Vixenwriter

Laid Bare will be out in just a bit over a month – I thought I’d toss out a scene from early on in the book after Todd has returned to Seattle and he and Erin are getting to know each other again.

LAID BARE by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2009 Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, Penguin Group, USA

She looked around the front room they’d been in. Things were arranged in a feminine way, but not in the way a woman does when she’s a lover. Not in the way of a woman who has marked a space she was a regular part of. No, this spoke of mother or sister. She knew he had both, or he did before anyway.

A knot of tension loosened at that realization and then agitation rolled through her. She shouldn’t care one way or the other. Only that she wasn’t the other woman.

“There you are.” He came back into the room and moved directly to her. She liked that he sought her out, liked the way he kissed the back of her neck.

“Like I’d run away? You promised Thai food and beer. Can’t run out on that. Now is this the room you wanted to paint? If so, dude, you haven’t even moved the furniture. And, not to be nitpicky or anything, but um, shouldn’t you have more than this?”

He dragged her down a hall into another room. This one had drop cloths down, and painter’s tape had been put around the windows and at the ceiling.

“This is the room. I used to have more furniture, but the divorce, you know.” He shrugged. “She’d bought most of it anyway. I let her have it. I need to start over, I suppose.”

“Ah. I understand.” And she did. She’d come back to Seattle with very little that had decorated the home in LA she’d shared with Jeremy and Adele. “Sometimes you just need to make a clean break.”

He bent, prying open a can of paint, pouring it into a pan. The back of his T-shirt rode up, showing a work-hard, sun-kissed swath of skin. A shiver went through her at the sight, like a secret between
them.

When he turned, she’d put a bandana over her hair. She took the roller brush he handed her way. The windows were open and she heard birds chirping, children playing, lawn implements buzzing and whirring. Normal, everyday life went on, comforting her and making her feel inadequate all at once.

“You know about clean breaks?” he asked before taking his own roller brush up and putting it through the paint.

She followed suit, the wet-swish sounds of the brushes distributing paint on the walls a surprisingly warm combination between orange and yellow.

It wasn’t like she’d never told anyone what happened. But the telling was like pulling an organ out, ripping it from her flesh and nearly dying from the pain.

“Yes,” she murmured as she worked.

“You had someone in LA?”

“Yes.”

He waited awhile, as they painted. After a time he began to speak. “When I met Sheila, she was everything I wanted in a woman.” He paused. “Everything I thought I wanted. Soft. Feminine. She went to church on Sundays. We had dinner with her family every other weekend. She was—is beautiful in that magazine-spread-for–Family Circle sort of way. Perfect. Blonde, big pale-blue eyes. Her voice is so soft and sweet.”

Erin knew he had a point to make, but whatever it was, the lead up was making her want to run this Sheila bitch over with her car a few times. And kick him in the junk for telling her all this.

“Anyway, I thought once I married her, I’d feel better. I’d be doing what I was supposed to. I’d have this pretty wife, I’d be a cop, have a career, a house in the suburbs, kids in a few years maybe. I should have been happy. But I wasn’t. I came home every night to a perfect house. Dinner on the table. She was good to me, Erin, but I did not hold up my end of the bargain. After a while she sort of gave up. I can’t blame her. She wanted kids and I put her off. I think she was considering leaving me long before the shooting. Anyway, I guess sometimes what we think we want isn’t what we need, and until we admit it, we’re fucking lying to ourselves.”

She sighed. “I haven’t painted a wall in many years. I’m going to be sorry tomorrow.” She paused and looked at him sideways. He raised a brow and she admitted defeat. “Fine. I had a lot of things I’d dreamed of. I was ridiculously happy, I can’t lie to you. But something so singularly horrible happened to me that it broke me. It turned me inside out and I will never be the same. Jeremy had a different way to process what happened. Our romantic relationship didn’t make it through. He’s still my friend, you should know that. He’ll always be a part of my life if for no other reason than that he’s Adrian’s manager. Anyway, sometimes things happen. Things you dream of as your worst nightmare but you simply can’t imagine the horror until you’re living them. And you’re so bent, so broken and changed that you have to walk away or you’d . . . die.”

She blinked the tears back as she painted, letting the rhythm ofthe work soothe her.

“Jesus God. What happened to you, Erin?”

“I lost someone. I can’t . . . I really just can’t talk about it right now. Are your parents happy you’re back home?”

Todd’s hands trembled as he pushed the roller up and down the wall. Her voice, her demeanor—she’d changed and he wanted to comfort her, but he didn’t know how and it was clear she wasn’t ready to reveal more at this stage in their relationship. Whatever it was, it had stolen the joy from her eyes, taken the edge of freespiritedness from her and put lines around her mouth.

I’m sorry I’m getting this up so late. I had signed up for this theme and hadn’t actually meant to or remembered like a dork. Anyway, here’s a short scene from Celebration For The Dead

CELEBRATION FOR THE DEAD by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2008, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, Jasmine Jade

“Tell me about the Day of the Dead stuff, Minx. I thought November first was the day, not the second.” Max sipped his wine and leaned back in his chair. A casual observer would have thought he was totally relaxed but Melanie saw the way his eyes swept the area regularly.

“Today is the first day of El Dia de los Muertos. It’s the day to remember the babies and children who’ve died. Tomorrow is the day for adults who’ve passed. I’ll make a big feast. I picked up fresh tamales the way my abuela made them with chicken and green chiles. I also grabbed pumpkin candies and the shrimp my brother loved. I’m already marinating the steak for grilling. This isn’t a day of sadness but a day of celebration. So after we eat we’ll take pan de muerto, bread I’ll shape like bones, candles, sweets and some other assorted stuff to the gravesite later in the evening.”

“There are these cool little candies that look like coffins and skeletons, it’s really quite festive at the cemetery. There’ll be music and food, candles and flowers everywhere,” Jagger added. “Two years ago there was a parade of sorts from town up the hill to the cemetery.”

“These are all people I’ve known since I was a child. They knew my father and my grandparents. My abuela taught their kids and my abuelo fed their families. This is sort of a big family event. It seems morbid from the outside but it’s really beautiful.” Minx felt the need to defend it. Sometimes Americans didn’t understand how wonderful it really was. It wasn’t Halloween or something evil, it was special.

Check out the other participating snippet authors today!

Cynthia Eden
Lauren Dane
McKenna Jeffries
Michelle M Pillow
Moira Rogers
Sylvia Day
TJ Michaels
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
Victoria Janssen
Marissa Scott
Maura Anderson
Shelley Munro
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Kelly Maher
Lacey Savage
Mark Henry
Shelli Stevens

Over time, I’ve written a few books here and there and I usually have a very strong sense of the story – how I want it to feel, what sort of people my characters will be, etc. But it’s not until I start writing that I begin to learn what makes them tick.

While I do love me some big, burly alpha males, I really have a thing about smart men with passion about people and issues they care about.

Who’s seen Say Anything? It’s one of my favorite movies ever – it’s got the popular and pretty girl falling for the stoner archetype who lives in an apartment with his sister and neice (class and clique differences). At first glance, she’s everything he isn’t. But she’s smart, remember? And so she sees Lloyd for what he is.

Lloyd goes to dinner at her house where her father has seen fit to make him as uncomfortable as possible by inviting people who will remind Lloyd of what Diane is and what he isn’t. (Diane’s father is not hero material, by the way. While we hear he does what he does for his daughter’s sake, he’s selfishly keeping her away from people who care about her, people her own age who know her in a different context, that’s selfish.)

When asked what he wants to do with his life, Lloyd says:

I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.

This makes me have squishy love feelings for Cameron Crowe because it’s one of my favorite movie quotes of all time. It’s funny and relevant and it communicates a real sense of who Lloyd is inside.

Not every hero is what we expect at first glance. Give me a man who has layers!

It’s Thursday already and I am thankful the week is nearly over.

I got a lovely five blue ribbon review for Laid Bare from Romance Junkies!

Lauren Dane’s LAID BARE is a uniquely satisfying read that touches the reader’s heart through the characters plights. Erin’s appearance is outlandish but that’s definitely part of her charm. Todd is your typical clean cut man who’s trying to fit into what’s expected of him, but he enjoys being dominant with his sexual partner and isn’t comfortable with this side of himself at first. Erin’s tragedy broke my heart and left me with tears in my eyes but at the same time you can see the strength and determination that she possesses. What I especially love about LAID BARE is how Ms. Dane brings each character to life with distinctive personalities and problems yet she’s able to mesh them so that you can care about them as individuals. LAID BARE is a fantastic read on many different levels but it’s the way the story speaks to your heart that cements it as a ‘must read’ title.

Thank you very much RJ and Chrissy Dionne.

Writing. That’s pretty much my to do list every day until I finish Trinity. Still loving the book, thank goodness. I hope Angie thinks so too, when I turn it in, LOL.

Huge influx of spam at this blog and at the Dane/Hart blog. This agitates me so much. Also, sadly, more spam from authors at facebook. This is one of the reasons why I don’t go to myspace much anymore and now thost same people are making facebook intolerable. I don’t care what you think, this will NOT sell you more books. This is NOT promotion and it makes the rest of us look bad. Just stop. If I want to join your fan page, I’ll seek it out myself. Unless I ask you for an email about it, unsolicited email to entice me to buy a product is spam. Grr.

Movies I want to see are out. Perhaps I may actually get to them before they head to DVD, LOL. I’m not too sure. I’d thought this summer would be mellow, ha! Ah well, I can’t complain that I have books to write.

I wish I could tell you all about the great books I’ve read this week but I can’t because I haven’t read anything. I’m kid herding and writing and keeping everyone fed and clothed so I have way less time to read now. I have SOOO many good books taunting me from my TBR pile and I’m going to come back from National with eleventy billion more.

All righty then, I’m out of here. I have to get some work done and then feed tiny people. Thank goodness the sun is out so I can send said tiny people outside later on.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

Jaci Burton’s Taken By Sin releases today!

Temptation. Sin. Seduction. He’s taking her all the way.…

HE’S THE SEXY DEMON HUNTER WHO JUST SAVED HER LIFE. NOW SHE’S ABOUT TO SHOW HIM WHAT SALVATION’S REALLY ABOUT.

It’s a mission that could cost him his career and his life. But the woman he just rescued—his lover for one unforgettable night—has something Dalton desperately needs. That’s why the fearless demon hunter is risking everything to spirit Isabelle to a secret hideaway in the Louisiana bayou. Saving her is one thing. Banishing the demon inside her is another. Especially when this gorgeous seductress brings out the devil in him.

Isabelle can see the passion roaring inside Dalton—and it both frightens and arouses her. Is Dalton her enemy or her savior? All she knows is he’s beyond seductive and igniting all sorts of conflicting feelings. All Dalton knows is that they’re both in big trouble—hunted by demons and demon hunters alike in an all-out war for survival. As their pursuers close in and passion overtakes them both, Dalton must make a stunning choice…. Caught between sin and salvation, between darkness and light, will he make the ultimate sacrifice to save the woman he loves?

If you haven’t read Jaci’s books yet, get to it! This is a fun and fabulous series and I’ve really enjoyed each entry. I can’t wait to read this one, it’s shipping to me right now.

In August’s RT Magazine, Laid Bare gets 4 1/2 stars and a Top Pick!

In a word, this book is amazing. All three characters are magnetic and thoroughly realistic. They’re expertly woven into a roller-coaster story that will have you crying one moment, aroused the next and laughing with glee at each triumphant step along the way. With menage and some mild M/M scenes, this is Dane’s best story yet!

Thank you, Bella and RT!

And so begins week one with all children home. I figure I’ll let them poodle around this week before I make them take on some semblance of a routine next week. Of course, as it’s now summer, they were up by 7. Figures, LOL.

Spent the weekend with my family, which was nice. My husband travels a lot for work and the last few weekends he was either gone or preparing to go or at work. So it was nice to have some concentrated time together. We watched The International on Saturday. I was less than impressed, I thought the movie was random and disjointed, which was a shame as the actors involved are all very good. Still didn’t spoil my Clive watching experience, though.

How about a few lines from Trinity?

But before he could say anything else, she spun and glared his way. The beast within sighted its mate, a female that despite being physically small, was not small in her ferocity or her ability to bring the pain should she need to.

She rolled her eyes, but didn’t make any move to leave again.

I’ll be scarce this week, by the way. I’ve got to push to get this book done, the kids are home and a bunch of other stuff is on my mind and in my schedule. There’s so much to do around here, gah!! Oh well, it’s summer, popsicle season and all. Can’t really complain about that.

Have a great Monday! I’m off to get some words down.

I’d really hoped to have a post about something I wasn’t complaining about today. Sadly, after reading the thunderingly horrible, sneeringly disrespectful “letter” from RWA President Diane Pershing I’m so stunned I’m gonna have to do it.

I read the post, read it again and got up to go into the kitchen. I told my husband and he’s like, “why do you even bother with these people? She’s roadkill, you make good money, you sell books, don’t get caught up in this.”

He’s right of course. I shouldn’t. I don’t have the time. I have books to write and kids to wrangle and summer is here so I have even less time to finish this book before I leave for National in less than a month. Diane Pershing doesn’t give a monkey’s about me or my path and she states that pretty clearly when she emphasizes what a minority of the organization digitally published authors are.

But yeah, I’m sort of stubborn that way. She brought it, she went there, so I’m gonna respond. I’m not bothering to respond to Pershing at the ESPAN site because she’s not listening. She’s not listening because she does NOT CARE. I’m going to repeat that. The President of the 10,000 member strong Romance Writers of America does not care about serving her constituents. Not all of them anyway.

What I’m saying here is that one model does not have to be the same as another model for it to be valid. Epublishing does not have to give an advance to serve their authors. The models are DIFFERENT.

Moreover, regardless of how many of RWA’s members are writing for epublishers or not, your stated mission is to represent the needs of career focused authors. now, I know you’ve changed the concept of career focus to be sure you have edged out epublishers by definition with the advance thing. But we all know this is a ruse. Saying, “hey just be exactly like this other model and you’ll be valid” is ridiculous.

Since Pershing is fetishizing money, is she doing so with everyone or just epublished members? I was not aware that epublishing is the only model where there are a few very top earners, more middle earners and those who make far less at the bottom. I’m pretty sure this is true of traditional publishing. And advertising. And every other freaking business model in the world. Hello, is this news? Is it news that there are a small group of top earners and you shouldn’t use those numbers as a general indicator? Because, correct me if I’m wrong and all, but do all print authors make over say, sixty million a year? If so, damn! I gotta get my agent to call Berkley cause I am NOT making the kind of royalties Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovich, etc are making.

And OF COURSE I don’t. FFS, Nora and company have done their time. They’ve written longhand at the kitchen table and gotten kids through school and devoted time and effort to their craft and are now reaping the fabulous rewards. But the fact is, MOST of us, print or not, will never make that kind of money. That’s how the world works. This is not new, this is not unusual.

And for Pete’s sake, what is it with Pershing and her obsession with a thousand dollars anyway? If money is the only indicator of career focus, validity and success, what percentage of RWA members don’t count in her book then? If a thousand dollars is “success” I call foul. Being “guaranteed” a thousand dollars doesn’t do a damned thing for me. It’s not how I measure success and I’m not interested in what Diane Pershing uses in her own career to measure that. That’s her business and I’d never presume to tell her or anyone else what their path should be.

In closing, since I have to pick up children shortly and then do lunch and write and do some laundry (I’m all about glamour, baby) – I’ll leave you with what I said to an anonymous poster at the ESPAN site because I think, for me, it gets at the root of my problems with the current approach:

Hey anonymous, this is Lauren Dane – I’ve BEEN ponying up. I’ve been doing blog entries about the business, providing information about how the different models work to give people some more tools to make choices best for them and I don’t even do it anonymously.

I do it because the RWA is NOT doing it. I do it because I AM career focused and unlike the President of the RWA, I do care about members who are trying to figure out what path is right for them.

Epublishing is not right for every author. Not every digital publisher is one authors should write for. There are crappy publishers out there who pay late, mismanage money and put out horrible product. Ignoring this will not make it go away. Ignoring this will not protect newbie authors from getting involve because they don’t know how to make better choices.

I don’t really care about “unfair” I’m not in third grade anymore. What I care about is my career. What I care about is how well ignorance breeds contempt and lack of information will NOT help newbie writers, it won’t help anyone.

I don’t need you or Diane Pershing to hide the facts for my own good. I have a mother and a working brain. You can’t protect people by keeping them ignorant. We are grown women. Give people the tools, let the information be given and let us make our own choices.

I’m sorry, I need to rant just a little about something that is one of my biggest pet peeves – If you’re rejected by New York or any publisher really, it’s not because you’re “too edgy” or “too sexy” or “too out of the box” It’s not because NY doesn’t “understand” you. It’s most definitely NOT because the RWA “hates sex” or is “jealous” of erotic romance.

Bluntly: They’re not jealous of you. Most of them don’t even know who you are and if they did, they wouldn’t fucking care enough to engage in some sort of conspiracy to get your books rejected.

Authors get rejected. It’s a fact of life for all of us. Good books get rejected. Sherrilyn Kenyon shopped her first Dark Hunter book for a long assed time, getting rejected over and over. It wasn’t because people were jealous or that she was too edgy, it was wrong book, wrong editor, wrong time. And I hope every time she wins an award or hits the bestseller list, she thinks, “HA! Editor X, who’s laughing now” She’s probably too nice to think that, but if I were her, I would, LOL.

And while I’m ranty:

The popularity of a certain sub-genre is not at fault for the woes of other sub-genres. In case it’s escaped people’s notice, popular culture has this thing called trends. So at any given time, something will be more popular than something else. But paranormals are not the cause for your western not selling. Readers wanting to see more vamps means more vamps get bought, which means the market for other things gets tighter. In another year, there’ll be a new trend (though paranormals, much like erotic romance, aren’t going away, they’re leveling out, but there will always be a demand for them) and something else will sell like hotcakes for a year and level out.

Right now, erotic romance has bottomed out and the market has tightened up. IMO, this is a good thing because (hopefully) the quality stays higher. Erotic romance leveling out is not because the RWA hates sex. God, can we please, please just stop saying that forever? The RWA does not hate sex in romance novels. Take a look at the shelves – they’re filled with very sexy romances and those romances do very well.

The popularity of erotics also is not making your sweet romance not sell. There’s a market for them, though it’s tighter than it was a few years ago. Again I refer the right honorable readers to the point I make above about trends.

Our business is media – media is highly dependent on trends. This is a fact you cannot escape. You can pretend your book didn’t sell because NY isn’t ready for you, or you can accept that the book just isn’t right for that editor or house right now. And it may never be. Guess what? Sometimes when a book gets rejected it’s because the book sucked. I know, it’s hard to face that – it sucks, but sometimes it’s true.

One last little thing before I stop:

If you don’t like the RWA, fine. Don’t join it. I certainly have my own issues with them and have spent the last week here blogging about that. But why do people who hate the RWA who aren’t members show up in every freaking RWA discussion to inform everyone you don’t like the RWA, have no intention of joining and never will?

FYI, RWA has nothing to do with what NY publishing houses buy. So every last RWA member could hate sex in romance and it would still have not a damned thing to do with why your book got rejected.

Things happen to us and we seek to give those events meaning or what is the point of doing what we do? I get that. It’s human. But truly, I cannot read another loop comment about how your story got rejected because someone is out to get you.

It’s a rejection. They happen. You’re not a special snowflake. Suck it up and write something else.