Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Friday, May 18, 2007

Catch up

No not Ketchup, catch up. Besides it's called tomato sauce anyway :)

I've not been blogging a whole lot this week as I've been working hard on my WIP ... along with actually doing the housework I've been putting off for far too long.

Accidentally Were is a 24k and climbing, I haven't got to the mystical woo-woo part yet so I'm thinking that I'm going to end up around 40-50k before I start editing and cutting and adding. Of course since I'm notorious for not using contractions, there's 1000 words that disappear right there. Tell me, in this little scene that I'm penning this afternoon, have I gone overboard with the euphemisms? (assuming I have that right, euphemism that is, and I have a feeling I am wrong.) :

(this is VERY much unedited at the moment folks)

When he pushed her back up against the side of his truck her little angry growls stopped and a low sexy rumble started up instead. “I wasn’t sure there for a second, but I think you were right, this is a damn good idea.”
Rex barely had time to brace himself before Pearl climbed her way up his body and wrapped her legs around his waist. As he wasn’t quite balanced they fell back against the truck with a panel-popping thud that pressed Pearl up against him like she was a stripper and he was the pole. Quite apt really considering his dick felt like a bloody steel bar.
Pearl’s hands were wound through his hair again; holding him tight as she fairly ate at his lips. Pearl made a cacophony of sound as she mewled and groaned as she rode his cock like a cowboy on a prize bull determined to make it to eight seconds. She tore her mouth away and shouted to the sky, “Yes! More, just like that!” and Rex had to wonder what the hell alien had taken over the woman who was usually so uptight and proper she’d make a Mongrel Mob member quake in his boots for being to loud in a library.
Tea for Three's release is a little over a week away now. We should be getting everything finalized this weekend, so it will be nice to get that out of the way until the Monday before release day when I'll sit up late obsessively refreshing the screen until the new releases are posted -- and don't think I wont!

I've got a release out, a sub being read (do you know hard it is to sit on your fingers and not email "Have you read it yet, whaddya think" to your editor?), and I've been trying to make a decision about a national print ad -- I'm not usually one to stress and obsess, but trying to break my caffeine addiction (I'm failing I might add), has me a little twitchy :).

BUT ... I put that twitchiness to good use and I now have clean floors. Eh, which reminds me I need to go finish off the bathroom, bugger!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Oh YUM!

How's this for a yum, yum, bubble gum cover!

Dark haired Wren, the well cut outdoors man Jack, and the nicely built, but a little more fleshy Craig in the foreground...mmm mm m!

Frauke of Croco Designs is the party responsible for this eye candy - she even used a New Zealand pastoral scene! (The book is set in Auckland, NZ)

EDIT: I was asked about release date - last week in May is the current plan, so not that far off!

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

13 Titles to choose from

I still haven't been able to make a decision.

Here' a rough blurb on McCabes 2:

Finding a woman beaten and broken in a dark parking lot wasn't the way David McCabe expected his night to end. It wasn't the way Kate had expected her night to go, either - beaten by an angry, vicious husband of one of the women she had helped at Liberty Haven one of the areas Women's Refuge. She also didn't expect to wake up in the hospital with a stranger holding her daughter, telling her she had no option but to go with him - not after everything she'd fought to be free of.

Can two bruised hearts let go of the past and make a new future?


Here are the new front runners, what do y'all think? My Front runners are marked with an *

  1. To Spite the Past **
  2. Despite the Past
  3. Chrysalis **
  4. Telling Truths **
  5. Surviving the Past
  6. New Day
  7. Tough Love
  8. Just Breathe **
  9. Bruised Pasts **
  10. Bruised Pasts Collide
  11. Learning to Breath
  12. Future Song
  13. Broken Pasts **


Wednesday, January 24, 2007

AnneD's 13 steps to surviving your first ,and subsequent, release days

I blogged about Racy's NINJA (btw good book y'all, go get it!), and when I posted a congratulations on her blog, she emailed me back with a severe case of the "oh fuck, what have I done!'s"

She ask for my great, sage advice ( cause I'm an old pro at this of course, since I have done this...oh...once more than she has!) on how to cope with the fact the whole world knew she wrote, and she wrote erotic ninja romance - seriously, if you're a reader not a writer, there is a lot of "Ohmigawd, my grandma is going to know I know that she knows I know this stuff!" going on in your head. You really start to feel for that girl in the Exorcist.

So here was the cure I emaled (oops Freudian slip maybe?) to Racy:

Anne's cure for release day jitters:

1. Hop in car
2. Drive to the liquor store
3. Buy a large bottle of your preferred wine variety - Rieslings my flavour of the moment, and I can heartily recommend any Marlborough, NZ Savignon Blanc
4. Return home
5. Situate yourself in any of the following places
- in front of the fireplace
- in front of your open and often refreshed email and web browsers as you look for something - god knows what, but something!
- huddled under your covers as you contemplate the end of the world as you know it
6. Consume the entire bottle of wine and say some very weird and odd things to your SO, enough that he is still laughing about it next week
7. At this stage I should point out that fireplaces, glasses, wine bottles, small children and cats are extremely dangerous.
8. Wake up when its all over with a sore head that you can't shake in wonderment at how stupid you were the day before because it hurts too damn much
9. Despite your hangover, fire up the computer and hit the send/receive button.
10. When you hear the magic ding say "you've got male" (oops, another Freudian slip), close your eyes and hit the open button. Open your lashes one at a time until you can peek at the email that tell you that you're the superbest of the superbliest - fairly much, your story didn't stuck arse.
11. Dance around the room in a manner akin to a chicken being chased by a pig giving hubby more ammunition to arm him in smart retorts for months.
12. Get thyself to a nunne...umm...make that the bathroom, cause you forgot all about that hangover now, didn't you?! Then take the rest of the day off.
13. Now that you have run the gamut of all possible emotions from despair to unparallelled squee girl happiness, sit down at the computer and write so you can start the whole damn process over again next release day.

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!!

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

Books, glorious books!

I having been browsing blogs (got to love feedburner!) and spied a little section on Racy Li's blog about planning to keep a track of what she has read this year, and I thought to myself that might just be an interesting idea.

So Racy, I am shamelessly stealing your little idea, with a few twists. I enjoy a few snark blogs, and although I think I could snark with the best of them, I would rather spend my time creating manuscripts for others to snark. So I am going to simplify my snark.

There will be three lists: Books I have finished, Books I read half way through, then skipped to the last two chapters, and finally Books that were such a trainwreck that I probably finished them and wish I hadn't, and now want my money back.

Now, I'm not an author snob, you might find an author in all three piles. I will generally give a well published author a second try, although I have encountered a few I won't touch again with a barge poll.

The sad thing? This will be the first time I have actually kept a tally of books and I am really not looking forward to seeing how much a really do read.

Monday, December 18, 2006

How's this for a nice Xmas Pressie?

A Contract for Tea for Three!

Yup, hopefully in the earlier half of 2007 you will be seeing my new menage story, set in NZ available at Loose Id.

Wren, Jack, and Craig have been alot of fun to write, hopefully ya'll are going to find them as interesting to read.

Hers a little excerpt of the first time all three of them meet. This is unedited so may differ than the final product, and please forgive typos and grammar mistakes:

Agh! How did she let herself be convinced to go to these things?
Wren watched as her girlfriends gyrated on the postage stamp sized dance floor, with a group of men more likely to puke on their expensive high heels than be able to solve world peace -- let alone manage to get themselves into a cab at the end of the night.
Yet again she was left watching the party, not joining in. All things considered, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing -- how reliable could it be to meet a drunk guy in a bar? It’s not as if they are trying to find Miss Right to settle down with, more like Miss Are You Multi-orgasmic because you may as well enjoy it while I fuck myself senseless then skip out at the crack of dawn.
Not that she was bitter or anything. But it would be nice to be asked to dance just once, even if she had to turn the invitation down.
She swirled the straw in the lemon, lime and bitters that rested on the bar in front of her -- at least she had graduated from peeling the labels off of beer bottles in college. Now she just watched the ice-cubes clank against each other.
“Can I buy you another?” Wren looked up, surprised by the warm, smooth voice that sounded in her ear. Deep in her musings she hadn’t noticed the empty bar stool beside her had been filled by a rather attractive, stocky, dark-haired man with warm, dark Godiva chocolate eyes that matched his deep voice.
“It’s okay; you don’t need to do that. I was just heading home anyway.” Putting down the glass she had been idly twisting in her hand, she made a move to push her stool away from the bar when a large warm hand over her own stopped her.
“Please don’t rush away, I’d really like some company for a while. I’ve been entertaining out of town clients all night, and I would love to spend a little time chatting with someone a lot more interesting than they are.” Catching the bartender’s eye he indicated to refill their glasses. “Let me get another drink for both of us.”
Wow. Talk about smooth. While asserting control over the situation, he indicated he was no threat, asked her to take pity on him, and then just plain negated her plans with his own. Wren didn’t know if she should feel offended for being walked over, or if she kind of liked his brand of charm.
It wouldn’t hurt to spend a few minutes chatting before heading home. After all there wasn’t anything urgent to rush away for, now was there?
Letting a smile bloom she held out her hand. “I’m Wren.” He returned her smile and grasped her hand firmly, but delicately, treating her equally, but also respectfully. His mum had obviously taught him well.
“My name’s Craig. Craig Hunter.” Indicating over his shoulder, he gestured towards the dance floor. “And I’ve been officially dumped for the unofficial portion of the evening.” Looking over his shoulder, Wren realized he was gesturing at the gaggle of men around her girlfriends.
“Ahhh...the catch of the evening.” Craig looked back, eyebrows raised quizzically. “I came with my girlfriends -- the ones in the middle of your pack of piranhas.”
“Poor men, if only they knew.” She shook her head in pity. “Those girls are sharks -- they will eat them up as a snack and go looking for more.”
Craig looked back over his shoulder again, and laughed.

Looking back to the woman beside him Craig decided she looked prettier close up; she was quick and witty, too. He had been watching her from across the room for about an hour -- she had been sitting at the bar the whole time, nursing her drink. He thought she looked...appealing, possibly someone with an intriguing story to tell. Someone, that he thought might be interesting to get to know further, more than just a chat, at a bar, in a crowded pub. Jack would like this straight forward woman too; he just had to figure out how to ask her out -- without making it look as if he was hitting on her.
They chatted about nothing much for about ten minutes, until the barman remembered to serve their drinks. He laid down a twenty to pay for them, halting her movement towards her wallet.
“Thanks.” She smiled shyly as she picked up her glass; almost like this was the first time someone else had ever brought her a drink. Surely not? Swallowing, she gulped down a good quarter of the glass in one hit.

“Whoa, go slow there Wren. There’s no hurry, it’ll go to your head.” Wren looked at him oddly and shrugged.
“The most it will do will give me the hiccups. There’s no alcohol in it.”
“Oh.” Craig had the grace to look chagrined at having lectured her.
“I don’t drink when I am out... alcohol that is, unless it’s used in cooking.” She could tell he was curious as to why she was sitting in a bar not drinking, but was being polite too polite to ask.
“The girls drag me out every now and then; they think I’m missing out on something by not hitting the pubs and bars three nights a week.” Answering Craig’s unasked question.
“They drag you out to leave you sitting alone --” The rest of his sentence was cut off as a man, whose hair was blond like a ray of sunshine and reeked of the outdoors, stepped in between them, his back to Wren, firmly interrupting their conversation.
The newcomer put a hand on the bar to brace himself as he leaned in and kissed Craig heartily on the lips. “Evening, lover. How is the schmoozing going?”
Oh, well then. That explains it -- He’s gay. Figures. At least Craig had livened her evening up some with good conversation. All the good ones are taken or gay. She sighed silently, and gathered up her things -- time to leave the partying to those with someone to party with.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Give me some ideas

I was checking out publisher submission requests this morning (I have been caught up with these house renovations and haven't done so for a while), and spied the Midsummer Night's Steam submission requests -

They want Red Hot, steamy, sexy, erotic, girls , boys (and any combo thereof), sun sand, surf...sex.

What would you like to see in a short story read thats summer themed?

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

We have a winner!

And no, I'm not saying that in that snarky "winna" tone of voice.

Joyce, come on down...! Hrmm...I don't know I will be adding wheel of fortune to my list of day jobs.

Joyce is the winner of the Lemax Ornament giveaway and a copy of Position Vacant, if she doesn't have one already.

Toni. H. is the surprise recipient of a free copy of either Persuading Jo or Position Vacant. It's Christmas, ya'll, I'm feeling all season'y and stuff! (Season'ee not seasoned!)

Congratulations ladies, and thank you to everyone who was in to win!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Finally!

FB was convinced to read something for me.

Now he has been adamantly refusing to read any of my writing until such time as I could provide him with a lesbian work - just for his reading pleasure (Of course that got my back up, so see if I offer him that manuscript to read if it ever gets written!). So I was most surprised when I asked him to read over a current WIP (no gay sex in this one, he wouldn't touch that with a barge pole), he actually did. Then came back to me and said, "hey, this isn't half bad!". The surprise in his voice was most uncomplimentary, but I decided to be the better person and gracefully said thank you.

I will say that FB does put up with a hell of a lot of my burbling about writing, publishing, and general smack talk about things I want to do, but haven't quite got there yet with. Usually with the same aplomb as I deal with music talk...ahum, yeah, really? wow! that's interesting...so it was quite surprising when FB then says "so now that they have got together, what is going to happen? That is only the start of the story...right?"

Rutt Ro! Only the start of the story? Shit...this was supposed to be halfway through the story. (The original aim had been to submit it for the Amber Heatwave contest, then I thought maybe instead I would submit it for the Elloras 2008 Quickies since the heroine is named Pearl, and wears pearls as she is supposed to be a prissy preppy prude) "Half way through? Oh no, definitely not, there's way more story you can add after this. You need to find a bad guy, or maybe you can give this Grand Dame lady some evil plot - that shes manipulating The Magic somehow because she has secret plans for their offspring or something."

Bloody hell...not only have I got to come up with another 30k+ words I need to figure out a sneaky plot when this was supposed to be a short and sweet story? Did we just jump from lesbian porn to legitimate suggestions in one giant, big leap?

Oh, we didn't...FB is still waiting on the lesbian porn...

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

OUT!

And proud of it, I guess is supposed to be what comes next. But no, no closet hopping for me, instead Position Vacant is available, OUT you might say, today, right now, like you could click this link and go buy it CLICK ME (doesn't that sound slightly Alice in Wonderland'esque).



I have been furiously emailing, posting, sending to mailing lists last night and tonight. You would be surprised where my name might be popping up today!

If your one of the guys and girls from Borsboards.com (aka GoFistYourself.com - got to love that name Smalto), please, make yourself at home, I have cookies and pie!

Monday, December 04, 2006

Squeeeeeee!!

I got an email late last night - my Position Vacant author copies. WaHoo!

It all seems so real once I get those in my hot little hand. It is also a bit of a relief. Persuading Jo went right to the wire with edits, and because I was in New Zealand on a surprise Holiday at the time (and away from an internet connection) and things got a little pie shaped at the last minute.

This time around, though, everything has been like clockwork. Thank goodness, I was getting a bit paranoid :)

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Position Vacant Ornament Giveaway

Photos!

Yes I know, long time in coming, but I decided I wanted to hunt out something more than just Santa ornaments. Something that really reflected Position Vacant. And I am glad I did!

These two ornaments represent Position Vacant so well it's spooky!



If you have read the excerpt on the Position Vacant page (you can find it under the booklist tab on my website annedouglas.com) you will know Nick is the master toy designer. So what would be better than Santa's Toy Works?

I also make comment about Dancer and Prancer being rather aptly named...only I could make two of Santa's Reindeer gay. So when I found the ornament that has two reindeer dancing and prancing, I chortled with glee and bundled it in the cart! (They plug in FYI, the workshop lights up and the reindeer...well..dance and prance!

Saturday, December 02, 2006

An afternoons work...

Hey, it is Saturday, it wasn't like I was really procrastinating or anything...!





I'm to sexy for my skirt...to sexy for my shirt...to sexy for my ownage of my animation program...GO ME!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Christmas Ornament Contest

Position Vacant, my new Christmas themed novella is due out next week. Since it's all about Santa and the Elves, I am running a Christmas themed contest for everyone who is on my mailing list. Look to the side and you can see where you can join up, to join in.

On the 12th of Dec I will make a random drawing from the list for a variety of Santa / Elf themed tree ornaments (approx value $25). I might even be convinced to throw in a free copy of Position Vacant for the winner! I will get everything off via priority mail so it arrives in plenty of time for Christmas.

I'll add in a photo of the ornaments once I get the battery charged up for the camera. Murphys Law, when ever I want to use it, it's deader than a doornail :(

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Reading habits

I will admit it, I am an addict.

But recently I am finding an annoying trend. I read three to four chapters then skip ahead to nearly the end to see if what I think is about to happen, happens. This is only with print books. I havent yet started it with e-books, I wonder why?

Maybe it is because "real" books - in so much as they are printed on paper and bound - are right there, its just a matter of moving a finger, where in an e-book i have to click a few times or type in a number of a page to go to?

Or is it that the standard, formulaic, romance books, are becoming just that. Standard and formulaic ie. boring. I have to admit, in e-books, there is such a wide variety in content; not all of it good. While I might not be skipping the pages yet, I have laughed aloud at bad e-books and print books. Bad is bad in every format!

Is it because a number of reputable e-book publishers aren't afraid to step out of the box and give us the low down nitty gritty - of both sex and real life emotions - rather than a little idyllic world for us to daydream about being real? Of course not all e-books are anywhere near to being based in "reality", but still the authors give us interesting angst, rather than the usual "he's the boss, I'm pregnant with my father twice removed cousins baby woe is me!"?

Although I am a closet fan of mystery baby daddy stories, go figure?

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Position Vacant has a cover

Did you notice the addition of a second book on the side bar?

Do you think Santa would leave me a hottie like that under my christmas tree?

Saturday, October 28, 2006

It's the weekend!

Yay...I think. It's a big weekend here in Jacksonville.
The Florida Georgia game - potentially the most contested non nfl game of the year - if you are a Floridian or Georgian at least!
Then there is the Air show at NAS Jax...I wonder when the blue angels are due through? I think NAS Jax is their home base? Or is it the blue hornets or something and the blue angels are the NZ squad. Can you tell I am not an airshow geek?
Then, of course, there is halloween. The zoo had their big spooktacular that I might convince the family to wander along to, though more than likely they won't be much interested. We totally suck when it comes to this stuff...I guess it's coming from another country where rabid devotion to a topic is not quite the same.
I have been hunting down different promo op's and dropped into Cata-Network on Thursday with some other LI authors, and a few excerpts on the Joyfully reviewed loop.
Any readers dropping by do you have any suggestions of loops/sites that you haunt that have good promotional value?

Saturday, October 21, 2006

New Reviews

Two from the same site, and both of them pretty good, if I do say so myself!

http://www.cupidslibraryreviews.de/persuadingjoad.php
http://www.cupidslibraryreviews.de/persuadingjoad2.php

"Persuading Jo" is an excellent read. To read about how loveable Matt and Brian act in order to help Jo to overcome her shyness is really sweet and something you want to read and read and read again. That the two men love Jo from the bottom of their hearts and that they want Jo really in their relationship is a heart-warming experience to read about.

The love scenes are sorchingly hot and the only sad thing about this book is that there has to be an end.."

"PERSUADING JO is a ménage-à-trois reader's dream. All three characters are written very well and are very likeable. Matt and Brian are dreamy and would make any woman desire and want them warming her bed. Despite Jo having a hard and victimized history she is quite strong and has an inner drive and desire to succeed at what she sets her mind to. In PERSUADING JO there is light humor and a tad bit of drama, but what the focus of this story is, is to get Jo to accept and be in a relationship with her two best friends. The way in which the author does this is through a series of sensual steps that get your heart racing and Jo sexually primed for her two friends. Brian and Matt are any girl's wet dream so their seduction of Jo is not a difficult process. Yet because of some of her emotional scars there are a few road bumps in the way. The scenes with Jo and her men are very hot and take place in some wonderful places like outdoors and a shower scene to die for. The relationship between Matt and Brian in and of itself is very hot and these two men are very loving and physical with one another and eventually this includes Jo. The conclusion of this story is quite passionate and tender. I really enjoyed how MS. DOUGLAS made this steamy ménage-à-trois believable and work. The feelings and desires between all the characters are intense and their bond sexually is only highlighted and strengthened by their friendship. The respect and love they all share is quite enviable and their erotic scenes are not easily forgotten. I am so curious about the next book in this series."

YeaHa!