Romantic Times Hangover

Whoa. What a week!

I'm back from the Romantic Times convention in Kansas City, and taking a much needed recovery day. I had an absolute blast--a lot of YAY!  with a few moments of Oh, No!

1) Riding to KC in my new car

Me and Jess

YAY:  The car goes really fast, and we didn't get any tickets. Jessica Lemmon and I yammered the whole way.

Oh, No!:  That is one seriously long-ass ride. I mean LOOOOONG. And coming home was even longer.

 2) There were cover models

YAY: There were cover models.

Oh, No!: They can run really fast, and are hard to catch.

3)Stalking Andrew Shaffer and Tiffany Reisz

 YAY: Andrew wasn't really hard to find. He tweeted the whole conference, and didn't seem to miss much. We finally cornered him at the book signing.  If you look above, he even participated in the cover model procession across the stage. 

Oh, No!: Tiffany Reisz wasn't as easy to find. And when I did finally connect with her, she was hiding under the book table, trying to...Well, just look carefully at the picture below. 

 4) The hotel was haunted. 

YAY: okay, there's nothing yay about a haunted hotel, except it was fun to speculate about.

Oh, No!: The hotel room drawers wouldn't stay closed, and the elevator was a little weird about following directions.

My roommates, Maisey Yates and Jessica Lemmon, in the haunted elevator

 5) The interesting party favors from Ellora's cave

YAY!: um, they're interesting

Oh, No!: It's just a lava lamp, and it doesn't vibrate.

6) Meeting my internet writer friends: 

YAY!  Linda Grimes!

YAY! Christine Bell! 

 Oh, NO!: I didn't get pictures of everyone. I also got to have lunch with Suzanne Johnson, and I ran into ...Oh, hell. I'm not even going to try to list everyone I saw.

7) I met Jude Deveraux

YAY!: She was really nice, which is good, because she was my very first favorite romance author. 

Oh, No!: I couldn't think of anything to say. 

8) I got to hang out and chat with Ruthie Knox and Cara McKenna. 

Me, Ruthie, and Cara

YAY!: I love, love, love these women. So smart and funny and wonky. 

Oh, No!: I probably over-shared while we were talking about...stuff, thus ensuring my place in their "people to avoid next year" lists. I took out my verbal filters before RT and the replacements are on back-order. 

9) There was a secret BDSM starter kit included with the swag we collected. We had to kind of hunt through things, but with a bit of creativity and not much sleep, three romance writers can be very, very inventive.

YAY!: I have never laughed so much. We did a very clever little twitter photo essay.

Oh, No!: We might be the funniest people we know. When we tried to show people later, those who hadn't seen it on twitter, it wasn't quite as funny.

Maisey paddles Jessica with something that other people might use as a fan.

There is a lot of other cool stuff that happened that I didn't get pictures of, so the Yay is the fun stuff, the Oh No! is the lack of pictures.

We went to a party hosted by  Megan Mulry and Sasha Hananananannananarananan. I may have engaged in a bit of hyperbole with Sasha's last name. You might also recognize her as @caribbeanaccent. That was fun, and Sasha brought a lot of...interesting...treats from Trinidad. The pickled cherries are still confusing me.

I met a lot of my Entangled Publishing co-workers. I'm not going to try to list everyone, but I'm just going to say that I am so thrilled to be working with these folks. Liz Pelletier is amazing, and the people she has involved are awesome.

What else?  I met Landra and Riley Darkes.

I sat in the lobby at the same time as E.L. James. Okay, whatever. Jessica and Maisey got their pictures taken with her.

I got to hang out with my peeps from the Seymour Agency. Our author spotlight gala thing went really well, and meeting my agent, Nicole, in person, was wonderful. She totally rocks, and I am totally motivated to start earning us some money!

I'll probably share a little more about the trip as I recover from the cold that Jessica and I picked up for the ride home. Between the two of us, we went through most of a box of Puffs Plus between KC and Ohio. Grrrr.

Smile, Feel Good, Pass the Blog

Hi, Kids!  It's Time for a brand new Episode of Trading Blogs, where two writers go to each other's blog and, with the help of an embarrassingly sterotypical gay web designer, rearrange the widgets and change the background, pretending to cater to the host blogger's tastes, but really just taking passive-aggressive shots at one another. 

Not really.  But wouldn't that be fun?  No?  Well, okay. The lovely and talented Jessica Lemmon decided she didn't feel like writing her blog for today, and frankly, I have been in a bit of a slump myself.  We decided to write each other's posts, instead.  I love Jessica's Blog, it makes me smile.  With a title like Smile, Feel Good, Pass It On how could you not come away with a positive attitude?  So I'm over there, talking about Critique Partnering. 

Oh, wait.  I'm not supposed to be writing here today.  Shutting up now.  And heeeeere's Jessica!

I come to you today as a humble guest of Teri Anne’s.  Thank you for having me Teri!  And hello to  all of you regular readers! *waves*
I couldn’t think of a blog for my OWN blog today so I asked who wanted to write it. Teri Anne offered. Which meant I should reciprocate, which oddly enough, I was happy to do.  I guess you could say I am “cleaning her room” today (Go HERE to see my intro to her blog today if you want to know what I mean…)

But, I needed a topic.  She suggested: My Writing Routine.  So I thought  - okay, I can do this.  Routine, let’s see.  Timeline!  People with routines have timelines. I can have a timeline…

5 a.m. – get up for p/t job (not every day – just 2x a week)
7 a.m. – get up (hmm… sometimes I sleep in until 8)
8:30 a.m. – Coffee (unless it’s a workday then, earlier)
9:00 a.m. – Blog (if it’s Monday or Thursday… or Wednesday)
9:30 a.m. – Read a novel. Or blogs. Or a magazine. But mostly novels I haven’t read by authors I often read.
10:00 a.m. – eat breakfast of eggs and toast.  Or oatmeal.  Or more coffee.  Or – I’ll own it – cookies.
11:00 a.m. – write (although sometimes I do this at 1 p.m., unless I’m at work all day, then not at all)

Then I realized. CRAP.  I don’t HAVE a routine. 
That’s okay, I consoled myself, I’ll find a common denominator – the one thing I do every day? 
READ!
Reading is my one constant throughout my life as a (yet-to-be-published) author.  I read a lot. I believe it was Stephen King that said, “If you don’t like to read, you will never be a writer.” (Forgive my bad paraphrasing.)
When I decided to become a romance writer I ravaged Harlequin’s website *snicker* … so to speak. Guess what they suggest? That you (writer) read the category that you want to write.  VORACIOUSLY.  They actually used that word. Voraciously. That means, like, RAVENOUSLY.  Or, you know. A LOT.

Why, you ask?  I have a few theories…

1.       When you read the genre you are writing, your crafty subconscious latches onto words and phrases and tucks them away for use later. This is important.  Just as romance has its cliché phrases (heaving bosoms, anyone?), it also has phraseology the reader EXPECTS in a romance. Like the slanting of lips, the arching of eyebrows and the tilting of heads.  Stubborn chins, proud noses, pouting lips… you get the idea.
2.       You can learn from a good author because they have crafted a book out of various parts, just  as you are trying to do.  If you are interested in improving your own skill, pay attention to the where the plot shifts, the way the characters interact and how to SHOW rather than TELL what’s going on.

Often after reading a particularly wonderful book, I feel compelled to get off the couch and tackle my own manuscript with renewed vigor.  Especially after reading my favorite part of every Harlequin novel… wanna know what it is?
Come on guess…
If you said… 
The Letter to the Reader
You’re correct!

I love the letter from the author. On occasion the author will share where their idea originated, others clue you into their own process – like how they had NO IDEA that the story would wind up being the one that you hold in your hands.
But my favorite type of letter?  The letter from the debut author. No matter how divinely crafted that letter is, one message rings loud and clear.  Underneath the eloquent grammar, they really all say the same thing: “OMG!  I finally got PUBLISHED! I LOVE you! I LOVE my editor!  I LOVE everybody!”
If that doesn’t jet propel to your keyboard then I don’t know what will.
For today,
Smile, Feel Good, READ!!!