Vixenwriter

Damn it, I’m still sick – gah! I don’t have time to be sick, I’ve got stuff to do. So I took dayquil (one of the nastiest substances on earth) and I’m hoping to forge ahead on some writing.

Three Songs are in my head today so far:

PJ Harvey’s Long Snake Moan (I am such a huge fan of PJ Harvey and I think she’s got an album that will fit any of my given moods)

Pearl Jam – Crown of Thorns and Inside Job

I don’t think there’s a single one of my books without at least one Pearl Jam and/or PJ Harvey song on the tracklist. I tried to find a video of Long Snake Moan at youtube but there were only live shows with bad sound quality. I’ve seen her live and while I adore her, I think her studio stuff is better.

On the other hand, I’ve seen Pearl Jam live, let’s just say a lot of times, and they’re awesome live, in fact, I listen to their live CDs more than their studio albums. I’ve been fortunate to have been at several shows when they played this song, which is a rarity from the pre-Pearl Jam days when a few of the members were in a band called Mother Love Bone (I could so go on and on about this stuff so I’ll spare you). I tried to find a clip from one of the shows I’ve been to but no luck on that. ANYWAY…

Not a good, really clear version of Inside Job live though – so here’s this one from a fan made video

Yesterday while writing, IMing and surfing the intarwebs I saw an interesting post over at the FFF community about author blogs and advice on what we should and shouldn’t blog about. The original post was that an agent advised a client not to blog about getting rejected because of course, industry folks do blog surf and you don’t want to come off like, well someone who gets rejected. And in that comment stream, Jackie Kessler asked what the question, “what is the purpose of a blog?” which I think is an important question.

This is long and totally my opinion…

I tend to agree that authors should think about what they say on their blogs. In fact, I wish it happened more often than it does. An irrefutable truth – there are different standards applied to “public figures” of any kind. Yes, I would be held to a different response if I said the same things a reader blogger said. And to that I respond, “so what?” Because that is the reality and you can accept it and deal with it appropriately or you can be a twat and think you’re doing something important by shaking your fist at reality and saying whatever pops into your head without a thought for the consequences.

There are things you just don’t do. And I know that agitates people. I know people wish we could just be totally open about whatever agitates us, whatever strife we’re dealing with behind the scenes, etc. There are times when I wish that were so as well. But the fact is, this is a business for authors. Your name, how you act in public – these things are part of the whole package.

So, IMO, I do blog about rejection. Because guess what? EVERYONE gets rejected. This business is about perserverence and the ability to bounce back. It is. So when newbie authors read this blog I want them to know I get knocked around too. You don’t sell once and then bingo you sell everything you pitch forevermore. I mean, I’m sure some authors are just that fabulous and lucky, but most of us get rejected from time to time for a whole host of reasons.

The issue is – HOW you blog about the negatives in this business, not necessarily if you blog about them at all. So I’d never get up on this blog and bitch about a certain house or a certain editor or whine and piss and moan about how New York isn’t ready for me or I’m too edgy for New York or whatever. In my opinion, that’s simply unprofessional. Period. Even if an editor at a certain house said I ate kittens in puff pastry and wrote the worst drek ever – although dude, I think I’d have to laugh and at least joke about it with my friends because that would be a horribly awesome rejection. Anyway, I’m digressing (SHOCK!).

Writing about the writer’s life is part and parcel of why I blog. I started blogging before I sold my first book but over time, I’ve had to really think about how I speak, what I say and who I say it to. I’m a writer, this blog will be about my life, which includes writing. I don’t want to jam my books down your throats every three minutes, I don’t want to only be happy, I don’t want to whore myself. I’m a person so for me, when I think about what a blog is about, I think this blog is about my life. Sometimes I’m going to talk about my kids or my husband or the broken headlight I got at the grocery store. Other times I talk about editing or revising, sales and yep, rejections.

A blog should give readers/visitors a feel for who the blogger is so I think authors should think about that carefully. By that, I mean, think about how your content reflects upon you and what people take away about you from that. Is that how you want to be perceived?

Several months ago I read a blog entry where the author had been rejected by a certain house (one I write for actually, just to disclose that bias) and she spent quite a bit of time really dogging the house and the editor who rejected her. Another author replied in the comments several things I personally knew were untrue but the real issue is that to me, it ended up looking like sour grapes. Because when I read that I think, “EVERYONE gets rejected! Do you think you’re too special to be rejected? Are your words so sacred that any editor who reads then will be ensorceled by them and if not, they’re out to get you for some reason?” It gave me a very negative perspective on both the authors because it was vulgar. Now, I’m sure that author who’d been rejected was hurting. Rejection sucks. But there are appropriate ways to vent and it’s not on your blog naming names.

Also, filters and boundaries are important. There are things you’d say to your child’s teacher and things you’d say to your best friend – right? All kinds of things occur to me and yes, at times here I’m random and stream of consciousness but believe it or not, I am accutely aware of what’s appropriate. Occasionally, I’ll see author and sometimes industry blogs where completely inappropriate things are discussed and the owners of those blogs always seem so surprised when they get heat. If a professional uses her industry blog to bash another competetor I’m going to walk away with a negative feeling – AND SO WILL READERS. If an author uses her blog to whine about a review in great detail, I’m going to shake my head. Bad reviews are another thing that happens to EVERYONE. Suck it up and move on. Vent to your buddy on IM, eat some Ben and Jerry’s and don’t blog about it.

You can be goofy but still stay professional wrt this business. You can post pics of your dog’s new sweater or your new horse or the halloween costume you made for your kid but I really find discussions of the size of your partner’s wedding tackle to be outside the scope of a professional writing blog. Again, just me. I write sex, but I think we can talk about it unshamedly and openly without crossing the line into TMI. I don’t want to hear about fungal infections either. Nor do I want to see bigoted stuff.

Whew! Okay so that’s totally long winded and 100% opinion. My point is – it’s all in the execution. There’s a time and a place for things. Sharing ups and downs of a writer’s life is interesting – I don’t only want to see sunshine and rainbows, some days you really just feel like laying on the couch and eating fried foods while watching Rock of Love. Shrug. We can be human, we are human, but like anyone else in any other professional situation, it’s how we choose to address things that makes all the difference.

As many regular readers know, Anya Bast is a dear friend. She’s like one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. She rarely says a mean thing about anyone or anything (I know, it boggles as to why she likes me too). She’s also a really fabulous writer who’s taught me many things about craft in the years I’ve read and then knew her.

On March 4, Witch Blood, book two in her Elemental Witches series officially releases although it’s apparently shipping from Barnes and Noble and has been spotted on shelves already.

In this installment, we get Thomas, who we meet in Witch Blood. Thomas is a man wearing the very heavy mantle of leadership of his Coven in some dangerous times. He’s strong, an earth witch to Isabelle’s water witch powers. She’s chaos and emotion and he’s quiet intensity but no less emotional, he’s just more contained.

I loved this book. I loved it from the first paragraph until the very end. The action part of the story is strong, interesting and really well told. Anya’s strength at drawing you into the world she’s writing really shines here. You care about the Coven and her witches, you care about the people, you can see the rooms right down to the wood grain in the floors and you can feel the silk of Thomas’ hair as he lets it down for Isabelle.

Isabelle is a woman filled with conflicts and guilt, she needs revenge for her sister. But she’s not wild and stupid, she’s impassioned and needs to make things right for this woman who accepted her, warts and all. I loved that about Isabelle actually. I loved that we know she’s hard and rootless but her anchor in life was her sister who’s now gone. That element was very emotional for me and I think Anya nailed it and has really shown Isabelle rather than told us about her.

The romance is strong and sexy. The love scenes are, whew, hot, guh! And totally elemental to the story. The way Thomas falls for Isabelle is startling and well written and Isabelle’s reluctance is not one of those romance novel moments when you wrinkle your nose and tell the heroine she’s a twit.

Little unique details like where and how Thomas’ power is stored really made the book extra special. I cannot wait for the next book! Anya Bast has scored yet another hit with her Elemental Witches.

The basics: A water witch, Isabelle Novak has always led a chaotic, nomadic existence. But her life spins out of control when her sister—her only friend and emotional anchor—is killed by a demon. Driven by grief and a desire for revenge, she turns her back on the Coven and the rede they hold sacred: Harm thee none…

When Isabelle first encounters Thomas Monahan, she’s running on pure rage and sorrow, channeling her pain into power—and trying to freeze the life out of a warlock she holds responsible for her sister’s death. Together, they form an uneasy alliance to hunt and destroy a demon of tremendous power. As head of the Coven, earth witch Thomas must thwart Isabelle’s dark impulses, but his very presence stirs deeper desires she never knew she had…

Okay so, because I loved this book so much – how about a contest? I’ll send the winner a copy of Witch Blood straight from Amazon.com upon winning. All you need to do is comment here and I’ll pick a winner at random on Saturday, March 1 at noon pacific. So g’wan and enter!

I just went to pick my kids up from school, or rather the two older ones, the wee monster is home with me all day. Anyway, my house is now filled with this:

Son #1 to Wee monster – “Why are you bothering me? I’m trying to do my homework.”
Me: “Leave your brother alone and let him finish his work.”
Son #2 “I have this Pokemon and he does blahalahababalahlalabala and has blah HP”
Son #1 – “Really? Is that *insert name of Pokemon I don’t care about here*”
Me – “Kids, leave your brother alone! Do your homework!”
Wee one – giggles and tells oldest brother to open the clamshell jewelry case she found earlier just like the tyrant she is
Text from Husband who offers to stop at market on the way home from work
I text back, promising sexual favors in return
More chaos from kids, breaking my little moment with my dude.
Me – “sigh”
Wee one – “Momma, what are those lines around your eyes?”
Me – “sigh. Wrinkles. Go away and leave your brother alone”
Wee one – “oh. Do they hurt? can we watch Max and Ruby? Can I have a popsicle? I want to wear my princess dress.”

My life? She is so glamorous.

WHEEE! Today I got notes from Amazon that The Outlaw Demon Wails AND Grimspace have shipped. Yes, that’s right, I have read Grimspace but I’m buying a copy too, LOL! Also about half an hour ago, Rhyannon Byrd’s new Nocturne showed up on my doorstep. Much squeeing on my part. OH, and I’ve got an early copy of something that won’t come out until the fall.

I’m trying to recover from being sick, which sucks but with three young kids, it’s sort of old hat. I’m sweaty, dizzy and now annoyed at my children but such is life, LOL. Anyway, I’m thinking a lot about three things:

First – The Romantic Times Booklover’s Convention in April. This will be my second year and I’m totally thrilled to be attending again. I’m trying to figure out all the basics, the promotion stuff, the swag for our reader party, costumes and clothes – all that good stuff.

The trip will be jam packed with stuff – I’m flying into Anya’s neck of the woods and she and I are driving to Megan’s! Then we’re getting our author shots with the super fabulous Scott Church. I’ve wanted so much to get him to do my headshots but he’s in PA and I’m in Washington so I wasn’t sure when to make it happen. I’m totally thrilled about it! And then there’ll be a signing and Megan, Anya and I will do a fun live webcast probably Monday night before we head into Pittsburgh for RT on Tuesday. Then you know, RT stuff for days and days. Books, authors, readers, dancing, friends old and new, it’s going to be fabulous.

Second: The release of What Happens in Vegas May 1! (and I’ve heard it’ll be available early at RT!!) Oh my goodness how excited am I about this anthology!! We sold it in late 2006 so the four of us have been waiting a while now for it. Recently we’ve received some early reviews so I’ll be posting those at my website soon and now it’s a matter of making sure the ads are in place, getting my prize baskets ready for RT and contests elsewhere and trying not to break my neck looking at Amazon and Barnes and Noble every three minutes.

Here’s a longer blurb for my story, Stripped:

Dahlia Baker had a reputation in her hometown. It was one of the things a woman with a body like hers had to contend with. As if large breasts and legs for miles made her a dumb bimbo. But it wasn’t like anyone cared that she had a 4.0 and a free ride to UNLV and so she grabbed opportunity with both hands and headed for the sunny heat of Las Vegas.

Still, she has bills to pay and if she wants to keep herself in books and a roof over her head, she has to get a job. And that’s where The Dollhouse came in where she worked as a burlesque dancer.

She’s got a plan for her future. But into her life strolls Nash, the brother of the man who owned the Dollhouse and a reputed player. Nash was literally the hottest man she’d ever clapped eyes on.

And he wants her.

Despite her reservations, they enter into a fiery affair and soon Dahlia’s heart is involved.

Nash knows Dahlia is skittish and over time, he begins to understand why. He may be a playboy, but he knows what he wants and he wants forever with Dahlia. It’s just going to take a very skillful combination of extremely hot sex and unconditional love to get her to see it too.

Third (and related to #2): Getting Sensual Magic finished. This is the follow up to Stripped, the novella I’ve got in the Vegas anthology. I’m nearly done and if I can stop feeling like I’m going to hack up a lung, I’ll be done by the end of this month and have plenty of time for crit and revisions. This is William’s story, he’s Nash’s brother and he owns The Dollhouse, the burlesque club Dahlia (heroine from Stripped) works in. This one has a paranormal storyline (as do the others in the second anthology!)

oy, there’s “pull my finger” talk going on in the other room, must put a stop to it before I get “the talk” from teachers.

Okay so it’s not really a secret that I get crushes on my heroes. I’m a hero-ho. While I’m writing him, he’s number two in my heart (right after my dude, who is sort of the template in some way or other for all my heros). ANYWAY, so I’m writing Sensual Magic right now. It’s the paranormal follow up to Stripped (coming in the What Happens in Vegas antho in May!) and it’s oodles of fun to write – my favorite kind of heroine, Nell is a cop of sorts. She totally KNOWS William is meant for her even though he’s all wounded and stuff, making him irritable at times and always arrogant.

Now William has been in my head since I wrote Stripped (fall of 2006, god that’s forever ago it seems) and with eighteen months of him in my head, I’ve really got a crush on him. The other day, I was looking at something at a celebrity site like Go Fug Yourself but not one and I can’t remember now anyway. So, I came across this man and I thought, this is him.

Josh Lucas. Who can be effortlessly sexy, classy, elegant and yet, he’s also fabulous in jeans, white cotton oxford shirts and no shoes with a corona in his hand. I like that range. I like the amusement in his eyes. Now every time I write I see him and William lives inside.

I’m currently attempting to hack up a lung so I’ll leave you with pretty pictures of pretty mens and stuff.

The winner of the Grimspace contest – a la random.org is commenter #21 Wicked Writes!

Send me your mailing address and I’ll put it on order for you at Amazon today! Congratulations!

WINNERS OF MY BLOG CONTESTS HAVE SEVEN DAYS TO CLAIM PRIZES. AFTER THAT I WILL DRAW FOR ANOTHER WINNER.

Blarg, all the sudden I got hit with some stuff and had to finish it so I was in the land of deadline. But when I came up for air, I discovered several wonderful things!!

To wit – Undercover, my December 2 release from Berkley Heat is now up for pre-order at Amazon!

Here’s the blurb since there’s not one up yet at Amazon:

Journey to an erotic future universe of passion, danger and deceit…

As a lieutenant of the Federation military, Sera Ayers is more accustomed to giving orders than taking them. Now she must obey the one man she can’t stand—and can’t stop thinking about.

With the enemy Imperialists gaining ground, a new covert team is assembled by Ash Walker. Ten years before, Sera had lovingly submitted to Ash’s dominance in the bedroom. But when he was forced into a political marriage, she left him rather than become his mistress. His marriage now over, Ash wants Sera on his team—and back in his bed.

The third team member, Brandt Pela, has an elegance to match Ash’s savage sexuality. And when their undercover plan requires Sera to pose as Brandt’s lover, it ignites a passion among the three of them more dangerous than their mission…

And, Making Chase is also up for pre-order at amazon. It comes out in print June 24 and I’m totally thrilled. This one is the last Chase Brother book so I hope folks who haven’t read it yet enjoy it.

Still cooking on Sensual Magic for Spice. I’m hoping to wrap it up next week! I’m off again, more busy! I’ll be back in a moment to draw a winner for the Grimspace contest!

Your Question: What I’m wondering is how you see the current market of erotica and erotic romance. Do they still have a lot of growth potential in them, have they reached the saturated mark yet, or, for those of us still in the beginning stages of our writing careers in these market, has the boat already sailed and the wake is closing over our heads if we’re not Olympic-level swimmers out of the gate?

LB (or SuperLaura as we’ve started calling her)Well, erotica and erotic romance have definitely tightened up over the last year, but that happens with every subgenre that explodes out of the gate. I have sold first-timers into the NY erotic romance market as recently as a month or two ago, so there is still opportunity out there.

Erotic romance and erotica will always have a more “fringe” marketplace than mainstream romance or even mainstream sensual romance, so the number of slots that will be allocated to erotica and erotic romance are not limitless. But certainly these markets are more robust now than they ever have been. The question is what YOU want to write… if you have erotica in your soul and you’d have to stifle your voice to tone down the heat, I think you should go with it. Recognize that it could be tougher to place your MS than if you were writing something more mainsteam like romantic suspense and just do it anyway. I don’t think you should give up on anything you want to write because of the whims of the market. As long as you can accept that some subgenres are harder to sell than others sometimes, then that is your choice to make. Honestly, no manuscript, regardless of genre, is “easy” to sell, so I think you should write what you feel moved to write.

Your Question: Do you think it’s important for an author to be flexible and adapt easily to the changes in our genre or to stick to one sub genre and master it?

Well, in a perfect world I think everybody should get to write what they want but since when is this a perfect world? Some subgenres are more popular than others–all you have to do is go to a bookstore to see that this is true. I think we can all understand that it would probably be easier to sell a historical romance set in London than one set in Warsaw and that the market for romantic suspense is probably bigger than the market for futuristic romance. With that said, sometimes an author’s voice doesn’t always translate well across certain subgenres and themes.

Flexibility can be a great thing but so is being a real master of your subgenre.

Laura Bradford, when she’s not fielding emails, making phone calls, reading manuscripts and wielding her superagent powers, is also a very good dancer and she makes me laugh and happens to be one of my favorite people in the world. You can find her at the Bradford Literary Agency.

Up front, lest I be accused of hiding it, I know Ann Aguirre. I happen to think she’s fabulous and I talk to her pretty much daily via IM. I also happen to think she’s a really gifted writer and I’ve thought so before I IM’d her all the time.

She’s got a book coming out next week (although I’ve heard it’s on shelves already!) called Grimspace.

Cool cover huh? Penguin/Ace/Berkley does a fabulous job with covers I gotta say.

Anyway – Ann kindly sent me an early peek at Grimspace some months back and when I read it, it blew me away. It’s one of those books what you look at and think, first person? Present tense? But it works. It conveys a sense of urgency, of breathlessness but every once in while it slows, tensing, making that pause sort of delicious before speeding up again. Aguirre’s words are sharp and tensile and some of the passages are so gorgeous in their description that even alone they’d make Grimspace an above average read.

But there’s more of course by way of a story well matched to the breathless manner in which Aguirre delivers it to the reader.

The first time in the book when Jax sits in her chair and she’s describing how grimspace is indescrible? I was there. Aguirre leads me through as Jax prepares and then jumps. I’m now jumped into the book and the journey begins. I love science fiction and futuristics and I read across sub genres and authors but I tend toward the edgy sort of delivery you see with Gibson and Morgan and Grimspace has that. It’s lush in places but the pace keeps it stark at the same time. I loved the action element as well as the romantic storyline. March is as well drawn as Jax, even through Jax’s eyes and they’re well matched on the page. There’s a lot to March but he’s like an iceburg character – much of what he is is below the surface and so we learn it slowly but surely.

There’s something deliciously flawed in Sirantha Jax. Deeply wounded. Prickly, bitchy at times, defensive and guilt ridden. But you know why. You’re in her head, no one holds her more accountable than she does herself. But there’s a resilience in her. She tells herself she doesn’t need anyone else but she does. She tells herself not to take a risk in reaching out but she does. I just really liked her.

Anyway, as you can tell, I dug Grimspace. I think it’s a great mixture of action, emotion, romance with some startlingly wonderful and memorable characters.

The basics: As the carrier of a rare gene, Jax has the ability to jump ships through grimspace—a talent which cuts into her life expectancy, but makes her a highly prized navigator for the Corp. But then the ship she’s navigating crash-lands, and she’s accused of killing everyone on board. It’s hard for Jax to defend herself: she has no memory of the crash.

Now imprisoned and the subject of a ruthless interrogation, Jax is on the verge of madness. Then a mysterious man breaks into her cell, offering her freedom—for a price. March needs Jax to help his small band of rogue fighters break the Corp monopoly on interstellar travel—and establish a new breed of jumper.

Jax is only good at one thing—grimspace—and it will eventually kill her. So she may as well have some fun in the meantime…

Okay so because I think Grimspace is such a fabulous book – I’m going to give one away via Amazon.com. All you need to do is comment and I’ll draw at random on Friday afternoon and order it to send it your way as soon as Amazon ships!