Showing posts with label authors of erotic romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label authors of erotic romance. Show all posts

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Blogging at AOER

My turn to blog at AOER today!

Here's the article:

When is Real too Real?

I’d worked, then reworked, a manuscript recently that deals with the topic of domestic abuse. Part of my reworking, partly in effort to give the ms ‘more’ and also to highlight the heroines journey, is a graphically violent first scene. It isn’t a long scene, all things considered, but even hubby commented that it was pretty graphic. It’s the only violent scene in the book, but the heroine of the story does, to be short and sweet, get the crap kicked out of her (not by the hero I might add).

Obviously there’s a reason this is at the forefront of my mind — because the sub was turned down. I don’t have a problem with that (well, I do care, of course. It’s my baby), the publisher or the editor, let me make that clear, they have to make the best decisions for their business. But it set me wondering about violence in romance.

When is real too real?


Read the rest of the article Here

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Advice for new authors

Over at AOER we've worked at putting together some pages with advice for new writers, from a relatively new writers perspective. I thought that I'd repost the ones I authored. I hope you find the information useful, new or older author alike.


Reviews - both the joy and the bane of an author’s existence.

Will they like it? Did they hate it? Does anyone really read reviews? Do readers take notice of the one bad amongst the many good?

The reality is that every reader is different. Take me for example - while I take note of reviews I’m not strictly guided by them. Unless of course every single review says don’t touch this with a barge pole. In fact I have read many books that have been panned by reviewers and enjoyed them, and of course thrown many books against the wall in disgust that reviewers have gone gaga over.

Reviews can be biased, unfair, indignant and rude. They can also be a gratifying love fest that lets you know that all that work you did was worth it. The best word of advice I can give about reviews is to take them all with a grain of salt. Enjoy the good ones, learn from the bad ones, but most of all don’t let them affect your enjoyment of the process of writing. But biggest tip of all - don’t get to believing your own hype, after all your only as good as your last book!

Reviewing itself comes into the line of fire at times. Many reviews are little more than a regurgitated blurb with an "I liked/didn’t like it" tagged on the end, while others will discuss plot progression, dialogue, character building - they run the whole gamut giving you a good run down of just what it was like to read that particular book. Both styles of reviews have their good and bad points. Readers all read in differing ways - from just zoning out/taking a little rest to immersing themselves whole heartedly into a novel, inspecting and dissecting as they go. Review styles cater to both. For some people a simple "hey this was good" is enough, others want to know why it was good.

We are lucky at Loose Id to have a person in charge of sending out ARC (advance reader copies) or blurbs to review sites. This makes the job of being a writer a little easier. That’s not to say that that is the be all and end all of getting your book reviewed, because it sure isn’t!

There are many other avenues for you to explore on the internet, locally, and nationally to get your book out there to a greater audience. They take a bit of hunting out, but they are out there and can be very effective means for generating new readers who don’t know eBooks even exist. Look around next time you go out to eat - all those free newspapers/arthouse magazines - you guessed promo opportunities. Have you ever thought of submitting an article to your local papers about what you do or the ePublishing world? Indeed all of those suggestions all have review sections - why not bring the world of eBooks to their attention!

Just because you write eBooks doesn’t mean that you can’t have printed reviews. Romantic Times and Affair de Coeur are two well known romance review sites that publish monthly newsletters available through subscription or your local bookseller. But be aware, there are rules and unfortunately many reviews are tied up with being a "big name" or an advertiser.

This is the list of internet review sites as provided by the lovely L2 over at Loose Id. These are a great starting base for having your work reviewed
online.

Please feel free to leave a comment of new review sites and I'll add them to my list :)

Monday, April 30, 2007

A new short at AOER

There's a new Under the Influence pic up, and I posted my little short story tonight :)

I quite like this short story challenge we do. It's amazing just how different everyone sees a picture, and what they imagine taking place in and around it.

Check them out!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Chatting today at Joyfully Reviewed

AOER is chatting today over on the Joyfully Reviewed Loop.

Come over and have a chat! I'm going to post a new excerpt from Tea for Three.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

No Midsummer Heat for me

Oh well, you have to be in to win, right?

I was however encouraged to expand the story and send it back. And they're right. Red Skirt, Cool Fountain really begged to be longer.

So I guess that's what I'll do. You know, I don't seem to be having much luck with shorter length stories. I think I might make a resolution - if its less than 25k, it doesn't go anywhere. (Well, other than the sequel I want to write for PV for next Xmas telling Nick's story, I don't think that's going to be a long one).

My trouble is that I can't plan for shit - well I can, but at the end, it's just not right. Instead, I sit down with a ghost of a story in my head and just start and see where it takes me. I guess that's organic writing, is it? I'm not exactly up with the play with all the writing jargon, I just write and figure it out as I go.

That wasn't what happened with McCabes2 - I planned it all out, and it didn't come off right. And instead of being on McCabes3 by now, I haven't sat back down to pick apart McCabes2 to send it back to B. But I will.

Hell I might do it this weekend while I'm away with the girls. It's supposed to be a scrapbooking weekend, but I usually take a book and the laptop (I'm a tech geek of course it goes with me! I don't do all that journaling by hand - are you kidding me?). But maybe I will conflab with the girls and get some inspiration.

Lucky there is no Internet at the cabin, there could be some wild and wacky blog posts come Sat night if there was - we usually have a daquari or colada or three. LOL, It sounds like I'm a rolling drunk, but seriously I'm not - I just appreciate that sometimes a good glass of wine or something enitely too fruity can be good for you :)

On a different note, I went all PC today and got one of these (it's a (PRODUCT) RED so part of the sales prices goes to fighting Aids in Africa) :

It's just a pity that the reason why I got this new piece of geekery was because of the little shits who stole my purdy green mini out of my bright orange Honda Element (aka The Pumpkin) - hrmm, I might wear black all the time but I like colour in my life, go figure! (the dayglow pink hair clashed a bit though).

They better watch out though, we are heartily sick and tired of the 'gift's' being left on our doorstep and front lawn, and the congregating on our driveway when we are out - we are getting spy cams. You bet your ass we are going to get the little fuckers.

Oops, ranting just a little bit wasn't I? Sorry 'bout that.

One of my sisters is a CP of mine (shes my 'average reader, this shit doesn't work for me' person). I had emailed Accidentally Were? off to her for an opinion. She IM'd me yesterday (or was it the day before, this week is a bit blurry - hence no TT 13 this week) and told me that she liked it - she hadn't finished what I had sent her yet, in fact she was only at chapter 3, but she was laughing so hard she had to stop reading so she didn't go to work looking like a racoon. That bodes well, because AW is supposed to be laugh out loud funny. Tell me what you think:

“Where are we going?” The small voice from the other side of the cab broke Rex from his reverie. “And why are we going there?” He was starting to smell her fear over the pervading scent of the woman’s heat.

“You are kidding me, aren’t you little Bitch. I’m taking you somewhere safe before the pack descends on you and you end up in the middle of a winner takes all orgy.”

It didn’t take any special were senses to feel or see her bristle with indignation.

“What did you just call me?” Her shoulders were back, her spine ramrod straight and there was a furious red flush across her cheeks and Rex was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the dirt road as it wound through the forest. “You need your eye’s checked mister! For one, I am obviously not little, and two, I am not a bitch! You can accuse me of being overly prim and proper, because I am, I can’t help it with my parents. But don’t you ever call me a bitch!”

She was winding up good and proper now, to really yell at him. It was a breath taking sight to behold, and Rex was no slouch at appreciating an attractive woman, even if she was more riled than a rattlesnake.

“I let loose for one night, one bloody night in thirty-one years, and wake up alone; ‘cause my one night stand obviously couldn’t leave fast enough, four hickeys; complete with bite marks.” The tall lace collar of her blouse was ripped down to expose two of the fore-mentioned love bites. “Then, every damned stray in town wants to hump my leg, and now, now I have been kidnapped by a huge, sexy, bear of a man, who calls me a bitch instead of asking my actual name.” When Rex took his eyes off the road, he half expected her to be frothing at the mouth with her hair standing on end, and her nails ready to take a fresh strip from his hide.

Rex smiled at the straight laced she devil beside him. She thinks I’m s-e-x-y. Obviously the smarmy grin wasn’t appreciated, as she gritted her teeth and a rumbling growl echoed across the cab. Alpha male or not, you don’t mess with a bitch in heat. Not if you want to find your balls right where you left them. There was no way Rex was going to try stare her into submission; he turned his eyes back to the road.



Well, off to re-download my emo/goth/popchick/newage whale snorts/old rocker playlist - I'm nothing if not eclectic!
(PS keep an eye out for The Wreckers, they were todays download for me...And I might go get the rest of Daughtry's album - he's pretty damn good)

EDIT: What do you know, there are 13 paragraphs of randomness! I did make a TT13 after all!


Monday, January 22, 2007

NINJA's!

Racy Li's first release has been tempting me for a while. I love watching the epic Chinese movies that have come out in recent years - you know, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - and I'm a total squee fan girl of Marjorie Liu's Dirk and Steele series - all that Asian mysticisim and paranormal beings...mmmm! So Racy has a definite strike from me in the purchased column of the release day sales tally.

I have been hanging out to see what LI would come up with for her cover art. I was so hoping for no poser rigid eehhh yuck crap; maybe something by Anne Cain. OMG Christine Griffin pulled one out of the hat! Even if I didn't know Racy as a fellow author I would snatch this off the proverbial shelf with an oooooh and an aaaaahhhhh!

Take a gander:




Is that some hot Ninja tastiness or what? That's some Jet Li Hero hotness right there folks!

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Reading in 2007

Lots of people have a TBR pile (To be read - for the acronym deprived). To be different I have a HBR pile. I read too much, too fast to worry about having a TBR - you could say the library is my TBR.

So as I said in a post a couple of weeks ago, I am going to be keeping a log of books I have read in 2007. I am missing quite a few off the list so far, but I'm aiming to add a book as soon as I finish it, so I won't miss any.

EBooks are the worst, as once I finish them I put them in my read folder, and with the 100's of files in there already I get a bit lost.

Anyway, here is the start: Read in 2007

FYI, this is going to be really scarey at the end of the year - hell it's going to be scarey at the end of the month!!

Chatting tomorrow at Rites of Romance

Rites of Romance is a fairly new review site, but they are surely building their chat group up. Authors from AOER have a loop day there tomorrow (21st of Jan), so come chat with us!

The excerpts will be hot and steamy, and there are sure to be a few prizes to give away!

Friday, January 19, 2007

Story stuff's

I blurbled on a bit about a short story I was trying to write that just didn't seem to want to...well...write.

Today I decided to bite the big one and give up. It was a tough thing to do, I haven't had to do that before now. It's not deleted gone, but it's off the 'lets write something here today' list.

Thus far everything I have written has been pretty good straight off the hoof, so to speak (Okay, except for Position Vacant's first draft, which sucked arse - but its really good now!). Maybe needing a little added extra here and there to help bring things together or show extra depth since my stories aren't big 'otherworld' builders being mainly contemporary set. Essentially I started, I wrote the story, and I finished. Now good is of course subjective - I mean it flowed, I didn't have to stare at the screen for hours waiting for the brain fart that was going to tell me where my story was going etc. I wrote and wrote, pondered a bit, and wrote. It was all there and ready to go in my head.

This one just wouldn't do that. I would sit and stare; I would write a sentence and go get a coke. Write another and go get a cookie; a word and do the washing (not the folding mind you just the putting it in the machine then the dryer). I sat in front of the TV and instead of knocking out 1500 words I managed 150 and discovered all over again the shock and awe trainwreck of American Idol auditions. I haven't even gone back to see if they were 150 usable words!

Instead, I found a notebook this morning that I had written in with a couple of other ideas for the same submission, and realised one of the half page, half formed, hand-written synopsis/storylines I had started was 100 times better than what I had been struggling with.

So I sat down, did a little naming research because one of the characters is going to be part Indian (India Indian here not American Indian - think smooth skinned , cafe coloured bollywood hotty here folks), figured out my main players, and about 3pm today I sat down and started writing. In the mean time, hubby came home from gym and needed me to rub down a muscle he had pinged, kiddo came home from school so there went another half hour, we needed to eat so we went to do that - another hour or so down the drain. Now it's 9.20, I have been blogging here and elsewhere for a good 30mins and I still have 2400words done, on what was a clean slate at 3.30 this afternoon.

OMG! No fissing, no fuddling, the scenes just bloomed in my head, the people know where they are going (well, they soon will once this first confrontation gets out of the way), it's descriptive, it doesn't sound like 80's porn (well we haven't got to the sex yet, but it doesn't sound like the prologue movie scenes to 80's porn). WTF did I sit round so long trying to make the other work. In roughly four hours I have done more than I did in the last five days on the other!

Eh, figuring this writing gig out can sometimes be...um how can I put this remotely politely? A Pain In My Ass!

But I now have Alison Kent's "Complete idiots guide to being a Romance Writer" ( FYI, Alison, if you happen to see this: I had to wait and order it online, as not one single damn seller in all of Jacksonville stocked this book!). It came in the mail today, and I've even learnt something - I bet I was the only one who had no clue what the favoured little term "Deus ex Machina" meant. It was worth 12bucks for that alone - though why I didn't think to Google it before now I don't know - vagaries of the mind and all that.

So maybe I will learn something about the great challenge of being a writer courtesy of Ms Kent. Here's hoping...here's hoping.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Authors of Erotic Romance

You may have seen a link on the side?

Well, we have moved on from just having a new release blog, to a fully fledged website. www.authorsoferoticromance.com

As my husband says - that's one long assed url, honey! But it is going to be oh so worth you sliding it onto your favourites tab, or adding it to you links lists.

AOER started because a group of us newbie writers didn't want to look like dumb clucks as we waded through the mire of being published for the first time. We figured that we weren't the only ones, so we are all writing a variety of articles that are designed to let other aspiring authors in on whats coming. The web site is building, so bear with us as we put articles as they are done into their placeholder slots.

We also plan to have a weekly (or bi weekly we are seeing how we go) writing task. I provide a photo/image and post it, then we all have to write a short story (approx 500-1000wds) and post it for ya'll to read. Since we all vary in our preferred genres from historical to contemporary, paranormal to scifi, same sex to group sex, it should be an interesting group of stories. Expect anything, from a 'awwww' moment to a short, sharp, hotter than hades, sex scene.

Come visit - we have some of the hottest new authors out, there's alot of talent mixing it up in here, lots of new voices for you to find out about. www.authorsoferoticromance.com

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Three new reviews

I have been waiting with baited breath for the first Position Vacant review. I have been hoping its short story status wouldn't send it to the bottom of the pile - thank you to Amanda the FAR reviewer who made my day (especially since she gave it 5 angels)!

This is pure romantic fun. Ms. Douglas does a wonderful job making this story come alive with all the novelty, characters, and antics of the North Pole. She does it with such humor and candor that it never strays into a clichéd holiday story. Santa’s helpers lend authenticity to the setting and fun to the story while still staying distinctly in the background. The relationship between Nick, Simon, and Bea takes center stage. These three are realistic characters readers can’t help but like. Even as Simon and Bea are drawn to each other, they don’t want to hurt Nick. Yet their attraction to each other is unmistakable and culminates in passionate, heartfelt love scenes. The erotic connection between Simon and Bea is well written and I love the balance between passion and caring. The ending has this reader hoping another trip to the North Pole is not far away.


FAR also reviewed Persuading Jo (with another 5 angels!)...
The McCabes: Persuading Jo is a tantalizing story that will have your blood pressure soaring as you join these two sexy men in their pursuit of Jo. This tale has been very well written and contains detailed sexual encounters, although not for everyone, I found these scenes to be very alluring and highly erotic. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the love and devotion between these characters and felt that Jo was a lucky woman. Anne Douglas has created a fantastic story with The McCabes: Persuading Jo and earned herself a new fan in the process. 5 Angels!!


Joyfully Reviewed just posted their review of Persuading Jo...
Anne always does a great job of portraying the emotional aspects of a story, but I was still surprised by the intensity of the emotions in this story on all sides. The sex was hot and extremely well-written, but above all, Persuading Jo is a reminder that love takes many forms and not always what you expect. I’m really hoping for another from Anne in this vein



Phew!

Monday, January 01, 2007

Main website still down...

But I have a query ticket in now! Heres hoping it gets sorted out fast.

In the mean time I am working on updating the site to a new template. Just got work on the graphics so they fit (when I do get it all back up and running again!).

I am also working on the new Authors of Erotic Romance site. Very much a work in progress, but hopefully we should have some interesting things up for new and old readers and authors alike! Give us a few weeks to get everything live.