Monthly archive

February 2010

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Live To Tell

I grew up in a small town in the far southwestern corner of New York State, four hundred and fifty miles away from Manhattan. In third grade, I decided to become an author when I grew up. In ninth grade, I decided I needed to move to New York City to do so.

I’ve always been an ambitious, hyper-organized planner—a curse or blessing, depending on how you look at it. It served me well at 21, when I landed an entry level with a major New York publishing house, where I intended to learn the industry from behind the scenes. I had started sending out resumes and going on corporate interviews as a college senior, flying from Buffalo to Newark on the defunct People’s Express Airline, with my dubious yet supportive parents footing the $29 (really!) each way fares every couple of weeks.

When I landed the job with Macmillan, all I cared about was that I’d reached the key milestone in my master plan: the move to New York. It wasn’t until my first day at work that reality hit me: apparently, I was a secretary in the textbook marketing division—about as far from my imagined door-opening editorial career as a waitressing job would have been, and a lot less lucrative.

Disillusioned, yet not about to go crawling home to western New York, I gamely learned to make photocopies, format memos, and fill out town car vouchers for the bosses. I used up all five of my sick days within the first few months on the job and blew my fifteen thousand dollar a year entry level salary on Salem Slim Lights, Bombay Sapphire and tonics, chimichangas, and nightclub covers (none of which have been on my social agenda in a few decades now).

The four other secretaries in my bay—Carol, Rose, Ann and Susan—became my first post-college girlfriends. My career at Macmillan lasted just six months, but our bond continues to this day.
My father, a conservative Capricorn banker, panicked when I left a full-time job with benefits to work instead for a temp agency, but I assured him it was all part of the plan and that I would be fine. I was right about that--I eventually freelanced my way into the fulltime women’s fiction editorial career that ultimately launched me to my published author goal.

That short-lived stint at Macmillan was a major turning point and yet, oddly, I rarely think about it. My first corporate job is relegated to the far reaches of memory’s attic, alongside calculus formulas and Flock of Seagulls lyrics.

The other day, however, Macmillan unexpectedly came rushing back in the most bizarre full circle way.
My husband and I and our children had to catch an early international flight from JFK, so we decided to leave from a midtown hotel rather than our suburban home. When I made a reservation via the Marriott website, I thought the hotel’s address—866 Third Avenue—seemed familiar. But since I frequently dine in that neighborhood (love PJ Clarkes and Solera) and my longtime publisher, Kensington, was until recently just a block away—I figured that must be why 866 Third rang a bell.

It didn’t dawn on me until I walked into the lobby that this was precisely where Macmillan had been located; the building had been turned into a hotel. Shell-shocked, I rode the familiar elevators past my former low floor and set up camp in a suite on the seventeenth. With the release of LIVE TO TELL, my new thriller from Harper, just days away, I had quite a few loose ends to tie up. I did a telephone interview, confirmed several upcoming appearances, and approved a press release about the book’s starred review in Publishers Weekly. I received a call from the television producer who’s optioned one of my book series, then zipped down to my agent’s office to pick up a royalties check.


Royalties check…reality check. Tasks like these have become second nature at this stage in my career, but suddenly they took on new meaning. Things I hadn’t thought about in years came back to me: subway tokens and white sneakers over stockings; bagel breakfasts and falafel lunches from street carts; Village Voice classifieds.

All at once, I remembered what it was like to be young and flat broke and disillusioned and alone in the big city more than two decades ago. I remembered scraping together enough change for a subway token back to Queens, and lingering at two-for-one happy hours that offered free bar food, and hiding out in the ladies’ room to escape the wrath of my moody boss. I remembered wearing out the heels on my one pair of dress shoes, and the hellish commute on the jam-packed seven train from Flushing during the LIRR strike, and sending out poetry and short stories to magazines, garnering enough rejection slips to fill a drawer.

Perhaps most striking: Ed Koch was mayor of the city back then. A decade later, he and I would co-author a series of hardcover mystery novels together.

What I remember most is my determination to become a bestselling novelist. It simply never occurred to me, back then, that it wouldn’t happen.

And I’m sure that’s why it did.

Read my blog at http://www.wendycorsistaubcommunity.com/ and join me for a LIVE TO TELL readalong there the week of March 1. Also visit http://www.wendycorsistaub.com/ or follow me on twitter or facebook



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Monday, February 22, 2010

Tee Hee !

I'm popping–and I am not kidding. I am a happy camper, happy as a clam (how do they know they're happy?) And over the moon. Howzat?

OUT OF BODY from the COURT OF ANGELS Series has been released early. It is on sale in all outlets RIGHT NOW and I've seen it.

When I see a new book of mine on the shelves I just stand there “gobsmacked” as they say in some parts of the UK (imagine mouth open and eyes wide). I figure no one near me knows I wrote that book with the perfect cover. so I can wear a silly grin, get inside my own silent bubble inof thrillsville and I'm invisible.

The COURT OF ANGELS trilogy was written last year. Three books in a year is a lot of writing but I had so much fun with this series. And don't think I'm done with these people or the weird stuff they encounter. I have started on the next two stories.

A little excerpt from OUT OF BODY:

Gray cast about, afraid to move, afraid not to move. "Marley," he said quietly. "Marley?" Her eyelids slid shut but her face became rigid. As if she was wide awake and tense inside a sleeping body. Gray saw her breathing grow shallow and rapid.

He bent over her. She hardly breathed at all. Automatically he lifted her into his arms. Sharp currents ran through his body.

"You must not interfere."

Gray looked over his shoulder. In the multi-colored haze suspended over the dollhouse she had been working on, a wraith-like series of shapes coalesced into a dim face. He screwed up his eyes, strained to see. Gray-streaked dark hair. Sharp features, he thought.

The pattern of a voice rose out of that rustling, clear and demanding. It came from the direction of Marley's workbench and the hovering face.

Gray held Marley tighter, gritted his teeth at the battering of sensation passing to him from Marley.

He sat down with her on his lap and stared ahead. Like her still-sleeping dog, he waited. Gray waited because he felt he must. At least Marley kept breathing faintly, but she was limp. He was afraid, but not for himself. He wanted to know more about whatever was happening around him

The rustle continued.

His attention rose to the ceiling above the house. The colors there glowed, green, blue, pink.

They throbbed and he heard the sounds take shape again.

"She will live or she will die. She is uniquely gifted. You must only wait and be glad for your own emergence. Be ready to seize your own talents."

This time the words definitely came from the ethereal being.

I can't say I have ever thought about what it would be like to have an electric reaction (fairly literally) to touching someone who, er, appealed to you. And I'm not explaining more of what happens in the story with that element, but let's just say the results are explosive, penetrating and unforgettable.

In the back pages of OUT OF BODY there is a $1 coupon toward the purchase of OUT OF MIND roughly three weeks later and in OUT OF MIND you'll find a $1 coupon toward the last of the first three books, OUT OF SIGHT.

As Wazoo would say, hoo mama, I'm bubbling away here and need to give you all a break

You can write to me at http://www.stellacameron.com/ or join me at Facebook. Send me a tweet at StellaCam over at Twitter where I'm becoming addicted despite once saying I never would...

If you go to http://www.purplepapayalc.com/ you can get a signed bookplate.

Comment on this blog and you could win a Stella Cameron book!

Most important, I just want you to have as much fun reading these books as I had writing them.

Cheers,
Stella

Q: What do you think about our starting an online book club for this series? Let me know if I should think about putting some starter questions together. Also we can add your own questions right up front if you have them.









Friday, February 19, 2010

The Dead Travel Fast

I am so happy to be guest blogging at Writerspace today because tomorrow is release day! Tomorrow is the day that The Dead Travel Fast hits bookstores, and I could not be happier to share this book with readers.

For me, writing The Dead Travel Fast was an exercise in occasional terror. I am very comfortable in my late Victorian series, and my main characters--the aristocratic Lady Julia Grey and the private enquiry agent, Nicholas Brisbane--have become old friends at this point. But The Dead Travel Fast required not just stepping outside my comfort zone—I pole-vaulted outside of it! I kept the historical setting, but I moved the action to 1858 and far outside of fogbound London streets and upper-class house parties. This book is set in a crumbling Carpathian castle, perched high above a village where the air is thick with legends of the supernatural. While Lady Julia Grey enjoys a large and boisterous family, Theodora Lestrange is an independent and intrepid heroine who thinks nothing of traveling halfway across Europe on her own. And where Nicholas Brisbane is a man with an eye fixed firmly on the coming of the twentieth century, Count Andrei Dragulescu is a man with a past—the dark and dangerous past of a family who may or may not be vampires!

This book also marks the first time I have helped make a book trailer video. It was a tremendous amount of fun to choose the images and the music, and my husband assembled the pieces together. And just to make it interesting, we set ourselves the challenge of making it with absolutely no budget whatsoever. We used photos we had taken during our various trips, and found royalty-free music to set a perfect mood. I hope you enjoy this spooky and atmospheric peek at The Dead Travel Fast!



Check it out!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yw0rDb769Q]


Comment on this blog and you could be the lucky winner of a $25 Amazon gift card.

http://www.deannaraybourn.com/

Friday, February 12, 2010

A Few of my Favorite Themes

I think there are themes that we as readers—and writers—return to again and again. Storylines that speak to us as individuals, that touch a chord within our hearts and show us new truths about old pains.

I have a few favorites themes I revisit often, both as a reader and writer. I bet you have favorites, too. So, I'll share mine if you'll share yours.

1. The redemption story

I love redemption stories. The idea that we can change, improve and overcome is such an appealing thing to me. One of my favorite characters on TV these days is James "Sawyer" Ford on the ABC drama LOST. In the first two seasons, Sawyer was a cross between a villain and a trickster, a rough, dark, often unpleasant character determined to look out for himself and his wants and needs, even at the sacrifice of everyone around him. But over the course of the series, he has evolved into a man able to make emotional connections with others, to look out for the well-being of his friends. He hasn't lost his edge; he's moody, irritable, sometimes selfish and often quick to anger, but he's still hero material, as he proved for most of last season.

In one of my books, COWBOY ALIBI, it was the heroine who needed redemption. A combination of a troubled upbringing and a series of foolish mistakes has led her to a place where she lied more than she told the truth. But when her memory is wiped clean after a trauma, the woman who now knows herself as Jane Doe has the chance to remake herself, to start fresh—but not before she faces her past.

Which brings us to...

2. Facing the past

In one way or another, almost all of my characters have to face their pasts in some way, come to terms with something that's been haunting them for years. This is especially true in my new Cooper Justice series from Harlequin Intrigue. In this month's Cooper Justice book, CHICKASAW COUNTY CAPTIVE, Kristen Tandy has to face a tragic crime perpetrated on herself and her deceased brothers and sisters by her mother. It's the kind of horror tale that most people would have trouble surviving emotionally, and Kristen is no exception. But as a police detective, she has to overcome the fears her past has wrought in order to protect a young child in danger.

Kristen's initial instinct is to let someone else take over the job of protecting young Maddy. But Maddy has chosen Kristen to protect her, which forces Kristen to deal with her phobias and come to terms with her past as well as what she wants from the future.

3. The reluctant hero

Speaking of characters whose initial instinct is to avoid getting involved, another theme I love is the reluctant hero. I think this particular theme resonates with me because I see myself as radically ordinary. I don't have a lot of exciting skills or captivating experiences in my life. I'm just a nice, middle class woman from the South who works as a graphic designer and writes books. I'm scared of heights, shy around strangers and prone to hermit-like behavior. But I still like to believe I'd step up to the plate in a crisis and do what it takes to help people survive.

Some of the heroes and heroines in my books are reluctant to get involved at first. Maddox Heller, the hero of FORBIDDEN TOUCH, doesn't think he has what it takes to help out Iris, the heroine, when her friend goes missing. He's tried playing hero before and it ended badly on a lot of different levels. But when it's clear Iris needs protection, Maddox can't let her try to go it alone. And in the process of helping Iris get to the bottom of the mystery of her missing friend, Maddox rediscovers his inner strength and his desire to do good in the world.

4. Stranger in a strange land

Finally, a favorite theme I've explored in several books is the hero or heroine thrust into an alien situation and forced to figure his or her way on instinct—and with the help of the person who turns out to be his or her soul mate. In my January 2010 Intrigue, CASE FILE: CANYON CREEK, WYOMING, Hannah Cooper is literally a stranger in town, a tourist driving through western Wyoming on her way to visit the state parks, when she's attacked by a would-be killer. When she escapes, making her the only living survivor of a serial killer Riley Patterson has been hunting for three long years, she becomes a person of extreme interest to Riley. I put an Alabama girl, a fishing guide, in the heart of Wyoming ranch country, targeted by a killer she can't remember or identify except in snippets and flashes of memory. I give her a protector still in love with his dead wife and driven to find a killer at almost any cost. There's inherent drama in being thrust into unfamiliar, high stakes situations.

There you go. A few of my favorite themes. What about you? What story themes do you enjoy in the romances you read or write?

Don't forget my book CHICKASAW COUNTY CAPTIVE is out in stores this week. And you can still find my January Intrigue, CASE FILE: CANYON CREEK, WYOMING online at amazon.com, borders.com, barnesandnoble.com, Books-A-Million online and eHarlequin.com. Visit my website at www.paulagraves.com or my blog, spinstersandlunatics.blogspot.com, to keep up with my current and future projects.

Comment on this blog and you could win. I'll give away a copy of Forbidden Touch and a copy of Cowboy Alibi.

Paula Graves
http://www.paulagraves.com/
spinstersandlunatics.blogspot.com

Cooper Justice - coming from Harlequin Intrigue in 2010
Case File: Canyon Creek, Wyoming - January 2010
Chickasaw County Captive - February 2010
One Tough Marine - August 2010
Bachelor Sheriff - September 2010





















Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Karen Robards' Pursuit

Dear friends,

This blog was late getting in because we are, like half the country, snowed under. We were without power until 9:30 this morning, and despite the fire in the fireplace, etc., the house was starting to get COLD. But the furnace is on now, my internet is back, and we're in business. My youngest son is thrilled because it's another snow day - no school! He'll be out sledding with his friends this afternoon. This is very exciting (to him) because we live in Kentucky where we rarely get snow.

On to the world of books. My New York Times bestseller Pursuit just came out in paperback this past Tuesday, and I have a new hardcover romantic suspense, Shattered, coming out on March 23, both from Putnam. Shattered was especially fun to write because it is set in my home state of Kentucky. The reviews on it have been great, and I hope you'll give it a try.

Finally, for all the fans who have written to me asking for the third book of the Banning sisters trilogy, I have good news. Shameless, Beth's story, will be out in hardcover from Pocket on April 13, 2010. I absolutely loved writing it, and I hope you'll love it too. The two previous books in the series, Scandalous and Irresistible, will be reissued in April, so all three will be available.

In the meantime, keep warm!



Thursday, February 4, 2010

Filling in the Gaps

In the historical novels I write under the pseudonym Kate Emerson, of which SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT: BETWEEN TWO QUEENS is the latest offering, I focus on a real but little-known historical figure to tell my story. The protagonist of BETWEEN TWO QUEENS is Anne Bassett, who served as a maid of honor to four of Henry VIII’s queens, was twice considered by court gossips to be a contender to become Henry’s next bride herself, and went on to become a lady in waiting to Queen Mary Tudor. She was a career courtier, which put her in the perfect position to know secrets, but she also had a connection to my favorite type of subplot, the treasonous conspiracy.

One of the hardest parts about writing historical novels centered on real people is staying true to their characters. There are several schools of thought about how to do this. One advocates making anything and everything up and the heck with the facts. At the other extreme are purists who don’t want anything in the novel that hasn’t been verified. Most historical fiction falls somewhere in the middle, but finding that happy medium can be a real challenge.

In BETWEEN TWO QUEENS I was fortunate to have a wonderful source of information about Anne Bassett (called Nan in the novel) and her extended family. THE LISLE LETTERS is a six volume opus edited by M. St. Clare Byrne. It contains, annotated, the letters confiscated when Nan’s stepfather, Viscount Lisle, was arrested on suspicion of treason. What made this collection so valuable to me was that the authorities seized not only official correspondence, but also the personal papers of Lisle’s second wife and her daughters, Nan included.

For many, many incidents in the novel, I was able to rely on first-hand accounts of what happened. But there were also many, many gaps in Nan’s story. Where, for example, did she go when Queen Catherine Howard’s household was disbanded? By then her stepfather was a prisoner in the Tower of London and her mother was held under house arrest in Calais. Unlike the other maids of honor, she had no family to go back to. There are documents that say the king made provision for her, but what exactly did he arrange? There were other blank spots, too. And of course the question of whether Nan knew anything in advance about the conspiracy that led to her family’s downfall. And what about romance? Was she the king’s mistress or not? No one really knows. Did she have other men in her life? Again, no one knows. History records her marriage, but that did not take place until Queen Mary’s reign. There are always blank spaces in the lives of real historical figures, even famous ones. It’s my job as a novelist to fill in the blanks, in this case to figure out why Nan behaved the way history says she did and extrapolating from what is known about her to what might have happened.

It’s a good thing I enjoy doing research! I’ve found that it I look at the search for some tiny tidbit of information as solving a mystery, the process is much less frustrating, even if I don’t ever find what I’m looking for. When I do, those “ah-ha!” moments are always a thrill. Sometimes I end up with two (or more!) wildly different interpretations of what really happened. Even the most distinguished scholars don’t agree on everything, and they can often make equally compelling cases for opposite points of view. I love it when that happens. It means I can pick the interpretation that works best for my story.

More often, however, filling in the gaps is a challenge because nothing is known. What did I do when I absolutely could not find anything about a certain period in Nan’s life? Usually, I breathed a sigh of relief. When I can’t locate anything at all, I am free to make something up. That something still has to be believable. I can’t go too crazy. But if I’ve developed an accurate sense of what the real person was like, and have a feel for the times I’m writing about, then I can figure out what my character is likely to do in any given situation. Nan Bassett in BETWEEN TWO QUEENS, Jane Popyncourt in the first SECRETS OF THE TUDOR COURT novel, THE PLEASURE PALACE, and Elizabeth Brooke, Marchioness of Northampton, in next year’s offering, BY ROYAL DECREE, may only be footnotes to history, but by filling in the gaps to create historical fiction, I hope I’ve succeeded in bringing them back to life.

Comment on this blog and you could win a signed copy of BETWEEN TWO QUEENS



Monday, February 1, 2010

I LOVE BOOKS

Sandra Hill, NYT and USA Today bestselling author of historical,time travel, and contempory novel, all with a dash of humor and sizzle.

I love books! No surprise there. As an avid reader and writer, it would be a logical assumption. But I don't just like, or enjoy, books. I LOVE them.

This was brought home to me this week as I am in between deadlines. Just finished a book and am about to start writing another. Plus, there is the underlying tension of a new book coming out right now, VIKING IN LOVE. This is a return for me to my first love, historical romance, and a first book from Avon. I'm wondering how it do? If readers will like it?

Anyhow, like most women under stress, I clean.

I decided it was time to give my library a good cleaning,and weed out lots of books that haven't been read in years. Keep in mind, I live in a seventy-year-old house with a real library,complete with floor to ceiling bookshelves. Almost immediately, I realized how hard it would be to part with some of these precious books. Not just the vast number of research tomes dealing with Vikings, tenth century Britain, Cajuns, and Navy SEALs, but those with a history personal to me. Or my prized fiction books.

There is the two-volume white leather set of Washington Irving's ASTORIA about explorations beyond the Rocky Mountains. I bought it at my first ever antique estate sale.

I couldn't get rid of the funny book on odd sexual facts,including stuff about pigs' penises being really, really long and shaped like a corkscrew or about Tyrone Powers being able to tuck his under his belt. That's also the book where I learned for the
first time that in the average sexual encounter a man thrusts 120 times. I mean, in and out counts as one. Shocked, I went to my best friend, expecting her to tell me that the book must have been written by a man and that it was a total crock. Instead,she said that, yes, that sounded right. Holy cow! I've been married forever, and I can tell you, I've been cheated.

Then there's the two-volume set of the history of James Duke of Ormond which led me to discover I am a descendant of Hrolf the Ganger, first duke of Norsemandy.

And the hilarious humor book, THE LOST DIARY OF ERIK BLOODAXE, VIKING WARRIOR. It shows how funny these Vikings could be. And, really, Ann Landersson?

My grandmother had a book called SAFE COUNSEL: LIGHT ON DARK CORNERS, A COMPLETE SEXUAL SCIENCE. I'm sure this was a daring book for her time, but talk about outdated! It says, "There is no medicine taken internally capable of preventing conception,and the person who asserts to the contrary not only speaks falsely, but is both a knave and a fool." It was written in 1896.

As you might expect, my library is looking cleaner these days, but not much leaner. I guess I am a book pack rat.

So, do you have books you cannot part with? Do certain books bring back memories for you? Tell us about them.

And please check out my new book VIKING IN LOVE. This is the medieval version of the Dixie Chicks video "Goodbye Earl" where the three girls kill the abusive husband of one of them and dump the body in a lake. In my book, five Viking princesses kill
the abusive husband of one of them...an earl, of cours...and dump his body in a very unusual place. Thereafter, they are on the run until they land in the rundown castle of a Saxon knight with ten motherless children. Great fun.

And come visit my website at http://www.sandrahill.net/ for news, videos, free novellas, and more. Wishing you smiles in your reading!

Comment on this blog and you could win two signed copies of MY FAIR VIKING, prequel to VIKING IN LOVE and a copy of THE LOST DIARY OF ERIK BLOODAXE, VIKING WARRIOR.