One Week in Hawaii is now out at all major digital retailers and in print! This is sexy collection of four novellas with four couples you're going to absolutely fall in love with.
Cover Reveal: One Week in Hawaii
It's here! One Week in Hawaii's gorgeous cover is now out in the world, and, ahead of its May 19th release date, the book is up for presale at retailers too! I can't begin to tell you how excited I was when Book Beautiful sent us the draft of this cover. She got it in one shot, capturing all of the sexy, steamy, beachiness of this book.
Here's a little look at what you can expect from this seriously hot anthology:
Sun, sand, and seduction.
This summer, Alexis Anne, Audra North, Julia Kelly, and Alexandra Haughton sweep you away to paradise for One Week in Hawaii.
A wedding planner breaks all the rules to have just one night of pleasure, only to find that a stolen moment might hold the key to forever.
A movie star falls hard for her sexy co-star…who just happens to be her best friend.
A former black sheep risks falling from grace again when she seduces a handsome stranger with a dark history.
An artist has to choose between dating a guy who will please her parents and one who will please…and pleasure…her.
Sex on the beach is so much more than a drink in these four sizzling contemporary novellas by the authors who brought you One Week in Wyoming.
Preorder is now live!!!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1NH2mKe
iBooks: http://apple.co/1GlNTTh
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1CCzIqC
The book will retail at Barnes & Noble on May 19th. One Week in Hawaii will also retail in paperback on Amazon.
Keep checking back in the run up to our May 19th release date for sneak peeks, excerpts, and more! And don't forget to sign up for my newsletter for the very latest about this and other new releases!
Boston Romance Workshop
I'm thrilled to announce that I will be presenting at the Let Your Imagination Take Flight Conference hosted by the New England Chapter of Romance Writers of America!
Audra North and I will be presenting "How to Publish a Boxed Set or Anthology: A Practical Workshop." We'll teach you everything you need to know about idea creation, organization, preorders, marketing, royalty distribution, and taxes. This workshop will also be a great guide for anyone who wants a down and dirty overview of what it takes to put together a self-published book.
What: 2015 Let Your Imagination Take Flight Conference
When: Friday, April 24 - Saturday, April 25
Where: Boston Marriott in Burlington, MA
And don't forget, the best way to keep up to date on updates, release dates, and exclusive excerpts is by signing up for my newsletter!
First Draught & The "I Love You"
Just a few quick things to tell you about today. Read
I'm over on the Contemporary Romance Writers' blog talking about why your characters don't always have to say, "I love you," at the end of your romance.
Meet
I will be speaking at the NECRWA "Let Your Imagination Take Flight" conference from April 24-25. Audra North and I are presenting a practical guide to self-publishing an anthology or box set with great tips about idea creation, organization, and royalties distribution. I'll have more details on that appearance in the coming weeks, but if you plan to be there please say hello and introduce yourself.
Watch
The women of First Draught are back at it again talking about problematic heroines. Why can it be so tough to get a heroine just right? Are we harder on our heroines than our heroes in romance? Plus we dish on the heroine tropes we just can't stand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh4xBxK2Pws
Also keep an eye out for updates about One Week in Hawaii, the next anthology in the One Week in Love series featuring novellas by Audra North, Alexis Anne, Alexandra Haughton, and myself. We're getting ready to release our very sexy cover and get this book up on preorder.
If you would like to be the first to see that cover and help us spread the word about One Week in Hawaii, check out this quick form.
And don't forget to sign up for newsletter for the very latest preorder and release date information as well as exclusive excerpts!
One Week in Love
August is coming to a close, and that means that the release day for One Week in Wyoming is getting closer too! On September 9th, you can get your hands on the sexy contemporary anthology featuring four stories by Alexis Anne, Audra North, Alexandra Haughton, and myself. Until then, we have a new website for our One Week in Love series of books. Stop by, watch our welcome video, peruse some blog posts, and say hello!
Ice Bucket Challenge
Well, it happened. My critique partner and all-around-wonderful-friend Alexis Anne tagged me in the Ice Bucket Challenge. I asked for a little help... and got two direct hits in the face with very cold water! Good thing I had a plan in store for my helper... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju5AD5LDi-Y&feature=youtu.be
A New Look
A couple of my short stories are getting a fresh, new look thanks to Audra North who designed the covers. You can download both Accidentally (On Purpose) and Earn It at major ebook retailers (although I'm still waiting on Barnes & Noble and will update once that's up). Most are priced as free right now, and I'm hoping that soon Amazon will match to make both stories free as well. UPDATE: Amazon has price matched Earn It and Accidentally (On Purpose) so they are now free for Kindle! Also I'm now a Goodreads author!
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Nook books now available. Thanks for being so patient, Nook readers!
What do you think of the new look?
Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Nook | Smashwords
Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Nook | Smashwords
And don't forget that my anthology One Week in Wyoming is coming out September 9th!
Novella Release Date Set
I'm happy to announce that my first novella is now available for preorder with iBooks! One Week in Wyoming is a sexy contemporary anthology of four stories set at a luxury ski lodge in Jackson, Wyoming. I had the pleasure of working with Alexis Anne, Audra North, and Alexandra Haughton on this project, and we couldn't be happier to be sharing these couples' stories with you.
Here's the blurb for One Week in Wyoming:
Four couples, seven hot winter nights...
When best-selling romance author Joan Halliday invites four single female writers to stay at her family's luxurious Wyoming lodge, she's counting on a quiet week of bonding on the slopes and in the spa.
Bruce Halliday was looking forward to a relaxing reunion with his college buddies in the wilds of Wyoming…but when his wife's group meets Bruce's unattached friends, the sparks start to fly.
And here's the description of my story, Seduction in the Snow:
When a gorgeous, glasses-wearing winemaker sits next to Lydia Reed on a flight to Wyoming, she starts fantasizing about a vacation fling. It isn't until she finds out they're staying at the same lodge that she realizes that they can have their few nights of fun in the snow.
Evan Sullivan's so wrapped up in his winery that he can't even think about a relationship. But when he falls into bed with Lydia, everything changes. Now he has just a few days to convince the headstrong writer that it's worth taking a chance on him.
The book officially releases on all platforms on September 9th. For the very latest update be sure to sign up for my newsletter!
First Kisses
What is the best part of a new romance? I love the sparkling banter laced with flirtation and tension, but really we all know it's the first kiss. It's hoped for but not guaranteed, and when it finally happens everything slows. The world falls away, desire fires through you, and then -- when lips finally touch -- your mind goes blissfully blank.
The first kiss is magical.
Starting today, 25 authors are writing about those first moments as part of an exciting spring blog hop. The stories are short -- around 1,500 words -- but they're big on passion and romance. The entire list of participating authors is at Audra North's website. My story "Accidentally (On Purpose)" goes live this Thursday, April 10th. I'm posting along with Mary Chris Escobar and Pieper Vaughn. I hope you enjoy reading your way through all of the stories and discover some wonderful, new authors in the process!
The Writing Process Blog Hop of 2014
Why hello there. When my friend Alexandra Haughton tagged me in The Writing Process Blog Hop of 2014 I was thrilled. I love reading about other writers work, and I'm glad to get the chance to share. With a GIF or two. Because that's how I roll. I. What am I working on right now?
All the projects. I'm working on all the projects right now. Or at least that's what it feels like compared to how I used to work.
When I started writing I had one full-length historical I dedicated all my energy to. Since then I've finished two other manuscripts (one is junk and will never see the light of day and one is a sports romance I love that is in the hands of my wonderful agent right now). Currently I'm working on a second, full-length sports romance, a novella for an indie anthology with Alexis Anne, Alexandra Haughton, and Audra North, and some flash fiction for a blog hop (coming soon). I'm also in the research stages of a mystery based in 1920s New York City. That's a project that makes me so excited I'm practically vibrating like this...
However, I know that I'll come to hate it if I start it without a good research foundation, so I'm reading everything I can get my hands on and holding off on the writing for now.
II. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
Well isn't this an intimidating question? I write in two genres. Historical and contemporary. Let's tackle historical first.
I studied Victorian sexual and gender history in college. The women I found most fascinating were on the fringes of social acceptability. We're talking governesses, doctors, prostitutes -- all women who gained some form of economic independence and therefore pushed back against the constraints of patriarchy whether they knew it or not. Society typically categorized them as "abnormal" and often saw them as under or oversexed (whatever was most convenient). Those are the women I like to write about.
My first book is set in 1880s London and follows a poor relation who writes a book to earn money so she can strike out on her own. The book sells. A lot. Now she's in the awkward position of having an elevated -- although eccentric -- public persona while her relatives still treat her as a second-rate member of the family. Naturally there's a tall, dark, and handsome marquis who comes along and falls in love with her (you know this ends).
When it comes to contemporary, I want to tell stories about women I would happily grab a drink with. Right now I'm focusing on sports romances. What is more fun that turning the hyper-masculine world of professional sports on its head by dropping in a smart, confident female character who can go toe to toe with a hero? The heroine in my first contemporary romance is a sports agent. She's kind of a bad ass when it comes to the business side of things, however, she's not a "strong woman" (ie so perfect she's unrealistic). She has moments of doubt. She cries. She makes mistakes. I'm happy to see readers asking for strong female characters, but I want us to get to a point where we can have heroines as layered and complicated as our heroes.
III. Why do I write what I do?
I started writing romance as a relief from my masters thesis. I would get home from Columbia University's radio lab late at night exhausted and burnt out. I wanted a mental break, and a woman can only watch so much Dancing with the Stars. I needed a more creative outlet to keep my sanity, so I started writing what would become my first historical novel.
Now I write because I can't imagine doing anything else. I know that's such a cliché, but that doesn't make it any less true. On some level I want to tell those pro-female, sex-positive stories about those complex women I mentioned earlier, but I also just love romance. Some friends have asked me if writing stories that must end with a Happily Ever After is limiting. The answer is a very simple no. The characters dictate the way you get to that HEA, making each story unique. The HEA is just an expectation of the genre -- nothing more, nothing less.
IV. How does my writing process work?
My writing process has undergone some changes since I started scribbling scenes in graduate school. I used to be a pure pantser who wrote whenever the feeling moved her. Let me tell you, that is not an effective way for me to get anything done. I will always come up with something else to do. Then I went to the total opposite end of the spectrum and started to write every single day on an absolutely brutal, unrealistic word count schedule. This was a really stupid idea for someone who works in a high-stress job (producing TV news in New York City, hotbed of crazy). Learn from my mistakes and don't kill yourself. You'll just burn out and wind up curled up in a ball on the floor of your apartment.
Now I use Michael Hauge's "Six Stage Plot Structure" method to plot out character arcs. This isn't a strict, detailed outlining method so it offers me enough flexibility to get creative while still knowing the major turning points in plot and character. I write what I call a Fast Draft which is exactly what it sounds like. I get down whatever I can as quickly as possible. This is usually heavy on the dialogue since I write anchor scripts for a living.
My goal is to write 2,000 words a day Sunday through Thursday for my main work in progress. Anything extra counts as brownie points. If I'm working on a secondary project I'll switch my attention to that once I hit my main WIP word count. I'm out of the house at least 11 hours a day between working and commuting so I write everywhere I can. This includes on the subway and at the laundromat. I like working with background noise thanks to all my years in newsrooms and nearly as decade of babysitting/nannying before that. Don't tell my reporters, but producing and childcare overlap in more ways than one.
I should also note that I've recently moved over to working in Scrivner, so part of my day is dedicated to learning a new program and pleading with it to like me.
After the Fast Draft I go back and do a First Draft 2.0. That's a pass through to fix any character inconsistencies and add in all of the emotional development that might have been lost in the Fast Draft.
Next is the long, slow process of revising. I'll usually do a second draft and then send the MS around to my critique partners. This gets another set of eyes on it and forces me to put it aside for a few weeks so I can better pinpoint problems later.
Next is a few rounds of fiddling with sentence structure and polishing. At some point I realize that by continuing to work on it I'm going to make the book worse rather than better. That's when it goes off to my agent to see what she thinks, and I feel like this for about a week:
Then I start the whole process over again with a new book.
It. Never. Ends.
So that's me in one very long blog post. I'm now tagging Audra North and Mary Chris Escobar. Audra's post is already live on her site (definitely check it out), and Mary Chris will be posting hers soon.
Thank you all, and good night.
Plenty of Projects Going On
http://youtu.be/7Q-mwx4YaxQ