no writing and tired
August 30, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
Well, I am not getting much writing done. Okay no writing and I have little time to think let alone write. Schedule with the kids has been just horrible, and I have been up too late watching the coverage in NO, Miss, and Alabama. I am afraid that in a few days, the full breadth of this tragedy is going to hit people. I hear that Keesler AFB was severly damaged, that is in Biloxi and I worry for my readers, esp the one who posted the other day who said she was staying in New Orleans, she had to. I hope I hear from her soon.
My thoughts are with NO
August 28, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
I just can’t let this go. Mainly because I think the if you live through a major natural disaster, especially at a young age, it can affect you more. My first spring in Texas my hometown was hit by one of the largest tornadoes on record, an F 4, and one of the deadliest in Texas history. My world fell apart on April 10th, and I hate spring in Texas to this day. Unfortunately, for our brothers and sisters in NO and the areas surrounding it, it will be much worse.
Take a moment out of your busy day tomorrow to check on the happenings with the Red Cross, or check with local charities and see if they are getting ready. If you can give blood, please, go now. There is already a shortage. And if you believe in God, or spirits, or whatever, send a prayer for those left behind, including the animals who had to be left because the shelters would not take them.
Sorry to be such a downer, but this has just hit me in the gut. I hope they are blowing it out of proportion.
Here is a great post from a pastor at Daily Kos.
Great writing and Storms
August 28, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
Well, I did have a spectacular day yesterday. I finished up the second chapter of Love Lessons and feel pretty good that I will get the third chapter done in no time flat. I can’t wait to get these two together:)
But, alas, today I might not get much done. A nasty storm is bearing down on the area, and it should hit in a few hours. I love storms, even though they are so destructive in Texas, well in a lot of places. Three years in Hawaii, I didn’t hear thunder. They just don’t have storms, unless they are hurricanes. You get some impressive winter storms on the windward side of the islands, but a lot of times the most damaging aspect of that is the wind. If you have never been there, the highway on that side of the island is very close to the beach. There were times the road closed because the waves from the Pacific actually swept over the roads.
It is something I miss, the weather there. Now, I am a fall and winter girl, always have been. I LOVE the cold winds, the changing of the leaves, the smell of firewood in the air. I missed that in Hawaii. But, I do miss being able to sit on my lanai with my laptop and write most days of the year. Oh, we had our days that were a little hot, and I never sat out there after dark because of the centipedes and flying roaches. But there was nothing like sitting out there, early morning, drinking my Hawaiian coffee(which they served everywhere, even McDonald’s) and watching the sun rise as I wrote. Nothing like atmosphere to help with writing, lol
Now, I still have my Hawaiian coffee, thanks to the commissary, but the mornings are not the same. It is often too hot here in the mornings, and the atmosphere is missing the dewey fragrance that Hawaii offered. But, I do have a chance to hang out today, read a book, and listen to the storm. I do love those days.
On a final note, my thoughts and prayers are with you all in New Orleans. Safe journeys and hopefully a safe return to your home in a few days.
Saturday work
August 27, 2005 by Melissa · 2 Comments
Well, I am working on a weekend. Yeah, I know surprising. I hate working on the weekends, really. I would rather spend time with my family. BUT, with a three year old at home with me, there isn’t much happening during the day. Next year, when she enters pre K, I will at least have a half a day to work and that should cut back on the weekend writing.
Working on the same old things, Love Lessons and ALHP, mainly Love Lessons. Cicely is turning out to be fun to write. She is quite sarcastic in fact. Need to get that partial done. And I am having so much fun with Cecily, who is definitely not the little mouse everyone thought she was.
I am also doing some online shopping for my trip with Kally, getting some more promotional things, and what not. DH did come home and tell me that we should know if he gets a command sometime in October. I am bitting what little nails I have here because in the mix each year is a year isolated tour to the desert and one to Korea. So, hopefully, we won’t have to go through that, but I guess we don’t have a choice. *sigh* I am still keeping hopes open for a base where the bugs die.
And now, I turn to the rant I swore I would not do, lol. It looks like one of the places that carries my ebooks has stripped us from the bestseller lists. It just never ends. They still have the erotic romance section, they have no qualms about making money from us, but they didn’t want us on the bestseller list, why? I had two books there, and a lot of erotic romance authors had more. Rubs me the wrong way when someone is willing to make money off me, but treats me like trash. And that is what it feels like. The funny thing is that they did not put any warning on the erotic romance pages. Just stripped us of the best selling titles. And it does matter because that is one of the things I mention when sending out queries to agents and editors. It does hurt my sales that I am not on the bestselling list. I AM one of the best selling authors, and they allowed me to stay there, just pulled my books. Does it change the sales of the other writers? No, but it could hurt me in the long run. Sort of makes me feel like their dirty little secret. We will make money from you, but we don’t want anyone to know you are a best seller. You write dirty things so we will sell your books, but we don’t want to give you the props you deserve.
I have two words for them:
BITE ME.
Love Lessons
August 26, 2005 by Melissa · 2 Comments
Well, I am working on Love Lessons. It is the sequel to The Accidental Countess. Anyway, many of you may think “Wasn’t she just working on ALHP?” Yeah, I am. I am doing both. This is actually for a partial for Vintage, so we shall see how it goes. No one but reviewers have read the book, well, and my editor and Kally, but this will include Cynthia and Douglas, who have small roles in the first novel.
Nothing much more to report, other than showing you the purty pic.
New cover and my music
August 25, 2005 by Melissa · 2 Comments
I was excited when Allie sent me my cover last night for Hunting Mila, my next LI book after ALHP. Isn’t it wonderful?! I just love it. This is the story of Hunter from Seducing the Saint. All very exciting.
Well, I am working hard on A Little Harmless Pleasure. It is slow going, as I am trying to take my time. I really like these two, know what they need, but I am intimidated a bit about the BDSM aspect of the book. And the fact I am writing about two switches. But, maybe the excitement I have for it stems from doing something new.
But, while working it, I have been listening to Keith Urban’s Raining on Sunday. I can see that later on in their relationship, their lovemaking will really be close to the meaning of this song. Both of them have issues from their lives outside of sex: Cynthia’s from never having a life and Chris thinking he needs to plan everything in everyone else’s life. So for them, they need to get to a point where they can just accept that all it can’t be solved in a day.
But, with books, I tend to have music that inspires me. Barry White is a big contributor to my love scenes, but I played his music almost constantly during A Little Harmless Sex. Harry Connick, Jr’s big band CD is what I worked to for The Accidental Countess, and Brother Iz, who sang the wonderful Hawaiian version of Somewhere over the Rainbow in many movies, was what I listened to when I wrote my Op Love story since that took place in Hawaii.
I know a lot of my friends say they can’t write with music, but for me it became a necessity living in a two bedroom with two kids for three years in Hawaii. I needed it, and still do, to drowned out the voices of my family, lol. But it is more than that for me. It gets me in the mood. When I am writing action scenes in my futuristics, I tend to listen to Bowling for Soup or some kind of hard rock and roll. Gets me in the mood. And then there is Barry White. I mean, come on, can anyone sing a song that sounds like foreplay any better than that man could? No way.
You might want to check out pal Kally Jo Surbeck’s site for her “soundtracks.” She lists the music she listens to while she writes each book, pretty cool.
Are you in hiding?
August 22, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
I actually got that question in an email yesterday. Nope, not in hiding. What a lot of people didn’t realize is that from July 27(I believe), 2004 until July 4, 2005 I had fourteen releases. Yep, you read that right … FOURTEEN. Many of those I wrote in the past year. My fifteenth, The Accidental Countess, is going to be released in the next week or so.
Because of all those releases, I was always on the loops, promoting. I don’t have anything else coming out in ebook for the next few months, ALHP due out in Nov/Dec. I’m not hanging out not because I am mad, but because I am working and I NEEDED A BREAK. Some people are apparently taking it personally, but when my husband asked me to slow down, not in words actually, but I could tell he was getting worried, I did it. Why? My husband has from the beginning been my biggest supporter. He takes leave to stay home with the kids when I have conferences and trips. He gets them out of the house when I need to work on the weekends. And, the clincher, he helps around the house, esp when I am on deadline.
So, I had to do it. He is my rock, and the things we will be facing in the next few months due to his job make it imperative that I take time off right now. I have to be there for him and the kids while we wait to hear about his upcoming assignment.
Plus, I am working on some things for print and trying to get ahead on my ebooks. There is the fact that I wanted to keep writing quality or even better quality with each book. I feel that if my readers are going to plunk down their hard earned cash, they should get an excellent story. I did NOT want to short change them and I was getting to the point where I could not come up with new plots. That is something that hasn’t happened before. I wanted to get into other genres also and did that with Vintage Romance. Since I finished up The Accidental Countess, I am frothing at the mouth to write another historical, and have already written the first chapter of Love Lessons, the next linked story, and started plotting a Victorian paranormal romance.
So, if you wonder where I am, pop in at MY group. I talk to my group quite a bit, lol.
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/melissaschroederchat
Still going
August 21, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
Well, got up this morning and it is just jamming. I tend to panic at various stages of a book. At the beginning. The thought is “Why the hell did I think I could write this book?” Then about midway I panic about the length. Unlike a lot of other authors, when I finish a book, I tend to be a little short. I go back and layer the scenes, flesh them out. But, I always forget that in my momentary panic mode and freak out. Emailing anyone I know telling them it is not going to happen, lol. They have all gotten used to it by now, I think.
A Little Harmless Pleasure is my first BDSM, very scary, and going to be the longest thing I have written for Loose. Probably at least twice the length of A Little Harmless Sex. That is why I have taken a few months off to work this, research it. I didn’t want to do anything half the way. Now, granted, it is not going to be a dark novel. None of mine are, and I don’t think I could ever write one. It is not in my nature. I would rather laugh. That is not to say that there won’t be dark moments. Cynthia has a lot of growing to do. And growing emotionally is always painful. You may be better in the end, but it is not always the easiest of processes.
I hope I live up to my own expectations. Chris is turning out to be a sensual delight, but he too has some things to face.
*sigh* back to work.
Have a great weekend.
Some work, some pain
August 20, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
Well, today was not the best of days. Got about 1500 words written, a slow, slow day for me. Migraine city but I worked through it. And I am really digging on A Little Harmless Pleasure at the moment.Cynthia and Chris are really going to be good together, I think.
I am hoping to write more tomorrow, but we are running out with the oldest DD to pick up a few things for school, since she starts back Monday. And then my days get bad because I will have to entertain the 3 yr old and my writing time will consist of naps, nights and weekends. Well, this is short and sweet, but I am going to see if I can squeeze out another 500 or so words and then hit the sack.
My First Review for Accidental Countess
August 19, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
I am so excited! The Accidental Countess got her first review and it was a good one. I will be honest, I was lucky enough that Kally Jo is friends with Kristina Cook(Unlaced, Unveiled-ZebraBooks) and she gave me a FAB author quote first:
Schroeder has crafted a touching and tender story with characters you can’t help but love. This book has everything–heartfelt emotion, passion, and intrigue that will keep you eagerly turning pages till the hankie-worthy ending.
I was really excited to get such a wonderful review from such a talented author. But last night I got my first review site review from Joyfully Reviewed. Here is a snippet:
The emotional connection between Sebastian and Colleen is so richly woven that the reader finds themselves enthralled waiting for them to have the happy ending they so deserve.
You an catch the rest of it at: http://www.joyfullyreviewed.com/reviews/TheAccidentalCountess.html
I sweated this one out. Historicals are what I truly love to read. Mostly Regency, Victorian, and Westerns, but if it is a good historical, I will usually read it. So when I started writing The Accidental Countess, I worried I didn’t have the voice for historical romances. I am a dialogue girl, usually have dialogue perfected and fleshed out before I get the setting described really well. So it was a challenge. There are so many modern sayings that slip into my writing. But with the help of several critiquers, I got it done(not to mention Kally Jo bullying me, lol). I should have my books in my hands in the next 10 days or so and I can’t wait.
