BITS & PIECES: MINGMEI YIP

I remember my first long conversation with Mingmei at the chapter brunch last December; I was struck by her warm, open demeanor. She's smart and funny and so engaging. I was overwhelmed by everything that she had done and how effortlessly she seems to move about all of the things that she does--as a novelist for adults and children, as a scholar and as a musician. She is able to move from one to the other like a butterfly, much like the one that she writes about in her children's novel that the scholar dreams he is. Except, she is a butterfly and there her wings are so vast....

We sat in Starbuck's--where I have had several Bits and Pieces discussions before, and there was not a moment when I was not laughing or learning form her. Mingmei talks about her stories in such a real way. I had just managed to get the last copies of each of her novels off the shelves so she could sign them. (Hope Tarr was the winner of the contest we ran with Mingmei's blog post; Hope won a copy of PETALS FROM THE SKY, and of course, I had her sign my copy of PEACH BLOSSOM PAVILION.)

Mingmei writes novels that are beautiful to look at, full to the touch and, from what she tells me, I cannot wait to read the one that I asked her to sign. When you have a personality like Mingmei, you want to read her books because you want to see how she manifests in her novels. You want to see how she tells the story; listening to her tell the story of her own experience was compelling enough. Read below to be as spellbound as I was, and visit Mingmei at http://www.mingmeiyip.com/.



“(About the interview she had in CT right before we met) The interviewer wanted not just to talk about my novels but my children's books. She wanted to talk about me as a "jewel of all trades": my paintings, my children's books and my concert performances. Qin is the Chinese 7 string why is it so special, it is the oldest and really represents Chinese culture. I played two pieces.

“My children's books are Chinese Children's Favorites Stories--13 retold by me. “The Dream of the Butterfly” is 2500 years old, and the original text is only two lines. It is an adult story I simplified so children can understand. A scholar fell asleep and dreamt of himself as a butterfly much like Kafka so he was very happy but thought how come I am not a butterfly, maybe I am a butterfly and I dreaming I am a scholar.

“I have a PhD in musicology and studied Chinese culture since I was very young.

“In the past, I could relax but it is getting worse to do so I do Tai Chi. The instrument I play is supposed to be relaxing but for me it is hard work! I watch movies and I Google stuff on the Internet. I do not like art movies, I like action movies, I like cowboy movies. I rarely go to see movies now. In Cleveland, I used to go to the movies a lot. It was like renting the theater for myself it was so empty. They have the best Chinese art collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“My husband is a writer as well, and he writes medical books for lay people; and he too is a Chinese scholar. We do not go out much because we are both writing. His most recent book is called IT"S YOUR HORMONES. He let me read the entire manuscript, we exchange ideas. I cannot read his medical books for doctors, of course. He is a very good writer. I am happy to read his writing.

“When I am working on a novel I am not playing that much, but for the Carnegie Hall concert I put everything down and played.

“I am a rabbit (in Chinese astrology) and I am a Sagittarius and I am true to that. The rabbit is a very tame animal, very friendly, not very aggressive, and I think I am like that. I do not like confrontation. A rabbit always has three holes--they can always escape, they have plan a, b and c. You do not put yourself in a situation where you can be stalled.

“I love to write strong women characters. My character in the second novel (PETALS FROM THE SKY) is non-aggressive and a would-be nun but she is strong. I like women to be strong. I might write three more books like this and after that maybe I might change.

“No matter how different my characters are they have bits and pieces of me in them. I want to put something of myself in every character. One character is not enough to get all of my philosophy of life out.

“I have been researching Chinese culture – the calligraphy, poetry, philosophy, music, literature --, so when something pops up, something of that is there. I have said that a character's hair was like a calligraphy stroke. All of my background, my research helps me. I think my research and readings have helped; when you have studied so much for so long everything is swimming in your mind and it can form a pattern of its own. People who want to write should do a lot of reading of their own. Experiences work as well; having experiences with different people.”♥

DIALOGUE THAT MADE ME SWOON (with book excerpt and giveaway)

By Thea Devine

It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone that GONE WITH THE WIND is among my favorite books. I first read it when I was sixteen, and you can probably guess my teenaged reaction to the love story. But, as I subsequently discovered, it’s wholly different book when you reread it when you‘re older (say, oh -- thirty and forty), and as I did recently with my sister-in-law. But there is one thing in GWTW that never changes and that, for me, was always the whole key to anything about romance.

It’s the moment at Twelve Oaks before the picnic, when Scarlett -- in the book -- has just encountered Charles Hamilton on the staircase, and turns to see Rhett staring up her, and indignantly thinks, “he looks as if -- as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy.” (sic -- my edition).

I love that moment. I always thought it went beyond prurience, that he was not envisioning her naked, he was not thinking sex; rather he was seeing her whole, her beauty, her vanity, her greed, her flaws and phony flirtatiousness, and everything about her right there that made her “her” -- and he decided in that moment, he wanted her, that he loved her. Not just the body, but the whole person, just as she was.

Don’t we all? Want the guy who wants us just as we are? Without lists, demands, requirements must-haves. Don’t we want to say to him, “I love you,” and have him respond, as does Han Solo to Princess Leia in The Empire Strikes Back, “I know.”

Oh, be still my heart. That he knew in his deepest core that she loved him. That acknowledgement was more than him saying “I love you.” It says that he’d always known and everything he’d ever done was colored by that, in spite of the bickering, the clashes, in spite of everything.

I love that. Who wouldn’t love that? But even better -- a moment on House: you can quibble about whether House and Cuddy belong together (and I will, because I don’t think they do), but when he said to her in a recent episode, “I always want to kiss you,” -- I melted into a puddle of swoon. Always .. Are you imagining that? Always … God, I wish I’d written that line. Think what means. Always …

But then, I’m hopeless romantic. I love love. I love being in love. I think love is forever, in spite of all the recent public and humiliating break-ups in the news. I think those moments above expressed in dialogue are at the heart of romance -- and that we all yearn for that deep visceral knowledge of the other person that transcends everything but the need and desire to be together because ... because we love, and they know. Always …♥



Thea Devine is a charter member of RWA/NYC and the author of 24 steamy historical and contemporary romances and a dozen novellas. Her latest, SEX, LIES & SECRET LIVES, is an April 2010 release from Pocket/Gallery. Visit her http://www.theadevine.com/ and read below for an excerpt.



EXCERPT: SEX, LIES & SECRET LIVES

... Somewhere in her dreams, Justine heard the musical sting that meant -- oh God, the cell – she groped for it, flipped it open – what a.m.?

A truncated text message sharp against the screen: justine … t …

She shot wide awake like a bullet Her heart started pounding. Her twin would never use the old code unless -- She waited for more of the message to materialize. But there was only the brief and stark justine t …

Justine time … the I-need-you-help-me-get-here-yesterday-you’re the- only-one-I-trust fail-safe code. The not to be used unless death-and- apocalyptic-destruction were imminent code.

But Jill was on a modeling assignment in England. How the hell could she do anything for Jillian if she was in London?

Now she felt panicked. For Jillian to use The Code -- she had to be in some awful mess. And she had been clear: if she coded Justine, it meant she was to go to Jillian’s apartment first. In case …

There was something propped on the pile of pillows against the headboard of Jillian's bed. Justine went cold as she picked up the object.

A hotel key holder with a picture of Jilly on the front, her curves barely covered in black satin, and the words:

Impeccable and incomparable
Discreet and discriminating
Subtle, skilled, sophisticated, seductive …

And on the reverse side, on black satin: if you dare …

Okay, I’m going to die …

She got Jillian's laptop from the safe and powered it up. A file booted up. With her name on it. This wasn’t need to know, was it?

She clicked and a densely written letter appeared on the screen.

Oh God. This was no time for true confessions.

Justine. This is the time for plain speaking … If you’re reading this, I’m in trouble. I have to tell you the truth: I’m not a model. I’m an exclusive traveling companion to wealthy men. I don’t know now if something I know is the reason why I coded you. You’re the only one who can help me. Find me, wherever I am-- whatever you have to do.

I don’t know what to do.

Don’t you?

Step into Jillian’s stilettos? Be Jillian, with all that implied.

Walk the minefield of Jillian‘s life -- even to having sex with her clients? … Sacrifice that much for Jillian in order to save her?

Find me. Help me. WHATEVER you have to do.


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GIVEAWAY! Leave a comment on this post and you may win two – yes, two! -- of Thea’s erotic contemporaries: HIS LITTLE BLACK BOOK and BAD AS SHE WANTS TO BE. Good luck.

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FASHIONING THE BODY: THE CORSET ©

By Polly Guerin, The Fashion Historian

As glamorous as corsets may appeal to women today, they were from the beginning a restricting garment that evolved perhaps from the chastity belt and the concept, decreed by men, of keeping women in their place. Despite the discomfort, women have been wearing corsets for almost 400 years putting social status, respectability and the pinnacle of feminine beauty over common sense values. Corsets were so tightly laced in the 1800s that they gave pain a new meaning in the 19th century. A girl as young as 11 years old was instructed by their society mothers that the corset was an essential element of fashionable dress. Women appeared to be willing to be fashion victims, because it was considered not only unfashionable—even immoral—for a woman to appear in public without a corset.

FIGURE FACTS

Although doctors blamed the corset for a wide variety of diseases most of those diagnoses were unsupported, but more dangerous was the fact that corsets did alter the body’s shape. Such a distortion of the natural body implicated the corset in aggravating existing conditions and digestive problems. The squeezing of vital organs from their original position in the body may also have contributed to the inability to bear children normally. Furthermore, as a status symbol, the corset limited a woman’s mobility and it suggested that she could afford servants and needed a ‘lady’s maid’ just to get dressed. Even working class women succumbed to the allure of the corset and adopted cheap ready-made versions.

THE FAINTING COUCH

Striving to achieve the “ideal” figure, a woman was convinced that her waist was too large and accepted tight lacing to achieve a feminine 13-16 inch waist. Hence a "straight-laced woman” was not loose. As the corset was cinched tighter and tighter (think of Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind telling her maid “tighter, tighter”) it may have produced the desired small waist, but it also reduced a woman’s lung capacity. Getting vapors was an obvious result ,as tight corsets were the cause shortness of breath and fainting was a common occurrence. Hence, men came to the aid of a damsel in distress and smelling salts were summoned. To the cognoscenti a fainting couch was considered fashionable furniture of the day.

EROTIC FEMININITY

The corset prolonged the feminine prerogative to tempt a lover. The act of undressing and making love was a studied ritual in feminine coquetry. Not only did the corset support and uplift the bosom and idealize the female figure, it extended the seduction process into one that took time and the delft hands of one’s lover to un-lace and un-trap the woman’s body for lovemaking. Women of the golden age of corsets did not engage in "quickie" encounters but plied their femininity with flirtatious corsetry.

SEXUAL EMPOWERMENT

Corsets today, more modified but no less glamorous and seductive, have reappeared on the fashion scene as an outerwear garment and a source of sexual empowerment. No longer a garment of female oppression, the corset has reappeared and reconceived by Madonna and other show biz icons as a statement of the modern femme fatale. Women blatantly wear the fashionable bustier outside or inside a suit jacket and the strapless corset appears as the top of evening gowns. This age of liberation makes it no longer necessary to wear a corset for respectability, but to establish one’s identity an independent and empowered female figure.

Books of interest: FASHION AND EROTICISM, IDEAL OF FEMININE BEAUTY FROM THE VICTORIAN ERA TO THE JAZZ AGE by Valerie Steele, Oxford University Press and LET THERE BE CLOTHES by Lynn Schnurnberger, Workman Publishing.♥




Polly Guerin never wore a boned corset but is fascinated by the seductive world of corsetry and the role it played in women’s lives. Polly honed her fashion historian skills as a professor at The Fashion Institute of Technology and wrote THE TIES THAT BIND, A GUIDE TO HISTORICALLY CORRECT UNDERGARMENTS  for doll enthusiasts. (Doll World magazine)

DREADED AUTHOR QUESTION: Are You Rich? Have you made any Money?

By Isabo Kelly


In this monthly series, Isabo talks about the often uncomfortable questions every author gets asked, and how to handle those dreaded inquiries. If you have gotten any of these “dreaded” questions, please share them with us here. If you have an answer, all the better.

When aspiring writers ask about the money involved in publishing, they’re asking a reasonable question. After all, this is a business as well as a passion. It’s important to learn about the business end, and part of that includes standards for advances and royalties in the various markets.

The trouble comes when non-writers ask about the money.

“Are you rich?” In other words, how successful are you? This is a tricky set of questions that all artists face at some point in their careers. Because most people in this country equate money with accomplishment.

Unfortunately, becoming rich is not the natural end product of writing, mores the pity. If all you had to do was publish books to be rich, a lot more people would be trying it.

You can make a living, though, so “Have you made any money?” is a little more realistic. If you’re lucky, the person who asks this question is simply being curious. If you’re not having a lucky day, the person who asks this question is getting a nasty satisfaction from the fact that, though you’re pursuing your dream, you’re not a “success” at it because you haven’t made much money.

This attitude implies that “making money” is equivalent to “success.” Not so to a writer. Following a dream, finishing a full manuscript, actually selling that manuscript, having people outside your immediate family read the book—that’s success in this business.

The truth is an awful lot of authors have to supplement their writing incomes with outside jobs. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, having that “day job” actually helps keep you focused and productive. Being forced outside the house to go to work with other people several times a week can keep a writer from getting too bogged down in their own thinking. The full schedule makes them hungry for those moments of isolation when they can create. And having to organize your days around a job forces a degree of scheduling that can encourage productivity.

The dream of most writers I know is to make enough money that they can write full time. But more than one of them has admitted that they think they’ll need something, even part-time, outside the writing just to keep them sane. So even if the books earn enough income to allow you to quit the day job, that might not be the best option for you.

The one thing making money does allow a writer is the knowledge that people are buying and enjoying your books. It’s not so much an indicator of success as an affirmation that you have readers. So it’s fair enough to want to make money as a writer. Most of us aren’t turning away advances and royalties checks! But making money in this industry isn’t the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is writing books that readers will stay up all night to finish. That is success.

So no matter where you are in your career, pre-published, small press, mid-list or bestseller, when asked these questions, you can comfortably say, “Oh the money isn’t the point. The point is to write a book readers can’t put down. When I do that, I know I’ve done my job.”♥

Isabo Kelly (aka Katrina Tipton) is the author of multiple science fiction, fantasy and paranormal romances. Her Prism Award Winning novel, SIREN SINGING, has just been released in paperback from Ellora’s Cave (www.ellorascave.com). For more on Isabo’s books, visit her at http://www.isabokelly.com/

MANUSCRIPT MISFITS

by Tanya Goodwin




We’ve heard it more times than we would like to admit.

“Dear Jane/John: Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, it’s not right for us at this time.”

Or

“Your manuscript is not a good fit for us.”

I have a folder full of these rejections, and as I speak or communicate with other writers, in person or on various yahoo groups, I am far from alone. But, I’ve been feeling a bit of a misfit lately.

So while mulling over this “misfit” dilemma, a movie classic popped into my head. Although Christmas was months ago, I thought of RUDOLPH THE RED –NOSED REINDEER.

Talk about the ultimate misfits!

Rudolph, a reindeer with a glowing red nose, whose father is embarrassed by his son’s uniqueness, unsuccessfully tries to cover up his “defect”.

Hermey, an elf whose heart is in dentistry and not toy making.

Bumble, a very misunderstood abominable snow monster.

And then there’s a whole island of misfit toys, including a spotted elephant, a jack in- the- box named Charlie and a swimming bird. The list of these unconventional toys goes on.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Rudolph, if that’s possible, here’s a spoiler alert: it all turns out just fine. They’re all victorious.

Rudolph saves Christmas by leading Santa and his toy-filled sleight through a blizzard.

Hermey hangs up his ELF dental shingle. Yes, apparently elves get cavities.

And those misfit toys? Santa delivers them to children thrilled to receive them.

So what does this have to do with you and your quest for publication?

Well, your “misfit manuscript” is your unique work. Your voice. And like those toys who are dropped into the hands of squealing children, you’ll find that agent or editor who can’t wait to grab hold of your glowing words.

Even Bumble got to put the star on the Christmas tree. Your star is coming.♥



When not writing, Tanya Goodwin (aka Sylvia Tatiana Goodwin, MD, nee Vlasenko) delivers babies, or writes about a woman who delivers babies! She has penned to full novel length manuscripts featuring her OB/GYN protagonist, Dr. Tara Ross, and her spine tingling, and often humorous, adventures with NYPD Homicide Commander Captain Jeffrey Corrigan, the love of her life. Tanya’s found her voice in suspense and mystery with, of course, romantic elements. She is secretary of the RWANYC chapter, and a member of Sisters in Crime, GUPPIES, and Mystery Writers of America. She is happy to be a “misfit” seeking publication. A star certainly awaits her unique voice through her quirky characters. You can find more about Tanya at her website: http://web.mac.com/tanyagoodwin.

BREAKING THE RULES (includes book excerpt)

By Lauren Willig

No one knows quite what they are, but we all know they’re there. The Rules. Those commandments every good romance writer must follow, inscribed in pink on hidden tablets in an ark hidden deep, deep in the bowels of the RWA headquarters.

I’ve heard all sorts of variants on these rules. There’s never head hop. Unless you’re Judith McNaught. Or Nora Roberts. Or Julie Garwood. Or… Well, anyway. There’s one about staying away from the first person. Unless, of course, you’re Jessica Benson’s ACCIDENTAL DUCHESS, one of my absolute favorite Regencies. I’m sure we all have our own personal variants of these bugbears and others.

In writing my last book, THE BETRAYAL OF THE BLOOD LILY, I decided to take on two of the inchoate rules floating around historical fiction. One, I had been warned that books set outside England don’t sell—so I set my book in India. I’ve read several books set in India, but most have been focused on the upheavals of 1857, well into the reign of the Raj, after the British position had already been consolidated. I set my book in Hyderabad in 1804, a time of transition during which the Raj was just beginning to take shape, but still hadn’t settled into the form one recognizes from M.M. Kaye novels.

My second risk was making the main relationship an adulterous one. Adultery is generally a no-no in Romance Land. (Unless it’s a side character that’s going to get her comeuppance anyway.) My heroine is married at the start of BLOOD LILY, and not to the hero. I thought about trying to white wash the issue by killing off my heroine’s inconvenient husband prior to her consummating her relationship with the hero. I knew, though, that by doing that I’d be taking the coward’s way out and dodging a genuine source of conflict that needed to be part of the story.

Interestingly, there’s been little fall-out on either front. I’ve had readers tell me how much they’ve enjoyed learning about a different place and time—and there’s been almost universal silence on the issue of adultery (aside from a handful of people who expressed the opinion that Penelope’s husband deserved whatever he got). In the end, I’m a lot more proud of this book because of the risks I took with it.

Which all goes to say…. There may be rules out there that actually make some sense (punctuation, for example; I’m a big fan of punctuation in prose), but don’t let them get in the way of the story you want to tell.

If you’re curious as to how Penelope wound up in India—and with the wrong man—here’s an excerpt from the first chapter….

There were times when Lady Frederick Staines, nee Miss Penelope Deveraux, deeply regretted her lack of a portable rack and thumbscrews.

Now was one of them. Rain drummed against the roof of the carriage like a set of impatient fingers. Penelope knew just how it felt.

“You spoke to Lord Wellesley, didn’t you?” she asked her husband, as though her husband’s interview with the Governor General of India were one of complete indifference to her and nothing at all to do with the way she was expected to spend the next year of her life.

Freddy shrugged.

Penelope was learning to hate that shrug. It was a shrug amply indicative of her place in the world, somewhere just about on a level with a sofa cushion, convenient to lean against but unworthy of conversational effort.

That hadn’t been the case eight months ago.

Eight months ago they hadn’t been married. Eight months ago Freddy had still been trying to get her out of the ballroom into an alcove, a balcony, a bedroom, whichever enclosed space could best suit the purpose of seduction. It was a fitting enough commentary on the rake’s progress, from silver tongued seducer to indifferent spouse in the space of less than a year.

Not that Freddy had ever been all that silver-tongued. Nor, to be fair, had he done all the seducing.

How was she to have known that a bit of canoodling on a balcony would land them both in India?

Outside, rain pounded against the roof of the carriage, not the gentle tippety tap of an English drizzle, but the full out deluge of an Oriental monsoon. They had sailed up the Hooghly into Calcutta that morning after five endless months on a creaking, pitching vessel, replacing water beneath them with water all around them, rain crashing against the Esplanade, grinding the carefully planted English flowers that lined the sides into the muck, all but obscuring the conveyance that had been sent for them by the Governor General himself, with its attendant clutter of soaked and chattering servants, proffering umbrellas, squabbling over luggage, pulling and propelling them into a very large, very heavy carriage.

If she had thought about it at all, Penelope would have expected Calcutta to be sunny.

But then, she hadn’t given it much thought, not any of it. It had all happened too quickly for thought, ruined in January, married in February, on a boat to the tropics by March. The future had seemed unimportant compared to the exigencies of the present. Penelope had been too busy brazening it out to wonder about little things like where they were to go and how they were to live. India was away and that was enough. Away from her mother’s shrill reproaches (“If you had to get yourself compromised, couldn’t you at least have picked an older son?”); Charlotte’s wide-eyed concern; Henrietta’s clumsy attempts to get her to “talk about it”, as though talking would make the least bit of difference to the reality of it all. Ruined was ruined was ruined, so what was the point of compounding it by discussing it?

There was even, if she were being honest, a certain grim pleasure to it, to having put paid to her mother’s matrimonial schemings and poked a finger in the eye of every carping old matron who had ever called her fast. Ha! Let them see how fast she could be. All things considered, she had got out of it rather lightly. Freddy might be selfish, but he was seldom cruel. He didn’t have crossed eyes or a hunched back (unlike that earl her mother had been throwing at her). He wasn’t violent in his cups, he might be a dreadful card player but he had more than enough blunt to cover his losses, and he possessed a reasonable proficiency in those amorous activities that had propelled them into matrimony.

Freddy was, however, still sulky about having been roped into wedlock. It wasn’t the being married he seemed to mind—as he had said, with a shrug, when he tossed her a betrothal ring, one had to get married sooner or later and it might as well be to a stunner—as the loss of face among his cronies at being forced into it. He tended to forget his displeasure in the bedroom, but it surfaced in a dozen other minor ways.

Including deliberately failing to tell her anything at all about his interview with Lord Wellesley.♥



A native of New York City and a proud member of RWANYC, Lauren Willig is the author of the New York Times bestselling Pink Carnation series, featuring swashbuckling spies during the Napoleonic Wars. She holds a graduate degree in History from Harvard and a JD from Harvard Law. Now a full-time writer, she is hard at work on the next Pink Carnation book.

BITS AND PIECES: LISA DALE

Lisa Dale is like da Vinci's Mona Lisa: she has an amazing smile and an enthusiasm that is bursting even before she says a word to you. I took Bits & Pieces on the road to Hoboken to meet up with her; it was a damp day preceding the nameless hurricane that just hit the tri state area, and she still was enthusiastic about the new novel she is working on and the rights that she discovered Norway requested for one of her novels.

We sat in Karma Kafe where she asked me if I minded the walk there? Not a chance. Along the way she pointed out Carlos Bakery of Cake Boss fame, which we decided that we would go to after dinner if it was still open but not before the bookstore that was across the street. Books and cake even before we sat down!

It was hard to eat our amazing saffron korma because Lisa kept saying things that I wanted to capture. Smart, positive and warm, it was not hard at all to have a heart to heart with her and enter her world. She will not be tied down in any genre, she combines all of her interests in her romances. When she spoke at a chapter meeting (and she will be speaking again in September so mark your calendars!), she was so genuine, such the real deal. Lisa manages enthusiasm about the hard writng regimen that she is under to get her writing done--it is part of the process which she savors. If are on Twitter or Facebook you wild know that she was experiencing technical difficulty on her website, and she emerged victorious on Twitter today. You can visit her at http://www.lisadalebooks.com/

When we were heading home, the bakery was closed so no Cake Boss cake--though there were books I did not need! But spending the evening with a genuinely sweet person like Lisa made me not even miss cake so much--even though I will have to return to Hoboken! Read her inspiring bits:

"I am doing a lecture at NJRW this weekend. It's called, The Power of Positive Thinking for Writers. I was not always such a positive thinker. I write short prose and poetry.  In the beginning, I was sending it out and getting nothing but rejections. I let it get me down, then realized I needed to change my attitude. Started to look a rejection as a sign of my heading in the right direction. It was like with each rejection, I thought somebody somewhere was reading my work. Once I changed my attitude I started getting fewer rejections: it happened almost instantly.

"I would like to be able to write about food, digging into the sensuality of food and the human history behind a single cup of coffee.

"When you put a book out there, people can interpret it any way they want to.

"What other hobbies? Other than writing, I do not know what you mean?! No, I'm into knitting. I am an insatiable knitter. I knitted the scarf I am wearing. I found the pattern on Ravelry.com. My fiancé bought the yarn for me as a gift: it's high end silk and mohair.

"When I am writing I am not doing anything else. No Facebook, no Twitter, no music--just the words.

"I never have my iPod on shuffle (in public). I have bluegrass, classical, rock, top forty, and experimental stuff that my brother sends. I'm the same way about books--reading all over the map. The last book I read was THE INVENTION OF EVERYTHING ELSE about the inventor Nikola Tesla. It was fantastic!

"I do not think that anyone should judge what anyone else is listening to or reading. We all have guilty pleasures. Mine? 80's music. 'True Blood' is another guilty pleasure.

"I have two more books coming out with Berkeley. In my new book, a woman owns a coffee shop in Newport--one of the most architecturally diverse (and romantic) cities in the country. Old American aristocracy imitating English aristocracy. My protagonist is a woman re-falling in love with her high school crush under unusual circumstances.

"Most of what I write is just an excuse to research stuff I am really interested in: coffee, lobbyists, etc. Whatever my fascination du jour is, that is what is in the book. I think it is important for writers to follow their fascinations. If we are not fascinated with what we write, why should anyone else be?

"I thank God I am in my 30s and I do not have to be in my 20s anymore. I feel like I worked really hard in my twenties, and I still work hard, but every day gets me a little closer to the life I want. I enjoy the journey but I do not want to go backward.

"I love beers;  I am always trying new beers.


"My mom always has a big party at her house for St Patrick's Day -- corned beef and cabbage, green beer.

"My neighbor gave me my first romance novel when I was 15. I hid it under under my bed and read it a page at a time at night. I felt like I was going to get caught. It was very euphemistic (you know, suns and moons bursting into flames, etc).

"I really love yoga. There are two ways of approaching positive thinking: from the secular aspect or the spiritual aspect. I come at it from both perspectives. Positive thinking is very useful especially when you are a writer. In the beginning, if you do not look at it in a positvie way, it can really get you down.

"I am giving a lot of writing seminars.  I am doing one in September for RWANYC and one in Montclair on Thursday about strategies for getting an agent.

"In seminars, I guess that I convey what I would have wanted people to tell me. I try to be as candid as I can. I try not to gloss things.

"I know I am done revising when I hate the book, then I know I am done! It is a great story, but once it is finished I never want to see it again!"

INTO BATTLE

By Beatriz Williams


In this series, I explore the events and personalities of the First World War that inspired my novel OVERSEA, to be released next year. This month’s subject is Julian Grenfell; click here to read January’s post on the all-too-brief romance between Vera Brittain and Roland Leighton.

 “I adore war. It is like a picnic without the objectlessness of a picnic. I’ve never been so well or so happy. No one grumbles at one for being dirty. I’ve only had my boots off once in the last ten days, and only washed twice.”

Captain the Hon. Julian Grenfell, writing to his mother, 27 October 1914

Of all the legendary soldier-poets of the First World War, Julian Grenfell is perhaps the most challenging for our postmodern minds to comprehend. He was not a schoolboy fresh out of Eton when he wrote those careless lines; he was twenty-six, an Oxford graduate who had spent the past five years commanding a Royal Dragoons cavalry troop in India and South Africa. Where’s the cynicism, the disillusion, the revulsion? Who in his right mind could compare war to a picnic?

That’s the trouble with history: it’s so easy to project our own modernity into our subjects. We forget that in an era unredeemed by antibiotics and widespread vaccination, death ran rampant through the pattern of one’s ordinary life, accepted and acceptable; we can’t quite grasp that, to men like Julian Grenfell, the onset of war represented a breaking-free from the conventions and hypocrisies of civilized Edwardian society, into the animal purity of battle. Before the muddy stalemate of trench warfare, before the pitiless slaughter of the Somme, war meant escape.

Not that Grenfell was particularly conventional. His true nature lurked behind a thicket of contradictions: he was born the eldest son of a blue-blooded family, but his father’s title was newly-made and the family could scarcely make ends meet. He was tall, good-looking, vigorous; yet he often fell dangerously ill with some inscrutable malady or another, and experienced a profound nervous breakdown near the end of his Oxford career. He swaggered with his parents through the highest social circles, but remained essentially a loner, and a rebellious one at that.

He was funny. Having left home for boarding school at the usual age of ten, he had mastered the art of entertainment-by-letter, and the surviving examples are stuffed with droll little gems. Describing a 1912 regimental visit by the feckless Crown Prince of Germany, Grenfell observes, “We are all quite weary with bowing and scraping… my democratic feelings arouse themselves at 11pm; by 12 I am a socialist and by 1am an anarchist.” Later, narrating a trip to the cinema with a boneheaded companion: “Booth could not understand, the words being by the nature of the performance left for the intelligence of the audience to supply. So I kept up a running commentary: Booth – What are they doing now, eh? Self – Well you see, they are trying to kill him; the cowboys are not sitting on him to try to keep him warm. Booth – Why have they put that rope around his neck, eh what? Self – They are going to hang him with the rope. That is why they have put it round his neck.”

Though he pursued his fair share of girls, aristocratic and otherwise, he had only one full-blown affair, with a ravishing married countess who seems to have seduced him in classic style the year before his departure for India. He doubtless made a frustrating lover in any case, with his restlessness and private sensitivities and his passion for brutal outdoor sports that necessarily excluded women: stalking deer and shooting birds and pigsticking (don’t ask). The modern aversion to killing things would have been incomprehensible to Grenfell. Death was an inescapable part of nature; he loved nature, and never felt closer to it than when he was engaged in its primeval cycle of destruction and rebirth. His most famous poem, Into Battle, captures this sensibility with exquisite precision:

“…And Life is Colour and Warmth and Light
And a striving evermore for these;
And he is dead who will not fight;
And who dies fighting has increase.

The fighting man shall from the sun
Take warmth, and life from the glowing earth;
Speed with the light-foot winds to run,
And with the trees a newer birth;
And when his fighting shall be done,
Great rest, and fullness after dearth…

The kestrel hovering by day,
And the little owls that call by night,
Bid him be swift and keen as they –
As keen of sound, as swift of sight.

The blackbird sings to him ‘Brother, brother,
If this be the last song you shall sing,
Sing well, for you will not sing another;
Brother, sing!’…”

Grenfell wrote those lines on Tuesday, 29 April 1915; on 13 May, near Ypres, he took a shell splinter in the skull while prowling the battlefield for signs of enemy movement. He died two weeks later in a field hospital in Boulogne, surrounded by his family, and was buried in the damp earth overlooking the town. The Times ran his death announcement the next day, along with Into Battle, which duly found itself a quiet corner of the Western literary canon in which to slumber the decades away.

There are no more Julian Grenfells alive today; for good or ill, they have been squashed into extinction under the ironic weight of the twentieth century. It’s now impossible, or nearly so, to be both a man of thought and sentiment and a man of action: a first-rate poet and a first-rate cavalry officer. Grenfell had his faults, but he had keen perception, and thoughtless courage, and the brash humility to revel in the notion of dying for an obscure and ephemeral ideal – the more ephemeral, one suspects, the better. He died a hero, as men of his age were raised to do.♥





Beatriz Chantrill Williams does her best to resurrect the fallen mandarins of the First World War in her debut novel OVERSEA, forthcoming from Putnam in 2011. She is particularly indebted to Nicholas Mosley’s classic 1976 biography, JULIAN GRENFELL: HIS LIFE AND THE TIMES OF HIS DEATH, for its insight into Grenfell’s elusive character.

LOST YOUR MUSE?

By Patt Mihailoff

Greek legend has it that Zeus (whoremonger that he was) stepped out on Hera, his long suffering queen, and decided to spend nine nights with Mnemosyne the goddess of memory. I’ll bet you anything she wished she could forget that night especially when she found herself pregnant with nine babies——all girls.

There’s simply no way she could be happy about having to push out all those little divine beings through an opening the size of a skirt zipper——but I digress.  So being the product two deities these little ones weren’t your everyday run of the mill-tear-up-a-mall in 1.5 seconds little kids——they were The Muses.

Now I’m sure you know, or can look up the names of them all, but the ones that concern us literary creative types might be Calliope (Epic Poetry), Clio (History), Erato (Love Poetry), Melpomene (Tragedy) and Thaleia (Comedy).

You have to understand these girls; they were used to the good life. They lived on a sacred mountain with other gods for goodness sake, and according to Wikipedia they had that lazy and uber-vain Apollo as their teacher and spent a great deal of the time frolicking in the woods while he played his Lyre, or THEY played his Lyre for you erotica writers. (Okay! that was my bad).

As time went on, humans stopped believing in the gods and like everything else that no longer holds interest, they ceased to exist as a reality. So I figure before the big mental heave-ho really took hold, Zeus told his nine little moochers(The Muses) that they had to stop counting on him and go out and get a job. “You are inspirations of fine arts, writing, music, dancing, so go out and motivate damn it.”

So down to earth their essences came. At first, they were so happy to be of help that they went crazy and inspired their diaphanous little togas off as they sprinkled all kinds of creative joy juice onto the likes of Nora Roberts, Stephen King, and James Patterson to name a few.

This went on for a while, and suddenly ordinary people (that would be you and me); decided we wanted to write as well. So The Muses sat around talking and said, “Oh what the hell!” And soon regular people started getting published too. Oh Joy! Juices began flowing like wine out of a magical endless bottle as computer keys tapped and words filled the screen like bugs on a sticky bun.

If you’re anything like me, you probably get writing jags so severe that you sit for hours and just pound those keys like you were making pizza dough for an army.

Then out of nowhere——all of a sudden, WHAM! You stop!

There’s nothing except the blank portion of your screen and the cursor blinking at you like an annoying little gnat that won’t go away. You wonder what the hell happened, after all, you were doing fine a minute ago, a day ago. But now there’s just fuzz in your brain where words should be.

Well fear not, I have good news. It’s not you. It’s those Muses.

First you have to understand why they wander in the first place. They’re women, they like to shop, they like men, and so off they go in search of both, just not necessarily in that order.

The thing is, sometimes their absences can have a detrimental effect on your writing psyche. You start doubting. Is it good enough? Should I re-write the first chapter? The second chapter—— The whole book? Can I in fact even finish the darn book?

So while you wait for your missing Muse to return, you go back and edit, and re edit and then edit some more. You take out, put in, change and (thankfully correct words like form when it should be from), all the time wondering if your novel will ever be good enough.

I’m here to tell you not to fret. The muses are playful, egotistical deities that like to be stroked, coddled and worshiped, so forget about them for a while. I guarantee they will be back because you know the Olympian gods never like to be ignored.

Okay, so what do you do in the meantime? Take a walk. You’ll be surprised how fresh air will relax your overtaxed brain cells. Yoga is good, but the stay away from the lotus pose thingy, most thighs are not made to be in the shape of a pretzel.

Write something else. Start another book, a story, a poem or just write about the little brown dog and the boy that jumped over him——anything, but do it  e v e r y  s i n g le  day. Trust me, your muse will come running back like her butt was on fire and you have the last water hose in the world. Before you know it you will be back to writing like you never left.

However, if none of that works, email me -- pattkal@yahoo.com -- I promise to get you back on track, and besides, I know where those heifers hang out. Happy writing.♥



Patt Mihailoff was named Author of the Year by the Romance Writers of America New York City Chapter in 2009. She is the author of SINGLE HEART, SINGLE LOVE and RING DANCER’S DESTINY from Cerridwen Press. Patt also partners with Kathy Quick under the pseudonym P.K. Eden. Their book FIREBRAND will be released in paperback in May 2010 from Wings Press. Visit her – and the Muses – at http://pattsnewsyreview.blogspot.com/.

This article first appeared in the Liberty States Fiction Writers newsletter in February 2010.

BLOGS & WEBSITES FOR WRITERS: Author Groups

By Maria Ferrer

I am always on the look out for additions to my Directory of Blogs & Websites for Writers.

This month, I am looking at sites by Author Groups. These are groups of authors who have joined together to blog. One started as a critique group, another is chapter, a couple of others revolve around a specific genre, but all are informative and worth visiting.

TIP:   When you look at these blogs and websites, don’t just look at them for the information value. Look at them as promotional opportunities. You can Guest Blog at many of these sites. Check to see which one is best for you.



DIRECTORY OF BLOGS & WEBSITES FOR WRITERS


RWANYC Blogging in the Big Apple
“In the Heart of the Romance Industry”
www.rwanycblogginginthebigapple.blogspot.com/

A blog by the members of the Romance Writers of America New York City Chapter (aka RWANYC). Member bloggers have included President Karen Cino, Thea Devine, Cathy Greenfeder, Jeanine McAdam, Dee Davis, Polly Guerin, Wendy Corsi Staub, Isabo Kelly and Mary Miller-Lamb. Blog posts appear every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by published and unpublished members. Posts include Blog & Websites for Writers; Bits & Pieces (a twist on author profiles); Fashion History Friday; How-to Write articles; and Dreaded Author Questions. You can follow RWANYC on Facebook and Twitter, as well.


The Craftie Ladies of Suspense
“Christian Romance Authors of Fictionalized Tales of Intriguing Edginess”
http://ladiesofsuspense.blogspot.com/

This blog belongs to 15 Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense authors, including Pamela Tracy, Terri Reed, Cara Putnam, Debby Giusti, Roxanne Rustand, Margaret Daley, Lynette Eason, Linda Hall, Lenora Worth, Barbara Phinney, LeAnn Harris, Ramona Richards, Carol Steward, Dana Mentink, and Lisa Mondello. They welcome other Love Inspired Suspense authors. For February, these Craftie Ladies did a 14-day serial novel entitled, KILLER CHOCOLATE, A Valentine’s Mystery. These Ladies also have a sister blog for the Steeple Hill romance writers: The Craftie Ladies of Romance.


The Craftie Ladies of Romance
“Christian Romance Authors of Faith-based Tales of Inspiring Everafters”
http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/

All these Ladies are authors from the Steeple Hill Love Inspired line, like Lisa Mondello, Kim Watters, Allie Plieter and Roxanne Rustand. The site promotes the books, the ladies, and the craft.


The Goddess Blog
http://thegoddessblogs.com/

Fun blog by 10 romance authors, including Rachel Gibson, Claudia Dain, Julia London, Karen Hawkins Lori Handeland, Karen Rose, Sabrina Jeffries, Suzanne Enoch, Nicole Jordan and Madeline Hunter. The site features posts on writing and new books. They allow for “guest goddess bloggers.” And they have cute quirky polls. For example, what would your goddess do for chocolate? Answer: 30% of the goddesses would walk through fire, if the chocolate didn’t melt, of course. They are on Facebook and Twitter.


A History of Romance
“Passion, Adventure, Romance…and Blogs”
http://ahistoryofromance.wordpress.com/

This is the blog of Brenda Dyer, April Dawn, Sheila Stewart, Michael Matthes Bingamon, Abbey MacInnis, Tabitha Blake, G. Jillian Stone, Karenna Colcroft, Ruth Seitelman, Dominique Eastwick and Ava Delany. They blog about writing historicals, research, etc. They feature a “Monday Madness” with guest bloggers. They have reviewers available, and offer advertising opportunities via banners and author spotlights.


Hoydens and Firebrands
“Roaring Ladies Who Write About the Seventeenth Century”
http://hoydensandfirebrands.blogspot.com/

A great informative historical resource. It’s the blog of authors Alison Stuart, Anita Davison, Kim Murphy, Mary Sharratt and Sandra Gulland. They have a “Blogroll” of other great historical blogs, and feature historical portraits. They have posts on different battles, archeology, funeral practices, castles, swords, and my favorite, bathing.


Lady Scribes
“Shhh, I’m Writing Romance”
http://ladyscribes.blogspot.com/

This group of historical romance authors came together initially as a critique group, and launched their blog in January 2010. The Ladies include Jerrica Knight-Catania, Amy De Tempe, Lydia Dare, Heather Boyd, Gail, Julie Johnstone, Melissa Dawn Harte and Samantha Grace. Their posts focus on writing historical romances, including Regencies. One of their best features is Crit Friday. Once a month, they post a topic (i.e., first kiss, first meeting, first paragraph, etc.) and invite their readers to post their work for the Ladies to critique.  They promise to be "gentle and constructive." This online critique is a great resource tool. Follow the Ladies on Facebook and Twitter.


The Lipstick Chronicles
“Just keep reading and nobody gets hurt”
http://thelipstickchronicles.typepad.com/

A blog by mystery writers Nancy Martin, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Elaine Vlets, Sarah Strohmeyer, Kathy Sweeney, Harley Jane Kozak and Margie Mancini. The site has lots of great tips for mystery writers, and a long list of other mystery blogs. You can follow them on Twitter.


Petticoats and Pistols
“Romancing the West”
http://petticoatsandpistols.com/

The “fillies” include Pat Potter, Linda Broday, Winnie Griggs, Tanya Hanson, Karen Kay, Margaret Brownley, Victoria Bylin, Stacey Kayne, Pam Crooks, Tracy Garrett, Cheryl St. John, Elizabeth Lane and Mary Connealy. They have lots of historical posts; most recent ones have included the Johnstown flood, Indian dress, the McGuffey Reader and mail-order brides. Note: they have a guest author every weekend so stop by and check them out.  And, you can follow them on Twitter.


Plot Monkeys
http://www.plotmonkeys.com/

This is the website of Carly Phillips, Leslie Kelly, Janelle Denison and Julie Leto. They are “friends, plotting partners, friends, mothers, friends ... well you get the gist.” The ladies post daily about anything and everything. They have a Saturday Craft Series with guest author-bloggers.


Pop Culture Divas
“Writers dishing about books, TV, movies, music and more…”
http://www.popculturedivas.com/

This group began with another blog called missmakeamovie, but moved to Pop Culture Divas in 2009. The Divas are numerous, including Leanna Renee Hieber, Laurie Sanchez, CJ Lyons, Cate Masters and Kayla Perrin. And these ladies do blog about their writing, pirates, movies and Fabio. Remember him?


Romance Bandits
http://romancebandits.blogspot.com/

These “Bandits” write all kinds of romance – historical, contemporary, suspense, category. They have a long list of contributors, including authors Suzanne Welsh, Loucinda McGary, Trish Milburn, Cassandra Murray and Joan Kayse. They post about creativity, heroes, book covers, booty, etc. They also feature guest bloggers.


Seekerville
“The Seekers. Escape from Unpubbed Island…writing, contests, publication and everything in between.”
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/

This is the blog of 15 unpublished and newly published Christian writers, including Camy Tang, Audra Harders, Janet Dean and Missy Tippens. They offer “support, encouragement and information for the writing journey.” They have daily posts and a weekend edition. They have lots of great writing info, and they are on Twitter.


Sizzling Scribes
“Enter our world…See the Difference”
http://www.sizzlingscribes.blogspot.com/

Fantasy authors have united to form this blog. They include Tara Nina, Titania Ladley, Arianna Hart, Diana Hunter, Lynn LaFleur, Cait Miller, Nikki Soarde, Trelle St. Clare, Ruby Storm and Cynthia Williams. These authors have been blogging about fantasy since 2007.


The Whine Sisters
“Rise and Whine”
http://whinesisters.com/

Founded in 2004 by seven “whiny writers” – their tag line, not mine. They include Dee Davis, Jacquie D’Alessandro, Julia London, Kathleen O’Reilly, the late Kathleen Givens, Sherri Browning Erwin and Julie Kenner. They talk about writing, life, the Oscars, et al. Some of their features include a Writer’s Corner, Fashion Friday and Question of the Week. You can follow them on Twitter.


Women of Mystery
http://www.womenofmystery.net/

These ladies “share the trek, travail and tangles of writing and publishing, along with the magic of language and story.” They are Laura k. Curtis, Nan Higginson, Clare2e, Terrie Farley Moran, Elaine Will Sparber, Cathi Stoler, Gail Stockton, Kathleen A. Ryan and Lois Karlin. They offer lists of resources like medline and the graveyard shift; plus, links to Writers Beware and various writing organizations. And, they feature a Two-Sentence Tuesday, where anyone can post two sentences they’ve read and two sentences they’ve written for commentary. ♥



Maria Ferrer has been published in short fiction, but that was years ago. She hopes to add to her writing credits in the New Year. Keep your fingers crossed for her.  As always, please leave a comment and let her know of any other blogs and websites for writers that you think belong in this directory.

I LOVE NEW YORK

By Wendy Corsi Staub

New York, New York—there’s no place like it in the world. I moved here almost twenty-five years ago, fresh out of college, my heart set on becoming an author. All writers are dreamers, and dreams do come true. Particularly here in the Big Apple, where a little girl from a small town 450 miles away became a New York Times bestselling author.

After setting my last few novels some distance from my suburban New York home, I chose a local backdrop for my latest thriller. LIVE TO TELL (Avon Books, March 2010) opens with a harrowing chase through Manhattan that culminates at Grand Central Terminal, the gateway to Westchester County, where I—and, not coincidentally, my heroine Lauren Walsh—happen to live.

As much as I enjoy traveling to research my distant settings, it was a pleasure to recreate a world I inhabit in real life. My heroine is a stay-at-home-mom whose charming old house—a perpetual fixer-upper—shares a zip code with multi-million dollar estates in Glenhaven Park, a fictionalized version of my own suburban town, and one my loyal readers will recognize from several of my earlier novels.

Lauren Walsh buys groceries at the A&P, shops at Ann Taylor in the mall in White Plains, battles traffic on I-684 and the Saw Mill River Parkway. Her ex-husband commutes via MetroNorth to Manhattan, where his path fatefully intersects that of gubernatorial candidate Garvey Quinn, a man who will stop at nothing to shroud his own deadly secret.

Familiar as I am with the streets and avenues of Manhattan, I found myself visiting and revisiting city blocks to make sure I had the details just right. The opening chase scene winds from the west side to Grand Central, with a pivotal foray through Bryant Park, one of my favorite spots in the city. I’ve spent many hours there over the years and yet, when it came time to propel my character through the park, I had to personally trace his path several times to make sure the timing and pit stops along the way were accurate and realistic.

Because the Lost & Found Department at Grand Central Terminal is a springboard for the suspense plot, I spent some time interviewing the people who work there, which was fascinating. People leave all kinds of interesting on trains—and many of them sit, catalogued and unclaimed, in the Lost & Found’s meticulously organized storage area. I learned how things work behind the scenes and what could and could not plausibly take place in terms of retrieving a lost item.

In my plot, Lauren’s ex—distracted by his new girlfriend and now clueless to Lauren’s domestic juggling act and the needs of his separation-scarred children—retrieves the wrong lost stuffed animal for his youngest daughter, Sadie. Now the Walshes are unwittingly in possession of incriminating evidence hidden inside the toy, opening the door to a deadly game of cat-and-mouse that unfolds on the teeming streets of Manhattan and in bucolic Westchester backyards.

I love metropolitan New York—in fiction and in real life. Whenever I use it as a setting, the city tends to come alive as a character, spinning the plot with endless possibilities. Things happen here that wouldn’t be believable anywhere else in the world. I worked hard, when writing LIVE TO TELL, to capture New York’s unique blend of intimacy and anonymity that serves this book’s premise so well.

How about you? What’s your favorite setting to write—and read—about?


Visit my websites, http://www.wendycorsistaub.com/ and http://www.wendycorsistaubcommunity.com/ to read an excerpt of LIVE TO TELL, which received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. Beginning March 8th, visitors to my community website can join me for a daily readalong to learn the story-behind-the-story! ♥

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, THEY IMMEDIATELY WENT TO BED

By Santa Byrnes


I’m coming to you today, not so much as a writer, but as a reader. I love romance. More specifically, I love the idea (or is it an ideal?) of romance. The way a hero tucks an errant lock of hair behind the heroine’s ear. The catch in the heroine’s breath the moment her fingers brush against his.

The crackling fire as it casts a glow to the book lined library, the authors on their spines lean forward anticipating the next reader’s touch. Irving. Poe. Both James(es). Browning. Shakespeare. Kleypas. Shelly. Eco. Brockway. The brown leather ottoman in front of the fire holds a banquet of treats created to arouse the senses. Lush zambaglione. Brilliant berries. Satiny chocolate mousse. And there draped sardonically (what else would he be – right?) on the armchair next to that fire, the hero awaits his heroine’s return from a grueling day at work ready to fulfill her every wish.

Sigh. How romantic.

And, no, they haven’t had sex yet. It’s also well into the novel and, believe it or not, they’ve just met. Really. A good fifty or so pages in and they’ve just met, after ten years apart, at the local diner. She’s back in town trying to evade her ex and he’s never gone beyond the next town over.

The romance of their story – the meeting, instantly attracted to one another and neither willing to cross that line. They have to be true to themselves. They are on a journey of self rediscovery. Love has no place in that quest. A romance – whether for the long run or just to scratch that itch – is not on their personal itineraries. But they are pushing against what is clearly fated as their destiny. The discovery that what they’ve been searching for is the very thing they keep riling against is what drives their story.

But they’re not going to act on it….at least for another thirty pages or so. At least.

Is this kind of romance novel welcomed by readers? Can one be written where the hero and heroine don’t meet until the third or fourth chapter and don’t have sex until a few more chapters in? Can the sexual tension alone carry a book?

I have to admit, I am on the fence about this. A book that engages all my senses and keeps me at the edge of my seat is a rare find. Does that mean it has to be full of sex, as the one element used to engage my senses? Or can it be woven into the story, as one of its stronger points?

What have you come to expect and accept as a reader? Or as a writer?♥



My name is Santa Byrnes and I am a contemporary romance writer with one completed manuscript under my belt and one that I am working on at the present. When I am not wearing my writer’s tiara, you can find me at the wheel of my car chauffeuring my children heather and yon to their various activities. I write there. I don my deli diva tiara as co-owner and manager of my family’s gourmet food store. I also write there. As an ardent foodie, I get much of my inspiration for the current series I am working on. My heroines are chefs whose passions for the culinary arts rivals the passions they share with the heroes in their lives.

BITS & PIECES: CHRIS KEESLAR

Chris Keeslar of Dorchester Publishing needs little introduction: he is one of the best in the business. Our chapter honored him with a Golden Apple for Editor of the Year in 2008, and he took time out of his busy schedule in 2009 to help us judge our Love and Laughter contest. He also found time to meet up with me to do this Bits and Pieces—the first male I’ve interviewed for the blog, I am excited to say, and what an amazing subject. I could see why some of the most acclaimed romances, including THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER by our own Leanna Renee Hieber, are edited by him. From the beginning I was encouraged by Chris's open and frank nature, and then I was struck by his insightful psychological and philosophical outlooks. He is an editor, but he's been a writer, too, which is clear from the way that he looks at people and life. He was reading BOZO SAPIENS: WHY TO ERR IS HUMAN, which contains interesting psychological studies. There is absolutely nothing “bozo” about him at all. Chris admitted to being hesitant to reveal too much about himself, wanting to keep some of his life private, which I totally understood. But the point of Bits and Pieces is to show quirky aspects of the interviewee, which he was happy to provide. He definitely managed to keep his “mystique,” but he definitely gave up a lot of interesting “bits.” Here they are:

 

“I still play Dungeons & Dragons—or play again, as I’ve recently gotten back into a game. It’s super dorky, I admit. Still, I ascribe a lot of my editorial ability to having played it growing up. The reason: DMing, creating scenarios and worlds for players drives you to take into account many of the same things an author would.”

“If I wrote, I would likely write urban fantasy. I was a fan of that genre long before it became popular in Romance. Steampunk? Yeah, I like that, too. It’s been around for a long time, and romance is just finding it. Everything is cyclical.”

“Do I get tired of romance? I don’t get tired of believable, well-crafted romance. Books by people following trends can get tiresome. Of course, authors don’t always see things from the same perspective. I see a lot more of what is being produced (or attempted) than your average reader or wannabe writer, not filtered by publishers and distribution channels. I am a little ahead of the curve in that way. So is almost everyone on my side of the industry.”

“Sports? I’ve watched basketball and hockey and baseball. I was a Knicks fan, but I don’t follow any team in particular now. I play basketball: I have the ball-handling ability of a center and the rebounding ability of a point guard. But I'm no Jason Kidd. I still run the office college basketball pool—the totally legal office pool.”

“I’ve never really been a bartender; that was a joke of Barbara Vey's. A bunch of people were involved in that. I can make a gin and tonic and a rum and coke, but don’t ask for a Cosmo or you might get something awful.”

“I am currently reading BOZO SAPIENS, a nonfiction book on why humans do the dumb things we do—biological programming. An early chapter is on why we react as we do to alpha males and certain actresses. They play to a number of unconscious sociological and biological imperatives.”

“How’s it different being a twin? I don’t know anything else, having never not been one, and I don’t have any other brothers or sisters. One guess, though: Most siblings compete, and usually the older child has a leg up. With twins you are very much contemporaries. You’re stuck: either embrace your relationship or not. You are in each other's immediate space. In developing an individual personality you can either become opposed to each other or meld. A teacher once predicted to my mother, ‘They’ll fight like cats and dogs when they’re young and grow up and be best friends.’ That’s pretty much true. We definitely fought when we were kids. Sometimes I even won…. (She’s tough.)”

“It’s funny. I didn’t think it was an issue being male as a romance editor when I was younger, but now I do—or at least I accept that there are differences. Preconceived notions, expectations, the way we think as men and women, the way we are socialized—or perhaps biologically prepared—to think…. I think like a man, and I’m working with women writing primarily for women. There’s a language there that I will never speak perfectly.” (He laughs.) “I am sort of translating, like a Martian with a decent education teaching Americans English. Yet I believe the differences can be both weaknesses and strengths. I provide a sounding board. I don’t take certain things for granted. I like to think I make authors figure out exactly what they’re trying to say and do, and be sure they’re doing it right. I like to think I challenge them and their craft.”

“I think a lot of the fiction that is successful does not fall into social norms—like V.C. Andrews, with the incest in FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC. That was a long time ago, of course, but the rule still applies: if you do it well, and it appeals to some base human instinct, you will be found. Maybe it’s because of the innate conflict of social expectations in that book. Anyway, it will be interesting to see where publishing goes. I think a lot of distribution channels are failing, and easier outlets are becoming available. Ultimately, people will read what they want to read. Who will be the new gatekeepers? Someone will have to step forward to inform—and hopefully elevate—the masses.”

“Why am I interested in the psychological? My mother. She was something of an unlicensed social worker. She was all about kids. She ran two health centers for students, as well as helping build Michigan’s I-23, hauling concrete, to keep me and my sister in school. Psychology was one of many professions I considered, but I wasn’t really cut out for the medical route. I wanted to write back then. I wrote a novel and it was awful.”

“I’m tough on myself, yeah. I’m even tougher on my authors. Some listen to what I have to say and others don't. Eventually I stop talking. It’s their book in the end.”

“No, I don't want everyone to know exactly who I am. In some ways I’m very private, which is why my social media sites are not really for work connections. (Sorry if I’ve not friended anyone!) Personal relationships are very different than business relationships, and it’s sometimes hard for people to sync up about where one ends (or should end) and another begins. It’s particularly difficult in this age of information and connectivity. I am naturally a very trusting and open person. Of course, candor and honesty carry a lot of responsibilities and pressure. It can be tough, there’s sometimes a fine line you have to walk between what you need to project and who you are.”♥

A REMEDY FOR GETTING OVER THE PITY PARTY

By Karen Cino


In the beginning of February, after carefully following individual submission guidelines, I sent out my “packages” via the internet. Then, I closed the top of my laptop and went about my business doing my chores. An hour later I came home, checked my emails and there sat two emails. Both responses were thank you, but no thanks. Okay…that was a blow; a discouraging blow. Now, the challenge: Do I drown in my rejections? Do I throw in the towel? These are two of many questions that I’m sure we have all asked ourselves at one time or another. I’ll share with you my own remedy for getting over the feel-sorry-for-me pity party.

Take a walk. I find that the best thing to do for myself is to take a walk. By now everyone must be tired of me talking about my long walks. I know it sounds crazy, but that walk, no matter if it’s short or long, is all I need to rejuvenate. So picture me tying my Timberland boots and strolling through the mounds of snow, opening up my mind, along with numbing my fingers and toes. But it works. Believe me, it works. After that walk, I was cold but recharged and ready to continue working on my next project.

Get dressed. Are you sitting in sweat pants and tee shirt with slippers on? It’s no wonder you can’t get anything down on paper. Fluff your hair, get dressed as if you’re going out. That’s right! Add the accessories -- the belt, earrings and necklaces. Take a glance in the mirror, then sit behind your computer and start writing. You’ll be surprised how playing dress up can inspire your muse.

Keep a journal. I bought myself a monthly planner and journal. Every night I write what I did during the day. How many words I wrote or how many pages I revised. And if I did nothing, I write the word nothing in the planner. Then the last thing I do is write a short journal entry. It can be two lines or two pages about nothing or a plot idea. Whatever it is, sometimes it is the only time I write in a day.

Keep Writing. Did you ever fantasize what it would be like to be someone else or wish your life was different? Be that fantasy. Sit behind your computer, do your research and write that story. The best writing exercise is to write.


Following my own advice, I am walking, getting dressed, keeping a journal and writing, as I continue to follow my dreams, all while I do revisions on my novel MYSTICAL WONDERS and I await responses on ROSES. Join me.♥



Presently, Karen is serving as President of the RWA New York City Chapter. She keeps her muse alive by walking every morning down at the boardwalk. Currently, she is shopping for a home for her novel ROSES, and is working on her next novel MYSTICAL WONDERS.