several romance rules which is just wonderful. It’s a team writing project between Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. I have to admit that I was wary about Mayer, I mean, an ex green beret writing romance? Would Crusie’s voice get lost?

Their voices work excellently together. I needn’t have worried, Crusie’s trademark humor and great dialog is here. She writes Lucy’s perspective and Mayer writes JT’s perspective. It’s pretty darned seamless I have to say. JT is very likeable but he’s a guy and clearly written by one, which is refreshing in a romance because we don’t often get that perspective and many men who write romance try to do it with a woman’s voice, which makes it awkward, IMO.

JT is a dude, totally. He’s special forces and all of the scenes with weapons and any kind of tactical stuff is very technical and accurate. I know some people were put off by that, I on the other hand, dug it and feel like if you’re going to put stuff like that in your book it should be accurate. It made JT even more sexy, god help me, LOL. Mayer’s expertise shows in that aspect and I thought it worked well. There were way more action scenes than you’d normally see in a romance, but again as I said, I think the book broke rules that needed to be broken so good for them.

The sex/chemistry was really well done. But they’re adults with responsibilities and that’s handled well too. JT and Lucy as a couple was believable and not forced.

Crusie’s Lucy is the kind of heroine I wish we saw more of. She’s strong and smart and self sufficient but not written so overly “plucky” that you hate her and think she’s a dumabass for not accepting help from the hero. When she gets mad it’s for a reason and a believable one. When she does stuff you don’t wrinkle your nose in disgust.

A few nits to pick because I’m that way – I am a big fan of lots of secondary characters but by the end of the book I had to pause several times to figure out who was what and why. It got to be overwhelming.

There was a bit of a problem with me and the “reason” for the caper. Without spoiling, I’ll just say it was a bit thin.

The bad guys? Well, a few of them I thought were “too” bad when they start out as sort of affable jerks. It’s a big jump from affable jerk to multi murderer I think. There’d better be a good reason and in this case, I saw none.

Daisy, Lucy’s sister – the only reason I was able to get past her behavior is because Crusie makes it clear it’s an abberation and she starts to straighten out. But when you write a kid into a book and a parent is messed up, it’s bound to raise hackles. It raised mine. But again, in the end, Crusie pulled it off but I still didn’t like Daisy.

In any case, brava/o to Crusie and Mayer for taking a chance and making it work. Oh and for breaking rules. Cause most rules are made to be broken, especially in romance.

Here’s something that should not come as a shock to anyone who’s sat down and completed a novel – there are no magic formulas, no spells or incantations to writing a publishable novel. It takes hard work. And ambition and follow through. Not to mention a tough hide and no small about of creativity.

But Tina Adams wants you to think there is a magic formula and she’s going to sell all you aspiring romance authors some magic beans for the incredibly low price of just $197.00! What a deal. But wait, you might ask yourself, just who is this Tina Adams and if she has the magic beans why don’t I know her name?

Good question boys and girls!

Tina is going to give you her secrets on:

• What a romance novel “is” perhaps she should tell us all given that all nine thousand members of the RWA can’t seem to agree
• What all writers must have before they can write a story Uh, an idea?
• A simple technique for developing your initial idea into a complete novel concept sitting your ass down and doing the work. There are no magic formulas for this, people. It takes effort. Sometimes the ideas come easy, sometimes they don’t.
• Why the best stories are about characters having something vitally important to do she wants 200 bucks to tell us this?
• The one question you must answer to “suspend your readers disbelief” and keep her reading your story why should I give my hard earned money to a woman who has poetry with diskus and one book that no one’s ever heard of?
• A flawless method for choosing which point of view to write your story from What?
• A sentence-by-sentence method for plotting your story Look, you can get this stuff for free and at your library from people who are successful authors
• The secret to creating a winning six-second sales pitch for your book Yeah, cause Tina’s a household name.

Here’s the deal – this pisses me off because this woman is pirating the dreams of people who want to be published authors and using their desire to rip them off.

She says she wrote for twenty years before developing this product. How much good has it done her? Are her books on the shelves at your local bookstore? What are her qualifications to claim she can teach you her “magical formula?”

Sorry folks, if there were magic beans, she’d be making more money than Nora Roberts who, by the way writes from 8 – 5 every day – work people. Work and ambition and drive. So get your ass in the chair and write. And write and finish. And crit and re-write and submit. That’s the formula. If you want books on craft, check out Stephen King’s book on writing or Orson Scott Card’s book – these guys have a reason to be writing on writing – ie a body of work to support what they’re telling you.

Karen has tagged me. And it’s Friday and my brain doesn’t feel particularly witty this morning so cool, a meme!

Six Things About Me:

1. I love cupcakes (I know! Shocking!)
2. I have many guilty pleasures like watching reality tv and listening to Justin Timberlake
3. I made up a cheer routine with my cousin Trena and my sister to Loverboy’s “Working For the Weekend” just for fun (I was 13). I still know parts of it.
4. I re-read Lord of The Rings every November
5. I’m a pantser
6. I’ve been with my husband for twenty years

So there you go. Fascinating stuff, snort.

I’m supposed to tag people now and you’ll all complain, so how about this? I’m tagging you ALL and you can do it or not.

Okay, got my work done from earlier today and send the manuscript formerly known as Witches Knot to my editor at EC. I hope she likes it. There’s a bit of time between when I first wrote it and now. It’s changed a bit.

I wrote it first last year. But she said it wasn’t romance enough. So I put it aside. I pitched it to my now agent who was lukewarm and brought up some of the same things my editor brought up in addition to the fact that the book is so tied into the Charvez Universe that it would be nearly impossible to make it standalone. And hey, if two people whose opinions you respect say the same thing, you have to listen.

Sigh. So I put it aside and finished up several other projects and went back to it. I streamlined it a bit (too many characters) and adjusted the scenes a bit (I already changed some timeline stuff a while back). I did not take the focus from Holly and her struggle. I think it’s important and she’s the heart of the book. It is a romance. But it’s more than that too and I hope my editor thinks the changes I’ve made are what she was looking for. I love this book. I want my readers to meet Holly (and Rhett and Lucas too) After this one, I think I’m nearly done with the Charvez witches (not in an ancillary way though, I’m doing a Fae series and a series about the hunters that we meet in Vengeance Due). I want to end with a final book about Lee, Alex and Aidan – Alex has some choices to make.

Tonight it’s back to Goddess With A Blade. I want to polish it up and then do a proposal for it. Oh and then on to Sword and Crown which is due June 1. And THEN back to Threat of Darkness and Jayce’s story. Oh, and then back to Taking Chase for Samhain. Whoo, I need a hobby (I almost said chubby, god, my mind!)

Lookie here! I just got my cover for Tri Mates this morning. I’m thrilled! It’s gorgeous and fits nicely with the Enforcer cover but it’s still unique (check the wolf in the background).

More later, I wanted to post this cause it’s so purty! But I’m working this morning.

I got my cover for Giving Chase! I love it. Nice and sensual and my Kyle has a goatee and thank you, Scott for finding a cover shot with a man who has one!

Giving Chase is a contemporary romantic suspense that’ll be releasing at Samhain on June 27. I love getting covers! Scott did my cover for Second Chances, too (another cover I love).

And on a totally ‘nother topic, why the hell does Tom Cruise wear that leather jacket everywhere? I mean, he wears it to every interview, every press conference. I don’t get it. It’s not even that attractive of a jacket to begin with. Is he trying to look young and hip? If so, *BUZZZZ* you lose, Tom. You just look like a tool.

I’m reading an anthology, or I was, I think I’m done now, and it makes me think about what a friend said to me about novellas the other day – she said the ending of Sleight of Hand seemed rushed compared to my other books. Of course my other books range from 70 to 100K words and SOH was 23K or so. I love writing novellas, they’re fun and as a reader, you have to approach them knowing they’re not going to have the same level of detail you get with 70K words. But still, there has to be some level of detail, especially if you write a suspense plot. It’s an art I think, writing very short. Some authors kick butt at it like MaryJanice Davidson and Megan Hart. Other authors? Eh, not so much.

Okay folks – here we go…

The Grand Prize Winner is…

Anita Yancy! Congratulations, Anita, you’ve won an Enforcer tote bag filled with all sorts of goodies!

The Email Winner of a Download of any available title from my backlist is: Luv71child!

The Blog Winner of a Download of any available title from my backlist is: Meljprincess

The loop winner of a Download of any available title from my backlist is: Erin!

Okay folks here’s the deal – you have ten days to contact me about your win – laurendane @ laurendane. com with your title and format preference. Any prizes not claimed after ten days will be awarded to another winner.

So there you go! Congratulations to all the winners! I’ll be doing another contest very soon.

Lauren

Some days there isn’t enough caffeine in the world. Still, I keep on trucking here with my lovely cup of chai. I was told at Starbucks the other day that Tazo wasn’t going to make decaf chai anymore. This is seriously disturbing to me. I drink at least four cups and usually six, of chai every day. If these folks knew what I was like with too much caffeine in my body, they’d make decaf just for me.

I saw my cover for Giving Chase this morning. Hee! Scott Carpenter is amazing and I’m thrilled with it. I’ll put it up when I get the official okay to do so. They nailed Maggie. Kyle looks a bit young but he has a goatee. Thank you, Scott, for finding such an awesome picture and making sure Kyle had his goatee (I do so love men with facial hair).

Oh! Sudden Desire releases on June 9. Just heard yesterday. I’m quite happy.

I’m actually going to join the RWA at the end of this week. I know, I know. But you know, change from the inside and all that? And I’ve heard encouraging news about the revamping of the RITAs and the GH so this is good. I suppose being a voice inside is something useful. And many people I quite like are members. We’ll see.

Oh! I got a 4 star review for A Touch of Fae from RT Magazine: “The leads are well developed and come alive in this fast-paced novel. Be forewarned: The explicit sexual encounters are hot, hot, hot!” No complaints about this one!

They also said of Second Chances: “An emotional story, clever dialogue and sizzling sex make this an enjoyable story.” Overall, it was a good review but they said it was “heavy” BDSM and I disagree. It’s certainly moderate but not by any means heavy. I’d quite like a heavy BDSM book given the right storyline, I just didn’t write one. Plus, it spoils the ending. Still, I’m not really complaining, like I said, it was a good review overall (I’m just spoiled with all the stellar 5 star reviews for it, LOL)

I finally came up with a title for a book that used to be called Witches Knot but then I named the series that and had to rename the book (book four in the series). I’m not going to say what it is though, LOL, because now I’m supersitious about it. After it’s contracted I’ll tell you.