Vixenwriter

First off - Sven!

Cascadia Wolves: Fated

I got a grand on this last night and I’m happy given how freaking dog tired I was by the time I was able to start work on it.

Favorite lines from yesterday:

Beth turned around in the seat. “Oh you’re awake now!” she said when she caught Megan with her eyes open.

Damn. The woman was diabolical.

I’m building my playlist and thanks to Megan, Five Finger Death Punch seems to be be the dominating force so far.

Fated is complicated. Yes, this is about fated mates but what if you’re not ready? What if one of you is and the other isn’t so much? What are you willing to give up? Because love isn’t always easy. it’s not always simple. And sometimes, if you don’t realize what’s important to you, you might lose it.

Angie has a great entry up at Romancing the Blog about epublishing so you should check it out. As always, she’s got a lot of smart things to say. I thought in particular the last two paragraphs were the best.

But authors should also expect more from themselves. This may be an unpopular thing to say, but first realizing that maybe not every book is meant to be published. Some books are a learning experience and will eventually be shoved under the metaphorical bed. That’s okay. It means you keep working to learn your craft, write the next book, and keep submitting. Choose your publishers carefully, read your contracts even more carefully. Authors should also expect professional behavior of themselves—online, in public and with their publisher and editor, treating epublishing obligations exactly the same as they would obligations to a NY publisher. Representing themselves and the industry they’re helping grow in a way that shows pride in themselves, their work and their company.

Amen. Writing is a business. If you do it as a hobby that’s one thing but if you do it and intend it to be a career, you have to run it like that. Which means sometimes you have to rein in your excitement and say no when you get an offer. Because as I said a while back, not all publishers are equal. And not every author is the right fit with every publisher either. It’s about what you want and what they can provide and then you work your way toward each other.

But when a publisher doesn’t answer their emails over and over for years at a time. When royalty payments are late regularly. When your book comes out without any edits or with a cover you’ve never seen. When you get punished for asking questions - these are all bad signs. Period. I know people keep saying they’re not, but you can’t convince me it’s actually normal business practice to pay people late on a regular basis. It isn’t. It’s a BAD business practice and a sign of poor leadership. And when an epublishing business can’t respond to email from its authors, that’s a bad sign. You can look the other way but eventually things are likely to go south. Because communication is a basic part of business.

In the end, what we have is our gut. (and not the muffin top type, LOL) But listening to our common sense and making it louder than the excitement we feel when we get an offer.

Via Booksqure and then Book Club Girl - Funding for RIF (Reading is Fundamental) is cut in the 2009 Federal Budget You can get involved through this link. And by cut, I mean their book distribution program has been totally de-funded.

From Kay McSpadden’s article in the Charlotte Observer: Despite the overwhelming research that shows literacy is the most important skill for any child to acquire for future success, President Bush’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2009 eliminates the Inexpensive Book Distribution administered by RIF. Authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (SEC.5451), the Inexpensive Book Distribution program is not funded by earmarks and has been supported by Congress and every administration since 1975 until this one.

There are a lot of children in this country who don’t have huge libraries in their neighborhoods. Their schools are underfunded and they don’t have support at home for reading. It’s programs like RIF who have supported and encouraged kids to read and in doing so, gives them tools to overcome these stumbling blocks.

From RIF’s Site: RIF programs offer enriching activities that spark children’s interest in reading. And every child involved with RIF gets to choose and keep new books, at no cost to the children or their families.

Although RIF programs are run in a variety of communities, some of RIF’s most important work occurs in communities where students are at great risk of educational failure. Wherever kids are served—at schools, libraries, childcare centers, Head Start programs, parks, community centers, health clinics, migrant camps, or domestic shelters—RIF can make a difference!

This article by teacher Kay McSpadden is illustrative of just exactly why a program like RIF is important. It’s a small thing to most of us with bookshelves to the ceilings, but to a kid who never had a book to call her own until they got one from the RIF program, it’s huge.

The above quote is from George Orwell’s, Animal Farm - one of my favorite books of all time. I’m going to twist the context a bit for the purposes of, well to make my point. (as in, yes I know the original context of the quote and it doesn’t translate here precisely but I love the quote so I’m gonna make it work)

All publishers are not equal. Period. I’m sorry if that hurts people to read but it’s common sense. All shoe companies are not equal either. Nor are all coffee shops or pencils or whatever else. Aside from the basics of personal preference, there’s a pretty big gap in quality between some publishers.

As an author - it’s your job to use your common sense to note this. There are danger signs - for instance, does your editor or other representative of the company return your correspondence in a reasonable amount of time? Now of course different issues require different speeds of response. But you know, if over a long period of time, it takes months to hear back on issues if at all, that’s a problem.

I write for several different publishers both NY and small press and all my editors get back to me within 48 hours on important stuff. I consider that professional behavior. I don’t consider not responding to author’s emails when you’re an author liaison to be professional. I don’t consider the oversharing of personal information when you’ve messed up professional. I don’t consider publishers or editors personally attacking each other, their competition or authors to be professional.

Also, late payments occasionally may not be an issue, but late payments as a rule? Not a good sign. Authors put on ‘blacklists’ for bringing up issues - a bad sign, even if you’re one of the authors on the good list. You never know when the tables can be turned on you.

Poor customer service is an issue, a big one. (Martha Punches at EC is a goddess! I love her to death, she’s fabulous fabulous fabulous). If your readers can’t get books, if the books are in bad shape and they can’t be returned, if reader correspondence dealing with real issues is ignored - red flag.

At the same time - this is your business too! That means, you share responsibility.

So as unpopular as this might make me, I’m going to suggest that authors really need to do their damned homework. Now, it’s one thing if you’ve sold and suddenly things go south. But once things go south, a wait and see attitude is far better than continuing to submit new work when no one answers your correspondence for years at a time. And if you get paid late over and over and you keep subbing new stuff - you either need to find a way to make peace with that or not sub new material.

I know the desire to get published but if it makes you blind to red flags, you have to, at some point, realize you share responsibility when the publisher you ignored those red flags over goes bad.

Also? You have a responsibility to be a professional as well. Turn your stuff in on time. Meet your deadlines. Address any issues professionally. Be as easy to work with as you can (and that doesn’t mean you’re a doormat). Market yourself.

In the end, I want to say I hate it when bad companies do stupid stuff and then everyone thinks all epublishing or small publishing is the same. It’s not. Samhain is not Venus, nor has it ever been so. When I first sold a book to Samhain they were new, so I watched and waited to see how they’d do. I knew they had a woman at the helm who knew how to run a successful publishing company and when I saw edits and watched the process, I was impressed enough to submit something else. My editor is supah fabulous, my checks are on time and my books show up when they’re supposed to where they’re supposed to. I can market effectively because I get advance release dates on digital and print.

As much as I love writing for them, if they stopped paying me on time or stopped answering my emails or generally started acting hinky, I wouldn’t write there anymore after my contractual responsibilities were dealt with. Sometimes you’re hemmed in and you can’t pull something because the behavior is bad but not bad enough to violate the contract - that sucks, I’ve been there too and I did my homework. So you make the best of it, call it a painful lesson learned and don’t send any more work their way.

No one is perfect. No contract is perfect, no author is perfect, no publisher is perfect. There are publishers who are better fits for different people. But there are things that simply shouldn’t be tolerated - not getting paid is a big one!

This isn’t a trend and it’s not indicative of all epublishing and small presses either. It’s indicative of bad business practices catching up to companies and sadly, hurting authors. That’s the part that sucks. I know many authors, smart, savvy authors, who write for a company who seems to be on shaky ground right now and it makes me sad.

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.

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.

So I started off the day not too badly for having all the kids at home this week on vacation. My husband looked very handsome as I sent him off to work, he smelled good too. I had a nice cup of coffee and I got a lot of writing done yesterday.

And then…

I hear the distinct sound of a kid puking. Moms you all know this sound. Dread creeps through me and I look around the corner and see my oldest not only spraying vomit, but running around the living room and then hitting his sister head on with it. Shocked screams ensue from her as she’s standing, her arms out and glaring at her brother. I’m yelling at him to stop running and the middle kid is dressed in his spider man costume and gagging.

I order that one NOT to vomit and look at the living room, eyes watering. Sent oldest kid upstairs to his bathroom, start the water for a shower and get the washing machine running. Toss daugher in the shower in my bathroom after undressing her and trying not to join the party myself. I’m SUCH a sympathetic gagger. I got her cleaned up, dried off, changed. Got the oldest cleaned up and changed and I send him to his bed. Got the washer filled up and going and then I head into the garage for the rug cleaner - not the big kind, which I WILL rectify this upcoming weekend, but we have a spot cleaner kind. Sigh. I clean up the living room and cripes, of course they had all sorts of toys out and then have to get on my hands and knees to use the rug cleaner.

Sigh. By the time I was done and had run the washer, two showers and the rug cleaner, the water for MY shower was tepid.

Kiddo number one is sleeping and I’m just hoping whatever he has does not spread to the others.

Happy Monday!

OH - in actual happy news - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JACI BURTON!!

So back in the days when I first started writing I remember seeing the CAPA nominations and thinking, “Wow, one of these days, I would so love to get a CAPA nomination.” And last year that dream came true and I won the CAPA for Taking Chase. So I was thrilled to be nominated this year as well.

Yesterday I won two CAPAs - and I’m honored. One for best contemporary romance of 2007 for Making Chase and one for best erotic paranormal romance for Fire and Rain.

Thank you to the Romance Studio for the honor and the awards and thank you to all my readers who continue to pick my books up. Yesterday was an exceptionally good day.

A pretty insane and yet sort of lazy weekend here. Yesterday was my birthday, the big FOUR OH. I was not pleased by this for most of last week but I was pretty much so busy I didn’t notice it until it was right on me. Which, you know, isn’t that bad. I did have a nice day. My husband let me sleep in, he brought me so many cupcakes even I couldn’t eat them all. My kids drew me pictures, friends sent me notes and I even wrote.

I found what I think is the foundation song for Sensual Magic. Sensual Magic is the next novella for Spice, the follow up to this May’s What Happens in Vegas -

Soundgarden - Fell On Black Days

Yeah, this one might be darker than I’d thought originally. Part of it is that I’m struggling against this other idea I really want to write but I have NO time to do it so it’s poking at me.

Now, I’m going to see if I can’t actually, um, well you know, write and stuff! Later this afternoon I’ll be hanging out with Maya Banks, Jaci Burtron and Diane Craver over at the Samhain Cafe. I’ll be there from 2 - 5 or so my time (pacific) but there’ll be fun to be had until 8 pm pacific!

Another song from Sensual Magic’s Playlist:

So my husband is a really fabulous guy. I think I may have hinted at that once or twice, heh. Anyway, late last year we took the kids for flu shots and when we were leaving, he handed me a book he found in the hospital auxilary book sale.

Dooood.

The book is called, “Going Steady” and the author, Anne Emery wrote this whole series about the Burnaby sisters in the 1950s and this is one of them. It’s, wow, it’s like a time capsule I have to say. Still, I read it, amused, giggly and actually impressed with how Anne Emery manages to write a pretty darned strong female character for 1950. I’d totally let my daughter read it when she gets older.

Also? He bought me an iPhone. Sigh. He’s so fabulous.