Another great review for Her Mother’s Killer!
June 23, 2009 by Melissa · 4 Comments
Well, apparently everyone is liking my romantic suspense voice. Go figure! But another great revie
w from The Romance Studio:
I loved this book! It was incredibly suspenseful – my heart was still pounding after I finished reading it…It all fit together really well and I’m looking forward to reading more from this author. This book was my idea of a perfect romantic suspense.
Bonnie Jean- Five Hearts, The Romance Studio
Mamma is proud
June 22, 2009 by Melissa · 3 Comments
I know I told the Wicked group about this but I have to brag. My oldest is her father’s child. If you don’t know my husband, he is the guy who ruined the curve in class, who studied for his SATs months ahead of time, and always did those extra credit assignments. Me, I am the opposite. Yeah, I had the honors classes, but I never overly applied myself. I look back now and realize that a lot of it was probably due to my undiagnosed ADD. But, part of it was due to laziness. Unless it is a favorite subject or deed, I don’t apply myself. If you could see our grade point averages side by side…well it is embarrassing. We both took some kind of IQ test one time and only scored several points apart-both borderline genius, but it does not show in our academic records, lol.
My DSF(demon seed the first) has some of my laziness, but she has a lot of daddy’s drive. Friday was the last day of school around here, and I had to go see the 8th grade awards program. First, it was emotional enough that she was spending her last day in middle school. It is a real shock when it finally hits you that you are now the parent of a high schooler. But, the next surprise came with the awards.
She won in Language Arts, Am Hist, PE and Science. She also won the Silver Award for having a cul average of 3.5-3.99 for all of her middle school years.That last award came with a personally signed certificate by none other than Pres Obama! If you recall, we saw him speak in San Antonio and from that point on, DSF was a HUGE supporter. I was so proud and to say she was surprised is not an understatement.
So, we let her pick her favorite place to eat, which is a Japanese steakhouse here in town and we celebrated:)
RWA Needs Change-but not sure I care enough to stay
June 20, 2009 by Melissa · 13 Comments
For those of you waiting for my Follow Up Fridays, I plan on starting next week. The last two weeks things have gotten in the way, mainly a new release yesterday on the FUF and some industry crap. I actually was not going to post on that subject, mainly because there are many who have posted things about this and they are much better at writing it up than I. But, irritated by news of board actions behind their closed doors, and what they have planned for next year, I lost it. I can’t say publicly because these are rumors, but it is disturbing. I know that a midlist digital author doesn’t get that much respect and most people know how I feel on this subject. But I am sick to death of the “leadership” of the RWA dragging us down and making us a laughingstock within the writing community.
For readers who don’t know, Romance Writers of America is an organization romance writers. Every June, the board pulls some kind of crap to piss of a huge group of the membership. We have conference in July so it always makes for a FUN nationals. There have been some problems in the past in regards to erotic romance(they tell us they want to regulate our book covers) and with epublishing and small press(allowing us to enter the Rita-contest for pub authors-then telling us we can’t and keeping the fifty bucks entrance fee and the books. Oh, and ignoring digital publishing in general for Workshops this year and telling Angela James she could not present a workshop on digital publishing because Samhain is not considered “one of their publishers.” Funny, they had no problem with this last year when she was on a panel I set up, but hey, the RWA likes to change the rules.
When they said they were raising their rates this year, I started contemplating whether I would stay or not. The money spent there could go to more promotion, more reader conferences…which would benefit me as the writer more. There is a part of me that says I should stay, and try and help fix stuff. It is a hard decision. I think that much of the board’s actions and plans have to do with getting rid of the “shrill” authors who publish in epublishing, which they call “author mills” to leave RWA. Seriously, regular readers of the blog will know that I am a self-proclaimed bitch and that part of me just wants to stay to irritate them. They truly believe in their little dinosaur brains that this will make RWA better. Of course President Diane Pershing hasn’t had a release since early 2008, from what I can find and according to her website, and I know many of the board members are not publishing regularly. I know part of that has to do with the job of being a board member. It takes a lot of time to completely fuck up a pretty good organization and writing must take a back seat.
Sorry, that was a little bitchy of me, but I warned you.
Anyway, I do not want this to fall into the us vs them, or this is unfair and everyone is being mean to me argument. The problem with the RWA board being ostriches about digital is it is hurting the membership. Almost every publisher is going to want your digital rights. Yes, some people like J K Rowling can say no to them, but most of us don’t have a choice. And yes, digital makes up about 1% of traditional publishing sales, for now. That is due to a few reasons. One, NY publishers are really behind the ball on it, all except Harlequin, and still trying to gain a foothold. Two, digital is just now starting to take off. IN about two to three years, the landscape will be completely different. Now, there are many authors have signed super bad contracts. They are getting single digit percentages on the digital sales, and on net not gross. Of course, they say, it is only for a few hundred copies. I’m sorry, but I refuse to GIVE money away on something I worked on that much. Publishers are making a killing on this because NY has no overhead costs. The book is already edited and has cover art. They keep a huge chunk and if they don’t, they really screwed up their contracts with distributors.
Here is the thing: Romance Readers are usually described in the 25-45 yr age group. I think this is slightly wrong because I have a lot of older readers, but this is what I hear quoted all the time. And, as most of you know, DSF is 14 yrs old. My daughter would probably sell me to mom slavers if she thought it would get her a Kindle or Sony. When she shows it to friends, they ahhhh over it. They all read Harry Potter and they are Twilight freaks(I say that affenctionately). They read nonstop! IMHO, this generation coming up may be the digital generation, but they are HUGE readers. 10 yrs from now, THEY are our target audience. Yes, I worry about what I will make this year, but I am all about future planning. These kids are the next group of readers, and a lot of them will want it digitally.
While the RWA board members spent this year doing cartwheels changing policy about digital and small press(they change rules in midstream to fit their ideas), they have done nothing on educating members on digital rights or piracy. These are huge problems and they have ignored it because they cling to an old model of NY publishing(and NY publishing is not seeing the gains that digital and small press are right now). So, if I were on the board, which I won’t ever be, but if I were, there are things I would like to see done:
- Digital Liason(as per Deidre Knight’s idea) to the board. Someone with direct knowledge of the industry, someone with connections. They can tackle issues like the google settlement, piracy, getting a higher percentage for digital copies sold etc.
- Education. Authors need to understand their options at every level. They need to know what their publisher is making off their digital copies as opposed to what they are giving them. It isn’t today that is the big problem it is tomorrow. Sales for digital are the ONE positive trend in the last few years and even Harlequin has said more than once it saved them.
- Rita And Golden Heart: We need to work with someone to come up with better categories. The ones they have suck. Working with some industry people, ie editors, agents, and the ever fab Sue Grimshaw, might help with this. And with better categories, we could set up a program to reach out to readers to make them more aware of the Rita and Golden Heart awards. A lot of readers have no idea what these are, and they should. They should know these are considered the best books of the year. No one other than RWA members themselves, take these contests seriously. It is about time people got something for finalling or winning.
- An organizational stance on percentages. Right now, a lot of them go for 15% or lower(higher if they say net, but it is the same rate at the end.) So, if we pushed for an industry standard of say 25% that would earn you a lot of money. Say, you have a 7.99 book, and you sell 500. That will make you $400 more than at the 15% rate. And if you sell more, think about how much money you are giving the publishers. (I stole this from Shayla Black)
- A committee to overhaul our publisher requirements. The truth is that publishing has changed in the last 9 months let alone the last few years. At BEA, it was declared the year of the ebook by some(check out this summary of digital seminars at BEA) . But, that doesn’t mean every fly by night operation should be accepted. Come up with some kind of regs that make it work for legitimate publishers to be a part of our organization. Yes, we can ignore epbulishers but at our members peril. Wouldn’t it be better to come up with some kind of workable solution (ie, be in busines 2 yrs, a certain % of books deemed as romance, etc) than have our members stumbling around trying to find a good publisher? And you can bite me on the Trisk. I know TWO authors put their reps on the line to tell RWA that TRisk was dirty, not paying authors, etc, and they ignored them. I was there when I listened to one of them talk to an RWA staff member about it.
- Could we please have something for people who have published more than 2 books? The nationals workshops are dismal for some of us. I am pretty close to putting out my 30th book and what do I need with a workshop on how to get an agent? I have one. Know GMC too. These are WONDERFUL, but we need something for our seasoned authors. Seriously, I know I have not learned everything but I am beyond the basic classes.
But, alas, none of this will happen. I cannot come up with one big change, other than asking me for more money this year, that RWA has made for the better. I thought that at one point people would come down off their high horses and realize not to be afraid of the future. A more informed membership would definitely make for a stronger organization. We could be more active in publishing and get more respect from publishers. We could be at the forefront of a new publishing landscape. With the economy the way it is, and going to be sort of bad for the next few years, doesn’t it make sense to work with publishers, book sellers, distributors, etc, of ANY format, to help our industry through times like these?
<G> I guess not. I guess this is all just wishful thinking and I have a vampire world to build. But it was some nice dreamy thinking there for awhile. And after writing this, I really think I will be leaving. It does nothing for me, doesn’t want me, and I seriously don’t want to give it anymore money. What do I get out of this? I have high blood pressure, and I don’t need the drama, I have a teenager for that. I’m not bitter, but I don’t want to waste the energy. AND, I can go to conference as a non member. If not, screw it. I can use that week for a vacation with my family that I pay for with my imaginary digital royalties.
Other Posts on this subject:
Deirdre Knight’s Post to Diane Pershing
Teddy Pig Weighs in-MUST READ
Lauren Dane -She’s been posting several blogs about this for awhile now. Take the time to read them, good info and thoughts.
Shiloh Walker - Got an opinion? Even if it is different than mine, go to Shiloh’s and take the survey.
UPDATE: Angela James responds to Diane with a CALL TO ACTION
Turning Paige Now ON Sale
June 19, 2009 by Melissa · 2 Comments
This is a book from my Sweet Shoppe Series. There is also a free story, Tempting Prudence, on my site for download. It was the first Sweet Shoppe book and it truly is one of my favorite stories.
Librarian Paige Turner isn’t having the best of weeks. Work has been hell, her sometimes fiancé seems only to pay attention to her when he needs research help, and on top of that, she has been losing sleep thanks to some pretty erotic dreams. So, at the end of the day, one week before St. Patrick’s Day, she stops by The Sweet Shoppe for some Irish Truffles. Before falling asleep, she wishes her dream lover were real. When she wakes up in the morning, she finds out he is.
Seamus can’t remember exactly how he ended up in Paige’s bed. One minute he is in a battle, the next he’s in bed with the woman who has been stealing into his dreams. Instinct has him seducing her before he even knows her name, but soon he is confronted with a strange new world, and the possibility that Paige just doesn’t understand he is her soulmate.
Paige decides to keep her warrior, but soon everything goes awry. Thanks to Seamus, her life is disrupted, her career almost ruined, her wedding cancelled, and she finds herself falling in love with Seamus. But will Paige be able to accept the changes he has wrought, or will her fear of change bring disaster for both of them?
An expanse of golden skin was the first thing she saw. Convinced she was still dreaming, Paige rubbed her eyes and blinked. Her vision cleared. No, that was certainly skin. Drawing in a deep breath, she raised her head.
I am Joyful today!
June 18, 2009 by Melissa · 2 Comments
That is why I am over at Joyfully Reviewed chatted at the top of the hour, in about ten minutes. Stop on by if you can because I am giving away six books in one hour, and if not, check out my posts later that will give you a way to win one big jackpot. Lots of excerpts, fun and nekkid men to share:)
Writing Wednesday-Make Writing a Priority
June 17, 2009 by Melissa · 2 Comments
The one thing I hear from writers most of the time is that they have no time to write, especially aspiring authors. It is understandable. We have personal lives. There are spouses, significant others, kids, parents, sometimes a day job…it can wear a person down. And, when you have to choose between writing and those nonwriting things, you tend to put aside writing. Even if you are a contracted writer and you have the deadline from hell, you make allowances for your family, work, friends, etc. Why? I think part of it comes from the belief that these things are IMPORTANT and writing can go to the wayside. It can cut into your writing time if you aren’t careful. Don’t get me wrong. My family comes first. But there are ways to make sure you can find time each week to write.
When I first came back to writing, we were living in Hawaii. I had started to pursue it a bit in Georgia, but once we settled in HI, I really got serious. It was easy at first. My oldest was in first grade and I was pregnant with my second child. I had the day to myself. Then came March and our youngest. Life of course went into crazy mode and with my days filled with a baby–not to mention no sleep at night, I had no way of writing. I had to make a choice. Get up early to write or give up TV and stay up late. For those of you who know me well, you know the whole getting up early thing was NOT going to happen, lol. So, I opted to give up TV for a few years and write. It wasn’t easy, I am a TV hound and this was before DVRs were affordable. But, I wanted to be a writer and I had to make that choice. I didn’t hesitate, just completely gave up TV at night.
But, you say, I have other things. My kids are involved, my spouse doesn’t understand, my friends think I am a stick in the mud because I only want to write now. I have a solution for that. First, I want you to get a piece of paper, and writie this sentence.
I AM A WRITER.
All caps. I don’t care if you are starting your first book or your twentieth. Write it now! No one is going to take you seriously unless you do. Until you call yourself a writer, no one will think of you that way. Take your craft and career seriously, and they will too. It won’t be easy. My husband is one of my biggest supporters, but even he does things that make me want to throw a pot at his head. It is a never ending battle, I know, but the first step is believing in you.
Now, what you need to do is write down priorities. Kids, spouse, SO, work, exercise, church, TV shows you will never miss etc… In that list there should be writing. Now, I want you to take that list and put them in order of importance. Depending on your personal life, writing should be somewhere in the top five–mine is number two right behind family. Now, start out at the bottom and cross off the things you can live without. You have a fav TV show? Record it and watch it at your convenience after you finish a project or your target goal for the day, or watch it on hulu. You like to volunteer at your kids’ school? Great! But make sure that instead of five times a week, you do three or four. It won’t fall apart without you. There are all kinds of ways to cut back time.
This is the point where people gripe at me and say “All these things are very important, and writing can wait.” Granted, I know everyone’s situation is different. We have a member of my family with a terminal disease and I know sometimes you have to put aside things you might want. BUT, many times, it is just every day things that suck away your writing time. If you have a lot of those things and you are unwilling to give those things up, I say, you don’t want it bad enough. Nothing comes easy, especially in publishing. If you don’t want to publish that first book, get a better contract or tackle a new genre enough to give up watching The Real Housewives of NJ(OMG I so love that show), I say you don’t want it enough. I gave up a lot of things when I wrote, TV being one, but I cut back on my socializing. The military can be a very social place when you live on base, but I started to regulate how much time I had for things. It was hard because it does make you a bit of a loner and that is always a hard thing to do. But, I wanted to be a writer more than the funny one everyone liked to invite to parties. Even if you write one page a day, that gives you a book at the end of the year. Better if you are writing category or aiming for epublishing with a cat length book: you can write two a year.
One other exercise I will give you is to do something for your craft every day. Whether writing or reading an article, self-editing, critiquing for a fellow author, plotting, retreat or writing, do something. Hell, even read in your genre, because that feeds your creative side AND it keeps you informed about what publishers are looking for. Another good thing is to carry around a notepad of some sort. Ideas come up when you are in the grocery store, waiting to pick up kids, watching a game. Keep it with you to write these things down, or heck, write scenes, plot, get to know your characters by working on character wksts.
The last exercise is writing down a goal for writing. I started this with a group called Survivor Writers. We wrote three pages five days a week, or fifteen pages for the week. It got me in the habit of writing on a regular basis. So, one page a week? Five hours of writing a week? A book a year…whatever, write it down and hold yourself to it. Find a writing buddy, have write offs, hold each other accountable.
I understand we all have things that will rise up and conquer us. Sometimes, it is much easier to sit on the couch and watch a Bravo marathon. Hey, we all slip. We are human. But, the important thing is the next day you are up and working. Take your work seriously, always, and you will finish that book.:
Dr Wicked-great little device to write to. Keeps you on track
Catching up
June 17, 2009 by Melissa · 2 Comments
Sorry, folks. I just have had a few bad weeks. But, I am getting back in the swing of things. The proposal my agent wanted is off to the editor, so I have turned my attention to a vampire proposal. This is my first true attempt at building a HUGE world, so it is taking some time, plus, it is of course, darker than I am used to. I hope it works out because I love the rules I have come up with thanks to Shayla Black and Kris Cook.
I thought I would get you all caught up to date on news.
This Thursday, I will be hosting an hour, from 1-2 pm eastern, on Chatting with Joyfully Reviewed. I will be giving away a book every ten minutes, including a free download of Turning Paige, my Ellora’s Cave release. And, as a treat, I have added Tempting Prudence, the first Sweet Shoppe book as a free download. I hope you like it.
FIVE K WINNERS
Thanks, everyone, for participating. These five people have a choice of my books IN PRINT, ie still available for sale, in digital or print.
Jeannete A, Karen H, Greta W, Kenja H, Brandy W, Joy I, and Norine G! Please contact me via the contact page, or if you have my email addy, to give me your info. Thanks, everyone. Also, if you want more chances at winning, join my newsletter. A drawing for a book each month for all members, New and Existing.
I have been getting some GREAT reviews for Her Mother’s Killer. Brandy reviewed it at her BLOG and JJ at Enchanting Reviews, had some wonderful things to say.
I will be posting my next Writing Wednesday article later today, after I get the munchkins off to school. It is all about making writing a priority while still keeping a balanced personal life. I teach a class on this every now and then.
Hope your summer is going great!
Critique winner and Newsletter news
June 5, 2009 by Melissa · 1 Comment
I want to thank everyone who participated in my first Writing Wednesday.
CHRISTINE-you are the winner of the free three chapter critique. Email via my contact page.
Next week: Making Your Writing a Priority-all about getting serious about your writing but keeping balance with your personal life.
Now, onto the other info. For everyone who is a member of my NEWSLETTER, you get your name in the pot for a book signed by me. You must be a member of my newsletter by the end of the month. A new one is going out today, so be sure to sign up for all the info. Plus, my newsletter folks are going to be the first ones who get to read Tempting Prudence, a free Sweet Shoppe story.
Writing Wednesday: Pantzer to Plotter
June 3, 2009 by Melissa · 11 Comments
This is going to be the first of what I hope is a weekly blog on writing. While this will focus on everything writing(craft, writer’s life, business, etc), readers are more than welcomed to comment:) If you are an author (pubbed or unpubbed) who would like to write a blog on writing, feel free to contact me.
This story sort of goes back to RWA nationals 2003. It was my first conference and I was woefully lost. Hell, I didn’t even know what GMC (goal, motivation and conflict for you nonwriters) was. But I flew the 11 hours from Hawaii to attend. One day at breakfast, I saw a woman I thought was someone I went to HS and college with. Low and behold, Mary Beth Lee , fellow flute player and 1987 graduate of BHS, was also an aspiring romance author. She was the president of my hometown chapter at the time. We struck up a friendship over writing, and when we returned to Texas, she invited me to a retreat with some of her friends. That is where I got to know Shelley Bradley and her plotting method.
I have always been a pantzer-someone who writes by the seat of her pants. While I am a Capricorn, I tend to have things I rebel on. Part of it comes from being a military brat and wife. Everything is so scheduled and we have no control over that schedule. The other part was just my sadistic side. I don’t wanna, was something I would say to plotters. It will ruin my creative process. I truly believed that if I plotted a book out that extensively, it would ruin the book. That either it would come across as stale, or I would freeze up and not be able to write it.
As I approached my series The Cursed Clan, I realized I was in some trouble. This was a huge series with one storyline running throughout all five books and then a seperate romance in each book. That’s probably the reason I stalled on it for so long. Then, Demon Seed the Second went in the hospital with pnuemonia, and I had a lot of time to think about my career as I stayed up nights watching her lay there in the hospital bed. I knew I had to do something because I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t spending enough time with the kids or Les, and earlier that year I had ended up in the hospital myself. I was sick of pushing myself to the outerlimits and not gaining more and realized I needed to start writing books targetted to NY again. When I said something to Shelley about it she said, in that matter of fact voice she gets that tells you not to argue, “You have to plot this one out.”
I knew she was right and what followed was a learning process. Sometimes I was so excited, so very happy to see it all coming together. But other times, it hurt. It made me look at the overall scope of my writing, the GMC, all the plot twists and turns, and realize that I could have made past books even better than they were. I also got to know my characters better, which in turn, deepened their characterizations.
When I put it in action, it was painful again. It was like learning to write all over again, but it did something else. It pushed me to think about the plot, to make sure there were no holes(before I wrote the whole damn thing and then have to fix it). And I found something else out. There was no mid book panic. Before, I would panic about half way through a book. Les knew it well, knew when I would hit the middle and then get blocked worrying about not being able to finish it. What if the plot didn’t pan out, what if it was too short or too long? I still have panics, but now, I look to my plot board, find out what I am missing and move on.
I figured out after doing the plot boards a couple of times that my inner Cappy, not to mention the military brat and wife, was freaking out by being a pantzer. I need plans, lists, and lists of plans to be happy. Nothing is set in stone, and can be changed in the middle of a book, but now I know just WHY it needs to be changed. I am a happier writer(even if I still bitch about having to plot), and I feel that I made a big jump in my growth in the last year. Granted, I have a long way to go, and I think as an author if I ever say, “I know everything.” I will give up writing. It is painful, but learning to grow my writing, to become a better writer is one of the most exciting things about the business for me.
UPDATE: Here is one of my plot boards so you get an idea.
For Bound to the Laird
If you want to learn how to plot the Shelley Bradley way, she is teaching a class online: Storyboarding for the Story Challenged, 9/6 thru 10/2 at the Yosemite Romance Writers.
Would you like a free critique? Just comment on the blog today, and I will draw a winner on Friday, June 5th for a free three chapter critique.
