The Next Big Thing

"The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. " ~James Bryce

Donald Maass, one of THE literary agents in the biz, has been running a neat little feature on his agency's website the last few months: What We're Looking for this Month.

It's not literal, of course, but every month the agents toss out ideas for what they'd like to see cross their desks as the next "big thing" to hit the best-seller lists. Here's Jan/Feb:

1. A literary SFF novel as original and well-written as Tim Powers’s classic The Anubis Gates or Gordon Dahlquist’s recent debut The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters: not a traditional quest adventure in a quasi-Medieval world, but a cross-over from our world with mystery, romance, historical allusions and literary references.

2. A thriller in which the unlikely doom scenario is made utterly believable with 300 pages of careful, point-by-point elimination of all the reasons why it wouldn’t happen…PLUS, featuring a protagonist of unshakeable principles whom we cheer for from their first moment on the page.

3. A multi-layered romance in which every element is as romantic as the relationship itself: setting, secondary characters, etc…PLUS, a plot in which the driving conflict is not a manufactured antipathy between heroine and hero, but the inescapable malignancy of outside forces.

4. A brilliantly written, page-turning novel with the psychological twists and turns of Donna Tartt's A SECRET HISTORY or Patricia Highsmith's THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.

5. A romantic (not romance) novel in the tradition of Peter Beagle's A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE with highly emotive characters and a compelling depth of texture and description.

6. A historical mystery or thriller that in addition to mystery plot, gives us a new or controversial look at a well known historical figure. For example, a mystery set on and around the new high-rises of New York that shows us a more generous side of Robert Moses than we see in THE POWER BROKER.

7. An alternate history like Philip K. Dick’s THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE or more recently, Sesshu Foster’s ATOMIK AZTEX or Michael Chabon’s latest, where, for example, the Native Americans were ceded territory in what is now the state of Nevada. When strange murders start cropping up, an outsider must enter the territory to investigate with the help of a young Native American who has something to hide.

8. A mystery or thriller with a bike messenger as the main character or villain,
like Tami Hoag's KILL THE MESSENGER, or maybe a bike mechanic main character, or some other character who makes their living with bicycles.

9. A work of narrative nonfiction that does for competitive video-gamers what Ben Mezrich did for the MIT card-counters in Bringing Down the House. I’d especially like a story that follows an American gamer trying to reach the top in South Korea, where audiences pack stadiums to observe Starcraft matches and top gamers earn six-figure salaries.

10. A genre-bending novel for the adult suspense market, one that functions like Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men – overturning clichés of the genre, challenging ideas we hold dear, and creating suspense not through the unknown but through the sheer audacity of the villain.

Interesting, huh? So do any of you writers have a WIP like that just looking for a home?? Or would any of you pick up a book like one of those to read?

And along those same lines, a writer-friend on another loop posed this question to her blog readers, and I'm passing it along to you:

As a reader what specific kinds of books do you most enjoy but have trouble finding? Please be as specific as you can and describe any kind of book distinguished by any quality such as sub-genre, non-fiction subject, time period, length, writing style or anything else that is important to you as a reader. I am looking for the kinds of book you would buy more of, if you could only find them.

The more responses, the better, so chime in!

Writers' Wednesday: An Interview with Sharon Buchbinder

Welcome to another Writers' Wednesday! It's snowy here in the Northeast USA - how about where you are? I hope warmer (and less white) than it is here...

Anyway, for a cheering read today, pull up your chair and join me as I interview Sharon Buchbinder, author of Catastrophe, available now from The Wild Rose Press.

Hi Sharon! Thanks for being here today. Can you tell us a little about your background?

I was born in Washington, DC, grew up in Windsor Locks, CT, now live in Baltimore, MD. I discovered that a BA in Psychology enabled me to work for an airline caterer, chopping lettuce, so I went back a School of Allied Health at Hartford Hospital and became a Medications Technician in 1973, during a nursing shortage. More education, more degrees: MA in Psychology, AAS in Nursing, PhD in Public Health, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Children’s Mental Health—and I became a Professor. Still, I had the itch to write fiction. It drove me mad until I “ran away” for a month to our home in Florida and scratched my itch. I am still scratching at it. My website has more information and links to stories and articles. I love to hear from readers!

What an interesting journey to the world of writing! So when did you first begin? Was there an event or moment in your life that triggered your desire to write?

Always a scribbler, I began my “serious” writing in high school when my sister went off to college and I wrote her letters. She told me they were so funny, she read them to the girls in her dorm. Reinforced by that, I began receiving rejection letters from many, many magazines and even the MAN from U.N.C.L.E. I sent them a hand-written (on yellow note pad) script for the show.

Can you tell us about your latest writing project or published title?

The short story Catastrophe is now available! I had a lot of fun writing and rewriting this story and with the help of my editor, Nan Swanson, and cover editor and artist, Nicola Martinez, the story shines inside and out. I drew on my experience as a teacher, cat breeder (a decade ago), and dog owner. The names of the hero and heroine are actually the names of my great-great-great-great-(I lost track of how many greats) grandmother and grandfather. The story opens with Polly Griggs finding an eviction notice on her door. She’s devastated and desperate. Where can she go with twenty-three rescued cats? Old, maimed, and crippled, they were abandoned and she was the only person willing to take them in. Her drunken landlord can’t wait to get rid of her and harasses Polly at every opportunity. Little does she know that her academic advice to her handsome neighbor and secret crush, Simon, on how to succeed in his speech class will lead to her own rescue—and love.

Sounds like a charming story! How do you go about developing your characters?

They arrive on their own. They appear in my dreams, as I do housework, even shopping. I was standing in the checkout line at Sam’s one day, and a character demanded that I write about him. Usually they appear when I have no writing implement. Glad I had my PDA with me that day, as he turned out to be one of my favorites.

What advice would you give to new writers just starting out?

If you truly want your work published, you must be serious about your craft. Write, rewrite. Set time aside every day to focus on your story. Write, rewrite. Join RWA and the state chapters and go to meetings. Write, rewrite. Find a critique group/partner. Write, rewrite. Get readers you trust (my husband is my first reader). Write, rewrite. Grow a thick skin and accept constructive comments, and ignore the destructive ones. Write, rewrite. Take online writing courses. Write, rewrite. Read submission guidelines and follow them. Write, rewrite. Find the right niche for your work. Write, rewrite. Submit your work. Write, rewrite. Believe in your story. Write, rewrite. Resubmit. Write, rewrite.

OK, what do you find most difficult about writing? What do you find most exciting or rewarding?

The most difficult challenge is being disciplined and protecting my writing time. The most exciting and rewarding thing about writing is the impact that my words have on the reader. If I move someone to tears, laughter, a sigh, and the reader wonders about the character after the last page is turned, I know I have done my job well.

Thanks, Sharon! Readers, if you'd like to know more, visit Sharon's website...or leave a comment or question here for her. Have a great day :)

A Chuckle for Tuesday

"The human race has only one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." ~Mark Twain

I had to share this email that a friend sent me yesterday. Too funny:

A guy goes to the supermarket and notices an attractive woman waving at him. She says hello. He's rather taken aback because he cannot place where he knows her from.

So he says, 'Do you know me?' To which she replies, 'I think you're the father of one of my kids.'

Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife and says, 'Are you the stripper from the bachelor party thatI made love to on the pool table with all my buddies watching while your partner whipped my butt with wet celery???'

She looks into his eyes, and says calmly, 'No, I'm your son's teacher."

I also made some headway on my WIP, which I'm officially nicknaming One Night in Napa (thanks, Marianne!) until I make a final decision. Wrote the chapter where we meet the heroine, and I love that she's a totally non-traditional heroine, esp. for the romance genre. She has super-short, spiky hair and an eyebrow ring; she smokes; and she has no interest in dating. Tough cookie, right?? I just have to remember to make her likable, too...

Actually, I love that I have a fairly clear picture of where I want this story to go (I know, I shouldn't speak too soon, or I'll jinx myself). I think that comes from it rattling around my brain for so many years. Every so often, when I got tired of working on whatever other novel I was dealing with, I'd take a break and sketch out a character for ONIN or think of ways to up the tension. Turned out all those breaks gave me a lot of ammunition to tackle the actual novel.

So I'm happy so far. We'll see how long the bubble lasts :)

The Monday Blues

"Sometimes it pays to stay in bed in Monday, rather than spending the rest of the week debugging Monday's code." ~Dan Solomon

Well, I guess I don't really have the blues, per se. I just don't have much exciting chatter for today. Among other less-than-newsworthy notes:

1. I added a ticker to track my progress on my latest "One Night..." novel - it's over there on the sidebar. As you can see, I have a way to go!

2. I'm about halfway through Lady of the Knight by Tori Phillips, another historical romance, and enjoying it. It's a twist on the Pygmalion story, so not really anything new, but it's entertaining all the same.

3. I designed some really nice brochures for One Night in Boston, to send off to my publisher. Their marketing person is sending out mailings to bookstores every other month, so it's a relatively inexpensive way to promote my upcoming print release. Oh, and I used Vista Print. I've had a lot of things done there and always been happy with the quality. You really can't beat the price, either. Some authors on one of my loops complained recently because apparently they got signed up for a program that billed their credit card $15/month without their approval. Turns out it's one of those fine-print deals if you click "Yes" to a free offer after you order from Vista Print. Listen, folks, get smart here: don't click on any free deals that seem too good to be true. And if you do, read the fine print. And finally, read your credit card statement every month and make sure you know where every charge comes from. You have to be the smart consumer.

(steps down from her soapbox)

4. Speaking of promoting my books, I've added another appearance to my list, also over there on the sidebar. It's the annual craft fair in my hometown - quite a big deal for the community, so I'm looking forward to it.

5. I watched the red carpet pre-Oscar show last night but not the awards ceremony itself. I see that "No Country for Old Men" was the big winner - no big surprise, from previous buzz. I put "Juno" on my list to rent, though I just read an article criticizing the movie for glamorizing teen pregnancy and downplaying the negative, life-changing consequences. Anyone see it and have an opinion either way?

Well, I'm off to work. Happy Monday!!

My Latest Project

"First, find out what your hero wants. Then just follow him." ~Ray Bradbury

Yes, as I promised yesterday, I've made a decision about what book project I want to tackle next. It is...

...another "One Night" book - a 24-hour/24-chapter sort of deal.

Why, when I have so many other single title ideas floating in my brain? Well, I'm being optimistic and thinking writing career-wise here. I'd like to show either Samhain or an agent, should I be lucky enough to find one, that I can sustain the 24-hour novel idea over a few books. Agents and publishers like prolific authors, I've heard. I'd also like to get through this one [maybe] by the end of April, which would give me time to let it sit and then revise over the summer and submit by August, let's say. That also gives me the summer (which is when I'm not working, so more time) to work on another project from scratch, and I have a couple I'm toying with.

So this one is going to be set either in or close to San Francisco/Napa Valley. It's going to tell the story of Grant Walker, a journalist who gets the break of a lifetime while doing an otherwise straightforward interview, and the woman he meets, Kira March, whose entire life could be affected by the discovery he makes...

It's inspired to a certain degree by a famous Greek play, though I'm not telling you which one :) And I thought of this storyline almost 4 years ago, so I'm excited to actually begin writing it.

I wrote about 2000 words yesterday and was pleased with the start. Think I'll get myself one of those sidebar counters to keep track of my progress; it's always good to be accountable to someone, I think!

Here's my first line:

Grant Walker knew it was going to be a long day when he woke up and couldn't remember the name of the woman lying beside him.

What do you think??

A Picture Blog, Today

"When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels." ~Anonymous

Some pictures to entertain you today...

We actually have 2 cats, the one who was sick last summer and got all the attention, and this stray who showed up on our porch 2+ years ago and decided to stay. He's my hubby's favorite, because he has the most easy-going personality you'll ever find in a cat. He does, however, love FEET. He will rub against hubby's feet when he's sitting in his recliner at the end of the day, and last week, when we took apart one of my closets and had to put my shoes in their hanging bags on the floor, he was in heaven.

First he sat on top of them...



Then he decided he needed to rub up and down the length of them...

Meanwhile, outside, the white stuff was falling...and falling... (it's still snowing this AM - we've gotten about a foot, I think)...

And here's hubby bundled up and plowing it (at least it was that light, fluffy stuff, yesterday, anyway. I think we got some ice on top of it overnight. Oh, joy!)...

Finally, here's the latest book trailer I made, for Diane Craver:

And here's some exciting news: I think I've decided what book project I want to start next. See, here's the thing: before I published my first novel, I had 4 that I had worked through. Now, 2 of those have been published, 1 has been signed for publication, and 1 is waiting for possible agent or publisher queries. So...I have nothing new in my stockpile of stories! It's a little scary, to be honest. I mean, I have lots of ideas, but nothing started.

So I've spent the last few days brainstorming, and I think I've made a decision about what I want to tackle next. Curious? Check back tomorrow and I'll let you know!

"Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway." ~Maya Angelou

Another snow day! That makes 5 so far this season...a little more than usual. I have this bad feeling they're going to start taking days back from our long Easter Weekend and our April Spring Break...

And I know I haven't played in a while, so here's a brand new Friday Feast:

Appetizer
Have you ever played a practical joke on anyone? If so, what did you do and who was your victim?

I'm not much of a jokester, but I do remember when my husband and I were first dating (maybe 2-3 months in), he called his older brother and told him that I'd gotten pregnant...there was this HUGE silence on the other end of the line, and then his brother started thinking through all these possible solutions, what they would tell their parents, etc. It was pretty funny.

Soup
What do your salt and pepper shakers look like?

I have a lot of pairs...right now they're tiny and silver. I like our ones made from mini Coke and Diet Coke bottles the best.

Salad
Where is the next place you plan to visit (on vacation or business)?

Scranton, PA: A book signing
Venice, FL: Visit my parents
Philadelphia, PA: A book festival
Cleveland, OH: Fun for me while hubby goes to a conference
Outer Banks, NC: Fun in the sun with a group of friends

(OK, that was probably more than you wanted to know, but staring at the snow falling outside my window, I had to think about the next few months of vacation, not just the next one!)

Main Course
What kind of lotion or cream do you use to keep your hands from getting too dry?

If anyone has a recommendation, I'll gladly take it! Right now I'm going back and forth between Vaseline Super-Intensive Lotion and Curel. Neither one does the job the way I wish it would.

Dessert
Make up a dessert, tell us its ingredients, and give it a name.

Chocolate mousse on a chocolate graham cracker crust, layered with crushed almonds and whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings on top. CHOCOLATE HEART ATTACK

The Dreaded Agent Search

"I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop." ~Clarence Budington Kelland

Well, it's arrived: the moment I admit that I'm entering the agent search once again. OK, maybe I'm just temporarily entertaining the thought, but it's there.

See, I've gone through the whole agent query thing before, with 3 other novels. It was interesting, and I learned quite a bit, but ultimately once I realized I could sell to Samhain and Wild Rose Press, I devoted my efforts to learning about the editing and marketing processes.

And I did.

So with Summer's Song, I'm thinking maybe I'll float it out there to a few agents and see if any bite. I'd like to think that some publishing credits might help me out now, but who knows? I spent some time yesterday perusing sites, and it's a tough market out there, no doubt.

By the way, two sites I would recommend, to anyone else in the market for an agent, are The Passionate Pen (she's a private author but hosts a FANTASTIC, regularly updated list of agents and publishers who take romance/women's lit) and Agent Query.

Something to think about, though: you really have to know why you want an agent. To break your manuscript into the big houses? To help you set up a marketing plan? To focus your long-range career plans? I looked at some agents who've sold novels to electronic/print pubs. I saw a Samhain author listed as a client at one agent's site! No offense, but I can do that by myself. And they take 15% of your profits, so you really have to make sure they're making you $$ you couldn't make on your own.

I ran across one agent, though, who's decided he wants to rejuvenate the romance industry. His lists of "Wants" and "Don't Wants" are pretty specific. The latter include Inspirationals, Erotica, YA, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Futuristic, E-Pubs, Literary Fiction, Stories with "Romantic Elements," Non-fiction, Poetry, E-Pubs.

And yet he's an agent who reps romance? Um, OK, even though electronic publishers are one of the fastest-growing areas in the romance industry. Probably a good idea to list not once but twice that you don't want anything to do with them.

Oh, and he also makes clear that last time he read over RITA and Golden Heart entries, he had this to say: "I recently had the chance to review both Golden Heart and RITA manuscripts. I have to say, I was shocked. If someone was really looking at the story, they would realize the writing was far from good. Frankly, if I had to give them a grade, I would have been giving a lot of C's and D-'s.

Stories read like comic books. Characters were stereotypical. This list was endless.

But here is the thing. These books all had "those great techniques" that have been proclaimed as being the end all be all of writing.

In the end. Did it make the story better. No.

So, please writers. If we really want to see the romance and women's fiction industry make some significant improvements, then let's work on writing (and publishing) the GREAT story and not just the stories with gimmicks."

There's a lot of the same kind of attitude on every page and document on his website. Suffice to say I did not put him on my "Submit To" list.

We'll see what I decide...I'll keep you posted...

Writers' Wednesday: An Interview with Delia DeLeest

Welcome to another Writers' Wednesday! Today I'm featuring historical romance author Delia DeLeest. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Hi Delia, and thanks for being here today! Can you tell us a little about your background?

I was born and raised in Wisconsin, but moved to Hawaii two years ago. I'm still a Midwest girl at heart though, and all my stories, for the most part, are set in America's Heartland. Just about everything I write is set in the 1920's. Chicago and the surrounding areas were so exciting during that time that I just don't have the heart to write in any other location.

Hawaii...wow! I love the time period of the 1920s, too. So when did you first begin writing? Was there an event or moment in your life that triggered your desire to write?

I'd always loved to write, but my handwriting is so bad that I could never read what I'd written! Then, right around the same time my youngest child started school, my husband did a computer upgrade and gave me his old laptop. I curled up with it one day in my big ol' La-Z-Boy recliner and started writing my first manuscript-a western. About four months later, I saw an old gangster movie set in the Roaring Twenties and my mind just started spewing out story ideas like a slot machine spits quarters and I knew I found my niche.

Tell us about your latest writing project or published title It Takes Moxie, the second story set in the Twenties that I've written has been released digitally and is available at The Wild Rose Press.

It was supposed to be simple. Moxie Hamilton was going to kidnap an unsuspecting driver just long enough to get to an out-of-town train station and buy a ticket to Chicago. She didn't factor in the stolen diamonds, being chased by a gun-wielding thug, or falling in love with her kidnap victim. The last one was probably one of her worst ideas, especially since she had a fiancé waiting for her in Chicago. Getting kidnapped wasn't high on Ben Kincaid's list of things to do, but that didn't stop Moxie from pulling a gun on him and ordering him to take her out of town. From the steamy heat of St. Augustine, Florida to the crime-ridden streets of prohibition Chicago and everywhere in between, Ben and Moxie leave a trail of chaos in a cross-country caper that will change their lives forever.



Currently, I'm working on a sequel, tentively titled Moxie to the Rescue. Eye of the Beholder, written after I fell in love with Gerard Butler as The Phantom of the Opera, is due to be released early 2008.

It Takes Moxie sounds like a great story! What advice would you give to new writers just starting out?

Don't write to the market, write what's in your heart. I started writing at a time when everyone said the historical romance market was dead, and to write a historical in such an unusual time period was pretty much the kiss of death. But that didn't stop me because I love the Twenties and can't work up any kind of enthusiam for writing in any other time period. My love for the era shows up in my writing and I think people can see that. A good story will sell, regardless of genre, if you only believe in it and in yourself.

That's such good advice. So can you describe your writing space for readers?

I've got what I call my own personal form of ADHD. I'm not athletic by any means (I'm really lazy, actually) but I have to be moving at all times. My kids joke about how many miles I put on my rocking chair during the day. I take the term 'laptop' literally and spend my day rocking back and forth, laptop chugging away on my thighs, typing out my stories. I just bought a chiller for my computer this weekend, and it's doing wonders drawing the heat produced by my laptop away from my thighs. After long writing sessions, the term 'hot legs' took on a whole new meaning!

I love that! OK, what is your favorite movie? Did it inspire your writing in any way?

I don't necessarily have a favorite movie, though I do tend to gravitate to those made before 1960, musicals from the 40' and 50's are always good as are gangster movies from the early 30's. I DO use bits and pieces of movies as inspiration for my books - like the aforementioned Phantom. Clara Bow's "It", an old silent made in the 20's, is invaluable for both ideas and for giving me a sense of what things were like back then. I've even had a two second long visual from Michael Jackson's music video "Beat It" inspire an entire scene in one manuscript.

Thanks so much for being here today. Anything else you'd like readers to know?

Thanks so much for taking the time to learn about me and my passion for all things Twenties. If you want to follow my adventures, visit my journal here: http://www.dulciemae.bravejournal.com/index.php

Happy Tuesday

"Language forces us to perceive the world as man presents it to us." ~Julia Penelope

Happy Tuesday Fact #1: My article about book trailers is featured in this month's issue of The Samhellion! (You have to scroll down once you get there; there's no direct link)

Happy Tuesday Fact #2: I finished my 3rd? 4th? draft of Summer's Song yesterday, and today I'm officially handing it over to some readers for feedback. I'm so glad to be done with it... (for a little while, anyway, 'til the comments come back!)

***
And in other news, I had to put down Nineteen Minutes last night without finishing it. I hate doing that. I rarely do that. In fact, the last time I put down a novel halfway through was...hmm...last summer, Perfect Match, also by Jodi Picoult. Maybe she's lost her allure for me.

I wasn't crazy about Nineteen Minutes from the start - the characters seemed contrived, too much like caricatures than actual teens, sort of the worst-case scenario of every situation you might see in a high school. And I almost lost it a few chapters back, when this one sophomore, the golden boy/star athlete says to his girlfriend (she wants him to stop picking on the nerdy kids in their class). "I can't. Because if there isn't a them, then there is no us."

No way a 16 year, especially one as vapid as Picoult has made this one out to be, would have that much self-awareness. And even if he did think it, he wouldn't say it out loud to the new girlfriend he's trying to impress. I was like, "Oh, please."

But the thing that put me over the edge last night - and you may think I'm overreacting here - was a description of a teenage girl, who walks into her mother's bedroom and the mother is wondering when she grew up, because she has all these curves. And the girl is wearing a "wifebeater tank and boxer shorts."

I cannot tell you how offensive I find the word "wifebeater." It makes my skin crawl. I refuse to let any of my own student use it. It's a horrible, misogynistic word that basically condones spousal abuse. And if someone can tell me why it's okay to be a part of our vocabulary, then please enlighten me.

I'm terribly disappointed that Picoult chose that descriptive term. She certainly wasn't doing it for effect. Worse, it didn't even make sense from a writer's perspective. The scene is written from the mother's POV; she's a judge and she's also out of touch with her daughter and teens in general. There's no way she would use that word to describe what her daughter is wearing.

Sigh.

So that's that. The book is going back to the library today. And I think I may stay away from Picoult in the future. Too bad.

Lurkers and Private Blogs

"Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much." ~Robert Greenleaf

We all know what lurkers are, in cyber world, right? You may even be one (I am, many times...there, I've admitted it). Lurkers are those people who visit blogs, or chats, or loops, and just sit back and read all the comments without making any themselves. Some people dislike lurkers. I don't. But maybe that's 'cause I tend to be one. Sometimes it's just because I don't have time to leave a comment - sometimes people have already said everything I would want to say anyway. And sometimes I feel like getting information withtout necessarily interacting.

Is that wrong?

I know from Google Analytics that about six times as many people visit my blog each day than leave comments on it. It doesn't bother me. Sure, that "0 Comments" at the bottom of a post doesn't exactly make my day, sometimes. But I understand that some people really do just want to read and not feel that they have to say something at the end.

But what about you? Do you wish lurkers would leave comments? Do you resent that they show up without leaving anything behind to say that they were here?

My mom was telling me the other day about a blog she reads regularly - it's by the wife of one of her nephews, about their journey adopting 2 babies from a foreign country. Lots of pics, info, etc. She doesn't usually comment, but when she does, she does so under the "Anonymous" feature. (People do that occasionally here too...again, I don't mind. Unless it's some kind of flaming negativity, why should I need to know who said it?) A couple of days ago, apparently the woman got irritated that people were lurking and not commenting. The next day, she changed her blog to "private" so that you have to log in with a valid email and user name to read it.

Wonder how many readers she lost?

I guess I can understand that if you're really only blogging for your friends and family, then having a private blog is a good idea. But I'm thinking you should start with that private feature from the beginning. Of course, my goal in blogging was to get potential readers, so the last thing I would want is to turn people away by requiring them to sign in first. I know some loyal readers who don't even like the word verification feature on blogs!

But it does seem a little weird to, without warning, change your public blog to a private one after almost a year of blogging.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents on lurking and private blogs. I've never come across a private one before; have you? And what's your opinion on them, anyway? I'm curious...

Welcome to the Latest Stop on Marianne Arkins's Virtual Book Tour!

I know, I know...usually I only interview authors on Writers' Wednesdays. But today is a special day. We're helping my good writing friend Marianne promote her newly released novel, One Love for Liv. It's available right now ebook format, from Samhain Publishing, and will release in print right in time for Christmas! Today we get to see the inner workings of this romance author/review site co-owner/stay-at-home mom/native Californian who's right now shivering in her adopted home state of New Hampshire.

Enjoy the interview, leave comments, and pick up her book, OK? I'm telling you, it's a great, funny, sweet read with (of course!) a happy ending.

Hi, Marianne, and welcome! Can you tell readers a little bit about the book you're touring with?

One Love For Liv was released in eBook format by Samhain Publishing. I’m really excited about this for a couple of reasons. First, because it’s my first full length novel and that’s a big milestone for me. Secondly, because I really love this story and its characters. There was a time when I thought the storyline, the characters and such would preclude this from being published. I’m glad to know that wasn’t the case.

It's always a great moment to know that the work you've spent so much time and heart on will see publication, so congratulations on that accomplishment! For those writers who are just starting out, what advice would you give to new writers just starting out?

Join a good critique group of writers who are honest and ambitious and kind. Being around helpful, like-minded people can make a HUGE difference in your chances of getting published. And make sure your grammar and punctuation are up to par. Those two things will help you more, IMHO, than anything else out there.

What kinds of books do you like to read? Who is your favorite author?

I really only read books which meet two criteria:
1. Romance
2. A Happy-Ever-After

If I’m reading a new author, I will often flip to the end of the book to make certain there is a happy ending. If there isn’t one, it goes back on the shelf. I’m not so persnickety about genre – I’ll read mainstream romance, paranormal or even folks like Dean Koontz (I really love most of his books).

I like to be entertained. I don’t read for edification. Maybe that makes me shallow, but it also makes me happy...

I don’t know that I have a “favorite” author, per se. Jenny Crusie is an auto-buy as is Nora Roberts (especially her trilogies). I’ve also discovered some great new authors like Kerry Jones and Deborah MacGillivray recently. But, honestly, I’ll try just about anyone once.

Okay, a technical question: when you write, do you use the computer or compose by hand, oral dictation, or some other method?

I write almost 100% on the computer. When I’m in the groove, my brain moves so much faster than my hand does if I’m writing on paper that I either get frustrated, or my writing is so illegible I’ll never be able to figure out what I’ve written. I also like to be able to edit without scribbling and making arrows to point to things or whatnot. I’m always amazed to hear about best-selling authors who write their first drafts by hand. The idea of it mystifies me.

I've often found that movies inspire authors. What is your favorite movie? Did it inspire your writing in any way?

Can I pick two? I love, Love, LOVE both “Undercover Blues” and “The Princess Bride”. They’re both full of quirky humor and silliness, and both have romance and a happy ending. I’m also a big fan of “While You Were Sleeping” and “Ever After." Again, quirky humor, silliness, stranger characters, and a happy ending.

Do they inspire my writing? I suppose so. Most of my stories have quirky humor, silly secondary characters, romance and a happy ever after. :)

We're glad to see you here on your virtual tour, so thanks for stopping by! Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

I have a contest running on my blog to celebrate the release of “One Love For Liv. You can also visit me on my other virtual tour spots this month – the full list is here.

Thanks, Marianne! Readers, go ahead and leave your comments or questions, because she'll be peeking in here throughout the day!

I'm Not Gonna Write You a Love Song

"Promise me
You'll leave the light on
To help me see
The daylight my guide upon
Cause I believe
There's a way
You can love me..."
~Sara Bareilles

This is my new favorite song:



Fun, right?

And I am 50 pages from the end of Summer's Song, so that's my goal this weekend (maybe even today!). Finish the damn thing, put a period, type "The End" and then wait for some good-natured, patient, HONEST critique partners to give me feedback...

I'm off to write!

I'm So Pleased with this Article!

"Romance is the fiction that owes no allegiance to the God of things as they are. In the novel the writer's thought is tethered to probability, but in romance it ranges at will over the entire region of the imagination." ~Ambrose Bierce

So here's my big announcement for the day: go check out my feature article at WOW! Women on Writing! They always do such a nice job setting up their pages and all their features, and I love the way it turned out. Also take a minute to read the Editors' page...they say some nice things about the article and the romance industry in general.

I also have an article coming out with The Samhellion this month, on creating book trailers. Next time I have my webmistress update my website, I think I'm going to have her add a page with my article links. I never really intended on getting into that area of writing, but it's been a nice way to promote my author name and get some free advertising (and some paying markets!) at the same time.

Happy Friday!

It's All About Happily Ever After

"I claim there ain't
Another Saint
As great as Valentine."
~Ogden Nash

Big congrats to Crystal B. of Williamsburg, KY, the winner of my Valentine's Day Giveaway Contest! Crystal will be receiving 2 books, free downloads of my 2 novels, chocolate truffles, and beauty goodies. Thanks to everyone who entered ~ I had a great turnout. And just a reminder: I hold some kind of contest every month right here on my blog. Usually I give away a book, but you never know...I like to toss in other fun things as well. So stop back next month (or sooner!) to see what the March contest will bring...

***

Most of my regular readers know that I freelance for the awesome ladies over at WOW-Women on Writing...and Senior Editor Annette Fix is celebrating the release of her novel The Break-Up Diet today! You can order it on Amazon or from your local bookseller.

The Break-Up Diet is the true story of a 30-something single mother/aspiring writer who is working as an exotic dancer, searching for Prince Charming, and trying to find a perfect balance between her dreams and her day-to-day life as Supermom.

~Annette Fix is the Senior Editor for WOW! Women On Writing, an author, and spoken-word storyteller, living in Laguna Niguel, California with her Danish Prince Charming, her aspiring photographer son, and two rescued dogs.

Looks great, right? Also, check out the Break-Up Story Forum, a place where women can go to read and share their break-up and dating stories, the book blog, and her MySpace page.

***

Finally, in honor of Cupid's great day, here are two classic poems and three classic movie scenes, all of which should warm your heart and remind you of the power of true love and happily ever after. It's why I write about it, after all :)

Sonnets from the Portuguese XLIII (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

i carry your heart (ee cummings)

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Writers' Wednesday: An Interview with Carol Spradling

Welcome to Writers' Wednesday! Before we get started with today's author interview, just a quick reminder: today is the last day to enter my Valentine's Day Contest! Click here for all the details ~ I'll announce the winner right here, tomorrow!

Now welcome Carol Spradling, author of historical fiction and romance. Her first book, Cost of Freedom, is due out with The Wild Rose Press this spring.



Hi, Carol! So tell us: was there an event or moment in your life that triggered your desire to write?

I was always fascinated with Colonial America, but there were two events that captured my attention in a way that I knew I had to write about the 1700s. One was my middle school, history teacher, Mr. Igo. When he taught, he would pull his chair in front of the class, lean in, and speak as though it were story time. His animation and passion for this period stayed with me, deepening my infatuation with the time.

The other, I read a small blurb in a magazine about a woman who lived in pre-Revolutionary War America. Her husband was away, fighting with the Patriots while she lay dying of an undisclosed illness. A friend begged her to send word to her husband. She refused, commenting that her life was insignificant to what he did. It was more important that he stay where he was than be with her.

I knew this woman’s story had to be told.

Wow, that's interesting. Can you tell us about your upcoming published novel?

Cost of Freedom is the first book in a trilogy set in 1770, Boston. It opens with William Jackson at the Boston Massacre. He tries to diffuse the situation but gets wounded, rendering him unable to continue with the Sons of Liberty. Unknown to him, childhood friend, Abigail Matthews arrives in Boston, thinking herself an indentured servant. One night, she is alone in a cemetery and overhears two Patriots plotting against her beloved England. She flees with this information but is captured and taken to William’s home. On opposite sides of the conflict, they re-ignite their friendship, but it is not until Abigail shoots a British soldier and is marked as a traitor that she begins to see the Colonies and their fight through William’s eyes.


Sounds exciting! So how do you go about developing your characters?

Most of my characters present themselves. As I formulate the idea for a scene, they arrive,
generally with their own attitudes and thoughts of what should transpire. It is not uncommon for me to have an idea for a character’s speech and behavior. The next thing I know, I’m following them down a side road, wondering how I got there. I always find it advantageous to allow them to be themselves, rarely have they lead me astray.

As a published author, what advice would you give to new writers just starting out?

Write from your heart. It doesn’t matter what you write or how well you construct a sentence. Get the ideas on paper. You will have ample opportunities for revisions. Also, write for the joy of it. If your main goal is to be published, you will find writing frustrating.

Do you ever suffer from writer's block? If so, what do you do about it?

Writer’s block hasn’t been a problem. I am a ‘chunk writer’. Basically, whatever scene I’m thinking about on any given day is what I work on. When the flow dries up, I move on to something else. Sometimes, I’ll write small paragraphs, ideas basically, in several scenes. Other times, the entire scene will unfold in one swoop.

When I do find myself without a pressing scene, I will look over what I’ve written, pick one spot and think, what would happen if I did this. I also like to take a deeper look at the characters and try to determine what is the driving force behind them. This generally opens up an entirely new aspect in which to work.

With historical fiction, although the foundation and some of the characters are based in fact, my main characters are fabricated. This gives me the liberty to put them in places and situations without adulterating history. Plus, it breathes life into the period, providing a fresh perspective.

When you write, do you use the computer or compose by hand, oral dictation, or some other method?

Oh, I have to use the computer. I can’t touch type. For me to transfer written work to the computer screen would take forever, not to mention be frustrating. I will jot thoughts and ideas down on paper because inspiration strikes at the oddest times and a fired-up computer isn’t always handy.

Thanks for being here and sharing your experiences, Carol. Is there anything else you’d like to mention to readers today?

I hope you will enjoy William and Abigail’s story as much as I enjoyed telling it. Updates, excerpts, and soon-to-be announced release dates for Cost of Freedom are available at my website.

Happy Release Day!

"Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for?" ~Alice Walker

It's the official release day for my good writing friend, Marianne, whose romantic comedy One Love for Liv is available today from Samhain Publishing!

And here's the trailer I made for it...

Head over to her blog and wish her a happy release day, OK? Even better, go over to Samhain and buy yourself a copy of her book. She writes good comedy, believe me. I've only seen about 1/2 this novel, in its draft form, so I'm excited to finally read the whole thing!

Congratulations, Marianne!!!

Nineteen Minutes

"At fourteen you don't need sickness or death for tragedy." ~Jessamyn West

I just started reading Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult. Anyone else read it? It's about a school shooting, and from what I've heard, she delves into the social aspect of cliques in HS and what leads one boy to become so desperate he brings a gun to school. I'm only a few chapters in, and so far it's...OK. I do like her writing a lot, and the book is seamless and easy to read. But there's something that has rubbed me the wrong way, something I almost can't put a finger on. It might be the way she creates caricatures of the high school students, in their various groups, or the way she makes the mother of the shooter (and one of the primary victims) these Every-women that we should relate to, understand, and forgive for their shortcomings.

It's probably just that I teach high school, and so any attempt to write a fictional account of what happens in teenagers' daily lives naturally falls short. They are much more complex creatures than the media gives them credit for. And it is probably that part of me (that is not a parent) that cannot excuse mothers and fathers who are absent from their child's lives, who buy their children cars for their 16th birthdays because it is easier than taking a pay cut and being home in the evenings to go to games and look over homework and talk about tough times, who think their children's bedrooms should be off-limits to adults, who think it's OK to give your child unlimited privacy on the computer because, after all, back in the '60s that's all they wanted too, privacy and space and a place to rage against authority.

But I digress.

One thing I have learned over 10 years of teaching adolescents: as much as they complain about and rebel against it, they want structure and boundaries. They want someone to tell them no. They want to know where that line of "no" is, even if they cross it (and they will). They want to be loved and respected for who they are, even if that changes from day to day. They *want* you to know who they are. They want desperately to belong. And they want it to be OK to make mistakes.

Over Christmas break, I had a student who graduated 2 years ago return to visit. We were talking about college, and she said, "You were the only person who ever told me it was okay if I didn't like college right away, and if I wanted to transfer. You were the only person who made it seem like that was an option, that it wouldn't be the end of the world."

Teenagers think everything *is* the end of the world, and they need us to provide a perspective they don't yet have.

We'll see how Nineteen Minutes unfolds. It might prove to be a valuable novel, an insightful look at the world of adolescence. I hope so.

Two Contests You Might Not Have Entered Yet

"Win as if you were used to it; lose as if you enjoyed it for a change." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

You know how much I like and promote contests, right? Well, here are 2 more you might not have heard of...

Fellow Wild Rose Press author Melissa Blue is celebrating the release of her very first novel (hooray!) by giving away both an electronic and an autographed print copy of her book, How Much You Want to Bet? Click here for more details.

Fellow Samhain author Kerri Augusto is giving away an ebook reader to one lucky reader who answers a trivia question about her new novel, Strawberries in Winter. Click here for more details.

Me? I'm still working on trailers, filling out publisher's info for One Night in Memphis, and watching the snow come down outside my window. Seriously. It snowed ALL DAY yesterday, and it's continuing this morning. You'd think I lived in the north, or something, and it was mid-February, or something...

The Timeline of Publishing

"To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author." ~Charles Caleb Colton

So I'm supposed to write a catchy blurb for One Night in Memphis and send it back to my editor at Samhain. Soon.

Thing is, I haven't even looked at the story in about 6 months. I mean, I remember it, of course. But it sure isn't fresh in my mind. That space is all filled up with Summer's Song, my latest WIP. It's like, you finish writing a book, all shiny and new, send it off to an editor and hope for a contract...but by the time you hear back, and then have to write blurbs and do edits and think about promoting the thing, it's been ages since you've been entrenched in the writing of it.

And the time gap between electronic and print publishing? Another hurdle to deal with. You do all this cool promotion when your ebook releases, try to push up the sales and your name so more and more people become familiar with it...and then you have anywhere from 6-10 months until it comes out in print. Then the new release date looms, and you have to figure out whole other strategies to get people to buy it in print and get excited about it all over again.

Now, I'm not complaining. Becoming a published author has been one of the coolest things that's happened to me in recent years. It's just that the whole learning curve about what happens on the other side of signing the contract, is huge.

So I have to shift gears, pull up ONIM again, and figure out how to make it sound so fun and intriguing and appealing - in the space of about 200 words - that readers will want to buy it. Hmm.

I also have to fill out the cover art form, telling what I'd like on the book jacket. This, though, I'm thinking (hoping?) will be easier, 'cause I know cover artists usually try to make jackets by the same author resemble one another, so you can tell it's the same person writing. Plus I like the idea of the cover from One Night in Boston, the clock face superimposed on the city scene, so I'm hoping for a variation of that. We'll see how it works out!

The Red Tent

"If you sit on the bank of a river, you see only a small part of its surface. And yet, the water before your eyes is proof of unknowable depths." ~Anita Dimant, The Red Tent

Update on The Winter Reading Challenge:

I just finished The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Wow - what a powerful book! The author takes the story of Dinah, a minor character mentioned in Genesis, and turns it into a magnificent account of that one woman's life during Biblical times. I hadn't (still haven't) read that story straight from the pages of the Bible, though I probably will now. But according to the author there is little to no detailed information on Dinah, so nearly all of what she wrote in the novel is historical fiction. Here's a blurb:

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through a hard-working youth, a calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an intimate connection with the past. Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's society.

It's a beautiful book, and I highly recommend it. The story spans from before Dinah's birth all the way through her life and really highlights the role of women, and the power of motherhood and female friendship, especially in a patriarchal society. The writing is simple and lyrical, and I can't think of anyone who wouldn't enjoy reading it.

***

Well, my contract for One Night in Memphis is officially signed and returned, and just yesterday I heard back from my editor regarding putting together a blurb and filling our the cover art form. That was fast! And I have a tentative early July release date. It's exciting to think about another novel releasing...and yet a little overwhelming too, when I start thinking about all the ways I'm supposed to market and promote this one. Ah, well. One thing at a time, right?

***

Have you entered my Valentine's Day Contest yet? It's really, really easy! You can find all the details here.

***

Happy Friday!

A Day of Videos

"Restriction on free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us." ~William O. Douglas

For your viewing pleasure today, here are 3 (totally different) videos that were emailed to me in the last few days.

What do you think?





I can't embed this one ("I Am Not a Pornographer") but it's TOTALLY worth seeing...even if you skip the other two.

I'm serious. Watch it. Do not leave my blog today without doing so.

Writers' Wednesday: An Interview with Marisa Chenery

Welcome to another Writers' Wednesday! Today I'm featuring historical and paranormal romance author Marisa Chenery.

Hi, Marisa! So tell us, how long have you been writing? When did you first begin?

I first started writing around 11 years ago. I have always been an avid reader and writing seemed to be the next logical step. I had taken an interest in writing when I was a teenager, but I really didn't put much effort into it at stage in my life. As a stay at home Mom, being an author was my dream job. I could work and not have to worry about leaving my kids.

What's your latest writing project or published work?

I was just offered a contract from Liquid Silver Books for my newest full length novel. It's called Beowulf and Roxie. It's the first werewolf romance I've written and I'm really looking forward to this one being released. I also started working on the sequel to The Blue Lotus, which came out in September at Liquid Silver Books.

Wow, very exciting! Congratulations. Can you offer some advice to aspiring, unpublished writers?

The best advice I can give new writers is to never give. Keep writing and eventually all your hard work will pay off. If you believe in yourself enough, it will happen.

Do you have a favorite author or genre?

I love to read historical, paranormal, werewolf, vampire and fantasy romances. I would have to say my favourite author is MaryJanice Davidson. I have read just about every book she has written and loved them.

Now the question everyone wants to know: how do your balance the responsibilities of the rest of your life with your writing?

Having a house full of kids, I had to have my own little writing area away from everyone else. That has turned out to be my bedroom. The kids know that when I'm up in the bedroom writing they have to give Mom some quiet time alone.

What do you do when you're not writing?

When I'm not writing I like to read or play on the internet. I'm a self-proclaimed internet junkie! I also like to work out at the gym three times a week.

Last question: how do you compose your novels? Computer, by hand, dictation?...

I wrote my first three books completely by hand in coil ring notebooks, which took a very long time. Now I do all my writing on my laptop. Taking all those typing classes in high school is really paying off now!

Thanks so much for being here, Marisa. Good luck with your writing! Readers, if you'd like to know more about this author, make sure to visit her website or blog. And have a great day!

Valentine's Day Contest

"Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end. " ~Author Unknown

First off, a big thanks to LaskiGal, who was kind enough to bestow these beautiful flowers on me...

And second, yes I am featuring a blog contest for February. Of course ~ it's the month of Valentine's Day...what did you think? So here you go...

The Rules:

1. Read my featured author interview at The Romance Studio this month.

2. Answer the questions below and email the answers to allieb@allieboniface.com.

3. That's it! I'll toss all the entries with the correct answers into a box, draw one name, and announce the winner on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2008 ~ next Thursday.

The Prize:

(I know, I know...what do you win?)

1. Two brand new books (yep, two!): The Sex on the Beach Book Club by Jennifer Apodaca and Critical by Robin Cook

2. Chocolate truffles (you knew there would be candy involved, didn't you?)

3. Free downloads of my 2 novels, One Night in Boston and Lost in Paradise

4. A collection of beauty products to treat yourself!

The Questions:

1. Where does Lost in Paradise take place?

2. Allie based the character of Eddie West on whom?

3. What writing project is Allie working on right now?

4. Who are 2 of Allie's favorite authors?

5. Besides writing, name 2 things Allie does in her spare time.

The Monday After

"Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?" ~Jim Bouton

Well, hats off to the NY Giants, who pulled out a huge upset win over the NE PAtriots in the Super Bowl last night. Good for the underdogs, and good for Eli Manning, who has an MVP trophy to match big brother Peyton's from last year.

Now, when does baseball season start?

***

The game wasn't all that exciting until the 4th quarter, to be honest, and even the commercials didn't wow me this year. Anyone else feel differently? The Life Water geckos dancing to "Thriller" were kind of cute, and I loved the Budweiser one with the dalmatian coaching the Clydesdale. Did anyone else notice how many health/energy drink ads there were? Forget the Doritos this year...apparently we're on a health kick now. Shaq did one for Vitamin Water, and then there was that bizzare one for some energy drink with a greasy fat man hooking up jumper cables to himself to start a woman's car. Gatorade, though, did have a cute "man's best friend" one with a very slobbery dog drinking his own "energy drink " - water.



***

Got a telephone call yesterday from our local ABC news affiliate...an automated poll about who I'm voting for in the primary on Super Tuesday. Should be an interesting day. While I'll admit I haven't completely made up my mind about who I'm voting for, it's been an interesting race so far. I never thought John McCain would be so far out in front for the Republicans, and well, to see a black man and a woman vying for the nomination in the Democratic party warms my heart. Wonder who'll be on the ballot come November?

Super Sunday

"Football players, like prostitutes, are in the business of ruining their bodies for the pleasure of strangers." ~Merle Kessler

So are you watching the Super Bowl tonight?

Hubby and I will head over later this afternoon to a friend's house and get together with 2 other couples...it's become kind of tradition. Most of us work together, and buy squares in the Super Bowl pool, so we'll root for each other's numbers just as much as the score, in most cases.

Except this year the NY Giants are in the big game, so most of the room will be cheering for them. I'd like to see the Patriots win, though - a whole undefeated season? That's historic.

***

In other news, I'm so happy because I've had a chance to start working on my 3rd? 4th? umpteenth? revision of Summer's Song. LOL This is the last time through before I send it out to some poor unsuspecting readers for feedback. So far it's going well, and I'm liking most of what I've written (always a good thing!)

***
And here's the latest trailer I made!

Another Contest, Another Winner!

"Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark." ~Annie Dillard

Drum roll please...the winner of my January Book-Blog Giveaway is...

LaskiGal! She wins an author-signed copy of Cast in Stone, a beautifully written paranormal romance by Kerry A. Jones.



(LaskiGal, email me at allieb@allieboniface.com so I can get that mailed off to you.)

Congrats, and thanks to everyone who visited my blog and commented all month long. I'll be holding a Valentine's Day contest in a few days, with another fun giveaway, so make sure to stop back and check it out!

Also, I'm a Featured Author over at The Romance Studio for the month of February, and I'd love for you to read my interview when you get a chance. I talk about Lost in Paradise and why I love the main character of that book so much (hint: you'll need some of that trivia to enter the Valentine's Day contest...).

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Happy Friday....and Happy February!

"If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live a lot differently." ~Bill Watterson

Just a quick heads-up: if you haven't signed up for my electronic newsletter, and you'd like to, there's a little form right over there on the sidebar. I only send them out every other month, and it's usually a brief "what I've been up to with my writing these days." The February one goes out this weekend!

And here's your Friday Feast...

Appetizer
What is your favorite kind of cereal?
Ooh, I'm eating it right now: Quaker Oat Squares - crunchy and good flavored, with fiber and all that good stuff.

Soup
When was the last time you purchased something for your home, what was it, and in which room did it go?
We just bought a new chair for the computer desk in our home office...it is SO much more comfortable than the old one!

Salad
What is the funniest commercial you’ve ever seen?
I'm not a big TV watcher, but I do think that cell phone one with the father talking to the guy who wants to date his daughter is pretty funny ("See? We're both in her Fab Five. I'm right next to you...it's like I'm watching you...all the time.")

Main Course
Make up a name for a company by using a spice and an animal (example: Cinnamon Monkey).
Lavender Lemurs

Dessert
Fill in the blank: I haven’t ______ since ______.
Gone outside without a winter coat since November. I'm already ready for spring!

And here's a funny audio clip, too!

BEST TELEMARKETER PRANK EVER

A Story with a Happy Ending

"A recent government publication on the marketing of cabbage contains, according to one report, 26,941 words. It is noteworthy in this regard that the Gettysburg Address contains a mere 279 words while the Lord's Prayer comprises but 67." ~Anonymous

I thought that quote was sort of interesting...

*****

I'm running late this morning, so just a quick post, because I wanted to show off this AWESOME promotional flyer that Stella Price made for our booksigning in March. It's beautiful, isn't it?




And also, check out this heart-warming story about a rather...um...peculiar dog at our local shelter who found a home. Even if you aren't an animal lover, the pictures themselves are worth a peek...

The Story of Badgee

Writers' Wednesday: An Interview with Jena Galifany

Welcome to another Writers' Wednesday! Today I'm featuring author Jena Galifany.


Hi Jena! Can you tell us about your latest published title?

ShadowsForge 4: The Long Way Home was released November 1, 2007 from Whiskey Creek Press. It is the fourth installment in the ShadowsForge series that follows the rock band on tour. The Long Way Home is the story of Brian Cummings, the drummer, his troubled teen years and how it is affecting him now that he is twenty-six and part of a successful band. Two years went into the writing. It is the most emotional of the series so far.

Wow, sounds like a great story! What advice would you give to new writers just starting out?

I would tell any new writer to keep learning, keep listening to those who have gone before and follow. We will never know it all and we can avoid the problems and pitfalls by taking advantage of the authors and editors that try to share their experiences with us. Keep improving your craft and listen.

So, what do you find most difficult about writing? What do you find most exciting or rewarding?


I sometimes have to work at keeping the middle of the story from sagging a bit but have found that if I have two situations going at once, I can switch off when one starts to droop. Exciting is when a plan comes together. When I figure out just the right way for a situation to be handled or written. I love twists and enjoy putting them in at the last minute. If a reader will finish the book and say, "I didn't see that coming!", that's the reward.

Oh, that's definitely true. Next question: when you write, do you use the computer or compose by hand, oral dictation, or some other method?

It starts out in my head, rolling around for a while until I know the ending. (I write backwards.) I then work out several possible things that would have happened to cause the ending to be the way I want it to be. When I get a few ideas, I make an outline. Once I've reached the beginning, I start the writing, making written notes and typing them out when I get time.

Authors often tell me that they're inspired by movies they've seen. What is your favorite movie? Did it inspire your writing in any way?

My father was a projectionist (he ran the old carbon-arch projectors that were used to show films back before automation) and I saw movies every week and weekend as a child. (Too many to think about!) If I had to name a favorite it would be difficult. How about "The Lake House", A Walk in the Clouds", and "Swashbuckler". There are probably a lot more but I'll go with those for now. After seeing so many less than great movies in my life, it probably had some effect on my desire to writing but I try not to let any one movie bleed too much into my work, copyright issues being what they are. LOL

Now I would love to write a series like "Firefly." I love to write series and love the way Josh Whedon meshed it all together. Fabulous!

What a neat childhood memory! Thanks for being with us today, Jena. And readers, make sure to leave her a comment so she knows you were here. Any last word for the visitors today?

I love to hear from readers, what they think of my work, as long as it is constructive, even if they didn't like something. It helps me to grow as a writer. Here are some places I can be found around the internet:

Jena's Website

Jena's Blog

Jena's MySpace

Hey! I'm Officially an Author!

"The more you earn, the less you keep,
And now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to take,
If the tax collector hasn't got it before I wake." ~ Ogden Nash


OK, maybe I've been thinking of myself as a true author for a little while now, but the proof came in the mail yesterday: my 1099 form reporting my royalities from Samhain. Yes, that's right, since I've officially made money on my writing, I have to report those earnings to the IRS!

Lucky me.

Still, I won't complain.

I added a little feature to my sidebar, right at the top: Allie's Appearances. I'll keep a list of any places I might be showing up with books or promotional things, in the monthst to come. It feels a little decadent, but hey, if the IRS thinks I'm a professional, I should act like one, right?

Finally, I think I've made a startling discovery about my writing: I'm not sure I write straight romance. {gasp} I think I might write women's fiction, instead.

I didn't even know what "women's fiction" was, to be honest. But I was doing research for an article I'm writing, and I found some interesting differences between the two genres. Primarily, the difference seems to be that in a romance novel, the love story is the central focus. Everything else in the plot works toward and around that.

But in women's fiction, the story centers on the main character, her struggles and triumphs in her world - which might include romance but also deals with her work relationships, her family, etc. And it may or may not have a happy ending. (Mine do, so far anyway) Here are some other interesting definitions I found:


"Women's Fiction can be commercial (and usually is) or literary; it can be here-and-now contemporary or a multigenerational saga, like Rosamund Pilcher's books. The woman is the star of the story and her changes and emotional development are the subject."


"In women's fiction the heroine's relationship with her family or friends may be equally as important as her relationship with the hero."

So honestly, I think that is what I write. Don't get me wrong: I am a sucker for true love. But I also feel as though I need to explore more than just that, in my novels. Some of the critics who didn't like One Night in Boston thought the hero and the heroine should have gotten together much sooner. If it were a true romance, that might be an accurate criticism. But as I've been re-reading the galley, I realize that the story is more about Maggie trying to come to terms with her past and her present, than getting her into bed with her hero. (Lost in Paradise, on the other hand, I would call more of a true romance novel. I was experimenting.)

I hope that doesn't turn people away from my writing. I would hope that readers will care less about the label and more about what's inside the pages, though I do know that marketing counts for a whole lot.

Still, when I update my website in a few weeks, I think I may shift my "brand" just a bit and go with something like "Allie Boniface, Best-Selling Author of Contemporary Romance and Women's Fiction." (I can say "best-selling" 'cause I was, on the TWRP list for a while...right?)


What do you think?

This Post Has Nothing to Do with Writing

"You don't have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone." ~John Ciardi

Yesterday I sat down and opened up the Sunday paper to find this horrific article:

1 Teen Dead, 1 Critical in Fall

One teenager died and another was critically injured when they climbed onto the roof of an elementary school early yesterday morning and fell 33 feet through a domed skylight, police said.

L.B. , 15, and N.M., 18, fell through the skylight around 2:45 a.m. and landed in the gymnasium below at A.S.K.E. School. The fall marked a tragic end to a night of youthful mischief, during which the teens had been drinking alcohol, police said.

Sometime in the early morning hours, [the girl] and three of her girlfriends sneaked out of a sleepover party. They met two boys at the elementary school. Two of the girls, who were not named because of their age, left the group while the others stayed.

The two girls and two boys stacked plastic milk crates, climbed them and then used an air-conditioning unit to hoist themselves onto the roof, police said. L. and M. split from the other two teens. Each group traveled in separate directions on the roof.

After 20 minutes, they called each other on cell phones and decided to meet on the roof. But L. and M. never showed up. Their two friends found the broken, 4-by-4-foot skylight. M. called his friend to say he had fallen and was injured, police said. Foot patterns left on the roof indicate the pair had been sitting on the skylight when it broke.

***
And all I could think was, There but for the grace of God go I.

I mean, we all did something stupid like that when we were kids, didn't we? Sneak out, or drink underage, or break curfew, or meet a boy who was older than we were, or be someplace we weren't supposed to be? One of the police officers at the scene said, "Nothing involved in our investigation shows there were any criminal intentions or attempts to break in...It was just kids being kids, and it's tragic.""

We can make a thousand arguments: that the parents should have known she was sneaking out, that they shouldn't have been drinking, that they were trespassing, etc. I still agree with the cop: it was such a typical teenage thing to do. (Though personally, I don't know if I would have been sitting ON TOP OF a skylight, and I don't know that any amount of alcohol could have kept me outside on a rooftop when it was sub-20 degrees.) Still, I think we're remarkably lucky, most of us, that we get to live through our mistakes and learn from them.

I'm so sad for the kids and their families.

###

In other, unrelated news, did anyone see this article from a couple of weeks ago?

Marriage Annulled After Separated Twins Marry

Twins separated at birth have married each other without realizing they were brother and sister, it has been revealed.

The British couple's marriage has now been annulled by the High Court after judges ruled the marriage had never validly existed.

The identities of the brother and sister and details of how they fell in love and married are being kept secret. Soon after they were born they were separated and adopted by different families.

Neither was told they had a twin and had no idea they were blood relatives until after their wedding.

***

Good God, can you imagine? Yet I also thought, what a perfect twist for a plotline. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction; you can find fodder for stories just about anywhere you look!