Sharp Words

New Blog

2008-02-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

I've finally moved to wordpress. Check out my new blog here.

http://www.bettiesharpe.com/blog/

Romance...

2008-02-02T01:43:00.000-08:00

...not the stuff you write about, or read about, but the way it really is.

A couple of weeks back, when it just kept raining, my husband and I went to our favorite Japanese noodle place for dinner. We were the only people in the place, but we chose the booth way at the back. We sat side-by-side on the brown vinyl bench and watched the rain fall through the big plate-glass window beside our table.

Cars drove by outside. Their headlights illuminated the falling rain and the slick black streets. Couples on their way to dinner and a movie scurried past the window. They walked walked close to the building, slowing when they passed under the awnings, happy to be briefly out of the rain. They wore winter coats and gloves and hats to stave off the chilly high-forties temps. They cuddled together beneath the same umbrella as they walked, awkward as they tried to match their strides to the movement of their partners' bodies.

The owner of the restaurant must have been in a pensive mood that evening, because he'd replaced the usual soundtrack of 1980s American pop with sad love songs in Japanese--the kind of songs you hear over the credits of movies with bittersweet endings. My husband and I, we ate our steaming bowls of nabeyaki udon and curry soba. We didn't talk, but instead watched the steam from our bowls trace curls and swirls into the air in front of us, and condense on the window beside our booth.

When we finished eating, we sat back, warm and full and happy. We didn't say much. We held hands, listened to melancholy songs in a language neither of us really understands, and watched the rain fall.

Surfacing

2008-01-31T21:11:00.000-08:00

Whew. The day job turned my brains to mush, and I left a few things hanging. For instance, the Create a Contest Contest. Isabelle Santiago is the winner, and her "What Kind of Thief are You" contest will run on February 12 with my guest post at Beyond the Veil. (Isabelle, if you've purchased Like a Thief, I'll send you a MB&M gift certificate. Sorry about the delay.)

Also, last week, Jane at Dear Author wondered whether the ePublishing's reputation for erotic fare was driving away potential readers. She used Like a Thief in the Night as an example, since neither the interest Ember might have garnered from The Serial, nor Sherry Thomas 's public french-kiss--er, enthusiastic review of Ember and Like a Thief last week generated enough purchases at MBAM to put Like a Thief on their top ten bestseller list.

An interesting discussion of the perception of ePublishing resulted. Mrs Giggles blogged her thoughts. Nice Mommy/Evil Editor Angie started a weekly series at her blog highlighting Samhain's non-erotic romances.

Another interesting result? It's over there on the left.

What do I think of the whole thing? Aside from being thrilled to see Like a Thief in such great company (Hi Shiloh! Hi Bonnie!) I commented briefly on Dear Author, and in more detail at Mrs. Giggles's blog. In an overlarge and overlong nutshell, my thoughts are these:

The thing I like about ePublishers is that they seem a little more willing to take risks and break genre rules. Like a Thief has plenty of sex and even more violence, but those aren't the tough selling points. Like a Thief features a heroine who is, by her own admission, heartless, and the story crosses several genre lines--I call it an a sci-fi paranormal action-adventure erotic romance. Bit of a mouthful, eh? And its only 28,000 words long--roughly a third the length of the average single-title romance.

Writers writing for New York know what New York wants. Just as writers writing for ePubs know what sells. I knew going in that M/M and menage were hot categories. I knew Like a Thief's violence and the heroine might be a turn-off for some readers. But I wrote the story I wanted to write, and Samhain published it, and I'll always be happy about that.

I didn't expect to see Like a Thief on that list. It's my first novella. Ever. And the first thing I ever submitted anywhere. I expected a polite rejection from Samhain. Everything since then has been an awesome surprise. I did rather expect to see The Valentine Effect and Erotics Anonymous on the list on day 1. Both Bonnie Dee and Veronica Wilde have written some excellent and very well-reviewed stories. They have fans (I'm one).

The Strangers in the Night stories came out on the same day as the three stories from Samhain's Court Appointed M/M anthology. All three stories from the M/M anthology are on the list, along with two menage stories. At the time of this writing, the top 5 books are M/M or menage.

What does that mean for new authors? Or for authors that don't write erotic, much less M/M or menage? It means we are being subsidized by the more popular categories. The success of those subgenres is what allows ePubs to take chances on the next hot-selling subgenre.

So, while I think it's a shame some readers are put off by the more exotic and/or sex-centered offerings, I'm won't complain if my books' sales numbers get trumped by shapeshifting threesomes or hawt gay lawyers. Popular erotic subgenres fund the risk-taking I admire in ePubs.

I'd like it if more people appreciated the diverse offerings available from ePublishers.
And, like Jane, I'm going to do my best to remind people who think ePubbed books are all erotic romance and/or pr0n that ePublishing offers a diverse array of genres and content.

Game Theories

2008-01-25T10:28:00.000-08:00

Christmas at our house was like the "Gift of the Magi," except, not stupid. Hubby and I, we bought each other video games. Two sets of video games, and only one PS3. ::sigh:: Anyway, We've finally managed to play through our respective sets of games, and I thought I'd write some reviews. Maybe one a week. Here's the first and the best.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
If you have a PS3, you need to own this game. You need this game like you need air, food and water, because this is the game your PS3 was made for.

For a long time, video game makers have been touting the cinematic qualities of their games. But in the video game world, "Cinematic Qualities" usually add up to long, talky cut scenes and movies with awkward dialog, and Parappa-style button-pushing sequences that get annoying real fast. But watching someone play Uncharted is like watching an Indiana Jones style adventure where the main character sometimes dies, and restarts the action sequence.

Aside from a tendency to push you into shoot-outs after cut scenes, Uncharted offers a great blend of platforming elements and third-person shooting (which I much prefer to 1st person shooters). The graphics are realistic, yet painterly, the animation is superb, and the dialog and story are better than half the action movies that came through the theaters last year. Nicholas Cage and National Treasure, Eat your heart out.

There are a hundred things I want to say about this game, but time and space are limited today, so I'll wrap up with the following

Game Play: It's a baby bear game--everything is just right.
Character design--superb! The main character, Drake, is easy on the eyes, and the female character, Elena is strong, capable and so realistic looking. Don't let the tank-top and shorts fool you, she's like the anti-Lara Croft.
Voice acting--awesome. Really. Nicholas Cage should watch and take notes.
Environment--beautiful. The texture artists deserve a raise and a trip to an island as beautiful as the one they created in the game. And the programmers who did the water need some sort of medal proclaiming that they have designed the Best Water Effects in the History of Video Games. Evah! I got shot a couple of times because I was distracted by the ocean, or the pretty, pretty waterfalls.
Chutzpah: This game is a platform shooter about lost treasure, Spanish gold, Nazi experiments, curses, zombies, modern-day pirates and germ warfare. It really has something for everyone, and it juggles every aspect in a most entertaining manner. I can't recommend it enough.

Contested!

2008-01-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

Here's something I just don't get: RWA Contests. I've heard they're a good way to get your novel noticed--especially when the prize is prime placement on an editor's reading list. But, specifically, the judging seems counterintuitive.

I've heard several stories of writers who entered contests--agented writers, writers who have been published, and writers who IMHO turn out high-quality writing no matter what--and were given good marks overall, but received exceptionally low marks and persnickety, nitpicky comments from one or two judges. And, usually, the judges getting their hate on are unpublished, or have only a couple of publishing credits to their name.

Maybe it's because I'm new to all this organized writing business, but right here is where I start not getting it. The judges mark all these categories and are supposed to judge the readability and saleability of the submission--but how can they do that if they haven't sold much, themselves?

And if the writers doing the critiquing don't have a solid string of sales under their belt, what is their opinion but the opinion of a reader who may or may not like the type or style of story the contest entrant writes? What special insight do they have into the industry that can benefit the contest entrant? Now, if Nora Roberts or some other luminary of the genre were judging the contest, the whole setup would make sense: Experienced, successful expert offers learned opinion and judgment. But otherwise?

If I were judging a contest, my opinion would and should be worth exactly as much as the average reader's. Sure, I'm a writer, but I don't have any great string of credits under my belt. I don't have any experience, except my love of the genre as a reader, that makes me qualified to judge the saleability of a story. And as a reader, I've never quit reading a book over minor details, plot points I think should have been included, or the occasional punctuation error.

If anyone reading this has entered a contest, I ask, honestly, earnestly, humbly, "Why?"

Are contests helpful?
Do you feel like the critiques of the judges are useful?
What usually prompts you to enter a contest?

Giggled: A Survivor's Tale

2008-01-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

First, a confession which may make me unpopular in certain authorial circles: I like Mrs. Giggles reviews. I've read them for quite a while, I've enjoyed almost every book I've read from her "keeper" list and I have, I'll admit, giggled on more than one occasion at her jaded take on certain books.

I can't help it. She's like that older friend you had in high school--you know, the one who seemed so sophisticated because she'd been to Paris, and dated college guys and smoked and drank and done it. It took a lot to impress her, so you were always kinda flattered that she found you interesting enough to hang around with, even if she did keep borrowing money for sodas without ever paying you back--not that I'm saying Mrs. G is a welcher. I'm talking about that high school friend. That completely hypothetical, for-purposes-of-example-only cooler than cool, jaded friend whom you haven't seen since graduation except once in the background of a photo of a party in Rolling Stone Magazine...but I digress.

So anyway, I've been kinda nervous about how she'd review Like a Thief... And how I'd take it. She posted the review today, giving it an 85. She used the phrases "It kicks ass - big ass." and, "these characters are really cool." which makes me feel both happy and a bit like I've dodged a bullet. Not that I'm gonna relax because, hey, there's always next time.

And though there were things I disagreed with (like why she didn't give it a score of 112--and yes, I know the scale only goes up to 100, but my baby is perfect--perfect, I tell you ;o) I have to admit, I giggled at her description of the setting:

...Set about 200 years in the future when everyone acts and dresses like they have watched The Matrix one time too many...

See, I thought it was kinda Kill Bill when I read it through after I finished writing, but I can see where all that black clothing might cloud the issue. And as to the aspects of the story Mrs. G didn't like--the novella-length and characterization? Hey, there's always next time.

"Ember" at Teach Me Tonight

2008-01-19T10:45:00.000-08:00

Teach Me Tonight is a blog that looks at the romance genre from an academic perspective. I've enjoyed many of their posts and am just tickled that Laura Vivanco chose to mention Ember in todays post, Beyond the Fairytale which discusses the Cinderella motif in romance novels.

On the subject of re-imagining and retelling fairytales, Eloisa James wrote an article called "My Fairy Godmother, Myself" in which she argues that
Cinderella was never about the prince. It was about the wonders of a magical transformation. [...] That turns out to be the key to rewritten Cinderellas: the heroine learns to honor and appreciate her pre-transformation self, forcing the prince to do so as well.
I'm not really sure if that would be true of Embers, but maybe we can discuss that in the comments.

My first instinct was to post and say that of course it isn't true of Ember. The second paragraph of the story is:

This is no fairytale. The real story doesn’t even start with me; it starts with the Prince.

I would also have added that one of the reasons I wrote Ember was to write a Cinderella story that was not about the cosmetic transformation or the ball or the competition between Cinderella and her stepsisters for the prince, but to explore the line that fairy tales so often draw between good girls and bad women, between virtuous princesses and wicked queens.

But here's my question and the real point of my post: Do I have any right to comment? Would it stifle discussion?

I've talked before about learning to let go of my stories once they're written. And I've talked about how it's important for me that Ember be a free story, since I would not have written it if I hadn't needed some content for my website. But now it seems to me that the biggest part of letting go, and of making Ember free, is letting other people make what they will of it without my input or explanations of what I meant.

And yes, I am aware that this post adds another layer of the very sort of explanation I just decided I shouldn't do. But letting go is a process, people--a journey. I'm working on it. :o)

Seven Random Facts About Me

2008-01-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

Ann Aguirre tagged me to blog 7 random facts about myself on Thursday. I'm just getting around to it now. Better late than never, right?

I know the place of purchase and price of every article of clothing I own, no matter how long ago I got it. If I bought it on sale, I can also tell you the original price and how much I saved.
I love fabric. I am, in fact, a fabric whore, known to wander the aisles of fabric stores across Los Angeles admiring the color and weave of wares I rarely purchase. Bonus: every story I've ever written contains at least one fairly detailed description of fabric--the material, the color, the weave, the pattern or the dye-process.
I am just under six feet tall.
The reason I use a lot of exclamation points in my blog posts and comments? I really talk that way. Really!
I love false/created spaces. Las Vegas, Disneyland, miniature golf courses, malls built to look like 19th century European or American towns, odd little houses around LA that look like hobbit houses or castles or pagodas.
I'm fascinated with trains. From 19th Century steam engines, to 20th century trollies, to Angel's Flight (Los Angeles's late, and much missed funicular rail line) to subways to light rail. Trains are cool.
I am almost unbeatable at "Connect 4"

Okay, now I have to tag 7 people. I tag Sarai, Isabelle Santiago, Carolyn Jean, Grammar Geek Laurie, Kate Rothwell, Sherry Thomas and December Quinn

Like a Kid on Christmas

2008-01-18T09:46:00.000-08:00

That's how I felt when I hopped on the Internets this morning to read Sherry Thomas's combined review of Ember and Like a Thief in the Night at Dear Author.

Reviews!

2008-01-17T00:27:00.000-08:00

Heather of Errant Dreams Reviews posted reviews of Ember and Like a Thief in the Night. I think I will take up embroidery so I can stitch quotes* from those reviews onto a warm, fuzzy quilt. When the weather turns cold, I can curl up on the couch with the quilt around my shoulders and a hot cup of tea in my hands, and I'll feel just the way I did when I read the reviews. ::sigh::

Ann Aguirre--talented author; email correspondent of La Nora; and recipient of a kickass cool cover blurb for her forthcoming novel, Grimspace, from none other than the awesome Sharon Shinn--also wrote a review of Like a Thief in the Night. Which I also love. That one, I think I will stitch into a warm scarf to wear outside when it's cold like it is tonight--terribly windy and barely 40 degrees. Brrrr!

I will keep those reviews close when someone inevitably finds my characters too unlikable to bear, or gets annoyed by my "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to genre, or notices that place on page 73 where I used the same adjective twice in two paragraphs.

Now, I'll go to sleep. It's a quarter to two, and the work-week from hell hasn't yet let go of me. Good night.

* All quotes will be properly noted and attributed--perhaps on a matching pair of socks. As footnotes. Foot notes. Ugh! I think I really need sleep. I always get punny when I'm tired.

Like a Thief in the Night

2008-01-15T07:18:00.000-08:00

Today's the day! Like a Thief in the Night is out at Samhain Publishing. Go buy it.

I'd like to write more, but I guess it figures that the day I've been looking forward to for 6 months would fall in the week the day the day job decides to get insanely busy. Wah.

I think my brain is melting from stress. Contests, regular posts and such will resume when the contents of my cranium have returned to at least a semisolid state.

If you want blogging, go check out my post on Bam's blog. Because I have to go to work.

The "Create a Contest" Contest

2008-01-12T01:49:00.000-08:00

A little bird reminded me I should be promoting Like a Thief in the Night and letting people know that this red hot futuristic tale of sex, murder, magic and mayhem will be available for sale at Samhain Publishing on January 15, 2008 for the low, low price of $3.50.

But how should I promote the novella? Maybe a contest? I wracked my brain, which took all of 2 seconds, and came up with these ideas:

The "Guess Bettie's Favorite Color Contest"
The "Tell Bettie Why You Deserve a Free Book" Contest
The "Guess How Many Fingers Bettie is Holding Up Behind her Back" Contest.

Maybe I'm not so good at this contest thing. Maybe I used up my one good idea on the Hard Boiled contest. No, wait, I have one more idea: I'll let potential contest entrants make up their own contest.

So, here's the deal. Post your single best idea for a contest in the comments of this post. If I pick that idea, you'll win a free copy of Like a Thief in the Night and I'll hold the contest in February, with a second copy of Like a Thief... as the prize. Entries must be submitted by 6 P.M. Pacific on Monday, January 14, 2008.

Going Green Has Made Me a Treekiller!

2008-01-10T10:22:00.000-08:00

It's true. I thought I was being all noble taking the bus home from work every day when I've a perfectly decent little gas guzzler sitting in the garage. It's work, taking the bus in LA. Eight miles requires two buses and almost an hour of travel time, not including the walk to and from the stops.

But the transfer point between my two buses is right in front of a bookstore. And the wait time allows me just enough spare time to go in and check out the new book table. And buy a few books. Sure, bus fare is cheaper than gas, but the resultant book buying is killing me. And, I'm a tree killer. :o(

Bettie's Hard Boiled Contest

2008-01-07T23:53:00.000-08:00

Hard Boiled. It's not just the name of one of my favorite movies, it's one of my favorite subgenres of mystery, too. While Like a Thief in the Night isn't a mystery or a detective story, I did sprinkle in references titles by two of the subgenre's most famous authors. Why? Because I could.

Weird, right? But my thematic non sequitur can add up to cold, hard, Amazon gift certificates for one lucky reader.

Email me (bettiesharpe at gmail dot com) ~~or leave a comment on this post (or any other posts advertising this contest)~~* identifying Like a Thief in the Night's references to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet titles by February 1, 2008 and you'll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.

* Update: I just realized, if you post the answer to the comments, the answer won't be a secret (duh). So, scratch that part about comments. Email me at [bettiesharpe at gmail dot com] or [bettie at bettiesharpe dot com]. I'll make sure to check my spam folder so no mail gets lost, and I'll post a list of entries I've received the day before the drawing so people can notify me if their name isn't there.

Bettie's Top Ten

2008-01-07T22:37:00.000-08:00

The many, many authors at Fangs, Fur & Fey, are posting the top ten hallmarks of their writing. So, even though they are print-published authors, and I've only got two novellas out--one of which is free and the other of which won't be released for another week--I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon.

Moral ambiguity
I've said it before, I'll say it again: I like villains. My protagonists aren't all bad people, but they sometimes do bad things. My goal at the outset of any story is to write it in such a way that if it was told by a different character, the hero would be the villain.
Secondary characters with lives
Another storytelling goal of mine is to write secondary characters with lives and secrets. There are things you don't know about your friends. There are times when you are just a support character in their story--and if there aren't those times, you don't have friends, honey, you've got back up singers.
Fairy tales
I love the gory ones. No surprise here, but almost every story I write references fairytales or folktales as a general idea, or a specific comparison.
Romance
But it ain't all hearts and flowers. Love is a battlefield -- violent and explosive. Or an ice-skating rink -- cold and treacherous. Or a race track -- fast and competitive. Or a waltz -- dreamy and whirling in perfect accord. Love is different things for different people. Why should my characters all have the same version of it? Though, to be honest, I really like the battlefield.
Multi-racial and international characters
Why? Because when I was a kid, there were so few nonwhite characters in books that weren't about race that I used to randomly pretend heroines in my favorite adventure stories were brown girls. Because as a reader I am damned tired of seeing the word "white" used as a description of the heroine's beautiful skin. Because I want my characters to look like me and my friends. Because I think authors who refuse to write about characters who aren't their own skin color or ethnic background are wusses.
Violence
Most of it movie-like and stylized. Some of it not. Fact is, I like adventure stories. When it comes to movies, I like car chases and sword fights and Hong Kong style fight scenes. And sometimes I use physical violence as a symbol of emotional turmoil.
Strong female protagonist
Do I even need to say this? I can't imagine writing a weak female protagonist--leastwise, not one who didn't end up strong by the end. Those martyriffic heroines who let everyone shit on them for an entire book before the hero realizes that they are pure and virtuous and wonderful are not my heroines. No way, no how.
Virtue is NOT its own reward.
See above. I hate the idea of noble suffering. Usually, characters who spend a whole book suffering nobly could have ended it all by telling a few people off. I also am not down with selfless heroines who will always, always, always sacrifice themselves to help or save people they love--Self-sacrifice like that isn't noble, it's co-dependent.
A is for "Alpha" and "Asshole"
I admit it, my heroes are kind of assholish. But all they need as motivation to end their asshole ways is the no-nonsense love of a strong female protagonist (see # 7, above). Just like in real life, right? ;o)
Dark
This isn't part of my manifesto, it's just something people keep saying about my stories. Even the sweet ones. I don't set out to write "dark" they just end up that way.
Bonus Feature: References to classic/hard boiled mysteries.
Not in every story, but in a few. Email me ~~or leave a comment on this post~~* identifying Like a Thief in the Night's references to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammet titles by February 1, 2008 and you'll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.

* Update: I just realized, if you post the answer to the comments, the answer won't be a secret (duh). So, scratch that part about comments. Email me at [bettiesharpe at gmail dot com] or [bettie at bettiesharpe dot com]. I'll make sure to check my spam folder so no mail gets lost, and I'll post a list of entries I've received the day before the drawing so people can notify me if their name isn't there.

Carolyn Pays it Forward & Hey Sarai!

2008-01-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

Carolyn Jean won a new header for her blog in my Pay it Forward contest, and now she is holding her own contest. Go forth and enter!

And speaking of the Pay it Forward Contest,Sarai, you won my Pay it Forward Contest. I.O.U. some kinda graphic. But I don't have your email address. I've just discovered that some email from respectable ISPs has been shunted to my Spam file, so if you mailed me before, I might have missed it. To be on the safe side, copy me at bettie at bettiesharpe dot com when you write to let me know what you want.

Yeah, What She Said! Part 1

2008-01-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

No secret here, I'm not a very good blogger. I'd love to be fascinating and insightful, but, honestly, I have way more fun reading other people's blogs than I do writing my own. For instance: Tumperkin.

You may have read her book reviews on I Swear it's Not Chick Porn, or her short story in "The Serial" but if you haven't read her blog, you are missing out. Her blog posts totally rock. They're insightful, interesting, and thought-provoking. They are, in short, the kind of blog posts I would want to write if a magical fairy one day floated down from the heavens and blessed me with the gift of Good Bloggery.

She has a marvelous ongoing series of posts on classifications of Romance novels. Her posts on fairytales are tons of fun. And she dares to ask the question, "What in the bloody hell is up with the anatomically misplaced hymens in so many Romance novel love scenes." Okay, maybe she didn't say "what in the bloody hell" because as she has wisely pointed out, "why in the bloody hell" is not terribly British.

Anyway, point is, this is a blog that always gets me thinking, and if you haven't read it, you should give it a try.

Yeah, What She Said is an ongoing series in which Bettie will discuss the blogs she reads instead of writing her own blog.

New Year, New Look

2008-01-02T20:14:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I'm not so keen on my new hair color, but I love the look of my new webpage.

Jane was brave enough to ask folks what they thought of Dear Author's new look. She made the change so Dear Author would load faster. I just wanted my site to look prettier.

Though I know it's going to be a bit of slow load for folks on dial-up, I'm still going to follow Jane's shining example, and do likewise.

What do you think?

Merry Christmas to All, and to All, Some Good Reads!

2007-12-24T11:15:00.000-08:00

Everybody loves presents. Here's a list of presents from authors to readers--free reads!

Update: December 26, 2007 through January 1, 2008: Free Harlequin eBooks! You can download one book a day.
Paperback Writer's 2006 Free eBook Challenge
This here is a big, mama-jama list o' free fiction. Lynn Viehl (she of the Stardoc & Darkyn novels) challenged her blog readers to write original free stories for their readers. Also, check out the sidebar for links to Viehl's outstanding freebies.
be delicious by Annie Dean (Ann Aguirre)
Friends to lovers. Short. Sweet. Hot. There are actually four free stories on this page. I haven't read them all yet--but only because I'm pacing myself. ;o)
Meeting in Darkness by Imogen Howson
Clicking around on the Drollerie Press site, I came across the cover of Ms. Howson's forthcoming YA novel, Frayed Tapestry. It is a thing of beauty. And the hook is cracktastically hookalicious. That book's on my list. Meeting in Darkness was Howson's contribution to the Romance Divas Free eBook Challenge. It's short, sweet, and I adore her writing style. Also, her freebie, Helen is available at Drollerie Press.
One Night Stand by Dionne Galace
What happens when they stay for breakfast? (Good gory fun. This story is not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.)
The Serial
No, this isn't shameless self-promotion. Okay. It's not just shameless self promotion. It's a Watch This Space announcement. Tumperkin's two-part short story, the Ring, is on it, and, come January, there will be something new.

All right. That's it, y'all. It is time for me to go forth and shop. (Yes, I know it's Christmas Eve). Here's hoping your Christmas is full of peace, love, and many, many good reads.

P.S. This list is by no means complete. Mostly, it's what I could think of off the top of my head. If you have recommendations for good free reads, please post them in the comments.

Wow.

2007-12-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

Wow, Part 1: Demon Night
I just finished the ARC of MelJean Brook's Demon Night that I won from Dear Author. I'm still gathering my thoughts on it--there's a lot of plot, and backstory, and detail. I don't know quite what I think of Demon Night but I am certain of two things:

Meljean Brook can write.
Really. The opening of chapter one was a marvel of pacing and deftly placed detail. It sucked me in, and made me want to reread it a few more times just to admire it.
I want to read Brook's other books.
Not just because this book was jam-packed with characters from earlier novels, but because I want to read something that's not quite so full of characters and ongoing plot and backstory. As a newbie reader jumping in on the third (?) book, I gotta say, Brook handled all those elements extremely well. But her big, complex world full of angels, demons, guardians, vampires, secret government agencies, prophecies, and conspiracies is like a hot bath--it's enjoyable, but it's also something you want to ease into.

Wow, Part 2: Sundial
I picked up my copy of Carrie Lofty's Sundial a couple of days ago. It's a novella, and a damned good deal at $3. Sure, it's only 67 pages, but there is at least 250 pages worth of longing, tension and angst packed into those pages. Plus, vespas! Also, a hero with a little moral ambiguity, 1950's Italy, and the loveliest final line I've read in a great long while.

Fiddler and Her Proofs

2007-12-19T22:38:00.001-08:00

I should be all aglow with happiness--the final version of Like a Thief in the Night is turned in, and the excerpt is up on the Samhain site. Instead, all I see are things I want to change.

I can't help it, I'm a fiddler. I nitpick. I tweak.

Editor Laurie and the ever-patient Bam can attest, every time I send in a draft, something is different. I just can't help it. Just yesterday, I noticed in Ember chapter 8 that I described fabric as jacquard when I really meant brocade. O, the horror! I can't believe I did that! (Sorry, Anonymous Auction Winner!). It will be fixed in the full PDF.

I can't leave well enough alone. I change a word here, a sentence there. When a question about my main character that wakes me in the middle of the night like, "What does she do when she's not killing people?" I have to answer it.

It's like some kind of curse: Lo, and she shall edit nigh until the very end.

One of these days, I'm going to have to learn to let go. Maybe I can do that by obsessing on my next WIP?

WIP Title: Rohais
Word Count: 7,000/95,000
Current Favorite Words:

Alone of all my sisters, I was not named to honor queens or saints. Instead, my stepmother named me for the climbing rose on the south wall of her garden, with its sweet scent and wicked thorns.

Does the Romance Genre Need a Make Over?

2007-12-19T00:56:00.000-08:00

Another great post over at Dear Author wherein Jane wonders if a makeover would get the Romance genre a little respect from the mainstream.

Now, I hate mantitty, secret babies and clinch covers as much as the next gal-who-also-likes-to-occasionally-read- in-public-or-on-the-bus, but not even a tag team of Oprah, Tyra and Ty Pennington could spruce up the genre enough to get it an invite to the Mystery/Sci-Fi/We're almost literature Prom.

It's not that I'm down on Romance. You know I'm not. Thing is, Harlequin's many secret babies, Fabio dressed up like a metrosexual Indian, and those clinches that defy the the limits of human flexibility--they sell. And since they sell, they aren't going anywhere--not unless those of us who hate them rip off those cute calico "bookcovers" we bought at the last garage sale our romance-reading 80-year-old neighbor had (the one where she tried to sell you a whole box of Cassie Edwards novels for $0.50) and stop buying books with covers we hate.

And since I am not about to forgo one of my favorite genres for 3-5 years just to make publishers change their ways, I will suggest that those of us who would like to class up the look of our reading material give up on lifting all boats with a rising tide of respectability and focus our attention on the well-crafted vessels that aren't weighed down by the claptrap and cliche for which our beloved genre is (somewhat justifiably) mocked.

In the comments at Dear Author, I suggested that the Romance genre follow in the footsteps of comic books--er-hem, graphic novels--and think up a new name for books that aspire to a more artistic level. Comic books were long reviled as thinly-plotted, tawdry niche-market geek-boy fantasies. There were plenty of good--great--comics out there, like Love and Rockets or The Watchmen, but they never got any respect because they shared shelf space in dingy, geek-filled little stores with the afore-mentioned tawdry niche-market geek-boy fantasies. And then some clever person decided to christen the good stuff "graphc novels" and the rest, you know, is history.

So here's my question: What do we call our classier, more literary-leaning subgenre of Romance novel? And how do we make it stick?

Forget Santa Clause, I Want the Green Fairy

2007-12-16T22:47:00.000-08:00

Editor Paula Guran on the Juno Books blog did a post about absinthe. It is quite fashionable right now. Damn, but I hate to be a trend hopper. My husband collects interesting liquors the way some men collect baseball cards, and he's been wanting a bottle of the EU-legal stuff for a couple of years. As the exchange rate has only gotten worse over time, I decided it was now or never and ordered him up a bottle for Christmas.

I've been curious about absinthe for a while. How could anyone who loves art nouveau not be? Add that to my general impressionability (I am the girl who started smoking in college because of all those classic Hollywood movies--don't worry, I quit.), and it's a wonder I didn't belly up to the absinthe website and order a bottle sooner.

Then there's the allure of the ritual. I must admit, I am a sucker or food and beverage rituals. Currently, I have tea service in both the English and Japanese styles, Turkish coffee (I start by roasting the beans), South American coco, and, of course, more bar paraphernalia than you can shake a swizel stick at (oh, I just love those itty umbrellas). And I'm really wanting a samovar so I can make myself a good cup of Persian tea (I blame the local Persian eatery, and Marjane Satrapi's Embroideries for that one.) Also, I'd really like some of those little things to make Vietnamese coffee.

I have a feeling I probably won't like the absinthe. I've never been a big fan of anise, and that's a major flavor in la fee verte. But I'll probably like the ritual of it. In the case of my tea/coffee/coco habits, the ritual is as soothing as the resulting beverage. Our society does everything so quickly--fast food, fast coffee, and lots of both as we travel so we can keep going, going, going--it's nice to slow down and take the time to go through a series of steps before savoring the fruits of your patience (this is especially true with the drip, drip, drip of Vietnamese coffee--you have to be patient, or you'll go crazy). And when you have guests, the ritual gives you time to talk while you're preparing, and a good excuse to linger over your coffee, tea or cocktail once it's finished. When you have to wait for something, you generally don't want to just gulp it down.

Anyway, point is...what was the point? Oh, yeah, slow ritual = good. I'll let you know what I think of the absinthe after we open the bottles at Christmas. :o)

In Praise of Genre Fiction

2007-12-11T22:31:00.000-08:00

If you read genre fiction, you've probably heard the laundry-list of complaints about it from readers of "serious" literature: formulaic, cliche, tawdry, unoriginal, and--worst of all--popular. Genre Haters seem to think any novel shelved by plot or content is, by definition, a lesser species of fiction.

But that's a load of bullshit. If bookstores started shelving "Sprawling, multi-generational family dramas" together, you'd find The Godfather, The Corrections and Love in the Time of Cholera in the same section as the oeuvre of the late-yet-still-writing VC Andrews. Would proximity to the late Ms. Andrews make the first three books any less worthy? Would it make Flowers in the Attic any less addictively terrible?

Genre haters have a tendency to compare the worst of genre fiction with the best of literary fiction, and then acting like it's a foregone conclusion that "literature" would come out on top. And, worse yet, if a bit of genre or popular fiction is particularly good, they start calling it literature. By subject matter and structure, Jane Austen's stories are romances, but, somehow, because they're so very good, they're literature. Likewise, the insanely popular, often maudlin and always melodramatic works of Charles Dickens transcend the author's immense popularity and often trite subject matter (Oliver Twist, anyone?) and wildly popular roots to become "literature".

The way I see it, there are only so many plots and themes out there, and, depending on historical era and geographical location, some of those plots and themes are more popular than others. So what if genre fiction works with a predetermined set of known elements--so does opera. Does musicians and music-lovers hate on opera for all those tales of doomed, stupid lovers? Nope. Opera lovers love the music. The subject matter is just a framework.

That's kind of how I feel about genre fiction. Genre is a framework around which I can let my imagination run wild. If you pick up a murder mystery, you know somebody gonna get killed, and the crime is gonna get solved. But the how, where, when, and why of it--oh, those are some fabulous details. If you pick up a romance, you know folks are going to fall in love, and no matter what kind of crazy shit happens between the words "Chapter One" and "The End" those folks are gonna have some kind of a happy ending.

One reason I like writing romance is that it incorporates elements from every other genre. Absolutely anything can happen between Chapter One and the End--mystery, adventure, intrigue, emotional drama. Romance novels can be contemporary, historical, futuristic, speculative, magical. Romance offers an incredible latitude of possibilities built around the simple, easily accessible framework of a romantic relationship.

The other reason I like writing romance? The happy ending.

Pay it Forward Giveaway

2007-12-06T21:05:00.000-08:00

A while back, Nice Mommy and Evil Editor Angie had a fun contest. She said she would send something to the first three people to reply to her post. The thing is, the winners have to pay it forward and hold a similar contest.

Which is quite a nice kick in the pants for yours truly. I keep meaning to hold a contest (all the cool kids are doing it), but I have this problem when it comes to actually putting stuff in the mail. (Yet another reason I like ePublishing.)

Knowing my natural penchant for postal-avoidance, I thought and thought and thought, and ate a Godiva truffle, and thought some more about how to give something away without having to mail it.

Here's my solution: I do an electronic give away. Instead of oh-so-cute and cuddly hand-sewn items, I will give away cold hard pixels. I have at my disposal, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Flash and a lovely new toy called a Wacom tablet that lets me draw straight into the graphics program of my choice.

Maybe you've been wanting a flash banner for your website, or a pretty cover for your free ebook, or an anime avatar drawn in your image. Here's your chance. The first three people to respond to this post get the web-only file type of their choice, three hours of work by me and up to three of their favorite royalty-free images from dreamstime.com or istockphoto.com to be purchased by me for use in their shiny new file.

Examples of graphics stuff I've done:I did a bookmark for Ann Aguirre using images from the cover of her forthcoming novel Grimspace. Check her kick-ass quote from Sharon Shin! I asked that part of my payment be a signed copy of the book--I am so looking forward to reading it. Have been since I read the excerpt on her site ages ago.

I did the cover from Ember using this royalty free image, and, depending on the version, a copyright-free illustration from the original Perrault version of Cinderella or a curl of smoke as the background.

Then there's the anime avatar, which, apparently, looks enough like me to get me recognized at a LARA meeting IRL. But maybe that's just because anime me also has short hair and brown skin and there aren't so many women fitting that description being newbies at RWA local chapter meetings.

Also, here's the Flash banner I did for Like a Thief in the Night before I got the cover.

Here's the static banner ad I did after. I still need to update the Flash image...

I also did all of the graphics on this blog layout, and my web site (but don't take the website as an add--I did it all in one afternoon and I totally intend to re-do it up nicer when inspiration strikes me. :g:)

We Have A Winner

2007-12-05T21:47:00.000-08:00

Many, many thanks to the bidder who won the Ember auction with a bid of $35. She asked to remain anonymous, so I'm not printing her name, but I will sing her praises. In addition to being generous, and having excellent taste in reading material, she is a kind and humble person--far more so than me.

Because, let me tell you, if I had something before everyone else got it, I would gloat so much. How much? A lot. Just watch me spend the rest of the week gloating about the ARC of Meljean Brook's Demon Night I won over at Dear Author.

I'm so busy getting my gloat on, I didn't even finish singing the praises of the kind, noble, humble bidder who even went so far as to donate an amount higher than her winning bid to Mercy Corps.

So, let me resume:

Dear Mystery Lady,

I hope you enjoy your advance copy of Ember. Specifically, I hope you enjoy the car chase and the gun fight in Chapter 8. I hope you are shocked and amazed by the heartwarming alien abduction in chapter 9. Most importantly, I hope you are touched and amused by the surrealistic denouement in which Ember wakes up in her bedroom in Lancaster, California and realizes that the whole story was just dream she got from eating pork rinds and pop rocks with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer while watching her little sister's DVD of Disney's Cinderella on a replay loop.

(Sure, we both know that's not what happens, but everyone else has to wait.) Happy reading.

Thank you again.

Bettie

The Mysterious F.L.E.: In Praise of the Final Line Editor

2007-12-02T13:03:00.000-08:00

You already know how fascinated I am by the whole editing process. Perhaps if I am published several more times, I will become jaded enough to complain about it, but, for now, it's super neat-o cool. My editor Laurie has been great about explaining the process, the schedule, and all that. She's fabu to work with, besides. (You should check out her blog.)

But today, I'm going to write about a far more mysterious person, the FLE. I got the Final Line Editor's revisions on Like a Thief in the Night this week. Wow. She caught mistakes I've missed again and again. Little things that would totally jump out and annoy a reader, like mentioning "bullets" when only one shot is fired. And big things like an anatomical inconsistency in a love scene that I am totally embarrassed to have missed.

On a side note: I always wondered how authors could make such mistakes in love scenes, and now I know: Cut & Paste. The love scene mistake the FLE caught was not the result of me not knowing how everything fits together, but the result of a previous version of the same scene that had the characters positioned in different locations relative to each other. I thought I was being economical by not rewriting the entire scene when I decided it should run differently. I guess now, as a reader, I will have to be a little more forgiving of those sorts of mistakes.

Anyway, FLE, you eagle-eyed woman of mystery--I salute you. :o)

Thirteen Things I've Done Instead of Writing

2007-11-29T16:21:00.001-08:00

1) Reading Books
2) Reading Blogs
3) Working on a new cartoon avatar (right, unfinished & low res. All apologies to the late Alphonse Mucha whom I totally ripped off)
4) Sleeping
5) Eating
6) Day Job
7) Trying to forget I ever saw this
8) Enjoying the 12 days of Kitschmas on Ship of Fools.com
9) Brainstorming Pay It Forward contest ideas
10) Auctioning one early full PDF of Ember
11) Tormenting my cat with the laser pointer (it never gets old)
12) Running errands
13) Playing Heavenly Sword

Ember Auction Update:Current High Bid

2007-11-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

About the Auction

Enlightened Self-Interest: the Ember eBook Auction

2007-11-27T18:46:00.000-08:00

People seem to like Ember. Some of those people have even said they would pay cash-money for the chance to read it in one sitting. If you are one of them, here's your chance to put your money where your mouth is. Specifically, I'm actioning off 1 (one) full, prettified PDF copy of Ember one month in advance of its culmination on The Serial to the highest bidder.

No, I haven't gone all money-hungry. IT'S FOR CHARITY. For charity, people. Here's how it works:

Starting Wednesday, November 28th, you send me an email naming an amount you'd be willing to donate to Mercy Corps charity. (bettiesharpe at gmail dot com)
I will post the highest bid for each day on this blog--no names, just bid amounts.
The highest bid I receive by 12:00 pm Pacific on Wednesday, December 5 2007 wins.
You, the generous winner, go to the Mercy Corps site and donate. You choose which program your money goes to. Crisis in Sudan, Cyclone Victims in Bangladesh, Where Most Needed--pick whatever program moves you. You'll also get the tax write-off :o)
When you donate online, choose the option to donate in honor of someone. Enter "Ember", and have it sent to my email: bettiesharpe at gmail dot com.
Once you've completed the donation, save an electronic version of your web receipt and email it to me. The web receipt will not list your full credit card number, but it will list the amount you donated and your address (same as if you won a book in a contest, and you had to send in a mailing address). I'll treat this information as confidential and will delete the file after I've seen it.
I send you a copy of the full PDF of Ember--weeks before anyone else will read it, and you (the generous winner) get to join the small and select club of fabulous people who have been kind enough to read Ember in its entirety: Jodie, Bam, Kate R. and My Mom.

But wait! There's more! Along with your early copy of the Ember eBook, you'll get:

The smirky satisfaction of knowing what's going to happen before almost anyone else does.
The the warm glow that comes from helping fellow human beings who are in need.
An income tax deduction in the amount of your donation.

F.A.Q.
(Flippantly Asked Questions)

But I thought you said Ember was free?
Ember is free. I wrote it intending for it to be a free eBook, and it will stay that way through the end of its run on The Serial, and for the foreseeable future on my website.

Why Mercy Corps?
Because 90% of the money you donate to Mercy Corps goes directly to charitable work around the globe. Because they fund a wide variety of innovative programs. Because they need to feel better after losing the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore.

If I win the auction, can I taunt other readers? What about spoilers?
If you win the auction, you can taunt to your heart's content. Taunt early and taunt often, but DO NOT reveal any spoilers.

CONTROL!

2007-11-24T14:29:00.001-08:00

Talking with my mother on the issue of coming out of the writing closet/letting people read my stuff, I realized that my whole conflict/shyness thing is totally a control issue. (Sorry to go all therapy-talk on you)

But here's the thing: Writing is the Ultimate Control Trip. I can create a world, and have it be just the way I want. I control every aspect of what I write...right up until the point that someone reads it. Then it becomes theirs.

Unlike my characters, readers can think anything they want. They can love or hate my writing, my story, my characters. They can use my writing as a reason to love or hate me. And I can't control any of it.

How awful is it to go from complete control to no control at all? This must be why some writers hate reviews. Not only does the reviewer take over your work, they then proceed to write about it, and thereby present your writing in a way you might not want it presented.

I never understood why authors behave like fucktards ((c) 2007, Karen Scott), lambasting people who don't like their work and trying to shout down critics, bloggers and/or commenters, but surely, this must be the reason.

Control.

It's so hard to give it up. It's hard to know that your work, and you will be judged. And that you have no control over it. I guess I always expected judgment from some nameless, faceless "readership". That I could deal with--that is something I know I can't control. But what about my near and dear? People who know me, people whose opinions I value in my everyday life?

What if they read my stuff and don't like it? Or, what if they read my stuff and decide I am some crazy perv because my stories contain teh sexin'? Or that I'm secretly psycho because my stories are usually kinda violent? What if? What if? What if?

Screw it. I love to write. I'm not going to stop writing because of "What if?" And I certainly don't want to run around shouting at people who form opinions of my work that I don't like. I'll just have to learn to let go.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T00:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Spend time with your family. Eat a big meal. Watch way too much football. And curl up with a good book.

I'm Covered!

2007-11-14T22:53:00.001-08:00

The cover and blurb for Like a Thief in the Night are up at Samhain. Yay! It even has an ISBN number. Oooh, don't I feel official.

“Like a Thief in the Night” by Bettie Sharpe

Genre: Romantic SciFi-Futuristic, Red Hots!

ISBN: 1-59998-865-8
Length: Novella
Price: 3.50
Publication Date: January 15, 2008
Cover art by Scott Carpenter

Blurb:

She’s a heartless assassin; he’s an immortal thief. In another life, they would have been lovers. In this one, he’s her target and she’s his prize.

A Strangers in the Night story.

Death comes like a thief in the night. For reclusive thief Sevastien Aniketos, death comes in the form of slinky assassin Arden Black. But Aniketos has a surprise for his would-be killer—he is immortal. And he is about to turn the tables on the pragmatic femme fatale.

Arden finds more than she bargained for when she sneaks through the window of Aniketos’s glass penthouse to take his life. The immortal thief is no victim; he’s a clever strategist who has set his sights on capturing the lethal lady and making her his own.

Trapped with a man she cannot kill, Arden slowly succumbs to Aniketos’s scheme of seduction, ceding her secrets, her loyalty, and eventually her heart. But when Arden’s wicked past catches up with her, Aniketos is faced with a choice.

An endless life without Arden, or a paltry mortal lifespan with the woman he has come to suspect he cannot live without.

Out of the Closet (a little).

2007-11-09T08:20:00.001-08:00

My mother came to visit yesterday on her way down to Oceanside. We did the usual: talk nonstop, clean my house, complain about the government, eat lunch out, buy kitchenware, paint our toenails and stay up way too late talking.

And somewhere in the middle of that packed day, I printed out a copy of Ember, handed it to her and said, "I wrote this. You can read it if you want."

She sat down and read through the pages. She smiled. She laughed. She pointed out erroneous homophones. When she was done, she said she liked it. And that she was touched that I'd dedicated it to her. And that all those other mothers who'd told her, back in the day, that the Disney versions of the fairy tales presented a less violent, less frightening message to little girls could just stick it--they didn't have books dedicated to them.

Aw. Have I mentioned that my mom rocks?

In other news, Jane at Dear Author was kind enough to give Ember a mention.

It's Official!

2007-11-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

My author information and book blurb are up on the Samhain Publishing site. I wonder what the cover will look like...

Sally Field Moment

2007-11-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to go all "You like me, you really like me!" on you, but I am over the moon that folks seem to like Ember, which is running as part of The Serial over on Bam's site. I really wasn't sure. I mean, I like it, but I generally tend to like what I've written for about a month after writing it. With a little distance, I start to notice the flaws--though even then, I'm not sure of my appraisal because I tend to be really hard on myself.

And it's not like I get all that many outside opinions on my stuff. I'm pretty secretive about my writing. To the best of my knowledge, exactly 3 people have read Ember in its entirety--and I've never met any of them face-to-face. You have no idea what a huge step it was for me to accept the opportunity to place a story on a high-traffic website like Bam's. Of course I jumped at it, but I was so nervous. And with the exception of the opening scene, the only people I've ever shown Like a Thief in the Night to are the editors at Samhain Publishing.

Obviously, I have issues. Issues which I really need to get over if I want to keep up with this writing thing.

I don't talk about my writing, I don't pass it around to friends and family asking them to read it. Actually, I don't even show it to friends and family when they ask to read it. The way I figure it, my loved ones will feel compelled to say something nice, even if, say, they usually don't like or read Romance, Fantasy, or Sci-Fi. End result: 100% of the people to whom I've dedicated my stories have not read those stories. Granted, one of those "people" is the supercute solar-powered Maneki Neko on my desk*, but the other 88.5% of those people are: my husband, my mother, my sister, my father and my best friends.

My mother reads all of the genres listed above. But who wants their mother to read stories they've written that have S-E-X in them? Eew. I'll hand my stuff over to my sister any time she asks, but she's a teenager, straining under the required reading of her college courses, and the last thing I want to do is give her another book she feels like she has to read. The toughest one is my husband, who thinks Romance novels are silly, and tends toward non-fiction and sci-fi stories with male protagonists. He's asked to read my stuff a couple of times, and I've put him off a couple of times. If he doesn't like books like mine, why would he like mine?

Like I said, I have issues.

So I'm thinking I need to get out, get together with some other writers, take a class, stop being so damned secretive--something! Because I don't like the phobia thing. It sucks to be so nervous about something I love so much.

*Yes, I really do have a story dedicated to my solar-powered lucky kitty. It's so cute!

Kate Rocks Well

2007-11-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

And she's nice, too. So maybe one day she'll forgive me for that silly play on her name. But.Srsly: Kate.Is.Awesome. Bam is too busy, like, having a Real Life or something (loser!) to run her fabu monthly contests right now. So Kate Rothwell has taken the torch and run with it. She is doing a November Contest.

The Big Secret.
(Dunh. Dunh. DUNHHHHHH!!!!)

Prizes include a $20 GC to Amazon or Samhain (If you win, pick the Samhain one and you can stock up on books by this mahvelous writer, Summer Devon.) and a button that says, "I'm a Professional Award-Winning Author".

Go forth and enter.

Ember Goes Live

2007-11-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

The first chapter of Ember is up on Bam's (a.k.a. Dionne Galace's) site. Go check it out.

Updated:
A PDF and html file of each chapter will be available on my website the day after Bam runs the chapter on her site.

Bettie, the Duchess

2007-10-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Reader(s),

Good news, y'all. The fires are out, the relatives are safely back at home (with some water issues, but, still, doable), and Yours Truly is a Duchess.

I won the title in the Smart Bitches "Guess That Lonely Heart" contest, but I feel like a bit of a scheming hussy, because I was actually the second person with the right answer--the first poster simply neglected to include the name of the book's heroine in her response.

Perhaps this makes me an evil Duchess? Woo hoo! But don't worry. I won't let it go to my head.

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, you may kiss my ring. Oh, wait, that's the Pope, isn't it? (Wouldn't it be cool if the Smart Bitches bestowed ecclesiastical titles? Cause I totally want a mitre.) I suppose a simple curtsy will have to do. (See how gracious I am?)

Hugs and kisses,

Her Grace, Bettie Sharpe...

Until Further Notice

2007-10-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

No posts this week.

We've a house full of relatives displaced by the San Diego fires. So far, their houses are safe, but very smoky and without utilities. Thousands of people weren't so lucky. The Red Cross has a special designation set up on their web pages for those want to donate money to help victims of the California Wildfires.

Short & Sweet: The Not a Review eBook Round Up! (pt. 1)

2007-10-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

I ought to get some blogging mileage out of the eBooks I've read. But, I'm lazy, and I procrastinate. Sometimes it just so difficult to put my completely arbitrary and fickle opinions in print. So here's part 1 of a round up of eBooks I've read lately--Short and Sweet. Or, pleasantly tart. Or, like aspartame , with an aftertaste that some people don't mind but other people find foul. Anyway, short.

Up this round: Natural Law by Joey W. Hill, Blackberry Pie by Bonnie Dee, Boundless by Dean, Dee, & Galace, Hunk of Burning Love by Veronica Wilde.

Natural Law, by Joey W. Hill
I've heard so very, very many good things about this book, I had to give it a try. If you've been under an even more obscure rock than the one I was under, and haven't heard of this book, I'll warn you, it's a BDSM Romance. Given that my stories tend to be a little--shall we say, violent?--you may think it strange when I say that while I found this book to be wildly romantic, I did not find it hot. Ok, maybe a little.

Thing is I'm not fond of rules in books, because that makes for a lot of 'splaining. And these BDSM people, apparently they have rules, rules, rules. Which, given the sorts of things they do with (and put into) each other is probably a very good thing. Anyway, Hill manages a pretty non-intrusive primer on the subculture her characters inhabit, but that sort of exposition is a stunt which less talented writers should not practice without benefit of a spotter and a net.

So, teh secks? Not so much. But the romance--the Romance!! Joey W. Hill rocks. The two main characters, they have to get all psychological and shit, finding each other's boundaries, and learning to trust. And there's a BDSM psycho killer on the loose. But never mind the psycho killer. It's the boundaries/trust/emotion thing going on with the protagonists that makes this book riveting, emotional, wildly romantic, and--dare I say it?--sweet. Rating: Sweet as Pure Cane(d) sugar.

Blackberry Pie by Bonnie Dee*
It takes some kind of chutzpah to set a short, sweet, hopeful romance in poverty-stricken 1930s Appalachia. And let me tell you, friends, Bonnie Dee puts the C&H in chutzpah! Not only did she set her romance in rather depressing (pun intended) era, she made it an erotic romance. And then, girlfriend made her hero a minister! Oooh. Ladies and gentleman, can the Amazing Ms Dee pull off such an astounding feat of Romance-writing daring-do?

She sure as hell can. And then some. Dee has the chops to back up her nerve. Blackberry Pie is sweet, emotional and hot. Rating: (You knew this was coming) Sweet as Pie.

Boundless, by Dean, Dee, Galace
Usually, anthologies are like a box of assorted chocolates--there's at least one you won't like. Not so, this anthology. It was like a box of Godiva Truffles, where even the confection I liked least, was still very tasty.Seven Days by Annie Dean
My favorite of the bunch was Annie Dean's Seven Days. Theresa, an aspiring nun about to take her vows when a sexy devil named Dev tries to tempt her to forgo her vows, and with them, her immortal soul. What a gem! Like Godiva's Dark Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, every element of this story came together to create a treat of pure perfection. Short stories often seem too short, but Seven Days was just right--sweet, nuanced and rich.

The Straw Man by Bonnie Dee
A thirty-something rural woman's unwitting wish transforms a scarecrow into the man of her dreams for a single night, but they want to stay together forever. Short and sweet. Despite the brief timespan of the novel, Dee manages to make the Romance believable. This one was like Godiva's Dark Chocolate Truffle. Tasty and sweet, it hit the spot.

Waking Kitty by Dionne Galace
I have to admit, I was hooked by this story way back when Bam posted the first chapter in the writing samples section of her website. When hard drinking, skeptical old fashioned reporter Jack meets pink-haired waitress Kitty, strange things start happening. The first chapter is a knockout, but the rest of the story feels rushed. Of the three, this is the story I felt should have been longer. The love story kind of gets squashed in between Kitty's journey of self-discovery and all the crazy happenings. It's kinda like Godiva's Dark Chocolate Key Lime Truffle--the delicious tartness is often too much for the thin shell of chocolate surrounding it.

Hunk of Burning Love by Veronica Wilde*
You may not know this, but I ::heart:: Elvis. And I ::superheart:: Elvis impersonators. But now that you do know this, you won't be surprised when I squee! like a thirteen year old fangirl after a pack of pixie sticks about Veronica Wilde's Hunk of Burning Love. But please don't write the book off because of my fandom. Hunk of Burning Love is a fun, well-rounded short story. You should read it. Rating:Fried Peanutbutter and banana sandwich, with honey on top. Mmmm!

Up next time: The Dragon Knight by Summer Devon, Hard to Guard by Nina Mamone and Blood Will Tell by December Quinn.

*Just to note, in addition to my usual arbitrary biases, my first novella, Like a Thief in the Night will be part of Samhain's Strangers in the Night anthology along with stories by Bonnie Dee and Veronica Wilde. For me, this is cause to celebrate because my story is appearing alongside the work of two such mahvellous writers. For you, you may decide this compromises the integrity of my review.

If so, please remember the following:

I never claimed to be impartial.
I am being honest about how much I like those books.
This is Not a Review.

Happy Dance

2007-10-17T20:38:00.001-07:00

I finally finished the WIP I've been working on for the past 3.5 weeks. Instead of running 12,000-15,000 words, Ember came in at over 31,000. That's a big baby.

Ember

Charm is a curse. Love is a fire. And this story? It's is no fairytale.

31,304 / 15,000
(208.7%)

Time to take it off the old WIP board.

I spent more time on it than I'd planned, but I don't regret it. Ember was sitting on my hard drive at 1,500 words for at least a year. I just could not motivate myself to write it for sale. But once I started writing for fun and web content, the story just took off.

Perhaps the reason for my hesitation was that I have a longer story set in the same world that I like better. The other story, Rohais is also first person narrated. I was beginning to think the narrative voices of the two main characters were a bit too similar. The funny thing is, now that the story is finished, I don't think Ember sounds too much like Rohais.

So, what have I learned.

Writing is fun.
I do not need the motivation of a deadline to finish a story (but it helps).
I shouldn't talk myself out of stories I haven't written yet. Maybe the things I'm worried about won't be a problem.
Some stories run longer than you think they will, and that's OK.

Look for Ember in November.

Excerpt: Ember

2007-10-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

If you were wondering which fairytale I ripped off and ripped up to write Ember, this excerpt should answer your question.
____________________________

I was not surprised when, scarcely nine months after my mother’s death, my father returned from one of his buying trips with a cartload of second-rate silks and a new wife. I wasn’t angry, either. He was the sort of man who needed a wife. He needed stability, love and care. He needed someone to remind him to eat in the mornings and to take him to bed at night.

When I saw the carriage trailing his cart, I’d high hopes of his new wife. But then he told me she was a beautiful, impoverished noblewoman. He called her a delicate flower who needed his care. He told me his new wife had two daughters just my age, and he promised we would be the best of friends.

My father herded half a dozen footmen out to hold the horses, set up the stairs and open the door so he could help his new wife down from the carriage. Her hand preceded her from the dark interior. It was delicate and powdered white, gilded with a filigree of rings and bracelets. Her fingernails were varnished pink. The stones in her many rings twinkled prettily in the sunlight, but I knew they were glass.

My stepmother’s foot followed next. She wore shoes of gaudy pink satin, frayed at the toes, studded with dull glass gems, and capped by a spindly wooden heel that would barely support its wearer from one end of her bedchamber to the other. I do not mean to be cruel when I say this, only factual: I knew her for a whore before I ever saw her face.

...She paused when she saw me, and I couldn’t blame her. I knew what I looked like—my cold expression, my red hair and freckled skin, my black eyes smoldering like hot coals. Her eyes flicked to the torches flanking our door, noting, I am sure, the way the flames yearned toward me though the wind urged them in the opposite direction.

Her face tightened beneath its façade of paint. Her white-powdered hand wavered on the verge of greeting me. In that moment, she realized my father’s tales of an innocent, biddable daughter were spun from the same wishful imagination that had let him believe her to be a noblewoman, and to believe the two hard-eyed whores (scarcely a decade her junior) who peered out of the carriage behind her were her daughters.

“Step-mamá!” I greeted her, taking her shoulders and kissing her powdered cheeks. My lips came away white with a mixture of lead and lard, but it was worth it for the expression of surprise that crossed her face. When my father wasn’t looking, I wiped my mouth on the cuff of my velvet sleeve.

“Come inside, let me show you and my new sisters our home. I know we shall be ever so happy together!”

With my father’s help, the three women wrestled their threadbare satin skirts and listing panniers up the stairs and into the house. I showed them to the parlor, which still stank faintly of burned flesh, and directed my new step mama to sit in my mother’s blue leather chair.

“I just knew you four would get along,” my father said, beaming from the doorway. I hadn’t seen him so happy since before my mother’s illness. “I’ll leave you ladies to get acquainted while I see to the unloading of my latest shipment of fine textiles.”

My new stepmother’s lips parted on a word as the door swung shut. I think she was going to say, “Wait.”

I smiled, pleased as a spider to have so many flies trapped in my parlor. I winked at the hearth and it roared to life, shooting flames up the chimney and sparks onto the rug. The candles followed, lighting all at once.

“Please don’t hurt us!” One of my new stepsisters pleaded. Despite her shopworn satin and powdered hair, she suddenly looked young and frightened.

“We didn’t know,” said the other. “We didn’t know Master Drayman’s daughter was a Wise Woman.”

“A witch,” I corrected, smiling wide to show my teeth.

EXCELlent Freebie: 70 Days of Sweat Multi-Project Word Count Tracker

2007-10-15T01:48:00.000-07:00

If you haven't signed up for the 70 Days of Sweat challenge, go have a look. It's kinda like NaNoWriMo, except, not a month, not so intense, and more focussed on quality output. OK, so it's not like NaNo. And that's not a bad thing.

Last time around, I made a handy, dandy spreadsheet to track my progress. This round, I'm making that spreadsheet available to anyone who wants to use it. If you don't mind a teensy bit of shameless self promotion, hop on over to my website and download a copy. If you don't have Microsoft Excel, go to OpenOffice.org and download their Office suite. It's Free! The OpenOffice Calc program reads Excel files (and the Writer program is a great word processor).

Tall Order

2007-10-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

When I try to recall the Romance novels I've read from the eighties they blur into this weird image of a hydra-headed chimera of asshole billionaires, white savages and pirates--all somehow depicted by Fabio--forcibly seducing a veritable secretarial pool full of foot-stamping, head-tossing, chin-lifting virginal heroines. And, I seem to recall, that for most of those asshole billionaires/white savages/pirate princes, "tall" was 6' or maybe 6'2".

Lately, though, I can't seem to find a Romance hero under 6'4". And don't even get me started on paranormal romances, where the heroes remind me of that episode of Gilligan's Island where the castaways found a box of radio-active seeds and inadvertently grew giant versions of garden variety vegetables. In paranormal, it seems, there isn't a hero under 6'6".

To which I say WTF?! Heroes have gotten super-tall, but heroines have remained small and feisty. Whenever I see such a pairing in print, I imagine the heroine as a fluffy Pomeranian (not unlike my current favorite TV dog, Mr. Muggles) yapping around the hero's feet. If authors are going to keep writing giant-sized heroes, they could, at the very least, make their heroines a few inches taller, too?

Wrap It Up

2007-10-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

Updating my WIP list, both here (right) and on my website, I noticed something: I have 9 viable stories on the ol' hard drive, of which I have finished exactly 2 --two! dos! deux! ni!. I've had good luck with both of my finished stories. Like a Thief in the Night will be released by Samhain in January, 2008. And the editor who rejected Bright said she liked it, but thought it would work better as a longer story (a sentiment with which I totally agree. Keeping that story to novella-length was a bitch and a half. I like it better as a short novel.)

But, really. Just two finished stories? Out of over 200,000 words? That is some lousy track record. The problem with being a seat-of-the-pants writer is that the writing is only fun when I don't know what's going to happen. Three of the remaining seven other stories on my hard drive are in, or very close to, their final chapters. And that's when it gets tough. Writing to find out what happens next, that takes no discipline. But writing when you know what's going to happen. That starts feeling like work. ::sigh::

But, I do suppose that if I ever want to realize my childhood dream of becoming the biracial, American Barbara Cartland, I'm gonna have to pull up my socks and get down to work.

Validate Me

2007-10-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

Today was kinda tough. I was feeling kinda run down with the job. The writing is wrapping up to the point where I'm pretty sick of the story, but it still needs some polishing. And then Google Reader (my preciousss) serves me up the following link courtesy of editor Laurie at grammargeek:

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct.

It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors.
If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs.
As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human.
And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

For the record, despite what the all-knowing test thingy says, I am not a grammar fascist. I mess that stuff up all the time. But, oh, how I adore a good multiple choice quiz. Once again, I feel validated. (For the record, I also aced this NSFW quiz. And people said I'd never use my history degree. hah!)

Can't Talk. Writing.

2007-10-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

Can't talk. Writing. In the mean time, please enjoy this photo of the palm tree in our back yard. It used to be rather scary and disreputable-looking. There were likely all manner of yucky little creatures living in its beard of dead fronds. But we got it trimmed--a palm tree make-over! And now, it's practically iconic.

I used to think every Californian had at least two of the following plants in their yards: roses (blooming through January, natch), citrus tree(s), palm tree(s), avocado, Bermuda grass (not necessary, but it's unavoidable).

But, palm trees and Bermuda grass excepted, none of those plants are drought-tolerant. And we are in a drought. Which means I ought to get out and enjoy my roses before they're gone, gone, gone.

I'm a Geek

2007-09-26T23:34:00.000-07:00

Desperate for content, I'm writing a "free read" for my website. I'd originally envisioned a short story of 9k-12k words. And, knowing me, I'd figured it would come in just south of 15K. Today I hit 14,900 and I still have a chapter (or two) to go. I've officially upgraded the thing from a "free read" to a "free eBook". Kinda like the Free ebook challenge PBW did last year. I wonder if she'll do it again this year?

Anywhoo, being the complete and utter geek that I am, I decided to spend my daily recommended allotment of procrastination making a cover for my eBook in progress. So here it is. I even paid for the images I used, all nice and royalty-free legal ($1 each!).

I'm kinda iffy about the teaser text, which currently reads: She paid the price of magic to escape the curse of love. A bit melodramatic, but so is the story, what with the finger-chopping, and all (what can I say? I've seen one too many yakuza movies.).

So, what do ya think?

Shamless Photo Opportunity

2007-09-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last, I was working on my tan. Now, I'm staring out at rain. Rain! In September! Usually things are on fire right about now. I can't complain, though. We need the rain. But I can look back on...the way we were.

Actually, I'm just looking for an opportunity to post a few pictures I took this summer.

Here be Dragons
My husband and I were driving through Chinatown a couple of weeks ago and we passed this dragon troupe finishing up their day. The troupe was spread out over a whole block. The second picture is the stragglers at the rear. They looked a little tired, and I can't blame them. It was hot!

Despite the heat, it was a beautiful day to be in downtown. The air was very clear and the sky seemed as high and wide as my imagination would allow.

I like to joke about the smog, but the sad fact is, in the summer it often hangs around and gives everything a dingy brown cast.
I'm sure that smog is doing something awful to my lungs, but the good days remind me why I couldn't live anywhere else.

Every time I look at this picture (left), I'm amazed it was taken in Downtown LA during late summer--and I took it!

Shoutouts
Shoutout to Kate who reminded me that I'd best get blogging. I was unexpectedly out of town this week and busy, busy, busy. But that's no reason to neglect the blog.

I've also been spending my downtime (Travel is great for downtime. Thanks, TSA!) writing a freebie story for my website which the lovely and talented Dionne Galace (a.k.a. Bam, who Swears It's Not Chick Porn) will debut on her site (thanks!).

But here's the problem with doing the author website thing: I have to walk my talk. I love it when an author includes one or two short stories on their web site amongst the usual excerpts and multi-paragraph teasers. Which means, I need to write a complete story for my site.

Write Now
I started up last weekend, and I'm 11,500 words into a 12k to 15k story called "Ember". Problem is, the damned thing's running long. I always start off worried about making my word count, and end up running over it. So I'm editing. I firmly believe you should "Kill Your Darlings" but they're so hard to kill when you only wrote them a day or two ago.

I think I need to find a writing/critique group.

In addition to the writing, I'm reading Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest, who Kate linked to a few days back (see what you did?). I finished the previous book, Four and Twenty Blackbirds before I even got back to town. I was kicking myself for only packing the first one. At the time, I thought I wouldn't even have time to finish Blackbirds, but I forgot that a good book makes you make time for it--usually at the expense of sleep.

This just occurred to me: Rainy weekends are perfect for reading and writing. I think I like the rain, now.

Go to Your Happy Place

2007-09-13T00:18:00.000-07:00

I love being a California kid. Granted, the waters pictured are the pristine currents of Malibu, and not the seedy shores of Venice where, as a child, I whiled away many an afternoon, sun-browned and bored off my gourd asking "Please can we go home now?"

In the summer, when Venice and the former People's Republic of Santa Monica were overrun with tourists, I would stare at those plump, ruddy Midwesterners, and sun-shaded, be-visored Japanese tour groups and wonder why in the world people would want to spend their summer vacations here.

People from other places think that summer is the best time to go to the beach. And, sure, it ain't bad. But every California kid knows that the best, Best, BEST time to go to the beach is a hot day in September. The tourists have all gone home, the sun is hot, the breeze is cool, and the water is ice cold.

On a hot day in September, you can have the beach all to yourself. The view for which rich folks pay millions (over and over again--those houses tend to wash away) can be yours for the price of the gas it takes to get there.

Those ugly toes in the picture are mine. And so, for a few hours, was that lovely stretch of beach.

I wonder what the weather will be like this weekend?

A place where nobody dared to go / the love that we came to know / They call it Xanadu ...

2007-09-12T01:27:00.000-07:00

Like the movie (or the Broadway musical) taught us, everybody loves a muse. And if everybody loves a muse, how does everybody feel about five muses? Pretty damn good (love is a geometric progression, yaknow?). So check this out: five scorching hot writers (including my partners in crime for Samhain Publishing's forthcoming Strangers in the Night anthology, the lovely and talented Bonnie Dee and Veronica Wilde) have formed up a blog called Erotic Muses, and they're having a contest to celebrate.

Each writer will give a copy of one of her eBooks to the winner. That's five free eBooks, y'all. Here's what you can do to enter:

Click the link.
Read this week's entries.
Answer questions about the entries.

Good luck!

What Can HD Do for You?

2007-09-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

It had to happen sooner or later--my darling hubby, who is both an electronics geek and a frugal buyer, finally found an HDTV that met his exacting tech standards and skinflint budgeting requirements. I was happy for him, but I didn't think having a brand new 52" HDTV would change my life much. Boy, was I wrong.

HDTV is the biggest boost my self-esteem has had since that summer when I was 19 and I got approached by three casting scouts in the same week (a week later, I found that two just wanted to pick up on me, but until then, I was floating.) .

Here's the thing: Everyone looks bad in HD. Everyone.

Well, not bad, per se, but real. Average. Not so different from you or me. Brad Pitt has a rough road map of little lines on his face--not the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, but definitely a small city with a complex transportation infrastructure and a pothole problem. Cate Blanchette has freckles and little lines (that only make me love her more). And the cast of Lost? They really do look like they've been trapped on a desert island with no sunblock. Or, at the very least, they look their ages.

Thanks to HD, I have seen wrinkles, freckles, under-eye bags, stray hairs, secret moles, scars, thick make-up and camouflaged break-outs on people who previously looked flawless. Now, when I look in the mirror, I don't feel so bad about the little lines I notice starting in my forehead and around my eyes, the fading scars from the "teenage" acne I didn't outgrow until after college, or the smattering of stationary moles/freckles across my cheeks. People who are professionally good-looking have all those flaws and more.

Modern technology has well and truly revealed the Hollywood glamor machine for the fragile facade it is. Thanks, HD!

I DO Has Internets!

2007-09-07T01:47:00.000-07:00

Whew! My new and improved web page has arrived. I spent my free time today making graphics and slapping together pages. All in all, I think it ain't bad for a day's work.

I went with a film noir / pulp novel theme, because that's what I'm interested in, lately. I reserve the right to change my mind.

Go check it out!
www.bettiesharpe.com

I Can Has Internets?

2007-09-06T00:42:00.001-07:00

My editor (God, that's so fun to write!) wrote today with a bazillion attachments and groups and such, including instructions on how to write my Samhain Publishing author bio (squee!). No surprises there, but I listed my website, which, currently, is, well, just an address with this picture.

Like it? I drew it myself to commemorate The Cutest Haircut Ever. When my husband saw the cut, he said, "You look like an anime character." Which I, loving anime the way I do, took as a compliment. And inspiration.

Only problem is, the Cutest Haircut Ever was hell to maintain. As much as I like to picture myself as the sort of woman who will straighten/style her hair and apply makeup every day, I just ain't her. So I'm curly again. I ran to the hairdresser waving the goth-flapper spread from American Vogue's 8 lb. September's issue over my head like a battle flag and Oswaldo turned me into a less frizzy, biracial, supertall Clara Bow. My neck looks twelve miles long. I should draw a new picture.

But all that's beside the point. The point is...What was the point? Oh, yeah: I Have To Get My Web Page in Shape!!! Don't know why I haven't already, except, you know, a glaring lack of content. But I has web chops (used to do the design thing during college, back in the dot.com era. But didn't everyone?) and a copy of PhotoShop, and I knows how to use 'em.

The only thing standing between me and a semi-decent web home is...my complete and utter lack of inspiration. I'm still super-keen on my girly-girl blog graphic (the flower, BTW, is Foxglove, so it's not too saccharine) but I feel like my web presence needs to be about something.

So I started asking myself:

What's your style as a Romance writer? Um. Villains are people, too?

What themes do your current stories and WIPs have in common?
Sex! Violence! Explosions! Sly references to classic Hollywood films. Everything and the kitchen sink!

It wasn't until much later, when I was extolling the virtues of John Woo's Hard Boiled to my HK Cinema-deprived little sis ("...and then, after the villain sets the hospital on fire and his henchmen shoot people in wheelchairs, Hot-Young-Chow-Yun-Fat has to save the babies. And then the baby pees on him!") that I realized where I'd snatched my winking "everything and the kitchen sink" aesthetic from.

Cue the angels singing...Ahhh-ahhh-AHHHH

I want to be the John Woo of Romance Novels!

What the fuck-all this has to do with a web page, I don't know. But I'll figure something out.

Also, have I mentioned? I'm drunk. Tipsy. Glass and a half of white wine with dinner. I'm a cheap date, not an alkie. Really.

Accent Confusion

2007-09-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about accents. Namely, how to write characters that have them. Writers usually indicate a character's accent in the following ways.

Phonetic Approximation
When authors reproduce the sound of accented words, which leads to French characters saying things like, zee instead of "the" and Scottish characters mispronouncing every word that isn't a Scottishism like "Och!" "Lassie," or "ken".
Foreign Phrases
Authors often sprinkle a character's words with non-English phrases. For example, French characters will say things like, "Mon Dieu! He is a spy. We must inform Le Resistance!" And Russian characters will say "Das Vidanya ." when they leave.

But here's the thing. I know or have known people whose first languages are Spanish, French, Hatian Patois, Russian, Georgian, Czech, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese. None of these people sprinkle their English-language speech with words from their native language. If anything, it's the other way around, as I often hear English phrases mixed into their conversations with family and same-language friends.

Aside from the phonetic differences in pronunciation, In my experience the thing that distinguishes a non-native English speaker is sentence construction, and, sometimes, gendered pronouns. For example, a native Spanish-speaker might say, "I dreamt with..." instead of "I dreamt of..." because "Dreamt with" is a direct translation of the Spanish construction, "Soñar con...".

I much prefer to use word choice and sentence construction when portraying an accent, but the problem is, the reader may be unfamiliar with these cues. Which I guess is why so many authors use phonetic approximation or foreign phrases. What to do?

Where There's Smoke

2007-08-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

There is something graceful about the silver curl of smoke across a black and white screen. Marlene Deitrich's leisurely exhale wreathed her beautiful face in a haze of smoke and mystery. Bogart and Bacall's side-by-side cigarettes at the end of The Big Sleep hinted at what happened when the screen faded to black.

Hollywood spent years glamorizing cigarettes, and even after they stopped, the images cigarette companies paid to produce live on in some of our most cherished films. Parents ranted and railed about Joe Camel when I was a kid, but it wasn't a poorly animated spokes-dromedary that prompted me to pick up a smoke when I "grew up" and left for college. It was Marlene Dietrich, Myrna Loy, Lauren Bacall and a hundred other golden-age actors (most of whom died of lung cancer).

Yes, classic films made me smoke.

About fifty percent of college students who take up smoking quit, and I was fortunate enough to be one of them. I had a brief relapse a year after graduating when I fell in with chain-smoking Europeans (my French friend's secret to keeping her perfect size 6? "Eat less, smoke more."). But smoking is lethal, expensive, and stinky. And I hated the idea of being an addict.

Smartass and I have been watching Mad Men, AMC's new show about advertising executives in 1960. I'm still not sure whether I like it, but one thing I think is genius is the way the show makes smoking look disgusting by constantly depicting smoking. Instead of the silver-screen glamor of Hollywood, Mad Men shows the way ordinary people smoked. Characters smoke while driving, while eating, while pregnant. Doctors smoke during exams, office workers smoke at their desks. It's positively awful. And, I'm told, completely accurate.

Lately, I've been thinking about smoking, and my experience as a smoker versus the glamorous image I still have in my head. In my writing, I often use smoking to indicate a character's self-destructive tendencies. When I'm writing urban fantasy or paranormals, many of my immortal characters smoke. And they look good doing it.

I have my doubts as to whether or not this is OK. When Buffy and Angel didn't use protection on Buffy the Vampire Slayer angry parents lambasted the creator, Joss Whedon. Whedon's response was, the show is fiction. Angel was undead, for goodness sake! People know the difference between fiction and reality.

But that was sex, and this is smoking. Given the power that glamorous images have in our society, is it ethical for a writer to glamorize smoking, even in impossible, clearly fictitious circumstances?

The Russians! The Headbands! The Swayze!

2007-08-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

I love my husband so much! Who else would watch the gun-loving, 1984 Cold War invasion fantasy Red Dawn with me while drinking White Russians and drink every time one of the characters said, "Don't Cry!" or, "I love you, man!"

If you have ever seen this pinnacle of Reagan-era propaganda, you will know that Smartass and I were pretty hung over the next day, as the rag-tag group of guerilla-fighting teenagers often exhorted each other to not cry or "never cry again!" and, they loved each other in a completely heterosexual way. ("I love you, man!").

Red Dawn also featured Jennifer Grey as a traumatized girl who had maybe been sodomized by rapacious Russian forces (the movie never comes out and says it, but Grey's character has a violent reaction to the common eighties phrase, "man, who put that stick up your ass". Heavy.) which led to a number of drunken "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!" jokes (Yes, I really am that lame) when Grey broke out the RPG and started taking out Russian tanks like a pro.

Oh, how I love that movie! Why haven't I seen it before now? Oh, yeah, cause nobody would watch crappy Swayze movies with me. Which is why my hubby rocks.

Next up in the Drunken Swayze Film Series: Next of Kin and Moonshine. Or maybe just beer.

Bad to the Bone

2007-08-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

A confession: When I watch an action movie, a soap opera, or an anime, my favorite character is often not the hero or heroine, it's the villain. It's not that I've got a thing for maniacally laughing megalomaniacs who want to take over and/or destroy the world. It's just that the good guys are often so...boring.

Just think about it. In Disney cartoon musicals, who usually has the great big, catchy show-stopping numbers? The peppy sidekicks and the villains. In soap operas, when the good characters get it on, the background music is smooth jazz. But when villains knock teh boots they get electric guitar. In anime, the villain always has the most flamboyant clothes. Epaulettes, capes, helmets, breastplates, codpieces, lycra and thigh-high boots--all in the same outfit. What's not to love?

Heroes and heroines do things for noble, selfless reasons. Villains do things because they want to. And really, admit it, who is your favorite character on Dynasty? Krystle or Alexis? Who was your favorite character on Melrose Place, Allison or Amanda? Not only do villains have shorter skirts and jauntier hats, they just plain have more fun.

A lot of readers like bad boy heroes, but what about the heroines? Do they have to be nice? And if they're not nice, do they have to feel guilty about it?

This is Not a Review: E-Books Ahoy!

2007-08-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

Skin to Skin by Dionne Galace
Dionne Galace (aka Bam of It's Not Chick Porn) has been entertaining me for quite some time with her hilarious and highly-entertaining blog posts. So when her novella "Skin to Skin" came out, buying it was pretty much automatic. The woman is funny, and the writing samples on her site are intriguing, too.

Full Disclosure: Bam's having a contest, and anyone who links to her site is eligible to win. Which is what inspired me to get off my ass and write a Not a Review.

Synopsis: In the midst of a San Diego heatwave, Leilani lusts after her neighbor Oliver, and his big, enticing swimming pool. Ollie's recovering from a bullet wound in a sensitive region, and Leilani's skimpy outfits and blatant overtures are making him very uncomfortable.

So here's what I liked about it:
1) Biracial Heroine, yay! Honestly, we brown girls just love to see brown girls in print--especially when those brown girls are hot and self-confident. Also, Leilani is the sort of heroine who knows what she wants and goes for it.
2) Fun, contemporary writing style. Can I tell you how many novels I've read where the characters are in their mid-twenties, but talk like forty-year olds? Actually, I can't. It happens so often, I've lost count. The characters in Skin to Skin actually sound like post Gen X soCal residents. And as a post-GenX soCal resident, I appreciate and applaud that.
3) Hot! Skin to Skin has hot weather, a hot hero, and hot hot hot love love scenes.
Here's what I didn't like about it:
a) Too short. I think that's my complaint about both of the novellas in this installment of "This is Not a Review". Too. Damn. Short.
b) Not a whole lot of character development going on. But, hey, it's a novella. See item "a" above: Too. Damn. Short.
c) The word "weeping" used as an adjective for an organ other than the eye. Personal pet peeve. The fact that I kept reading past it proves point 3, above: Hot!

Rating: Everstar 8000 BTU Portable Air-Conditioner. Just the thing to cool off after a hot read.

Learning Charity by Summer Devon
I think I've read most or all of Summer Devon's (aka Kate R's) ebooks. And every one of her books has had really great characters. Learning Charity is really damn short, but Devon does a great job of fleshing out her characters and making them likable. I don't know how she does it. Maybe I need to read the novella again, for research. Purely academic research. And not because this novella is H-O-T. Even though it is. Really. Hot.

Synopsis: In nineteenth century England, Charity is a daughter of the gentry fallen on hard times. Forced to make her living as Cherry the whore, she is less than enthusiastic about the duties of her profession until she meets American, Elliot Stevens.

What I liked:
1) Devon's got chops. Her writing style is always engaging, even in this very short story. Her afore-mentioned talent for characters gives the story an emotional depth I didn't expect from a short story.
2) I believe I may have mentioned this a time or two in my intro: Hot.
What I didn't like:
a) Too. Damn. Short. Really. Learning Charity is basically a one-set, one-act play. I wouldn't have minded seeing the characters in different scenes and circumstances.

Rating: How did people keep cool back in the old days? Painted fans and lemonade. This read gets 3 Fans (One for each hand, and a very agile foot.) And a straw so you can drink your lemonade. You'll need it.

I've got a couple more ebooks on the old hard drive, so, if you like arbitrary non-reviews, watch this space for: Natural Law by Joey W. Hill, Blackberry Pie by Bonnie Dee.

Falling Between the Crack

2007-08-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

"Mommy, mommy, why are those two circles kissing?"

"Well, honey, when two or more circles love each other very much, they get married and form a Venn Diagram."

Am I the only romance reader who plays video games? Or maybe I'm the only romance reader who plays the sort of cheesy, button-mashing action games that read like they were thought up by a focus group of stoned 14 year old boys.

Or maybe I'm just the only one geeky enough to make a diagram about it.

Point is, I saw this:

And immediately thought of this:

If you don't play video games, please trust me when I say that this game is not exactly the highpoint of the modern video game experience. The plot reads like fan fiction based on a corporate-sponsored Saturday morning cartoon; the hero levels up with strange new powers toward the end; it features both a tormented, brooding quasi-demonic hero with major mother issues and a scantily clad vixen with mysterious intentions who somehow reminds the hero of his mother.

Actually, I guess the two entertainment products aren't so dissimilar, after all.

Aww. Don't be hatin', cause I'm not. You know I love the cheesy goodness. I kid, because I love.

Rock Star

2007-08-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

Now, I'm not one of those people who will forgive R. Kelly every pervy thing just cause the man can write a good song. Nope. "R" isn't getting another cent of my money. Damn, but the man does turn out some good songs. If you ever see R.Kelly songs on my hard drive, you can report me to the FBI because I will have pirated those tracks.

So anyway, I was listening to "Rockstar" and I caught this line: "The way we f*ck gonna lead to child birthin'." Now, R always veers into TMI when he's trying to be sexy, and I've always found that amusing. But there isn't a damn thing sexy or amusing about that line. If a guy said that to me in the bedroom, I would pull up my pants and run away. Fast.

Is it a symptom of these modern times we live in that the thought of sex for procreative purposes totally turns me off? I guess I see how other people might think it's romantic. The miracle of birth and all that shit. But not me. Maybe it's just the stage of my life I'm in right now? The stage where I like having disposable income and sleeping in on Saturdays?

I have jumped off buildings and cliffs, hurled myself down the side of snowy mountains, rafted rivers, raced on galloping stallions without the proper headgear, and engaged in all sorts of risky behavior for the thrill of it, but sex without birth control? Nah-uh.

A Thousand Words to Tell the Tale

2007-08-11T02:39:00.001-07:00

The pawnbroker used a short stepladder to reach the silver-framed photograph I'd asked for. He held it two-handed as he stood atop the ladder and didn't let go, even when the ladder wobbled as he descended to the floor.

He let loose a shaky rattle of a breath when the slick soles of his scuffed loafers settled on the beige-flecked tile of terra firma, but he kept the frame clasped to his chest. Like it was worth something. Like it wasn't just some cheap family tchochke great aunt Amity's junkie nephew had stolen and pawned to get a fix.

In this neighborhood, the drugs changed, but the story never did.

"How much?"

"It's hard to say." The pawnbroker scratched his liver-spotted scalp with one careful finger, as if he still had hair and was afraid of messing it up.

"There's a tag on it, ain't there?"

He flipped the frame over and squinted at the yellowed bit of paper pasted on the black cardboard flap stand. The old man squinted at the hand-written price, but I could read it just fine.

"Fifty cents. I'll take it."

"Not so fast." He held out a hand, like the Supremes telling me to Stop! In the Name of Love, but he couldn't get his knobby elbow straight. The palm of his big-knuckled hand was crisscrossed with more lines than a Los Angeles freeway map.

I wondered if he’d ever had his palm read. I imagined the fortune-teller—some turban-topped charlatan with kohl gumming up the wrinkles round her rheumy eyes, and a sham accent that sounded like a cross between Bela Lugosi and Pepe LePew.

“You vill die young,” she would have said, her smoker’s wheeze adding a shadow of death to an otherwise rote recitation of impending doom. “I see it in your lifeline, yes?” She stabs her stubby finger into the center of his hand like she means to pound it through to the table beneath. “Very short.”

He would have laughed it off. I could see him as a young man, thick hair slicked back, blue eyes bright with confidence—no, arrogance. He would have been a looker. Before his wrinkled lids started to sag like curtains falling on an empty stage, he would have had bedroom eyes.

He would have been the kind of man who made you think he could see through your clothes when he looked at you across the room. And then the flash of smile, the slow wink when he caught your glare that made you think he was mischievous instead of perverted. That made you think it might not be so bad if he did see you naked.

He still used that look now, only it didn’t work with wrinkles and false teeth. He’d given me that look when I walked into the store, and I’d curved my hand into a fist at my side because I’d wanted to slap the smile off his face. Stupid old perv.

But then I’d seen the photograph, faded gray in a tarnished silver frame. It was sitting in a decade of dust on the shelf above the brass-backed cash register. I’d asked for it, and held my breath as he’d hobbled up the old stepladder to retrieve it.

Which brings me back to now. And the old perv telling my tits—and, by association, me—that the price was higher than what the tag said.

“Five dollars.” His hand still wavered in the air above the counter, like he’d forgotten it was there.

“Nah-uh.” I shook my head. “State law says you got to charge the prices as marked.”

“I haven’t hand-priced a damned thing in this store for twenty years. The price on the tag’s just out of date.”

“That’s your problem. I’ll give you fifty cents.”

He raised his chin so he could look up at my face from beneath those hound-dog wrinkles. “What do you want it for, anyway? The frame’s silver-plate, and the people in the photo are ugly.”

“Some salesman you are.”

“Just curious.”

I shrugged. “I’m a writer. I collect things—pieces of other people’s lives. It helps me imagine stories.”

“And this picture?”

Too late, I saw where he was going. “It’s interesting.”

“Is it worth a thousand words?”

“I try to stay away from clichés. Bad for business, you know?”

“Like writer’s block is bad for business?” His cloudy eyes narrowed. “You’re out walking after dark in this neighborhood. It snowed last night, and the wind is cold enough to freeze the slush to solid ice right now. It’s a good night to be inside, writing.”

“It’s invigorating. I like the cold air.”

“And the crime.”

“That, too.”

“Come off it. You want the picture or not?”

“Sure.” I reached into my pocket. “Here’s fifty cents.”

“Nah-uh.” The non-word negative sounded strange coming out of his mouth. Childish, and just a little mean. “Words are tough to come by right now. How much would you pay for a thousand ‘em?”

I pulled out my wallet and slapped down a five. “All right. Five dollars.”

He just let the bill lay there like the half-dead rat a cat brings in when it’s feeling generous and wants to share. The cat thinks it’s impressive, but all you can think about is the best way to get the rat into the trash without touching it.

“Ten dollars.”

I glanced over at the photo. A stern-faced mother with a fresh permanent in her graying hair and a too-tight rayon dress stared out of the frame like a Vaudevillian staring down a heckler. A little girl with a square jaw sat in a wicker chair beside her. The girl was an unwilling, unlikely Shirley Temple; sturdy and solemn, smothered in bows and ruffles, her thin hair tortured into limp curls.

There was a story here.

I slapped down another five and snatched the frame.

“A thousand words,” he yelled as I rushed out through the grubby glass door and into the cold, dark night.

Bettie's EXCELlent Adventure

2007-08-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

Or, how I went totally OCD on my 70 Days of Sweat Word Count Tracking Sheet. Observe:

My OCD 70 Days of Sweat Tracking Sheet has the following features:

Allows tracking of multiple Works in Progress
Provides word count totals for each WIP by 70 Days of Sweat check-in date.
Provides Total Word Count as a sum of all WIP word counts for each 70 Days of Sweat check-in date
Provides total word count for each WIP (see below)
Provides total word count for 70 Days of Sweat (see below)
Contains snazzy If/Then statements to ensure it only displays totals when new words have been added.
Color-coded by week in soothing pastel shades.

Concerned coworkers, friends and family have suggested that I might be a little too "into" spreadsheets. Perhaps they're right. But just wait until you see the PowerPoint show I'm working on... ;oP

This is Not a Review: Wired by Liz Maverick

2007-08-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

Wired, by Liz Maverick
Other people who have read this book--people who write actual reviews and not just arbitrary judgments, como yo --have noted that this book really isn't a romance, and I agree. Wired is more of a Sci-Fi adventure than it is a romance--not that there's anything wrong with that. Except, of course, that if a book is billed as a romance, other readers might expect it to be about, you know, romance.

Synopsis: Roxanne is walking to 7-11 one night when two men appear in the street and start fighting with each other--over her. One of them is Mason Merrick, Roxanne's old roommate's hot ex boyfriend, and the other is Leonardo Kayser, a suave Englishman of dubious moral virtue. Mason and Leonardo are "wire-crossers" from the future who can reroute events in the past to alter the reality of the present. Both men want a piece of code that our girl Rox hasn't even written yet.

Roxanne feels some attraction for both men, but there's never any doubt as to who she'll end up with. And, as most of the story revolves around Roxy's attempts to understand the whole wire-crossing thing and take charge of her destiny, there's not so much room for romance, anyway.

Maverick's writing style is fast-paced and engaging. Roxanne is a likable first-person narrator but the story suffers from some of the common downfalls of first-person POV: a vague sense of setting and secondary characters that never really come to life. The story was a good read, and though the narrative pulled me along, it never quite pulled me in.

Wired made for great vacation reading, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for the paperback equivalent of a mid-tier summer action movie.

Rating: On a scale of 2007 Summer Action Movies, with Fantastic 4 being the worst and The Bourne Ultimatum being the best, Wired, by Liz Maverick would be...

Live Free or Die Hard:
(Not quite what I expected, but with this much fast-paced action, who cares?)

A Man, A Plan, A Canal -- Panama!

2007-08-04T02:48:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with Panama. I just like palindromes.
________________________

About 11 months ago, I wrote a post about a story that was almost finished. It was the Original "The Bitter End". That story, the "Untitled Sci-fi" is very close to finished. But I still haven't finished it. It's one of the stories that I mapped out and outlined before I got in touch with my inner seat-of-the-panster. Maybe that's why I'm having no luck finishing it--there's no suspense left in the writing.

In the time since I wrote that post, I've written two short stories, and started on a full-length novel about which I am very excited. But my "Untitled Sci-fi" nags at me. So here's my goal: I will finish that story by August 28, 2007 -- a year to the day that I first complained about it.

From the Road

2007-08-04T02:20:00.000-07:00

My Darling Smartass caught me at my laptop this morning and said, "I wonder which one of us has worked more on this vacation?" This made me laugh, because, excepting those stressful hours when I was trying to get "Burning Bright" sent, I haven't worked at all. He, on the other hand, has to tug the umbilical tether back to the office at least once a day just to make sure the place hasn't exploded.

"What are you doing now?" He asks. "Why are you awake early, on vacation*, to type on your laptop?"

"Oh this?" Says I. "I just figured out the answer to a problem I've been muddling over with my latest story."

"Work," he declares, crossing his arms and looking all pleased. Looking like he's right, or something.

"No," I say. "I don't wake up early for work*. This is fun."

And you know what? It is fun.

* Italics totally not added. We're a tad melodramatic.

Always Bet on Black...

2007-08-02T17:55:00.000-07:00

Eh. Who am I kidding? Cheap, tacky grouch that I am, I much prefer the Elvis slot machines and the Scrabble (tm) $0.05 slots. I am, amazingly enough, blogging from the road. From Fabulous Las Vegas, to be exact.

I had a rough couple days of it trying to finish "Burning Bright," but clocked it in at somewhere north of 27K words in the car on Tuesday. But then...the $12.95 per day/per computer hotel wi-fi fritzed, and gmail had some issues, and the promised "modem features" on our all-thing phone devices did not live up to the hype. I think my heart stopped. I got it sent, though. Badly.

My darling Smartass is smart with more than just verbal quips, and finally got the all-thing phones to live up to their promises. So here I am, blogging from my laptop, hooked through the phone. The hotel wi-fi still doesn't work. I will definitely be disputing that charge at check out.

Books I'm Reading by the Pool

The Bitter End Again and Again

2007-07-28T20:52:00.001-07:00

I've been here before. I'd hoped it wouldn't be like this. I'd hoped that this would get better with practice. I'm five thousand words from the end of the short story I'm trying to finish, and putting words on the page is like pulling teeth--my own.

But I'm going to do it. I will.

Take a deep breath.

Get a grip on those pliers girl.

Breathe.

Sing It Like Prince: Controversy

2007-07-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

To quote the Purple One, "I just can't believe all the things people say (Controversy!) ". There seems to be a whole lot of postin' going on at Smart Bitches, Karen Scott, Kate R. and other sites regarding the Shomi authors who dressed as their characters at the RWA convention, the role of blogging, and what constitutes a personal attack. I'm not about to join the flame wars, and I'm not here to offer another opinion on Professionalism v. Publicity. Plenty of people have done that, and, frankly, I'm bored with it. (I'm also too lazy to add links to the other blogs mentioned above. Most of 'em are linked in the side bar, so click away.)

But here's the thing about controversy: for the price of a couple of pairs of thigh highs, Shomi generated a hell of a lot of buzz. To be honest, I'm beyond caring about the authors' behavior. Instead, I'm wondering what Shomi books are like. Are Shomi heroines as daring and ire-inspiring as Shomi authors? 'Cause that might make for a good book. If I had room in my budget for two more books this month, I'd buy Liz Maverick's and Marianne Mancusi's titles. Heck, given my poor impulse control, I'll probably buy them anyway.

Controversy has a way of generating public interest, even when the publicity seems bad. So here's the $65,000* Question: Will there be fewer authors in costume at next year's RWA* conference in San Francisco, or more?

*$65,000 not included / I'm not affiliated with RWA.

Bad Versus Worse

2007-07-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Completely random and apropos of nothing except the use of the abbreviation for the word "versus" in the post above, here are three movies I'd like to see packaged as a box set:

Freddie vs. Jason
Alien vs. Predator
Santa Claus vs. The Martians

I Can Has Books: Redux

2007-07-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

Just as I was running out of the books I ordered with the gift certificate I won in Bam's July contest, I won another book (Marjorie M. Liu's Soul Song) in a random drawing on Lynne Viehl's Paperback Writer Blog. Woo hoo! Also, thanks to my mad Inter-Library Loan skillz (and half-dozen library cards) I was able to get my hands on Throne of Jade, book two in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series.

I devoured Throne of Jade in less than a day. It was yummy, but not quite as filling as the first book. It suffered from being a transitional book in the series. A lot of the emotional weight of the plot hangs on some questions which are very easy to guess, given that this is a series, and I've already got the next book on order.

Nevertheless, Novik again delivered a fascinating, imaginative, well-rounded world, with characters I've really come to care about. Can't wait for round 3.

It's the Same Dame

2007-07-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I linked to David Denby's piece on modern romantic comedy films in general, and Knocked Up in particular. While discussing older romantic comedies, Denby casually lumps The Lady Eve in with the "Screwball Comedies".

Now, don't get me wrong, I adore those screwball comedies. But the thing about them is that the heroines are almost always daft, dizzy debutantes. In The Lady Eve, the heroine is a conwoman and a card shark. There's nothing daft or dizzy or innocent about her. The hero is a more conventional stock character, the wide-eyed academic, so engrossed in his studies that he hasn't a clue about love (Denby mentioned Ball of Fire and Bringing Up Baby as two examples of this hero type. If you haven't seen them, do. They're both loads of fun.).

Denby says, "The screwball comedies were not devoted to sex, exactly—you could hardly describe any of the characters as sensualists." And this is why he was wrong to lump Eve in with her contemporaries. The Lady Eve is hot. Not scorching, but definitely damned sexy for a movie in which no sex actually occurs.

Working at the height of the Hayes code, writer/director Preston Sturges was a master of suggestion. (He wrote a movie about an girl who gets knocked-up with septuplets by a soldier she can't remember during WW2 without ever saying the word "pregnant" or showing a pregnant belly. The Miracle at Morgan's Creek). Sturge's screenplay for The Lady Eve is sexy and suggestive when it shows Barbara Stanwyck's Jeanne seducing Henry Fonda's Charlie. It casts Charlie's high-falutin ideals about love against Jean's earthy sensuality, and Jean wins every time. In one of my favorite scenes, the two are standing on the deck of the boat at midnight discussing their romantic ideals:

CHARLIE: I shouldn't think that kind of ideal was so difficult to find.

JEAN: Oh, he isn't.  That's why he's my ideal
What's the sense of having one if you can't ever find him? 
Mine is a practical ideal...you can find two or three of
in every barber shop getting the works.

CHARLIE: Why don't you marry one of them?

JEAN: Why should I marry anybody that looked like that?
When I marry, it's going to be somebody I've never seen before.
I won't know what he looks like or where he'll come from or what he'll be.
I want him to sort of take me by surprise.

CHARLIE: Like a burglar.

JEAN: That's right.
And the night will be heavy with perfume,
and I'll hear a step behind me...and somebody breathing heavily.
And then...

CHARLIE: Oh!

JEAN: Ohhh! You better go to bed, Hopsie. I think I can sleep peacefully now.

CHARLIE: I wish I could say the same.

JEAN: Why, Hopsie!

If you haven't seen The Lady Eve, put it at the top of your Netflix list. It's funny, it's witty, it's romantic, it's a little bit sexy. And in my humuble opinion, it's The Best Romantic Comedy Ever Made.

Surfacing

2007-07-19T12:07:00.001-07:00

It doesn't rain, it pours. My books arrived this week, so between bouts of PS3ing, reading, and web surfing, I've hardly written a thing. This won't do. I've a novella to finish by the end of the month, and since I plan to spend the last few days of said month lounging poolside while waiters bring me froofy alcoholic beverages in a rainbow of unnatural colors, I'd best get back to writing.

Thirteen things I read this week

Sons of Heaven, by Kage Baker
The Rest Falls Away, by Colleen Gleason
The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
David Denby's piece on modern romantic comedies in this weeks New Yorker
Victoria's Secret Sale! Catalog This is the fourth such sale catalog I've received in two weeks. I don't know why VS keeps sending me the damned things. They don't even make/sell my bra size. I know I have an eentsy rib cage, but for a company that's trying to diversify into Asia, Victoria's Secret has a terrible selection of band sizes smaller than 34.
PS3 manual
BBC News (my precious!)
Slate.com
L.A. Observed
Scandal on the Romance Blogs! The Usual Suspects: Bam, Karen, Smart Bitches, Mrs. Giggles, Dear Author, Kate R.
FarmVet.com catalog (Why does a website have a paper catalog? Country-living relatives leave the strangest things behind when they visit.)
Vogue, España. Vogue, España still uses models on their covers. Vogue, España is full of images of American celebrities. Vogue, España makes me feel like I am not indulging in shallow pursuits because I am not just reading a fashion magazine, I'm Practicing my Spanish. Also, writing about Vogue, España today has helped me learn to use the tilde in HTML.
God is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens

Ultimate Temptation

2007-07-16T00:16:00.000-07:00

It's summer. TV's all in reruns, weather outside is broiling--there's nothing to distract me from writing, right? Wrong. My darling SmartAss got a PS3 this weekend. How will I resist the temptation? Even though the game I am desperately looking forward to (John Woo's Stranglehold, starring Chow Yun Fat [squee!]) isn't out yet, our new gizmo upconverts the old PS2 games so prettily. And, who am I kidding, I could stare at the menu for hours. Seventy Days of Sweat just got a whole lot harder.

Here be Dragons...

2007-07-12T23:33:00.000-07:00

Best to take care of the figurative dragons first...RWA has roused the fiery ire of many a small-press, ePubbed and aspiring author. I won't waste time explaining when Carrie Lofty did a better job of it over on Bam's blog. Suffice to say, RWA declared that ePublishers weren't real publishers, and rained all over my published author parade. But not too much. I'm pretty sure they'll change their mind in a year or two. Remember, you read it here first.

Samhain editor Angela James responded with professionalism and class.

As to the literal dragons...things come in threes. Apropos of nothing, I picked up Shana Abe's The Dream Thief and Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon at the library day before yesterday (my Amazon order won't arrive till next week). Read them both. Abe's book was pretty damn good, even if the ending seemed a little *coughsequelbaitcough* anticlimactic. But she's got me. I'll read her next one.

And Novik's book--my goodness!--she's got me for as long as she wants. Can't say enough good things about it. Check out Jane's review for specifics. Throw in a fangirl squee! and you've got my take on the matter.

Drat the quick-fingered library patron who snatched up the sequels before I could put an electronic hold on them. Waiting just ain't my thing.

As to the third dragon thing, Kate R. posted a picture of the cover for her alter-ego, Summer Devon's, forthcoming novella with Samhain. It's purty. Go have a look.

To the 21st Century, and Beyond!

2007-07-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Newsflash: Bettie discovers Google Reader. I know, I know. What rock have I been buried under all this time? But, fact is, I was in the habit of reading my blogs the old fashioned way. You know, click the link and hope there's something new. Then I notice Google Reader listed at the top of my iGoogle page. Usually I'm so distracted by the adorable antics of the Frog and Ladybug theme that I don't notice the links at the top. I click Google Reader, subscribe to all of my blogs, et voila! I cut my daily net time in half. Cool.

Now, onto the good stuff: My 70 Days of Sweat update:

My total word count for Monday and Tuesday is 2,200 words.

Bright

7,200 / 27,000
(26.7%)

(I admit, I also read The Dream Thief by Shana Abe Tuesday afternoon. Good book, though the ending struck me as too quick, or too...something. Point is, I will NOT do a Not a Review on it. I will NOT try to pinpoint what I didn't like about the ending of a book that I otherwise liked very much. Who am I kidding. I am such a procrastinator.)

10 Haters Capped

2007-07-09T12:38:00.001-07:00

I'm supposed to be writing 2000 words today, so what the hell am I doing on youtube? I blame my darling husband. Youtube is like a virus that we keep passing back and forth. I show him something, and then wrestle free of it while he spends a couple hours free associating links only to call me over to the entertainment computer to look at some funny thing he found. Can you say vicious cycle? Damn you, YOUTUUUUUUUUUBE!

70 Days of Sweat

2007-07-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

I just read about Allison Kent's 70 Days of Sweat challenge, so, of course, I had to go over and sign up. The challenge is to write your novel in 70 days, which, unlike NaNoWriMo, is a doable challenge for folks who are staring down the barrel of a 100,000 word novel.

I'm not working on a new full length right now. Currently, I'm trying to finish a novella (Bright) and a short novel (Split) and the as-yet untitled Sci-fi thingy. Overall, I need to write about 50K words, and edit and polish. So I'm doing a modified version of the challenge. It's rather like doing a modified push up--same name, way less difficult.

Point is, I'm gunning to write 1500 to 2000 words a day for the next 70 (okay, 75) days and have 3 finished stories by September 20th, 2007. Participants are supposed to report updates every Wednesday and Sunday.

Here are the stories I'm working on. I'll create word count charts for them, soon:

1) Title: Bright
2) Hero/Profession: Kostantin Amur / Man of Mystery or Criminal?
3) Heroine/Profession: Rosalind Stark / Waitress and non-starving artist
4) Setting: Dark River City
5) Length: 25K-30K words
6) Current Status

5,000 / 27,000
(18.5%)

______________________
1) Title: Split
2) Hero/Occupation: Jake Wright/Jack Sinistral / Scientist/Assassin/Split personality
3) Heroine/Occupation: Mara Keane / Professional Knife-thrower
4) Setting: Dark River City
5) Length: 45K-60K words
_______________________
1) Book Title: Untitled
2) Hero/Occupation: Undecided/Alien liaison
3) Heroine/Occupation: Ysabel Ravi/Translator & Traitor
4) Lost planet
5) 45k-60k words

I Can Has Books?

2007-07-07T02:23:00.000-07:00

Joy and happiness! I won an Amazon Gift Certificate in Bam's July Contest. While I am so very happy that people liked my entry, I am beside myself ecstatic to be able to buy books again! Not that I don't heart the library, but I'm the kind of girl who likes her gratification instant. That hold list just wasn't cutting it.

A while back, I made a list of books I'd love to buy when I got money. There were five on the list. I'd ordered exactly two when I noticed that Kage Baker's final Company novel, Sons of Heaven, will be out on July 10th, 2007. My mom and I are both hooked on this series, and seeing as she gave birth to me and all, I figured it might be a nice thing to get a book I could maybe lend her...after I've read it a couple of times.

Anyhoo, Sons of Heaven kinda screwed with my list, so I had to switch things up.

Sons of Heaven by Kage Baker.
Baker is an incredible writer with a sly, dry wit; an admirable appreciation for pirates; and a delightful appreciation for California history (Even though it's set in the 19th century, Mendoza in Hollywood is on my list of all-time favorite Books Set In Los Angeles). Her Company novels are a vast, conspiracy-riddled tapestry of interconnecting novels and short stories that span, oh, all of human history, and then some. Sons of Heaven is supposed to wrap up this tale of time-travel, immortal cyborgs, corporate iniquity and star-crossed love. Goody. I've been waiting years to see how it all turns out.
God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
My favorite droll, drunken Brit. I don't always agree with the man, but I love the way he shows those Fox News bobbleheads up for the blathering echo-chamber of idiots they are. For that alone, he deserves my money, but the book looks pretty interesting, too.
The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleeson
Vampire slayer tale that rates (favorable) comparisons to Buffy? History-ish setting? Many good reviews? Okay, I'll bite.
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Hard-boiled/Noir classic. I love me some Hammett. While writing on my WIP, Bright, I was thinking about Hammett's description of Sam Spade ("He looked rather pleasantly like a blond Satan"*) when I realized that even though I'd read The Maltese Falcon several times, I didn't own the book.

The Maltese Falcon is my third favorite Hammett novel. My adoration of Hammett characters goes: Continental Op (there's just something about a morally flexible, nameless hero that gets me every time); Nick Charles (The Thin Man. Actually, I'm more partial to William Powell than the book version, but when I read it, I imagine William Powell); Sam Spade (for some reason, I never imagine Bogart when I read the Maltese Falcon. Funny since I love the movie, and I think the out-the-window fade to black is one of the loveliest around, but there you go.)

I just love the way Hammett writes. Spare, and what a way with descriptions and dialog! Red Harvest is my favorite, and it's my go-to book when I think I'm getting too wordy. Still, third place ain't nothing to sneeze at. And, The Maltese Falcon fit my remaining budget, with free shipping to boot.

*FYI, the thing I love about the description is that Hammett describes his character in a way that makes Spade seem attractive, but not handsome. I was writing a description of a character with an attractive/ugly vibe.

Hope Springs Eternal

2007-07-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

Another month, another entry in Bam's Monthly Contest. Perhaps one of these days, I'll win that Amazon gift certificate. In the mean time, I'm having a terrible lot of fun writing.

The challenge was to write a scene portraying heat--both meteorological and sexual--without straying into purple prose or naughty words. My entry's below.

Ingrid’s gin-and-tonic sat in a puddle on the scarred table— sweating, like everything else. The ice had melted in minutes; nothing could stay cold in this place, nor dry. When she tried to sleep, the sheets and mosquito netting stuck to her skin like wet tissue.

The radio hiccoughed. Duke Ellington became noticias; lights flickered, the fans slowed. The generator must want petrol.

She’d the tin in her hand when she got outside and heard the generator’s well-fed chug over the jungle’s nighttime chatter. A match flared in the shadow of the pump-house. Ruiz appeared in lantern light, leaning against the steel wall like he’d never left. He’d three days of black stubble, and a sheen of sweat that she wanted to lick off him.

Hot breath and hot mouths; he tasted of Scotch, she of gin. Her hands slid from his sweat-slick skin – he’d always been hard to hold onto.

“Why’d you return?”

Silent, he undid her shirt, baring her body to the thick night air and his dark eyes.

She struggled against the heat of his hands. “It’s too hot.”

He reversed their positions, pressing her naked skin against the cool steel wall. She sighed.

“Better?”

“Oh, yes...”

A More Perfect Union

2007-07-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

Having just vowed to write fewer posts about myself, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the 4th of July, and what America means to me. (Hey, I never claimed to be consistent.)

Friends and relatives are often surprised when, in the course of conversation, I reveal something that marks me as a big ol' America-loving patriot. They think I've got some sort of beef with this great country because I'm liberal, or because I'm black, or because I think the war in Iraq is both a tragedy that will haunt our nation for the next century and a harbinger of our falling international stature.

But what they don't get is that I consider having a beef with my country to be my civic duty as an American citizen. We declared our independence because we wanted the right not just to debate with our government, but also change it. And for two hundred and thirty one years, Americans have been disagreeing with government and doing what they can to change what they don't like.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The very first civic goal mentioned in the preamble to the constitution is that of forming a "more perfect Union." Perfection is not an attainable goal. If a thing can always be more perfect, can the quest to improve it ever stop? No.

This is what I love about my country. Our most important document enshrines the goal of continuing improvement (and, given the size of our modern self-help industry, most Americans share that goal--at least when it comes to their personal lives). So, while the founding fathers may have been sexist, racist, slave-owning douches who talked high but lived low (I'm looking at you, Jefferson), the process of continually improving government, of striving for a more perfect union has ensured that this great-great granddaughter of slaves has the same freedoms under the law as every other American (as long as I don't try to marry a woman).

America isn't perfect, but I've always loved the way we keep striving for a better, more equal government. The only thing that has ever or will ever derail our progress is when Americans stop debating and disagreeing. When Americans let themselves get fooled into thinking that disagreeing with the government means disagreeing with America. Nothing could be fur from the truth. Every time we let the government take away our freedoms, every time we shut our mouths when some talking head accuses dissenters of "treason" wether are betraying our country's first and most important goal: to form a more perfect union.

So this July 4th, I'm going to write my senator and tell her to give Dick Cheney hell for keeping secrets from the people who pay his salary. I'm going to write the mayor and tell him how much I hate the potholes on my street. And I'm going to write the president and tell him he's a douche to imply that people who disagree with his administration hate America or hate freedom, because as far as I'm concerned, there is no greater service an American civilian can perform for her country and for freedom than to stand up and disagree.

Blogger, Be Good.

2007-07-03T11:18:00.001-07:00

Blogger extraordinaire Lynn Viehl has a great post up today on her blog, Paperback Writer. It's about ways to stay interested in your blog. She says, "Blogging is a labor of writing love..."

But here's the thing: I love to write, but I don't like to write about me. That's why I write fiction.

Viehl advises bloggers to reinvigorate their blogs by reviewing their favorite and least favorite posts. That snippet proved much more useful. All of my favorites, the Not-a-Reviews, the discussions of / rants about genre conventions, and the omphaloskeptic examinations of the writing process are only tangentially about me. My least favorite are all about me.

Note to self: write less about yourself. D'oh!

In the future: Less me; more everything else.

Kill Your Darlings

2007-06-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Angela James had an interesting post over on Romancing the Blog yesterday about people who are unable to let go of their unpublished novels.

Because I'm a lazy slob, and because I think the realization I came to while reading that post are my new words to write by, I'm just going to repost the comment I left right here.

That old quote, “Kill your darlings,” is some of the best writing advice ever given. When we fall in love with our books, we lose sight of their flaws. I’ve noticed that the more I love a story I’m writing, the less likely I am to even like it a year later.

A couple years ago, I wrote a story that I adored. My critique group wasn’t so keen on it; nobody seemed to like it but me. I shelved it, ran across it a year later, and realized I had been so enthralled with my own ideas that I’d written an over-detailed, under-plotted, meandering mess.

I still like the world and the characters, though. One of these days, when I’ve sharpened my critical eye to a lethal edge, I’ll haul that story back onto my desktop and gut it like a sacrificial lamb.

I'm starting to think that you can either love writing, or you can love the things you write. If you love writing then you change, you grow, you hone your skills to better practice your craft. If you love what you write, you drag the same manuscript around for years wondering why nobody appreciates your baby the way you do.

So that's my new motto, right after "Kill your darlings," is "Love writing, not what you've written."

I'm Not Dead. Really! (Or, Thirteen Things I Did This Week Instead of Blogging)

2007-06-28T03:33:00.000-07:00

Write.
Like my hair was on fire. "Ahhhggghhh!!! Owwww!!!! Helllppp!"
Edit.
Like an obsessive-compulsive on speed.
Kick ass.
But I didn't take names.
Sweat.
It's hot out there, yo.
Cry.
I read a couple of articles on Veterans' Administration policies for retrofitting the homes of disabled Iraq war vets, and on the way veterans suffering from PTSD have to wait for mental health care. These people put their lives on the line in our armed forces, and when they get home we make them beg and strive and wait for every little scrap of help. We are pathetic.
Eat ice cream.
It helps with the heat and the crushing sadness.
Nap.
Outside, in the shade, one lazy afternoon. I highly recommend it.
Sew.
People keep having kids, and Target doesn't sell enough baby clothes with skulls and daggers on them to suit my gift-giving tastes.
Mail.
I sent my signed contract to Samhain yesterday. (Squee!)
Drive.
I live in LA. How the hell else am I supposed to get around?
Walk.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about that. It's a relaxing way to get from place to place provided the weather isn't too hot (see #4).
Laugh.
My sister is a comedic genius.
Sleep.
That's what I should be doing right now.

Thursday 13

2007-06-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

Thirteen Things That Make Me Happy

Writing
Samhain chose "Like a Thief in the Night" for their Valentine 2008 Anthology (This is gonna be at the top of the list for a while.)
Reading
Pinkberry
Mosquito Netting
Shorts
Being tall
Wearing high heels anyway
Three-Color Dessert
Halo-Halo
Salsa
The Library
Air Conditioning

Squee! ZOMGWTFBBQ!!! Or, How I Reacted to My First Acceptance Letter

2007-06-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning, bleary-eyed and bitter - same as any morning when I have to wake up before noon (which is just about every morning). Hopped over to my laptop to check my email accounts. Screamed and jumped up and down like my name had just been called on The Price is Right.

Right there in my humble little gmail was an email from Laurie Rauch saying they had picked "Like a Thief in the Night" for the Strangers in the Night Valentines Day 2008 anthology, and was I still interested? Of course I was still interested. I was over-the-moon still interested. I was hopping-up-and-down-scaring-the-bejeebus-out-of-my-cats still interested. I replied to the email and then hopped over to my blog to post the good news.

Kate left a comment on my last post delivering the best bad news ever - namely that I was disqualified from the Samhain 1st line contest because the contest was not open to Samhain authors. (Squeee!!! OMGOMG!). A word here: Kate is awesome (go buy her books), and has been so encouraging. Her alter ego, Summer Devon is my ePub hero.

My husband was a little weirded out to find his morning grouch of a wife waiting for him with a crazy smile, breakfast and coffee. He was ok once I assured him that the uncharacteristic morning good cheer was due to good news and not due to aliens secretly abducting his wife and replacing her with a preternaturally perky stepford zombie android.

Called my mom and told her the good news. Then I told her she couldn't read the story because it had S-E-X in it, and knowing my mom had read a story about S-E-X would make it difficult for me to continue believing I was the result of a virgin birth. (Never mind that it was her old Harlequins and Barbara Cartlands that got me started on this whole Romance thing in the first place. Denial isn't just a state of mind, its a state of being.) She says she's still my biggest fan.

Lastly, I sent off an email to Bam thanking her for holding her monthly writing contest, as "Like a Thief in the Night" grew out of my two hundred word entry for her May contest.

Writing all this down has helped me calm down a little - but Oh, here's something else that makes me so happy - the other authors in the anthology are Bonnie Dee (she of the many, many great stories!) and Veronica Wilde (I heart all things Elvis, so I've been jonesing to read her forthcoming short story Hunk of Burnin Love). I'm both excited and scared to see my name on the same list as these two amazing authors.

And now, here I am, posting the whole thing on my blog. Dayum. It's 1:30 - I'd better get some work done.

Remember to spay and neuter your pets!

That's My Line

2007-06-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

Coolness. My entry made it to round three of the Samhain First line contest.

Rosalind’s butter-yellow silk gown made her stand out from the crowd of black-clad sophisticates like a baby chick amid a murder of hungry crows. Lost in a shifting sea of beautiful faces, she looked for her escort, but saw only tanned skin, white teeth, and greedy gazes that tracked her path through the ballroom the way ordinary party guests would have tracked the waiter with the best tray of hors d’oeuvre.

First-Person Fatigue

2007-06-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or are there a few too many snarky-heroined open-ended first-person paranormal series out there? I can't buy books because I am broke, so I picked up Karen Marie Morning's latest fairy-flavored offering from the New Books shelf at the local biblioteca. She's not my usual style - a few too many virgin heroines - but borrowers can't be choosers.

Darkfever was fast and readable, but rather stale. Perhaps I've seen this sort of young, snarky, fashion-obsessed first-person narrator before? Lately when I pick up a first-person narrated paranormal I get the same queasy feeling I get when I've eaten too many beignets. The difference between "enough" and "one too many" is always one - and you never know which one until it hits you. Mmm. Hungry. Who wants beignets?

Maybe I should give up on the first-person dark fantasy story that's been sitting on my hard drive for the past two years...

Grammar Geek

2007-06-15T00:36:00.000-07:00

I like grammar. Don't know how it happened. I hated it in grade school and high school. I break the rules hither and fro in my blog posts and personal email. I sprinkle commas across my prose like flakes of pepper on Cajun style catfish.

And yet, for all the abuse I heap on grammar, I adore it. It is true, what they say: you only hurt the ones you love. Above my desk (the alter upon which I make bloody sacrifices of the rules my English teachers taught me) is a collection of no fewer than seven books on grammar and usage.

And now I am pouring through all of them to make sure that my second sentence for the Samhain contest is correct.

Lost in a shifting sea of beautiful faces, she looked for her escort, but saw only tanned skin, white teeth, and greedy gazes that tracked her path through the ballroom the way ordinary party guests would have tracked the waiter with the best tray of hors d’oeuvre.

Though it is a very long sentence, I'm fairly certain it's correct. The sentence contains an introductory participial phrase (blue) and two independent clauses (green and orange, respectively).

The tricky part is that the independent clauses share a single statement of the subject between them. Per Strunk & White, the independent clauses are delineated with a comma and connected by the word "but," but the second independent phrase contains a three-item list set off with serial commas. I haven't found anything that says the structure is incorrect, but I just can't shake the feeling that there are too many words and commas going on.

I wonder if this sentence will sink or swim. I've decided to go with it; all that's left is to wish it well and shove it over the side. Wish us luck.

Books I Will Buy When I am No Longer Broke

2007-06-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Rest Falls Away, by Colleen Gleeson
I give up, I give in. I've seen a bunch of good reviews for this book, and the comparisons to Buffy intrigue me. What better book to read while I'm baking on the beach than a book about vampire slayers.

God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
I am loving those clips of Hitchens on Fox News making the talking heads look like idiots. Oh, [Insert deity or scientific principle of your choice here], why can't there be a droll drunken Brit on Fox News every day?

Our First Revolution by Michael Barone
Comparing the American Revolution to the Glorious Revolution?! Squee! Yes, I am a huge history geek. I saw this guy on the Daily Show and I've been all hot and bothered about the book ever since.

Not Quite A Lady by Loretta Chase
From history to historicals. I must admit that I am less than thrilled by the premise of this book (I hear it contains a secret baby) but I adore Loretta Chase to the point that I will actually be sad if she writes another Meh book. The sad truth of my fickle favor is that I hold authors whose writing I like and admire to a much higher standard than authors whose writing style I don't much care for.

Dark Thirst (Anthology)
I read an excerpt from Monica Jackson's story in this book on her site, and ever since I've been wondering how it ends. Donna Hill always does good work, too. I'm not so hot about Omar Tyree, but I welcome the opportunity to change my opinion.

Word(s) Count

2007-06-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about contests lately. I've never considered my competitive side to be a flaw, but it does twist me in knots. I've nothing but admiration for people who beat me fairly. When I lose at something, I don't throw fits, I ruminate and review and figure out where I went wrong before attacking the thing all over again. Despite the way competition cramps my gut, it ultimately leads to improvement.

Bam has that first of the month 200 word contest. I think I've come in 2nd twice, but I can't regret* it as I have started two enjoyable stories from the 200 word entries I wrote. I also entered the Samhain 1st line contest, and so far I've made it to the second round.

Both the 200 word contests and the first line contest have forced me to focus on how every word counts - how to put the most action and punch into two hundred words, how to create the best possible hook with the first five lines. With previous stories, I've been so daunted by my word count goal that I often wrote more than was necessary, and ended up bored by my own story midway through. Since I've been focusing on making my words and sentences count, I haven't had any problem reaching my length goals. Who knew all those "quality over quantity" people would be so right?

*Okay, I do admit I was a little perturbed over the last contest when I had an early lead and later got clobbered by like 40 votes for the winning entry. I was feeling pretty lousy until I moseyed over to the winner's blog and discovered: a) I'd been clobbered by a published writer; b) she'd posted a couple of different entries in her blog asking her readers - of which she had significantly more than 2 - to check out the contest and vote. I can't feel too bad about losing under those circumstances - or, rather, I shouldn't feel too bad because sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we simply can't (and shouldn't) hope to compete. That doesn't mean I'll stop trying, it just means I'll try to skip the usual round of review and recrimination for a nice hot bath and a good book.

Decided

2007-06-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

In the end, I went with the story I'm having the most fun writing.

Rosalind’s butter-yellow silk gown made her stand out from the crowd of black-clad sophisticates like a baby chick amid a murder of hungry crows.

I like "Ember" plenty, but turning Cinderella into a foul-mouthed bitch is work, yo.

Decisions

2007-06-08T03:10:00.000-07:00

I can't decide which opening line I want to enter in the Samhain Contest. I haven't got much time left to decide. The first choice, and the one I'm leaning toward is from a story I'm working on called "Ember":

I know you think you've heard this story before, but you're wrong.

The second is from an untitled short story I started as an entry for Bam's "Create-a-Conflict" June contest:

In her butter-yellow silk gown, her brown eyes wide with wonder, Rosalind stood out from the black-clad sophisticates at the Vespertine Foundation's gala like a baby chick amidst a murder of hungry crows.

Actually, scratch that second one. Rosalind and her Prince of Lies were firmly trounced in the voting. It's probably best to start fresh.

R.I.P. Untitled. I'll resurrect you one of these days.

“Bastard!”

He caught her wrist before her palm connected with his stubbled cheek. His big hand squeezed her delicate bones while his finger pressed against the place where her pulse hammered hard beneath her skin.

“You called me a snake the night we met,” he growled.

She shivered at the memory of his wicked white smile by moonlight. She had called him the Prince of Lies and he’d laughed before he kissed her.

His voice dropped to a whisper. “Did you think my scales would change to skin if you spread your legs for me?”

“I thought you loved me.”

His full lips stretched into a cruel smirk. “You’ve read too many fairytales, Rosalind. The beast doesn’t always turn into a prince when the beauty kisses him. Sometimes the beauty grows teeth and claws. Creatures like us don't love.”

“I’m not like you!” She lashed at him with her free hand, faster this time and with more force. Her nails scored a set of bloody scratches along his cheek.

He grabbed her hand and pressed it to his lips. “Your claws are coming along quite nicely, my dear.”

She closed her eyes as he licked his blood from her fingertips.

Samhain Got Game

2007-06-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

So first Kate alerts me to this cool contest over at Samhain, and then I read in Dear Author that Samhain has partnered with Kensington for a print line. Congrats to Samhain. It sounds like a great deal them and an even better deal for Kensington.

With heroes that have morphed from rapacious asshats to billionaire sheikhs to brooding vampires/werecods to Navy Seals and heroines that have gone from TSTL, to feisty, to kick-ass and back again - it's no secret that the Romance genre is prone to trends. Print publishing, by virtue of the time and money it takes to print and distribute books, is always a little behind the curve. Epublishers, on the other hand, can not only bring their product to market faster, they have real time information about what's selling and what isn't. Epublishers also seem more willing to take chances on new authors, many of whom go on to successful careers in print.

Print publishers that partner with ePublishers or - as I'm sure will soon be the case - create their own ePub imprints will be able to develop new writing talent and track genre trends faster, more cheaply, and more efficiently than their print-only rivals. I've no doubt that epublishing will play a big role in romance fiction's future.

Bittersweet

2007-06-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

Like a Thief in the Night

26,167 / 25,000
(104.7%)

I did it. I finished "Like a Thief in the Night" and sent it off to Samhain yesterday - at the bitter end of the deadline for their Strangers in the Night Valentine 2008 anthology. I thought I would feel more relieved to finally be done, but that just ain't so.

Last night I printed out the story again and found a few typos I'd missed. (Why do I torture myself like this?) Also, though I'm pleased with the ending, I would have loved just 2500 more words over the length of the novella. It's funny to complain about length-restrictions in a piece I started as a 200 word contest entry, but there you have it.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with myself. I managed to take a story from 200 words to completion in about three and a half weeks. And given the number of half-finished works in progress I have sitting around, that's quite an achievement.

Even if "Like a Thief in the Night" doesn't get picked, I'll still be glad of the experience of writing it. I worked hard on the story and finished it - and I had a good time doing it. And besides, I happen to think it's a pretty fun story.

Romantic Advances

2007-05-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

OMG! So, like, there's this new site that has like every upcoming romance novel on it! So, like, you totally don't have to search around across a bunch of different publisher sites to see what's out each month!

Eh-hem. Pardon my outburst of girlish glee. (Little-known fact, my inner fan-girl is also a valley girl. I'm from LA, okay? So sue me.)

Those two lovely Ja(y)nes over at Dear Author got together with a bunch of friends and put together a site called Romantic Advances that just may be the best thing since Kaldi (blessed be his name) discovered the coffee bean - a single website that lists all upcoming romance novel releases, with information and links to purchase.

I may be Bettie-come-lately to this tidbit of info, but that doesn't mean I'm not thrilled to the caffeine-soaked marrow of my being. Get on over and check it out.

The Bitter End

2007-05-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

Haven't I written this post before? At the start of the month, I wrote a 200 word entry for Bam's monthly contest. Didn't win, but I was curious to see where it would go so I kept on writing. Then I surfed over to Samhain and saw the call for submissions to their 2008 "Strangers in the Night" anthology. Short story (25K words), due by June 1, 2007.

"OK," I thought, "the story I'm writing has strangers who meet in the night. Granted, the heroine kills the hero by the third paragraph, but I've got 25,000 words to help those two crazy kids work things out. I've already set myself a goal to write 2, 000 words a day. This is doable, right?"

Maybe...

I'm sitting here looking at the last 5K words of the story. I know what's going to happen. I know how things will end. And I can't get it written. What is my problem?

And in case you're wondering, that other story, the one I posted about waaaaaaay back in the day? It's quite a bit longer than my current WIP, but it languishes on my hard drive, 5k words from completion. Uggh!

Like a Thief in the Night

20,000 / 25,000
(80.0%)

Segment removed.

This is Not a Review: Karma Girl

2007-05-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

Don't expect fairness and objectivity 'cause I haven't got either. Descriptions are half-assed, my taste is mercurial, and ratings are assigned entirely by whim.

Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep

First things first, I saw the first chapter of this book on a critique group site quite a while ago. I liked it then, I like it now. It's good to see folks make good.

Synopsis: In a World Where...every town has its own superheroes and ubervillains, plucky investigative reporter Carmen Cole climbs the ladder of journalistic success from Beginnings, Tennesse to Bigtime, New York by exposing the secret identities of every superhero and ubervillain she can find. Then her activities cause one of the heroes she's exposed to commit suicide and she gets demoted to society reporter.

An ubervillain orders Carmen to discover the identity of the leader of the local superhero group (who hates her on account of the suicide she caused), or face a fate worse than death. Guess who the hero of this story is. Opposites attract. Doomed love ensues. Karma Girl saves the day.

Over all, I liked this book. The Incredibles plays the comic book parody better than Estep does - but I can't blame anyone for falling short of Brad Bird. (Yes, that sound you just heard was me sighing like a schoolgirl whilst thinking of the writing/directing prowess of Brad Bird.) I liked the world Estep set up, and I am impressed that she managed to think up so many alliterative names for the characters (+ Clark Kent approved: Superman Comics #1). Also, I adore the town names.

Carmen's first-person narration draws the story along at a pretty good clip (+Flash Comics #1 a fast, fun read) . The romance is sweet but the love scenes are also written in the first-person, which is a very tricky thing to do (-not quite Superman, but close: Jimmy Olsen, Superman's Pal #111) . I am also willing to admit that first-person love scenes kind of creep me out.

While, as stated above, I generally liked this book, I have to mention that Estep, as a writer, totally hit one of my pet peeves. Specifically, she uses race as description (-What happens when racial stereotypes form a team of superheroes? New Guardians #1).

Here is Estep's description of one of the side-kick characters, Henry Harris,

"The black man smiled at me and went back to his computer." p.25

Estep describes his clothes, his age, his glasses, but she can't just throw in a line about what the fellow actually looks like? Is his face round or long? Does he have dark skin, light skin, freckles? What color is his hair? What color are his eyes?

Also,

"I stopped at the black man's desk..." p. 52
"The black man tugged at his bow tie...." p.135

One (dubious) point in Estep's favor, The Black Man does not use slang.

Estep occasionally describes another sidekick character as "the Asian girl", though, to be fair, she does give that character a more thorough description by using words like "skinny" , "young", "pretty", "heart-shaped face" and "almond-shaped eyes". See, that's not so hard to do, is it?

"The Asian girl's face grew guarded." p.56
"The Asian girl reluctantly took it..." p. 57

She never once refers to any of the other characters as "the white man" or "the European woman". Oh, and in case you couldn't guess, as the only two minority characters, the Black Man and the Asian Girl, hook up thanks to the heroine.

In conclusion: The book was a fun fast read except that Jennifer Estep landed on one of my major pet peeves. I do realize that this pet peeve probably won't hinder other readers' enjoyment of the book as it did for me. I would probably read another of Estep's books, but I'd get it from the library. Ms. Estep's not getting another dime from me until she learns that race is NOT a description.

Rating: If Karma Girl by Jennifer Estep were one of the actors who has played Batman in the Batman movies, with Michael Keaton being the best and George Clooney (sorry George) as the worst. Karma Girl would be:

Christian Bale

Hot and fun, but ultimately hampered by something that annoys me (a.k.a. Katie Holmes).

Oh, who am I kidding. I just wanted to link to a picture of Christian Bale.

My Words!

2007-05-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Kate R. blogged that she can spot everyone else's overused words, but not her own. Which got me thinking:

1) I don't know quite how I feel about overused words. Sometimes, as in the case of Barbara Hambly's use of "chiaroscuro," the word feels like an old friend. Other times, seeing the same word or phrase over and over again can set my teeth on edge. David Eddings is often criticized for recycling plots, characters, etc, but it was his overuse of the phrase "kind of" in character dialog that made me throw the book at the wall. Big book, poor wall.

2) What are my overused words? A quick survey of my current WIP yields the following suspects: penchant, languor, cruel. Also, I freely admit my abuse and misuse of the word "also" in correspondence and blog posts.

3) I know I have some kind of nerve to solicit comments (my highest count ever is, like, 6) but what are your overused words? Are there any authors/words that drive you crazy?