Okay, a completely lame and pointless post to point out that my amazing web designer, Frauke of Croco Designs 
(who also does my bookmarks, business cards, myspace layout, and anything pretty with my name on it because I am completely visually retarded), has hooked me up with a ton of spiffy new smilies for you to click on when you make comments.
That is all. Carry on! 
I’m guest blogging over on Shelley Munro’s blog later today about shape shifter romance and erotic romance.
Come check it out!
While Jennifer Leeland is on vacation, I hijakced her blog and did evil things with it. Come enjoy her pain and suffering!
Schadenfreude lives! 
Someone asked me what my name was today and I swear I almost said Crystal Jordan. Then when I was typing in my username to my personal email account, I typed in crystal.jordan
Um, yeah.
Sorry to burst your bubble if you thought it was, but Crystal Jordan is not my real name. I’m protecting my family’s innocence (or at least their rep at the local holy roller’s convention) by taking on a pseudonym.
So, I wanted to talk about the weirdness of it all being a person pretending to be a writer pretending to be a person (if you don’t know where that rhythm of words comes from, you must go watch Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria)
We have a delicate balance to strike as writers. Especially when we get to the point where we’re doing book signings. Since my first print book comes out in August, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought. It’ll be something of a public “outting” of my little secret. It only takes one person who knows me in real life to walk into a bookstore I’m signing in to see my pen name and poof, there goes that secret. Librarians are all about information sharing (i.e. total gossip-whores), so that would be one wildfire of a rumor around the library the next day.
Does that make me paranoid? A little, yeah.
Plus, Crystal Jordan is a bit more wicked and gregarious than the “real” Crystal–it’s still me, but with all the politeness filters blown off. So if any of my colleagues saw me in that situation it might shock the crap out of them. Of course, part of me thinks that might be fun, but the other part is a little horrified the people who know me as a nice, staid librarian might get to see me walking on my wild side. Not exactly the mental image I want them to have when we’re talking about me getting tenure at the university…or while I’m being the leader/enforcer during a meeting. I have a feeling it might lower their respect for me some, and on a lot of levels that upsets me. It’s a bad, bad thing.
So, how do I find that balance? I have to do book signings, I have to promo my work, but the thought of people giving me the “I know what you do on the weekends, you dirty wench” look is rather daunting.
You know, these are the things they never tell you you’ll have to deal with when you finally sell to New York and have that shining-awesome print book in your hot little hands. 
I’m blogging about book trailers over at the Samhain Blog today.
Come visit!
Hey all!
Lucienne Diver, my fantabulous, made-of-awesome agent let me rope her into guest blogging today. Who, as you can tell by her picture, is also gorgeous and a published author. Makes you kinda want to beat your head against something hard and brick-wallish, doesn’t it? But, I digress. On to her words of wisdomness about what makes a great series.
Thanks, Lucienne!
Series Success
I’ve been thinking a lot about series lately and have decided that there are two really contradictory things that make a successful series: 1) familiarity – readers knowing that they can count on the same great characters and quality in each book and 2) keeping it fresh, new, exciting, surprising and constantly upping the stakes.
So let’s examine the first – readers who pick up Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, for example, or Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake books do so because they love the voices, the characters, the relationships (maybe even the sex!). They know about what to expect and there are elements, like the callback of a comedy routine punchline, that regular readers look for and appreciate. Getting them is like being part of the in crowd.
But remember Thing Two – keeping it fresh. My idol, Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly fame) made sure that nothing in his world was sacred. Anyone, even title characters, could die at any time. Plots veered off in unexpected directions; people said surprising things. Hell, he wrote a musical episode that actually worked! Likewise, Marjorie M. Liu in her Dirk & Steele series and Rachel Caine in her Weather Warden novels constantly up the stakes and reveal new and intricate layers of a world (ours, of course, but with unique twists) with enough room for stories within stories. I’m reminded of the immortal words of Shrek, who said “Onions have layers, ogres have layers.” You substitute “series” for “ogres” and you have my point exactly. In the Dirk & Steele series the main characters aren’t the same from book to book, but the familiarity comes from the fact that either the hero or heroine were introduced as supporting characters in earlier books. One of the great things about this and other successful series is that while some questions are answered, others arise and the reader is intrigued enough to keep pulling at threads until the whole mystery unravels.
Finally, whether it’s Buffy’s apocalypse or impending natural disaster, it’s a good idea to keep the pace pounding, the stakes escalating, and the surprises coming. You don’t want to give your readers any chance to look away. And you want to give the impression that they’ll miss something big if they blink or miss the next release!
For more on series, Sarah A. Hoyt is blogging this week about the process here: http://sarahahoyt.livejournal.com. Also, please drop in on my blog (Authorial, Agently and Personal Ramblings) anytime at http://varkat.livejournal.com and see how well I follow my own advice next year with my YA vampire novel VAMPED, forthcoming in May 2009 from Flux!
Hey, check it out. My old Wild Rose Press covers have been revamped. You can still see the old covers over on my bookshelf page. Those will be updated soon!
This one I totally love…my medieval romance, A Lesson in Pleasure.
From the moment their king called her husband to the Crusades, Lady Eleanor prayed for his safe return. While in the Holy Lands, Sir Gavin sent home extraordinary riches: tapestries, spices, oils. Tucked between the lush fabrics was a wicked book depicting lovers entwined?exotic ecstasies a lady could never even imagine.
Eleanor has spent many a lonely night dreaming of Gavin pleasuring her in such ways, but when Gavin returns, he seems cold and distant, and Eleanor fears she’s lost the only man she’s ever loved. Using the book as her guide, can she teach her lord a lesson in pleasure and regain his love?
Find out more here.
And here’s the new one for All She Wants for Christmas…it totally fits the “love in an elevator” theme. *hums Aerosmith* ;)
The wedding is off! Emma Richards just walked away from the only man she’s ever loved, her overbearing parents, and the pressures of life. Somehow her well-ordered existence has spiraled out of control to the point that she’s hiding in a bathroom stall until everyone leaves the department store with the wedding planner. When she makes her escape, she finds herself trapped in the elevator with her furious fianc?, who knows just how to convince her that giving up on the wedding is one thing, but giving up on their relationship is out of the question. Eloping is all Emma really wants for Christmas, and Paul is just the man to deliver.
More details here.
It totally goes with the “love up against a wall” one for All She Needs (the sequel to All She Wants). This one wasn’t revamped though. :)
If ever Jen Campbell needed a magic charm, today is the day. Lucky for her, fate lands exactly what she needs on her door step.
When her best friends, Emma and Paul, ask her to be their son’s godmother, she’s happy to agree. Until she finds Paul’s brother is the godfather. Kevin Miller, the only man she’s ever loved, and the only man she can never have. Their brief relationship ended in disaster, but one look is enough to convince Jen she’ll never be over him. Can she resist the Kevin who says he’s confronted the demons in his past and is determined to pick up where they left off–right in the middle of a hallway during a huge party, guests be damned? More importantly, can she trust that a man as stubborn as Kevin can truly change and be all that she needs?
Find out more here.
Hey, everyone! The RWA National Conference is just around the corner and it’s time for the PI party! This year is going to be a bit different. Instead of a luncheon, we’re having a cocktail party to give people an opportunity to network in a less formal environment. The focus of the gathering is erotic romance, but it’s a great chance to mingle with lots of industry professionals from all genres! Everyone is welcome!
Our two featured speakers are Susan Swinwood from Harlequin Spice as well as Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Some of our other registered guests include Roberta Brown, Sarah from Smart Bitches, several editors from Grand Central Publishing, Janet from Dear Author, and loads more editors and agents! (And, hey, I’ll be there with the Mad Madam M…you know that’s what’s really important, right? Come play!)
The cost is $25 for PI members and $35 for non-members. It includes a cocktail, appetizers and a nice little favor! The party will take place on Thursday, July 31, from 5-6 pm. We’ll start registration at 4:45.
For more information, or to register, click here!
Some of you know, I’m OCD about having checklists. Unless I have a list, I am not a happy girl. It reminds me of all the things I need to do, and it gives me a sense of accomplishment when I can check stuff off the list and see it dwindle. Yeah, I’m weird. I’m okay with that–I drank the Kool-Aid a loooong time ago. I guess we all deal with our balancing act of writing, life, volunteer activities, promotion, work, in different ways. We find the way that works for us. For me, that means being an OCD list maker. If it’s not on one of my lists, I guarantee it will not get done because I’ll totally forget about it.
So, here’s the current to-do list for June.
1. Finish rewrite on current hateful project
2. Go to cousin’s graduation in California
3. Conduct a workshop for Passionate Ink
4. Guest blog over at Shelley Munro’s blog
5. Harass my Stroke of Midnight final judges (as part of the PI VP job) to make sure they get their entries back to me on time
6. Complete proposals on next two projects I’d like my agent to shop
It looks like a pretty manageable list to me…what’s on everyone else’s list? What strategies do you have for keeping it all straight and making sure nothing falls between the cracks?
I see a lot of angst about this question from authors. What’s my genre? How do I label/market myself to editors and agents? If I write cross-genre, who do I send my books to? Which audience do I market myself to? The questions go on and on. And they’re very valid questions!
In a lot of ways, I have it easy now that I have an agent. It’s up to her to decided who and how to market me to editors, so if I write crazy cross-genre, I get to offload that headache to her. Then the editors and their publishers decide how to market me to the public.
In the end, does it even matter how we label ourselves? If the publisher gets to be the one to make that call for their marketing stance, then does it matter what we say or think we are? One example I’ve found of this is Yasmine Galenorn’s Sisters of the Moon series. It’s Urban Fantasy and has been marketed as Paranormal Romance because they thought it would sell better that way. Ms. Galenorn must have been called on it by fans because she says this on her website:
While labeled paranormal romance on the spine, this is really an urban fantasy series. The publisher makes the determination on what genre to classify books in and therefore, the author really has nothing to do with that choice. I consider the series urban fantasy because the focus is on the action, the world story arc, and primarily, the sisters and their relationships to one another. While there is explicit sex, and relationships do play a significant part, those are not the main forces of the stories, and these are not HEA books.
Another example I have is of my critique partner R.G. Alexander’s Children of the Goddess series at Samhain. She wrote it as paranormal romance, and both she and the publisher have labeled and marketed it as such, but reviewers have called it Urban Fantasy Romance. I guess if people buy it and like it, that’s a good thing regardless of the label.
Has anyone else had any experience with this?
The Novelty Girls