A Bell Awakened

2011-11-30T07:10:00.000-08:00

I did it! Feeling good about this one. Now for the editing...

NaNoWriMo

2011-11-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! I completed NaNoWriMo in 2007 and that book won a few contests but was never published. I'm back again and baby this one's the one. The one that will get me a book deal. Hooray for 30 days of literary abandon. At the end I'm going to have:

a) a Golden Heart entry and
b) a saleable manuscript

Dream a little dream but make it big!

I dreamt of joining the Foreign Service and here I am in Bangkok. We are in control of our destinies. I wouldn't be here if I hadn't applied, taken the test, passed the interview. I'll never publish a book until I finish one, submit it to agents, let my voice be heard.

Variation on a Theme by Rilke

A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me--a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic--or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can.

- Denise Levertov

Sassy!

2010-04-29T21:54:00.001-07:00

The lovely and talented Delilah Marvelle just won a prize for being sassy at the Romantic Times Faery Costume Ball. Isn't that just so perfect? She is sassy and so are her books. I cannot wait for her Scandal series to come out from HQN in January-March, 2011!

I'll post pictures of sassy Delilah in her gorgeous costume soon. Forgot my upload cord.

Dear Sir or Madam, Will You Read My Book?

2010-04-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

When I arrived at the Romantic Times convention this morning the Beatles' Paperback Writer was playing over the speakers in the Hyatt Regency lobby. This song is such a fixture on oldies radio that it's been relegated to the Muzak section of my brain where it sloshes around with Circle Game and The Sound of Silence ensuring that I never really hear the lyrics. But it was such an appropriate song for the occasion. Thank you, Hyatt Regency, for unconsciously serenading the large trampling herd of aspiring paperback writers here to graze on the hope that we will meet the agent of our dreams and be rescued from the slaughterhouse of unpublished obscurity.

Paperback writer

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
Based on a novel by a man named Lear
And I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer,
Paperback writer.

It's the dirty story of a dirty man
And his clinging wife doesn't understand.
His son is working for the Daily Mail,
It's a steady job but he wants to be a paperback writer,
Paperback writer.

Paperback writer

It's a thousand pages, give or take a few,
I'll be writing more in a week or two.
I can make it longer if you like the style,
I can change it round and I want to be a paperback writer,
Paperback writer.

If you really like it you can have the rights,
It could make a million for you overnight.
If you must return it, you can send it here
But I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer,
Paperback writer.

Paperback writer

2010-04-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

Ladies, tonight we are going to talk about the biggest baddest alpha male in all of historical romancedom. Yes I'm talking about Lord Beelzebub himself, the Bane and Blight of the Ballisters, that bad ass Victorian scoundrel Sebastian Leslie Guy de Ath Ballister, Earl of Blackmoor, Viscount Launcells, Baron Ballister and Luancells, and fourth Marquiss of Dain (um, yeah, those are all his titles).

When our intrepid heroine first meets Lord Dain she describes him thus:

Dain was heavy artillery, she thought...Coal black hair and bold, black eyes and a great, conquering Caesar of a nose and a sullen sensuality of a mouth--the face alone entitled him to direct lineage with Lucifer...As to the body...She had half expected a hulking gorilla. She had not been prepared for a stallion: big and splendidly proportioned--and powerfully muscled, if what his snug trousers outlined was any indication.

Oh my! *Lenora fans her rosy cheeks.*

The man on the cover looks nothing like Dain. For one thing he's way more 1980's than 1880's with that feathered hair and those high waisted pants. Come to think of it he looks remarkably like Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing.

Here's my Dain recipe:

Two parts Adrien Brody (that nose! those brooding eyes!)

One part Clive Owen (that sensual mouth! the manly swagger!)

And a dash (just a dash mind you!) of Hugh Jackman (um, pecs, hello!)

OK that's all the alpha male I'm dishing up this evening.

Have you read Lord of Scoundrels? If you haven't get thee to a bookstore unholy wench!

Lenore/Lenora

2010-04-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

Lenore

Lenora

LENORE

LENORA

Congrats to Tessa Dare and Courtney Milan!

2010-03-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

Courtney Milan's "This Wicked Gift" and Tessa Dare's Surrender of a Siren are finalists in the Romance Writers of America's RITA® contest! See all the finalists here.

Homeward Bound!

2009-07-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

I'm going home to Alaska on Tuesday. The funny thing is that it's supposed to be 85 degrees the whole time I'm there! Those poor little polar bears. Here's a picture my sister snapped earlier this summer.

Congrats to Tessa! Goddess of the Hunt debuts on the 28th--the same day as Eloisa James's A Duke of Her Own. Exalted company indeed!

Delicious things

2009-06-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

I've decided to ignore the fact that I haven't posted on this blog in ten months. No big deal! I had my reasons (break-up and MFA, hello!). I'm sitting in my yard listening to Astrud Gilberto, sipping a delicate rosé, working on my new romance novel, and trying to catch up on all the romance news I missed during my hiatus. Whoah! July, August, and September will be the best months ever because Tessa Dare's much lauded debut series hits shelves. I've pre-ordered mine--how about you? And what's this? Debuts from so many other amazing writers: Courtney Milan's Proof by Seduction from HQN in January 2010, Sarah Lindsey's Promise Me Tonight from Signet in February 2010, Maggie Robinson's Tempting Eden from Berkley in summer 2010!

There is so much to be thankful for right now. Sun filtering through the bamboo above my head; plump raspberries and rainier cherries to pick for breakfast; my friends who are achieving the success they deserve; the drive, passion, and time to write romance again; frilly gingham sundresses; mojitos with lavender-infused simple syrup.

Are you feeling as summery and full of love as I am? I hope so!

Yay Courtney!!!

2008-08-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

Golden Heart Nominee for Breath of Honor Courtney Milan's PROOF BY SEDUCTION, about a rigidly logical marquis who uses the scientific method to save his heir from the clutches of a fraudulent fortune teller, only to fall for her and discover that the one hypothesis not susceptible to proof is love, to Ann Leslie Tuttle at HQN, in a good deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (World).

Once Upon a Bed...

2008-08-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

That was the title of a (very) smutty book I found between Herodotus and Plutarch in the shelves of my high school history homeroom when I was fifteen. Needless to say I smuggled it back to my house (I've often wondered who left it there). It's also where I will be eating dinner tonight with my smoking hot romance-writing friends Delilah and Moira. No, not in a classroom...on a bed. Delilah is taking us to Supperclub where we will recline roman style and feast our eyes on a naughty burlesque show--we are erotic writers, after all.

The conference is going very well. I placed second in the Hearts Through History contest and I'm thrilled because my friend and critique partner, Courtney Milan, took first. Yay, Courtney! I've received quite a few requests for Filigree and Shadow from agents and editors and that's really the whole point of the conference so Lenora is a happy girl.

Tonight we're off to karaoke at The Mint (one of my old stomping grounds) with a bunch of ladies including the lovely vixens Lacey, Eden, and Shelli. Bliss!

I'll try to remember to bring my camera this time because my cell phone takes blurry photos.

Kisses,

Lenora

I Left My Heart In...

2008-07-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Every time I go back to the city by the bay I contract a severe case of nostalgia. The rows of candy-colored Victorians; the salt-tang in the air; the beckoning racks of polyester prom dresses at Thrift Town; the sea bass, mango, and butter appetizer baked in a large mussel shell at Sushi Zone. But this trip I won't have time for thrifting or sea bass and I won't even get to see my friends who still live there. Every second will be spent at the RWA National Conference. Because my life is so insane right now I haven't spent much time preparing for the conference. Maybe that's a good thing. I also haven't had time to feel nervous.

Courtney was blogging about pitching the other day and I realized that I haven't practiced my pitch for Filigree and Shadow and I started to get a bit panicky. I don't have a problem talking to strangers since I'm accustomed to being on stage and I actually like schmoozing. But none of that will help me if I haven't memorized the salient details of a succinct pitch. So that's my goal for today.

Why is my life insane, you ask? I was hired a year ago by Portland State University to compile and edit a document and it's due at the print shop tomorrow. And it happens to be over 1,200 pages long. And it's not finished yet. Waahh!! I've been snatching a few hours of sleep on the couch in the student lounge here and there but otherwise I've been glued to my chair all bleary-eyed and malnourished for the past four days. So I haven't had time to polish my pitch, or dry-clean my conference dresses, or have my bangs trimmed, or any of the other multitude of preparatory rituals I should be undergoing.

OK, this is getting a little bit whine-y. I better sign off and return to editing (oh, how I wish I was working on romance and not government accreditation procedures).

I hope your conference preparations are going more smoothly than mine. I can't wait to meet all my internet writing friends in SF! See you in a few days...

Lenora

Velveeta

2008-07-02T00:07:00.000-07:00

My friend and I went to happy hour tonight at a slinky new bar. I knew it was my kind of place the second I saw the crimson velvet chaise lounge inside the front door. After a few glasses of rosé I couldn't resist stretching out upon the velvet and pretending I was the languishing heroine of a Victoria Holt novel.

I ate mac and cheese with the very fancy name of Käsespätzle composed of egg noodles, swiss cheese, and carmelized onions. Mmmm. Speaking of cheese...is my new blog photo cheesy enough for you? It was taken during a publicity shoot in China. Please tell me if it's over the top. I don't want to give anyone indigestion.

In writing news, I have exactly 27 days to finish and polish Filigree and Shadow before the RWA national conference where I will be be pitching it to agents and editors. I thrive on mad scrambles to meet nearly impossible deadlines. So here goes...

Winning Ways

2008-06-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

I guess I should come out of hibernation to mention that Filigree and Shadow took first place in the San Diego RWA chapter's Spring Into Romance contest.

I don't expect anyone is actually still reading this blog since I've neglected it for so long. I don't have much of an excuse since school's out for summer. Guess I'm still unwinding from finals week. Also I started an internship at an amazing radio show.

More good news!

2008-05-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

Huge congratulations to Shelli Stevens who just inked a two-book deal with Kensington and chose Laura Bradford as her literary agent.

It seems like the good news in the romance world just keeps rolling in!

News

2008-05-11T18:55:00.001-07:00

Finally some good news to report. I entered Filigree and Shadow into three contests (my very first RWA contests) and finaled in two: Spring Into Romance, and Hearts Through History.

Yay!!

2008-03-27T22:39:00.000-07:00

I've been sucked into a whirlwind of work projects, grad school papers, and romance contest entries. I'm flailing wildly until further notice.

The Spymaster Meets Tony Starlight

2008-02-17T13:28:00.000-08:00

I took the fab-abbed hunk to Tony Starlight's Supperclub last night where he enjoyed hobnobbing with Portland's glitterati at Miss DA's birthday party.

Who knew the spymaster was such a party animal?

The other guys were a bit intimidated at first.

Especially when he got friendly with the birthday girl.

But after the Professor expounded upon his scholarly virtues...

...everyone wanted a taste.

I took him for a spin...

...but, alas, he preferred the mannequin.

He had a three-way with Tom Jones.

And posed for a shot with Neil Diamond.

Finally, he found his niche.

Where in the World is The Spymaster's Lady?

2008-02-16T00:28:00.000-08:00

The smart bitches alerted me to Claire Gregory's fun contest. Take your spymaster and his titillating treasure trail to an interesting location and provide photographic evidence for the chance to win a signed copy of TSML (Joanna Bourne judges the entries!).

It's really too bad I didn't read about this a day earlier because last night I went to a Vagabond Opera show (they are so amazing--that's them in the pic above) and there was a kissing booth where I could have paid a hottie in a schoolgirl outfit to smooch the spymaster. What an opportunity lost. That will teach me not to skip a day at SBTB.

I'm sure I'll think of something tomorrow. Look for a pic soon.

I Spy a Masterpiece

2008-02-09T23:01:00.001-08:00

Buy this book!

I missed my bus stop by about a mile today because I was so engrossed in Annique and Robert's story. I'm sure you've read it already, but if you haven't you should. Thank you, Meljean, for pulling my head out of the sand.

My only warning is that this book could prove hazardous to your ego. Bourne is just too damn talented.

New Friends

2008-01-21T16:43:00.001-08:00

The conference was fabulous. If any of you get a chance to take a workshop from Debra Dixon you should. She is one of the best speakers I've ever seen. She was witty, fiercely intelligent, passionate about writing, and able to give concrete advice in a way that made sense and motivated me to run home and fix the mistakes in my WIP. I can't say enough good things about her.

I got to meet three of the amazingly talented and sweet Manuscript Mavens. Their storyboarding workshop was very helpful and well-presented and they looked fetching in their matching pink and white t-shirts.

I also met Delilah Marvelle whose upcoming School of Gallantry series for Kensington sounds scintillating and delicious. Check her out!

The best part about conferences is meeting so many other writers whose tales of perseverance and triumph inspire you to keep going. It's not going to be easy. But I'll never get published if I don't polish this manuscript and send it out. It's as simple as that.

I registered for the San Francisco National RWA conference today. Are you going?

Hanging With the Mavens.

2008-01-18T16:55:00.000-08:00

I get to hang with the Manuscript Mavens this weekend at the Rose City Romance Writer's retreat/workshop held at the swanky Hotel Lucia. I can't wait to attend the Maven Storyboarding 602 Workshop to get some expert advice. My first attempt at storyboarding didn't turn out so well since I changed my plot to the point where the board didn't make sense and I had to take all the post-it notes off.

It will be so fun to finally meet some of my Avon FanLit friends in person! But San Francisco will be the real party. I'm counting the days...

On fire!

2008-01-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

We interrupt this romance blog to bring you a special report about some very hot guys who are burning up the (stat) sheets right now...

While working on my romance WIP tonight, I tuned in to NBA radio to listen to the Portland Trail Blazers incinerate the Golden State Warriors. I've been a Blazers fan since I moved to Portland in 2001. I'm so proud of them right now. They are the youngest team in the NBA but they are playing with poise and passion, with Brandon Roy (picture above--definite romance hero material, n'est-ce pas?) leading the way. They've won 17 of their last 18 games, all without their number one draft pick (Greg Oden) who is out for the season with an injury.

I don't play any sports (unless you count vintage clothes shopping as one). My BF isn't a sports fan. All my friends think it's really weird when I rattle off Blazers stats. What can I say? I love some good ball handling (hee hee).

How about you? Do you take time out from crafting brilliant dialogue to cheer on a local team?

Sweets

2007-12-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

My boyfriend is in the kitchen making truffles. The dark chocolate ones are: cardamom, lavender, St. Valentine's (floral Russian tea), and Grand Marnier. The milk chocolate are peppermint and cinnamon. This year, for the first time, he's making a white chocolate flavored with Matcha (Japanese green tea). I've been blissfully licking spatulas.

I hope your holidays are full of sweetness and love!

Reaching Up

2007-12-18T23:18:00.001-08:00

During the previous quarter of graduate school, in an assigned chapter of "Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama," I found the following distinction between genre fiction and literary fiction:

Reading literary fiction (as distinguished from fiction as a commercial product--the formula kind of spy, detective, Western, romance, or science fiction story), we are not necessarily led on by the promise of thrills; we do not keep reading mainly to find out what happens next...Reading literary fiction is no merely passive activity, but one that demands both attention and insight-lending participation.

I'm an unapologetic reader and writer of romance, and I'm not going to defend the genre here because I think others have done it eloquently enough (Eloisa James in particular). But lately I've been thinking about what elements make a romance transcend genre parameters.

I read Laura Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm or Pam Rosenthal's The Bookseller's Daughter and they bowl me over every time. How do they do it? Every day I search for the elusive qualities that will make my WIP extraordinary. The perfect metaphor, the rich historical detail that will bring it alive, the most precise adjective.

George Orwell wrote that stale phrases choke writing like "tea leaves blocking a sink." I want this novel to be clog-free.

Sherry Thomas, author of the upcoming Private Arrangements, wrote a post on her blog about authors who choose to do the extra work to craft beautiful writing. I loved her acknowledgment of the difficulty involved in rising above the quotidian.

It is hard work constantly searching for fresh images, ruthlessly eliminating cliches, spending hours researching historical detail for one sentence. Sometimes I feel like I'm lashing words together like bamboo scaffolding to support the weight of my ambition. The bamboo bends and bows and feels like it may break, but each day I climb higher.

I did it!

2007-11-30T15:24:00.000-08:00

I won nanowrimo! I'm going to bask in the glow of accomplishment for a few hours before I start agonizing about how much editing it needs to become pitch-worthy. I'm not going to think about all the gaping historical research holes or the way the plot falls apart in the second act. Right now I'm going to do a happy dance and pop open a bottle of bubbly.

I truly didn't think I'd be able to write 50,000 words in one month while starting graduate school and working two jobs. There were a few bumps (my laptop getting stolen was the biggest one) but this experience has shown me that I do have the discipline and stamina to sit down and write every single day, even if I'm exhausted and uninspired.

I would like to give a special shout out to Tessa Dare. It was her success story that inspired me to sit my butt down in my chair and write write write. Thank you, Tessa!

Can I do it?

2007-11-29T01:20:00.000-08:00

I'm at 44,000 but I only have two days left. Can I make it to 50,000? It's finals week, too. I think I can do it.

2007-11-23T00:10:00.000-08:00

Someone broke in to our house yesterday and stole my macbook. They didn't take anything else, just the laptop and some loose change. The police said that's typical because the thieves want to get in and out as fast as possible with any cash they find and one small expensive item like a laptop. Ever since my hard drive crashed I've been backing up like crazy so I didn't lose any writing. I'm not going to let this stop me from winning nanowrimo, but it wasn't a very good way to start the holiday. Ah well, it could have been worse.

Best Day Yet

2007-11-17T17:45:00.000-08:00

I just sat down and wrote over 6000 words in four hours. I think it's because I've reached the steamy part of the book where the hero, Clive, (I know kind of obvious given my Clive Owen obsession but I can't think of another name right now) starts to appreciate the attractions of Edith, the heroine. It's a long story but he's sort of kidnapped her and installed her in the apartment that his last mistress occupied. His motives are not sexual at first. He wants her to help him summon the spirit of his dead wife. He's obsessed with spiritualism and believes he has finally found a genuine medium so he starts rearranging her life to suit his needs.

I'm reading Judith Ivory's Black Silk right now. She treats the hero's awakening realization of the heroine's unique appeal so perfectly.

This passage occurs 158 pages into the book:

Her mouth pursed. She was glaring at him. Her eyes looked dark and bright against their peculiar little feathering of short lashes. For a moment, these eyes stared over his hand, in open rebellion against attempted mastery, even this small one over a jawbone. She abruptly made a high arch, a display of long, white throat; she took her shin away.

"You are so --" He was going to say “pretty” or “beautiful” or –what? –“Winsome”? Did a man tell a woman she was winsome? This woman was, but it didn’t matter. He suspected that if he told her there were some universally pleasing quality to her looks, she would only deny it outright. And not without grounds. He stared at her, as if to anatomize his own attraction to her. Her eyes were too large for her face. Her nose was narrow, her chin pointed. Her skin was washed out except for its smattering of pale freckles. He found himself staring at her mouth, her lips as plump and pink and soft as a baby’s. She wet them and looked down. He watched the color rise in her cheeks. Her skin was ivory, he decided, not washed out. And her eyes, behind their canopy of thick lashes, were a changeable, mysterious blue. She was plain one moment, pretty the next. He couldn’t figure her out.

“You are devastating,” he said honestly.

I tend to like romances where the hero and heroine are not initially attracted to each other and then the sexual tension heats up with each encounter, but when I started writing Heart of Shadow I imagined Clive finding Edith alluring at first but fighting against that impulse because he thinks she is trying to trick him into believing she is a true spirit medium.

From chapter one (remember this is still in NaNoWriMo rough draft form!):

She had a stillness about her that made him feel awkward. Her heavily fringed dark eyes were too big for a little heart-shaped face with a pointed chin and a prim rosebud of a mouth. Her pale skin glowed like a pearl necklace held up to firelight. She must work hard to achieve that consumptive pallor, the mysterious, otherworldly air.

In her high-necked black silk she appeared painfully thin. Perhaps her look was not studied so much as necessitated by real hunger. He had a sudden urge to rush back outside into the rain and buy a pigeon pie from the nearby pub. He might grasp her by one tiny bird bone wrist and lead her into a dark room somewhere and feed her bites of steaming pastry. She would lick flakes of crust from his fingers with a deft darting tongue. Maybe even take a bit of meat from his lips with her sharp little teeth, her hungry mouth asking for more.

She caught him staring and narrowed her eyes. Someone had asked a question.

“Shall I go?” Denny asked.

“Of course,” muttered Clive, ashamed of the lustful bent of his thoughts. She was just a jaded charlatan like all the rest. Trained to lure men into parting with money. Her slenderness and pallor were obviously calculated to appeal to men's protective impulses. She knew her trade. He’d fallen straight into her pretty snare of twigs and temptation.

So I may have to rewrite that scene because now, in chapter six, I have Clive realizing for the first time that Edith is attractive.

How clever of Pruett to arrange Miss Crowe's hair like that, as if one judicious tug would send the whole mass of rich chocolate curls tumbling down past her bum. And that black velvet ribbon about her neck. Camilla had always worn flashing opals and heavy gold. The simple, girlish ribbon was pure genius, making him think about the pressure of it around her neck and the pulse that beat beneath it. Had it merely been the armor of her severe black dresses that made her look meager and unappealing? Now her pointy little chin above the black velvet ribbon lent her an air of provocative stubbornness.

Clive did his best to project avuncular warmth and solicitude, but the charade proved difficult to sustain as the evening wore on and brandy softened the edge of his resolve. He sank down beside her on the settee and placed a rare volume of D.D. Hume's collected works in her lap. She ran a slender finger over the gilt letters embossed in the red leather cover.

“I’m afraid you have overestimated my power,” she said softly. "I cannot control it at will like your Mr. Hume." She opened the book reverently.

He gazed at her solemn little face, those huge eyes haunted by visions of failure. His fingers reached out before he could stop them and captured one end of the velvet ribbon that fell down her back. She didn’t seem to notice. He stroked its softness between his thumb and forefinger while he watched her read.

That's what happens when you let your writing come out in an unexpurgated nanorimo rush. Suddenly, in chapter six, your characters start doing things you hadn't planned for. I'm not going to get too worked up about it. I have the whole month of December to edit my book because I don't have grad classes during that time.

In your WIP, is your hero immediately attracted to your heroine or does it take time for him to see her beauty?

p.s. Congrats to Tessa D. for her double contest wins and to India Carolina for her first place and manuscript request in the Golden Gateway single title category!!

So Far So Good

2007-11-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

I don't want to jinx myself but nanowrimo is going well so far. I think the storyboarding and powerpoint research presentation helped a lot. I've also been learning about the three-act structure of screen plays in a graduate class and thinking about my book in those terms has been very helpful. I've written almost 6,000 words so far. I think my first turning point will happen around the 12,000 word mark when the heroine is hired by the villain to pretend to channel the spirit of the hero's dead wife. The turning point is when she finally agrees to do it. This starts Act II where the hero and heroine are forced into an intimate situation fraught with emotional and moral complexity and danger.

Nano writing is so weird. The whole point is to forcefully subdue your inner editor and just let the words flow without worrying about making them sublime. I know I will have to do heavy editing once I'm finished, but right now I think the important thing for me is to finish a full-length novel. Then I can fuss with it and polish it and send it out into the world. A blank page will get me nowhere.

nanowrimo newbie

2007-10-25T13:30:00.001-07:00

I signed up for nanowrimo. I figure the very worst thing that could happen is that I drop out half way and then I've still produced more writing than I usually do.

I'll be working on my new WIP Heart of Shadow. It's historical romance noir set in mid-Victorian London, featuring a hero tortured by his wife's suicide and a heroine masquerading as a spirit medium. I'm going to tie-in a character from my previous unfinished WIP Heart of Ash, so it can be the second in the series.

To prepare I used a variation on Erica Ridley's story boarding technique (speaking of Erica Ridley, she is all over the contest winners section of RWA's latest Romance Writers Report--go Erica!).

I also tried a new technique for my historical research. Probably everyone else has already discovered this. I assembled all of my character and historical research into a PowerPoint presentation. That way, when I'm writing and need a historical detail, say about what brand of cigars my hero smokes, I don't have to go searching through all of my electronic notes, I simply open up my PP presentation and flip to the slide titled "Cigars." It's a great way to incorporate photos as well. I have slides for each house in the book with photos and layout diagrams. I really had difficulty keeping track of all my research before. I'm hoping this will keep it all in one place and easily accessible.

So is anyone else doing nanowrimo this year? If so, please buddy me here.

The next big name in romance is...

2007-10-12T21:35:00.001-07:00

...Tessa Dare! She just got The Call. And not just any call. She's a first time author who started a bidding war. Almost unheard of. I'm so thrilled and happy for her. She's talented, sweet, giving, extremely hard-working, and guaranteed to have a meteoric rise to fame. This doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who voted for Tessa's stories during FanLit. She's the real deal. I wish her the very best of luck and I cannot wait to see her Goddess series at Powell's City of Books.

Congratulations, Tessa!

So f-ing funny...

2007-09-26T01:11:00.001-07:00

...and not just because it's 1:11 a.m. and I've been writing for five hours.

Get over here right now and watch Meljean Brook’s Five Easy Steps To Writing a Romance Novel video.

You will laugh, you will snort milk through your nose (unless you happen to be drinking sauvignon blanc, and then you will snort that through your nose), you will thank god for YouTube. Yeah, it's that funny.

Denial

2007-09-24T12:37:00.001-07:00

Until yesterday I was in denial about how much writing I lost when my one-year-old macbook's hard drive crashed. I'd been taking a lot of notes by hand and I thought they would be sufficient to recreate what I had finished. Yesterday I put my mending elbow to the test and typed for an hour. Then it hit me. I lost fifty pages of my WIP as well as all the research I had carefully bookmarked and excerpted. And some of the scenes I wrote were not in my notebook at all. So now I'm back to square one. I'm trying to get the first 35 pages back in shape to enter the Emily contest. We all have setbacks. I'm trying not to let the extreme irony of this one get me down. Bike crash and hard drive crash in the space of two days. My muse is testing me. The exasperating hussy.

Lessons learned:

Back up! Lapse not into complacency, lest ye lose everything.

Accept not that third glass of wine from the cute tattooed bartender before singing more Liza Minnelli, lest ye be unfit to ride home.

Are you entering the Emily? Are you signing up for the Golden Heart? Are you asking yourself whether you can possibly finish your WIP by December 3rd? I know I am.

Waah!

2007-09-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night I flew off my bicycle and fractured my left elbow (I'm typing with my right hand only--fun).

On Friday my laptop completely died.

Sometimes you have to laugh, or else you're going to cry. I thought about posting lurid closeups of my battered knees, but I didn't want to make you sick.

The writing continues by hand. Maybe this is actually a good thing. My thoughts flow well on to paper. I hope I didn't lose my hard drive, though, because I hadn't backed up since I finished chapter one.

Ever broken a bone at an inopportune time?

September Challenge--Day Five

2007-09-05T19:31:00.001-07:00

This is going to sound like an excuse, dear blog, but it's true. I'm working ten-hour days until Friday, when I am supposed to send the 100-page Bulletin I'm editing to the printer. But that means I can take time off the following week. So no romance goals for the next few days, and then I'll write like mad to catch up.

September Challenge--Day Three

2007-09-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have never posted on this blog three days in a row. It's kind of fun. No pressure to be meaningful, pithy or hilarious. Just me telling the computer what I did today. Unfortunately, Day Three was not pretty. I had way too much fun at a friend's birthday party last night, and I wasn't in writing shape. I only have three pages of Chapter Two finished.

I did find out what ham meant, though, and Shelli and Huar were both right.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source ham1 [ham] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun

1.	a cut of meat from the heavy-muscled part of a hog's rear quarter, between hip and hock, usually cured.

2.	that part of a hog's hind leg.

3.	the part of the leg back of the knee.

4.	Often, hams. the back of the thigh, or the thigh and the buttock together.

Time to stop blogging and start writing. There are still a few good hours left in the day.

GOAL FOR TOMORROW:

Finish Chapter Two

September Challenge--Day Two

2007-09-02T13:53:00.001-07:00

I wrote a prologue and first chapter yesterday. They included murder, illegal boxing, and a seance. I wanted to start with a bang.

Historical Tidbit:

In the illegal boxing matches held in gambling dens in mid-Victorian England, the Prize Ring Rules stated:

That no person is to hit his Adversary when he is down, or seize him by the ham, the breeches, or any part below the waist. A man on his knees is to be reckoned down.

So that raises the question, what exactly is "the ham"?

Maybe tomorrow I'll post an excerpt. I'm hoping that public exposure will keep me honest.

Meljean Brook, author of dark and brilliant paranormals for Berkley, suggested I give myself a reward to look forward to. I've got that covered. My birthday is in the end of September, and the BF promised to take me away for a weekend on the Oregon coast. Writer Lynda Rucker has been extolling the virtues of the Sylvia Beach Hotel to me for years. Known as the definitive "hotel for book lovers," it has literary-themed rooms that range from the Colette to the Alice Walker. We'll be staying in the Edgar Allan Poe room, of course.

In other news, my friend and CP, Kerry Blaisdell, took first AND third in the inaugural Golden Claddagh contest. She also finaled in the Golden Gateway contest (along with Tessa, Courtney Milan, and India Carolina). Congratulations!!

TODAY'S GOAL:

Fill in the missing historical details in Chapter One. Start Chapter Two.

What are your goals for September?

September Challenge

2007-09-01T10:42:00.001-07:00

It was exactly two years ago today that I started writing romance after reading an article about Eloisa James. The same afternoon, I went to the library and checked out Potent Pleasures, and I was hooked. Two years later, I'm writing Victorian noir smut, not frothy Regency, but my passion for reading and creating smart romance continues unabated.

I shudder to think of my first attempts, and my blithe "this will be easy" attitude. It's not easy for me. But the pain is worth it. I've seen my writing progress and become more saleable. But my biggest problem is establishing a consistent writing schedule. For now I've settled into a routine that seems to be working. I start around ten o'clock at night and write until the computer screen is just a blur. Then I get up late, do my yoga, and go to my graduate assistantship in the afternoon. But graduate classes start in a month, and then I'll be writing papers, instead of romance. So I want to make September as productive as possible. And I need some kind of accountability. Therefore, I'm pledging to update this blog almost every day for the next month in a desperate attempt to force myself to be productive. I hope it works!

In other news, I'm so thrilled for all my online writing friends who are achieving their dreams. The new releases, contest finals, and agent signings are too numerous to list (and I promise to do a better job of giving shout-outs as they happen), but they have shown me the tangible benefits of believing in yourself enough to send your work out into the world. Thanks for inspiring me, ladies.

TODAY'S GOAL:

Finish Chapter One of The Night Side.

Laura Kinsale

2007-07-28T14:57:00.001-07:00

Laura Kinsale, Laura Kinsale. I just met an author named Laura Kinsale, and suddenly I see, how delicious a tortured hero can be...oh Laura, Ms. Kinsale! Say it loud and there's poetry flowing, say it soft and the sexual tension's growing...Laura Kinsale, Laura Kinsale, I'll never stop reading Laura Kinsale.

Please forgive my horrendous tardiness in discovering this legendary author. How could it have taken me this long to read Flowers From the Storm?

When did you discover La Laura?

The 1992 Fabio cover

The tasteful 2003 edition

The winner is...

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

...SHERRY THOMAS!

You were randomly selected by my cat (shown here selecting a fine Porter):

Email me at lenora AT lenorabell.com, and I will put your prize in the mail.

Check out Sherry's website, ogle the gorgeous cover of her upcoming novel, Private Arrangements, and read what Mary Balogh and Jane Feather have to say about this "irresistible new voice" in romance.

Thanks for making my first contest fun, everyone!

Good luck with your RWA national preparations.

Deadline Extended

2007-07-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

We're unpacking the Uhaul and rearranging our basement so I'm extending the contest deadline to 7/7 at midnight. I'll announce a winner on Sunday morning.

Keep those entries coming!

Inaugural CONTEST! The Measure of Success

2007-06-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

Eleven months ago, I packed up my bags, and my fluffy cat, and moved to China. I vowed I would not come back without a book deal. Well, here I am, with no book deal, but lots of cute shoes and silk scarves. Now, while I never underestimate the power of shoes, I am disappointed that I wasn't as productive as I wanted to be. I only submitted to one editor, and two agents, while I was gone. Why? Because I was reeling from a painful experience that I have never blogged about until now.

Here's the story. A little over a year ago, starry-eyed newbie romance author, Lenora Bell, went to her first writer's conference. Three weeks later, she landed a fancy, albeit junior, New York agent. Excited beyond belief, our heroine called all her friends and family to tell them the fantastic news. She drank bubbly out of ruby-colored goblets, danced around in frilly underwear, and signed a contract. Then she got down to the serious task of revising her book according to her agent's suggestions. She sent it in, and waited for a reply.

And waited. And waited.

Fearing something was amiss, she emailed and telephoned the Big Apple, hoping and praying that her agent was still alive.

A month went by. She was losing hope. And then a tiny announcement appeared on the agency's website, "Agent X is no longer working for us."

And what's more, Agent X vanished from the face of the earth, or at least the blogosphere.

Our heroine sobbed into her microbrew, moped around wearing black veiled hats, and then moved to China, to get as far from her troubles as possible. But her sorrow followed her to the land where the sun is red. She lost confidence in her writing, and put away her pen.

Then, during a little contest called FanLit, she met a group of supremely talented and supportive people who shared her passion for romance. With their help, and the aid of her other CPs, her spirits and confidence were restored, giving her the impetus to write.

Was my journey to China a success? You can measure success in many ways. There are the small victories. Rejection letters mean you actually sent something out, so that is a kind of success if you have writer's block. There are larger triumphs, like finaling in contests, or being asked to submit a rewrite. I know many talented writers who are celebrating those successes right now. There is the success of seeing your book in print for the first time, the moment you hit a bestseller list, the RITA nomination.

And then there is the thrill every time you write a passage you know is better than anything you've written before. That's the success I'm celebrating right now.

I have a phobia about posting excerpts on my blog. I think it stems from the fear that I will read them next week and feel horribly ashamed. But I want to post a few excerpts now, to show you how far I've come, and what I have to celebrate.

My first attempt at writing romance (this is NOT the book that landed me the agent), featured a squeaky-clean missionary's daughter who was dragged into 1890 Shanghai's seamy underworld by a bad-boy opium trader. Unfortunately, the hero and heroine did not meet until page 50, and when they did, much head-hopping, leaden dialogue, and cliche-ridden situations ensued. I vomited out 400 pages, and then realized it was truly awful.

Here, for your amusement, is an excerpt from The Devil of Shanghai--completely unedited, in all its unbridled glory, rendered in purple, because purple it is:

So many layers of cloth between them, yet Mabel felt naked with longing. She had seen the beauty of this man’s naked chest, had lain beneath him in dreams and in reality. He was the inevitability of the pleasure and delight she could no longer deny herself. He was the reason she breathed. She was swept up in the dazzling passion of a boundless love. She could hear the Queen of the Night's aria ringing in her ears as his hands freed her heaving breasts and his lips teased the aching peaks of her nipples. Even if he lost all respect for her, even if he only wanted her as a mistress, regardless of the consequences, she was his. Even though they were members of two different worlds. Wasn’t it ironic that her mother had found solace and love in the arms of a penniless American doctor and now she, a penniless American herself, was finding passion with an Earl?

Mmhm. I said "heaving breasts." Good lord, I should be taken behind the woodshed and spanked.

I know you're saying to yourself, "But what does this have to do with me winning something?" You're right, I've been awfully slow getting to the contest part of the post.

Here are your choices:

1. You can submit an excerpt that make you terribly ashamed, or one that makes you darn right proud. It can be the thrilling tale you wrote about My Little Pony in the fifth grade, or something from your latest WIP. I don't care. Just make me laugh, or sigh with envy, or both.

OR

2. Tell me how you define success at this point in your writing career.

The winner will be randomly selected by a process that involves my cat and slips of paper soaked in a catnip solution, and announced on Friday, July 6th.

The prize is a silk scarf I bought in Suzhou, China from one of the most famous Chinese silk brands, Xiu Niang.

The scarf is HUGE, you could use it as a table cloth, or wear it to RWA National (if it arrives in time). It's high-quality 100% pure silk that shimmers in the moonlight. The photos don't do the vibrant colors justice.

And so begins my first contest. Thank you for reading, thank you for getting me through the dark times, and thank you for helping me celebrate the small successes in life.

p.s. Guest blogger Carrie Ryan is talking about a similar subject today over at the Manuscript Mavens blog.

Where the Air Is Clear

2007-06-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

The first thing that hits you when you step out of the airport after a prolonged sojourn in China, is the blessed blueness of the sky and the sweet, fresh air. I'm still marveling about it two weeks later.

We're grandma-sitting in Palo Alto right now, giving my bf's aunt a vacation. During the day I field the many questions of a wandering mind, dole out reassurances, and think up clever distractions to calm anxiety. But grandma goes to bed at 8:30, and then I take my laptop out under the stars to write. We're here for two more weeks and then it's back to our little 1886 farmhouse in the Pacific Northwest. Our renters say there's a bountiful crop of luscious raspberries and plump blueberries in our yard this year--yum. Cherry trees and fresh rosemary will be so wonderful after six months living in a hotel.

My favorite baby was in the hospital getting a cleft lip operation on my last day at the orphanage, so I couldn't say goodbye. But I knew his life was improving, and I have high hopes for his eventual adoption. I'm staying in contact with the other volunteers, and they will keep me updated. For some obscure reason, the Chinese government makes it impossible to adopt from a facility where you were a volunteer, and they recently tightened their adoption restrictions, so that my bf and I would have to be married for two years before we could adopt. I sobbed and sobbed when I had to leave. I wanted to take pictures of the babies but it was forbidden. I'll never forget their dazzling smiles and pleading eyes.

I'll post reflections about my time in China as they come to me, as well as the long-promised post on men reading romance. I've been a very inconstant blogger lately, and for that I apologize. I've never been good about sticking to routines during times of change. My writing suffered as well, but now I'm back on track and sinking my teeth into a dark and sexy gothic featuring a brilliant, obsessive hero named Rodric. More on that later. And check back next week for information about my very first contest. The prize will be a treasure I bought in China.

Oh, and speaking of contests, I am dying to win a coveted single-maven critique from one of the fabulous Manuscript Mavens. Read all about this priceless prize here. I haven't won a blog contest yet. Maybe this will be my lucky link.

I'll leave you with some photos. Thanks for reading, and sorry for the long dry spell.

No, I do not play the pipa (more's the pity), but the gentleman sitting next to me is a zither master. He was teaching me a traditional pingtan aria for voice.

Scene from the opera we saw in Beijing, The Marriage Between the Dragon and the Phoenix.

Azumeth on top of the Beijing Ancient Observatory.

Shadow puppet play in Wu Zhen.

Rice wine distillery in Wu Zhen.

Beijing Again

2007-05-17T07:26:00.001-07:00

I'm back in Suzhou after my third, and favorite, visit to Beijing. More about that later. For now, here's proof that we climbed a section of the Great Wall on a blustery yet clear and pollution-free summer's day. I promise to make my next post writing related (since I owe you a review of The Taming of the Duke from a male perspective), but here's a romantic detail for you. My partner and I have taken photos of our hands every May since our first year together. This is the eighth photo and the second one in China.

Snapshot

2007-04-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

Did you notice what was missing in my last post? Yes, that's right. There was no Lenora Bell, only Emily Bronte. That's my sneaky way of posting without actually having to write anything. Get those wet noodles out--I've assumed the position.

I just have to give you a snapshot of our hotel room right now. I'm sitting on the bed, alternately cheering and cursing at the television set, because I want the Houston Rockets to win this game in Utah. My bf is curled up (as much as a 6'4" man can curl up) in a comfy chair by the window, reading Eloisa James' The Taming Of the Duke. Yep, you heard that right. I'm swearing like a sailor because T-Mac only made ten points in the first half, and my better half is reading a romance novel.

I only became a basketball fan in the last few years, and he is reading his very first romance novel. Did I choose a good one for popping his cherry?

Have you given your significant other a favorite romance novel to read? What was their reaction?

2007-04-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.

--From Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Pages in Bloom

2007-04-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

I'm going to spend the rest of April chained to my desk, finishing my current WIP, Heart of Ash. So no blogging for me (see NTW post). My parents come to visit in two weeks, and I won't get much writing done while they are here, so it's now or never. Wish me luck, and I'll see you back online in May.

I'll leave you with some pictures of spring in China, in the hope that they inspire your pages to bloom.

NTW

2007-04-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes things come to you when you need them the most. That's what happened today when I opened my Absolute Write newsletter and clicked on an article about writer's block by Mayra Calvani. You see I've been struggling lately. I sit down at my computer with the best of intentions. And then I inevitably get sidetracked. Last night I spent four hours reading about George Eliot's extraordinary life because I was looking for the right book to have my heroine read. Unfortunately, my story is set in 1853, almost twenty years before Middlemarch was published. One of my critique partners says this should be known as NTW (network time waster) from now on, and is to be rooted out before it can rear its ugly head. Given my propensity for NTW, the article was exactly what I needed to read.

One important point it raised was that lowering your expectations might actually make you more productive. If I set a goal that is impossible for me (20 pages a day) then I'm more likely to write nothing because I get depressed about my inability to reach the goal. But if I try to write five pages a day, I might just surprise myself and get excited enough to write more, thereby surpassing my initial goal.

I know there is only one cure for not writing, and that is to write. Author Elizabeth Hoyt wrote in a recent article on Romantic Inks:

Here’s the deep dark secret that we published authors hide: we’re not necessarily better writers than the unpublished. What we do have is a finished and polished manuscript. Ninety-nine percent of writing is finishing the product...which is why, every day, I sit down and write. I sit down and write even when I don’t feel like it—especially when I don’t feel like it.

I have a long history of writer's block. The most famous example is the college paper I turned in six years late. It was a paper about a Vietnam war book, and I finally managed to write it while I was traveling in Vietnam for three weeks. I somehow needed that historical immediacy in order to finish a task that had been weighing on me for so many years.

Have you ever struggled with writer's block? Have you done anything extreme to jolt yourself out of it, or do you have a simple little trick that works?

I know, I know. Just sit down and write.

I will.

Good News

2007-04-06T04:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for being so supportive! I went to the orphanage again today, and it is so emotionally draining. I was the only volunteer this afternoon, and when I walked into the baby room there were at least ten babies balling their eyes out and no one in the room at all. It made me soooo sad. But I have really good news. There will be a team of surgeons visiting Suzhou in October to perform cleft lip and palate surgeries! They are from Alliance for Smiles, a wonderful organization out of San Francisco.

If you would like more information about the orphanage, you can pm me (link on my website). Thanks, again, for all your kind words and thoughts.

Two Tigers

2007-04-02T03:26:00.001-07:00

Today I began a volunteer job at an orphanage. Somehow I just didn't picture all the babies with disabilities. Cleft lips and palates, Down's syndrome, preemies, they were all strapped into cribs, tearing my heart out with their bright eyes and big smiles. The orphanage was as clean and cheerful as it could be, and I was happy to hear them playing Mozart's Twinkle Twinkle variations, but there just aren't enough arms to hold them, let alone families to love them. The adoption rate from this particular orphanage is abysmally low, and I have yet to determine why. Perhaps because of the high percentage of children with special needs.

One tiny sweetie with a shock of fuzzy hair and the spindliest little legs I ever saw, fell asleep in my arms after cooing along to the tune of Frere Jacque. They have their own words to this song in Mandarin, here is the literal translation:

Two tigers, two tigers
Running fast, running fast
One has no ears, one has no tail
Truly strange, truly strange

There were over fifty little tigers in those two small rooms, and over half of them were there because of their "strangeness." I understand the pressures of the One Child Policy, and I know the enormous stigma against disabilities, the poverty that makes a family unable to pay for surgery. But it made me feel so helpless when I saw their legs curling up from disuse, their eyes hungry for affection.

All I could do was sing them a song, and tell them they were not strange, but beautiful.

Weekend Getaway

2007-03-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

We're going to the sleepy little town of Nan Xun for the weekend. Should be relaxing since it's not in any of the guidebooks. I'm bringing paper and a pen instead of my laptop.

Here's hoping your weekend is peaceful and productive.

xoxo

Lenora

Scrap Bag

2007-03-28T01:05:00.000-07:00

Life is progressing...creamy magnolia blossoms unfurl...a car hit the bus we were riding in and thirty dollars changed hands outside our window before we were on our way again.

I am slogging through a synopsis of Heart of Ash because I think it's time to stop being such a complete pantser. Lydia Joyce's website has an excellent list of synopsis writing resources.

Pam Rosenthal's The Slightest Provocation is up for a RITA. Go Pam! Intelligent, lush, lyrical...her work is my inspiration.

Blocked Again

2007-03-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

They've blocked blogger again in China--just when I was getting into a nice posting and commenting rhythm. Now I have to go through a proxy website and it takes forever...aargh!!! *shakes fist at the government censors*

My Apologies

2007-03-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

Please accept my apologies for subjecting you to that photo--it's the cover of the box of extra underwear that most Chinese hotel rooms stock. Just because I feel so sorry for your eyes, here's some candy to make up for it.

Mmmm....Stuart...

Feeling better now?

How about now?

xoxo
Lenora

Senior Man Trousers

2007-03-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

In response to the many discussions about mantitty and its dubious merits as an inducement to buy novels, I hereby submit this disturbing photo. Now this particular specimen of homomammaries is not selling romance novels, but Senior Man Trousers--for the gentleman who forgot to bring extra underwear during his stay at the hotel. What does this have to do with romance novels? Absolutely nothing. I just thought it was hilarious, and wanted to ~~inflict~~ share.

AutoSummarize

2007-03-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

Yet more evidence of Tessa Dare's genius. Check out her post on AutoSummarization--the MS Word feature that allows you to distill your manuscript into ten sentences (under the Tools menu). She found it while searching for a way to make synopsis writing less painful, and it fulfilled its function by giving us all a good laugh.

Here is the ten sentence AutoSummary of the first chapter of my latest WIP, working title Heart of Ash:

No doubt his face matched those hands—blunt-edged, intimidating, restless. “Where is my great-aunt Ethel?” blurted Lucidora. “My lord, if I may--” “Raise your eyes when you speak to me,” said Lord Ashe. Lucidora bowed her head. Never look a man in the eyes.
Lucidora inhaled sharply. Fenton will show you to a room.” “Ada--” With his stained hands and dismissive eyes.

So what does your MS look like in ten sentences? Kerry? Meljean?

To National, or Not to National

2007-03-12T02:32:00.000-07:00

We've decided to return home a month early, and that means I could attend RWA's national conference if I wanted to. Of course I would only have been back in the states for a week--but since it is the biggest event of a romance writer's year, I'm thinking I should hop back on a plane and go to Dallas. I've only been to one smaller conference, so this would be a new experience for me. And I've only been to Texas once, and pardon me for saying so, it did not leave a good impression.

I was hired by a national speech coaching company to manage their San Francisco office, but they were headquartered out of Houston, so they flew me there for training. The moment I walked into the shiny corporate offices, I knew I was going to stick out like a...well like a San Francisco girl in Texas. Everyone was coiffed and power-suited and chipper, and they could all tell with one quick downward sweep of their blue-frosted lids that I was not a member of their sorority. I will spare you the details of that painful week, but I will let you know that I quit that job a mere two months later, even though they offered me a huge raise, stock options, and money for a new, more corporate appropriate, wardrobe.

But I'm sure this time around Texas would be different. Especially if I had some friends to seek out. So are you going? Is it worth the money? If I buy you a lemon drop will you let me sit at your table?

Shoes With Scales

2007-03-06T20:40:00.000-08:00

Pam asked about the new brand of shoes I found--so I thought I'd post a few pics. Have I mentioned recently that cute, cheap shoes are ~~why~~ one of the reasons I'm back in China for a year? I can't find well-made and truly unique shoes in America for a price I can afford--so normally I only buy vintage ones. But in China I can indulge in brand new shoes because I only pay $10-$30.

My new favorite brand is Safiya. Inside the shoes it has a sweet little logo of a snail and the words, "My world. The Safiya's world. The young world."

My other favorite brand is Changes and Insects 100. Rather Kafkaesque.

Anyway, here are my most recent Safiya purchases:

Shoes with Scales (yes, it makes a fish if you put your feet together).

Black tap shoe style with crimson appliqued flowers.

So what do you think? I can take orders...

Emerging

2007-03-05T21:29:00.000-08:00

I've been sick (bad cold and sinus infection) for the last ten days and my urge to blog and write romance completely disappeared during illness. What is that about? You think if I'm stuck in my hotel room, hacking up alien lifeforms, that I might want to escape into computer land. But apparently all I want to do is watch bad movies (i.e. Dukes of Hazzard) and feel sorry for myself. But now that I'm emerging and my nose is fading from scarlet to dusky rose, I have a reason to hit the keyboard--I've finished a rough plot outline for my new WIP. This one is going to be deliciously gothic with a hot, sensual heroine and a tortured, obsessive hero. I haven't found a satisfactory working title yet, but I'll post one soon.

In China news, I found an amazing new brand of shoes to buy (and went a little bit crazy), and Yao Ming is back from his injury and Chinese television broadcasts all of Houston's games, so I can indulge my Yao fetish too!

Zhu Nian Kuai Le (Happy Year of the Pig)

2007-02-21T20:27:00.000-08:00

I've been traveling with family during the Chinese New Year holiday. Some highlights:

Shopping street in Shanghai's old town

View from the (dirty) windows of my room at the Shanghai Le Meridien

Moon Lake in Ningbo

Buddhist temples on Putuoshan island

Classical gardens in Suzhou

But don't worry, I haven't lost my focus. I learned all about ancient Chinese erotic practises at the Museum of Sex Culture in Tongli (go ahead, click on the picture to read the fine print--it's worth it!).

Juice It

2007-02-07T20:31:00.000-08:00

I'm doing research about the state of the erotic romance industry right now, trying to figure out what to start writing next. I want to write a story that I'm passionate about, but I want to make sure it will be saleable, too, which is the dilemma.

In a recent interview, Hilary Sares from Kensington said that whatever you are writing you should, "...juice it to the max." This time I mean to take her advice. Whatever I decide upon, I'm going to make it dark, deep and thrilling, and that means no boring filler paragraphs, no cliches, no cumbersome backstory or dialogue that doesn't advance the plot. So now I know how I need to write--that just leaves me with what.

I have three ideas I'm choosing between, and they have to do with the following:

1. Edgar Allan Poe
2. Insane Asylum
3. Birth of Photography

Any preference without knowing more than that?

Venus Calipyge

2007-01-29T21:46:00.000-08:00

In one scene in my Victorian romance WIP, my heroine is being coached by her aunt, who used to be an actress, about how to fascinate a man by mimicking classical Greek statue poses (an idea I conceived after reading Gail Marshall's excellent book, Actresses on the Victorian Stage: Feminine Performance and the Galatea Myth). While doing research for this scene, I came across the image of Venus Calipyge, or Venus of the Beautiful Buttocks (uh oh, am I going to get spammed now?).

The website of the Royal Museum at Naples features a breathless description of the 6-inch statuette (written by Famin in 1836):

THIS Charming statuette, found at Rome, was placed in the Farnese palace, and thus came into the possession of the King of Naples, together with the ownership of that edifice. It does not form a portion of the cabinet of private works of art, but is placed in a reserved hall, where the curious are only introduced under the surveillance of a guardian, though even this precaution has not prevented the rounded forms which won for the goddess the name of Callipyge, from being covered with a dark tint, which betrays the profane kisses that fanatic admirers have every day impressed there. We ourselves knew a young German tourist smitten with a mad passion for this voluptuous marble; and the commiseration his state of mind inspired set aside all idea of ridicule.

It is impossible, indeed, to imagine anything more graceful than the Venus here spoken of. The power of beauty is recognized wherever it manifests itself: the marble seems to palpitate; in contemplating it modesty takes alarm, desire begins to awake, and imagination to kindle; and we are obliged to hurry away in order to restore our agitated senses to their original tranquillity.

***

But horny museum curators (more spam?) are not the only ones enamored of the bootylicious statue. Over the years, she has gained a diverse crowd of devotees including that notorious 18th century rakehell, Sir Frances Dashwood, French singer Georges Brassens, whose 1964 song, "Venus Callipyge" featured the tongue-in-cheek (pun intended) lines: Au temps où les faux culs sont la majorité, Gloire à celui qui dit toute la vérité, and Alistair Crowley, who wrote poems praising her as his mother.

My research often leads me to shadowy corners of the internet. I am writing erotic literature, after all. But that is what is so wonderful about the explosion of erotic romance. It's written by women, for women, and there's nothing furtive about it. Visit Passionate Ink to find out more about the state of erotic romance today.

Message From Above

2007-01-24T04:01:00.000-08:00

I sent an email to one of my favorite romance authors, Pam Rosenthal, and she wrote a very gracious reply. It was so nice of her to take the time to answer. If you haven't read any of her books, you are missing out on some of the most gorgeous writing in romance today.

From The Bookseller's Daughter:

Such a jumble, such a torrent of sensation. And such a mystery, for she couldn’t think how they’d come to be in each other’s arms in the first place. It didn’t seem quite accurate to say he’d “swept” her into his arms -- or, for that matter, that she’d “rushed” into his embrace. If there had been a crucial gesture, a shy or importunate first touch, she couldn’t specify what it had been or who had made it. The embrace had simply -- happened, like a bolt of summer lightning.

***

OK, your turn. Tell me about an author I *have* to read...

On Endings

2007-01-17T20:51:00.000-08:00

By the end of a well-written romance novel you should be gobbling up the pages like they were cotton candy that would stick to your chin if you didn't melt it with your tongue fast enough. I just read Eloisa James's Kiss Me Annabel and I'm still savoring the spun sugar. Once I got to that ending, I didn't care that the conflict was slightly manufactured, or that certain parts of the plot felt improbable. I didn't care because she made me believe that Ewan and Annabel shared the transcendent kind of love we are all searching for. And she left me wanting more, left me with a terrible sweet tooth that only she can satisfy. Damn her.

I could just give up writing right now. Or I could work even harder to discover the elusive recipe for eliciting that kind of emotional response from readers.

Can you tell I'm still working on the ending of my book? It's just that I want it to be perfect. It has to stick to the editor's mind enough to make her pick up the phone. It has to leave her with a mouth full of melting sugar and a craving for more.

da da da da DA DA

2007-01-09T21:06:00.000-08:00

The Muzak version of the theme song from Chariots of Fire is perpetually playing in the hallways of the hotel I'm living in. At first it just drove me crazy. Now I've decided that they're featuring it especially for me as I sprint to the finish line of my self-imposed writing deadline.

The music will swell, the crowd will roar, and I will click the send button. Victory shall be mine!

Harold M. Abrahams: If I can't win, I won't run!
Sybil Gordon: If you don't run, you can't win.

The Fifth Ring

2007-01-08T02:04:00.000-08:00

Yes my friends, I am in the fifth ring of Rewrite Hell. I am guilty of Wrath and Gloom, and for those sins I should be punished.

At first the task of rewriting seemed straightforward enough. Add more historical detail, keep the tone consistent, decide whether the piece was full on Erotica or merely Very Sexy historical romance. I set out, like every naïve pilgrim, thinking that even though the path prove stony, I could surmount any trial with the help of my trusty pen. But then that pen led me astray. It veered off into the path of Wickedness. It started writing new characters and crossing out whole chapters. It introduced emotions and new conflict that were completely inconsistent with the earlier version. In fact, it decided to write an entirely new piece. Hence my descent into the fifth ring.

I have to finish this and send it off. I've been stuck here too long. I know parts of it are so much better than the original, but that does me absolutely no good until the damn thing is finished. Oh Wrath! Oh Gloom!

Have any of you been led astray by the very pens you trusted? How did you regain control? Did it work out in the end? Please tell me there is a path out of this hell...

My First Tag

2006-12-20T21:37:00.000-08:00

Four jobs I've had:

Working my way up through the ranks of an Alaskan fish cannery for three summers (I started on the "slime line", moved into the egg house and ended up in high-grade caviar).
Genealogical research in the Quaker archives of my university.
Singing in a five-star hotel in China.
Assisting with correspondence between families of organ donors and organ recipients.

Four favorite foods:

Chocolate.
Wine.
Cheese.
Potatoes.

Four movies I could (and do) watch over and over

Cabaret.
Singing in the Rain (or any musical from the 1940's through the 1950's).
Amelie (or anything by Marc Caro and/or Jean-Pierre Jeunot).
Spirited Away (or anything by Hayao Miyazaki).

Four TV shows I enjoy watching:

The X-Files in Chinese.
America's Next Top Model.
Travel shows.
Learning Mandarin on CCTV9 (in China).

Four places I've traveled:

Four websites I visit (almost) daily:

Salon.com
Slate.com
Victorianweb.org
Wikipedia.org

Four people I'm tagging to do this:

Huar
Elina
Kerry Blaisdell
Griselle

My computer suddenly stopped being able to add links. So none of the websites referenced are linked. Quelle horreur!

Scent of a Scholar

2006-12-13T22:11:00.001-08:00

From the hotel website:

This exquisite hotel filled with strong scholarly aroma is an ideal site for you to either read books or sit idly.

Strong scholarly aroma? I admit to thinking the smell of books and leather is hot, but just how strong are we talking? Will there be doddering men in black capes muttering over ancient tomes? That could get pretty aromatic. And is my romance writing scholarly enough? Do I smell strong enough? I'll let you know...

Don't quit your day job...

2006-12-06T22:17:00.001-08:00

...that's what they say, anyway. But I moved to China to have more time to write. The teaching job I took was too demanding, so I'm quitting. My BF accepted a good job as the managing chef at a hotel restaurant in another city. I'm going to live with him at the hotel and finish a novel or two. This is a wonderful opportunity for me. And I intend to make full use of it. Expect to see a lot more of me online soon.

Oh yeah, and the restaurant needs a lounge singer. Perfect! I'm busy learning new and ever cheesier Chinese ballads. The latest one? Hui Jia (Come Home) by Shunza. They don't get much more melodramatic than this. But boy is it fun to belt out.

Stirring Sex Appeal

2006-11-28T06:54:00.000-08:00

The blurb from the backcover of The Seven Year Itch DVD I just purchased:

That slice of what to relate is man, Tom, who the person arrives the middle age leaves the house to spend a holiday the period at the wife, producing sex imagination towards upstairs woman's tenant that just moved. The dream plays this charming, sexy and stirring woman's tenant in the slice. The plentiful full dream is past to make not intentionally to member of the downstairs Tom shows off the stirring sex appeal, this make Tom's itching to do and hard to carry on, freak, repress to the wild flower confusing sex imagination not to live constantly now.

Wow. That last line is priceless. That "freak" stuck in there between "hard to carry on " and "repress the wild flower" just says it all.

But enough poetic chinglish. It's time to present the other side of the coin. Hanzi Smatter is a site dedicated to "the misuse of chinese characters in western culture." Checkout the photo of "Chuck" who recently got a tattoo that literally translates as "woman healthy flow."

Romancing the Stone

2006-11-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

What have I been doing instead of finishing my NaNoWriMo WIP? Numerous procrastinatory and one or two legitimate activities. Going on a DVD buying binge falls firmly into the former category. And what did I find at the bottom of a big box of movies I was rifling through at my favorite illegal DVD shop? The 2006 special edition release of Romancing the Stone. Call me maudlin, but I love this movie. It's lost none of its luster with time. Michael Douglas is not my type at all, but he's just plain sexy in a swaggering yet sheepishly sweet kind of way. And I'm such a sucker for a makeover. Any makeover will do (note to self--include a makeover in next MS). Watching Kathleen Turner transform from frowsy, scatterbrained writer to machete wielding, thigh-baring tigress will never get old.

Now if only Joan Wilder could write me out of my NaNo funk.

NaNoWriMo

2006-10-31T04:46:00.000-08:00

I've thought about participating in National Novel Writing Month for the past two years. But this time I'm taking the plunge--with a little help from my new found friends from Avon FanLit. I'm especially pleased I met Tessa Dare. She was the grand prize winner of a day with Avon, and she is just the loveliest, most talented and deserving person. I'm so happy for her! We've vowed to keep each other on task and motivated during the crazy month of November. Signing up for NaNoWriMo means pledging to attempt 50,000 words in one month. It's a lot. But that's what I'm in China for.

So wish me luck! I'll figure out how to get one of those word count widgets onto my site in the next few days. Maybe public exposure will shame me into typing faster.

In China news, I taught my kiddies a lesson on Halloween last week. They loved it when I floated into the classroom on a broomstick with a pointy hat and a mask. Here's a picture of some of my ten-year-olds posing with the masks they made.

Blue Suede Shoes

2006-10-04T06:32:00.000-07:00

OK, they're actually shiny patent leather. I just bought these shoes because I wanted to reward myself for getting so much writing done. And because I'm in China, they were only seven dollars. Oh yeah, baby. I heart China.

Being greatly harassed by this obstacle...

2006-09-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love thee, Charlotte.

From her preface to the 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights.

This bringing out of our little book was hard work. As was to be expected, neither we nor our poems were at all wanted...

The great puzzle lay in the difficulty of getting answers of any kind from the publishers to whom we applied. Being greatly harassed by this obstacle, I ventured to apply to the Mssrs Chambers, of Edinburgh, for a word of advice...

Ill-success failed to crush us: the mere effort to succeed had given a wonderful zest to existence; it must be pursued...

These MSS. were perseveringly obtruded upon various publishers for the space of a year and a half...

...there came a letter, which he [Currer Bell] opened in the dreary expectation of finding two hard hopeless lines...and, instead, he took out of the envelope a letter of two pages. He read it trembling. It declined, indeed, to publish that tale, for business reasons, but it discussed its merits and demerits so courteously, so considerately, in a spirit so rational, with a discrimination so enlightened, that this very refusal cheered the author better than a vulgarly-expressed acceptance would have done...

Obsession

2006-09-25T23:24:00.000-07:00

My latest obsession is the Avon FanLit contest. The "American Idol" of romance writing keeps me up into the wee hours voting and reading the forums. I may even post a chapter, even though I don't write Regency. If your chapter makes it into the top ten for that round, it gets read by Eloisa James, Teresa Medeiros and Julia Quinn. Exalted company, indeed.

Erotic City

2006-08-30T03:40:00.000-07:00

I have been advised by an industry professional to choose a direction and tone for my work--either Erotic Historical Romance, or Historical Erotica. It seems my novella falls somewhere in between the two. After doing internet research about the differences, I've realized two things: one--this subject has been beaten to death by numerous bloggers, and two--confusion still reigns.

Pam Rosenthal, one of my favorite erotic historical romance authors, also writes erotica under the psedudonym, Molly Weatherfield. She has this to say about the distinction between the two genres:

"But there are also real formal differences between the romance and erotica. I think of erotica as a roller-coaster lugging around a cabinet of curiosities. Romance follows a tightly structured, novelistic arc of development; erotica should be more episodic, sort of vaudeville-like, with a surprise and an escalating payoff in every scene."

I like this definition because it goes beyond content to structure. So much of the confusion lies in the fact that a writer of erotica can choose to have a happy ending and a monogamous sexual relationship, and a writer of erotic historical romance could choose a darker tone and address issues such as rape fantasies or light S&M, so the lines can become blurred. There's even a new name for this gray zone--Romantica.

Keelia Greer of the Houston Bay Area chapter of the Romance Writers of America (RWA) attempts to boil down the distinctions between the (now) three genres:

Romantica is both romantic and sexually explicit. The emotional and sexual aspects of a relationship are integral to the plot and development of the characters. The sex may be beyond conventional "mainstream." The story almost always has the traditional happily-ever-after ending.

Sensual (sizzling/hot/ sexy) romance is driven by the romantic relationship and the emotional development of the characters, but contains lots of sexual tension and fairly explicit conventional sex. The relationship is monogamous and has the traditional happily-ever-after ending.

Erotica contains emotional relationships, but the plot is more driven by the sexual relationships. The sex can take on all the aspects including D/s, bondage, voyeurism, multiple relationships, ménage a trios, and so forth. The story has a happy ending for the characters, but it might not be the traditional romance ending.

But I was given two choices, not three. While I'm struggling with this dilemma, I will keep revising and hope that a clear direction is revealed to me. As an unpubbed writer, my work won't be marketable unless it falls neatly into a genre. There'll be time enough to bend the rules when I'm multi-published.

Hot Blooded (check it and see)

2006-08-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if my fever ever got up to 103, but I've been sick, sick, sick. China finally got to me. More specifically, traveling by bus and train to remote parts of Guizhou province got me. First it was the dreaded "xie duzi"--yes that's Mandarin for the runs. Then it was fever and chills and the worst cold I've ever had. I'm still feeling miserable after eight days but at least I'm back in my apartment where I don't have to scoop water out of a wooden basin to wash myself and endure constant cigarette smoke blown in my face by the men occupying the other bunks in the "hard sleeper" train sections. And I've discovered a wonderful remedy for congestion--heat vinegar to boiling and inhale the vapors. Works like a charm and lasts for twelve hours.

Of course it wasn't all desperate trips to the toilet and air pollution. I saw some stunning scenery, met many wonderful people and ate tons of amazing food. And I wrote constantly. I decided not to bring my laptop, and something about the simplicity of pen and paper, coupled with our mostly rustic accomodations, made me realize that I need to bring my writing back to that elemental level--back to the sheer joy of using my imagination to fuel creativity without over-analyzing my target audience or the confines of my chosen genre. The beauty of traveling is the need to embrace extremes. And in so doing, you free yourself from the tedium of habit and the lull of comfort. I'm not saying I'm happy to be sick, though. Far from it. But I am pleased that I started writing my next full-length novel. It will be a true gothic this time, in every sense except the use of first person narrative. I'll write more about it, and post pictures from the trip, when I'm feeling cooler.

Oh yes, the other good news is that blogger seems to have been unblocked here because I'm suddenly able to access it without using Anonymouse. Yeah!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2006-07-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

Wow long time between posts. But I think moving to China is a good excuse.

I've decided all my entries will have song titles, since I was leaning that way already with the Madonna and Zappa references. This is also inspired by the utterly random selection of English songs I found at my first karaoke experience here. I forgot just how surreal private booth karaoke can be in China. The joint was called "Haoliday" a play on "holiday" and the Mandarin word "hao" meaning "good." We walked up a long flight of stairs and into a hallway with garish 1980's geometric carpeted walls and flashing purple neon signs over the booth doors. Girls in tight red dresses and men in tuxes bowed profusely and ushered us into a large private room with its own bathroom and a pyramid of frosty Chinese beer stacked on the low central table. It was me, a cute Chinese English teacher named Grace, and a large group of chain-smoking, beer-swilling, mic-hogging men. I decided to sing songs in Mandarin because the English selection was limited to the usual suspects: My Heart Will Go On, Like A Virgin, The Rose, Jailhouse Rock, with a few unexpected surprises: Welcome to the Jungle, China Girl, and Purple Rain. My mission is to introduce China to Heart, Pat Benatar and Liza Minelli. I'm getting my nightclub act together.

My classes haven't started yet so I've been writing and sightseeing. The revision process is going well. Confessions is so much better now and I've written pitches for two other novellas based on interlinked characters. I want this blog to be about writing mostly. But maybe I'll have one day of the week where I write about China and post pictures. I haven't decided yet, but don't worry, I'll unveil a new blog direction very soon.

Until then, enjoy a glass of nice wine and some Danish triple-cream blue cheese for me. And I'll have oysters barbequed and smothered in garlic, and a coconut with a straw stuck in it, for you.

Farewell Cubicle

2006-06-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

This is my last day as a secretary.

During my years of office servitude, I:

1. was propositioned by the owner of a phone sex company because, "I should be making a lot of money with that voice."
2. had a job interview videotaped (with no prior warning) because they wanted to send it to the CEO (I got the job).
3. was given an office dress code that was four pages long and governed the width of the pinstripes on trousers (no more than 1/4 inch) and the length of skirts (no more than 2 inches above the knee).
4. met Dorothy Allison and the only thing I could think of to say was, "would you like to see my desk?"
5. worked with a woman who owned nine cats
6. wrote my first full-length romance novel about a young American girl who gets sucked into the dark underworld of a ruthless opium trader in 1890's Shanghai (can you say "hard sell?")
7. saw human organs in boxes
8. hid in many a deserted stairwell to eat my lunch and read in peace
9. emailed my sister nearly every day (what did office workers do before email?)
10. etched "no more office jobs" onto a rock at a rugged beach in Alaska and threw it into the ocean (that was more than four years ago--this time I really mean it!)
11. found what I truly want to do with my life.

Offices. May they rest in peace. Far, far away from me.

Relax Don't Do It

2006-06-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

I'm going to San Francisco for some r&r this weekend. Absolutely no writing or worrying about agents allowed. It's my sister's bday and we're going to be girly girls together--that's right--shopping at H&M, good chocolate, sappy musicals, cutting each other's bangs and, of course, Osento. If you're ever in SF and you're a woman, you've got to check this place out. It's cheap, steamy and the best place to be gloriously naked on a wooden sundeck in the heart of the Mission district.

The Great Firewall of China

2006-05-31T10:43:00.000-07:00

Elina in China just wrote that she was able to access my blog and website using Anonymouse, a free proxy service. I'm relieved to hear it. Now I don't have to delete the word "erotic" from my website in an attempt to get around the Great Firewall. Although my mother might have liked that. Sorry, mom.

One-handed Read

2006-05-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

This pic was taken while we were gluing the flocked wallpaper to my business cards. The designer showed me five different card treatments, but I immediately knew it had to be the hand. It just says it all. It's ghostly and gothic, hints of an invitation to a Victorian boudoir (she's not wearing gloves--oh my!) and is reminiscent of vintage advertising. There's also something slightly strange about it, and for a girl who likes her Edwards Gorey and her Gogols Bordello, it's perfect. And someone who commented on my blog picked up on the "subtle allusion to the one-handed read"--I'm so glad that people get it. I used the same image on my website as well.

In agent news, big things are afoot. But I don't want to post anything prematurely. I am giddy with excitement, though.

In China news, I have a new name. I was unhappy with the Chinese name I was given when I lived there before (just a variation on my last name which didn't have any particular meaning). So the director of the private language school where I will teach has re-christened me "Mo Li" which means "Jasmine" and sounds similar to my English nickname. Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower) is a famous Chinese folk song that I learned to play on the bamboo flute (dizi) when I took lessons in China. Maybe the name is a little cutesy but it's better than the one I had before.

- Mo Li

Justify My Love

2006-05-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

I'm playing the waiting game. It's ever so much fun. I'll post news (of agents? deals? heartache? blues?) when I receive any.

In the meantime I'm still here at this silly desk job for two more weeks, although my mind is already in China, shopping for red silk pillows to brighten up my apartment and singing Wang Fei ballads at a beachside karaoke joint.

Aiiyaa!

2006-05-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

A friend in China just told me she can't access my website. Then I emailed the link to several other acquaintances living there, and they couldn't see it either. Maybe it's because I'm using Yahoo to host it. I'll have to research and possibly switch hosts because I have to be able to get to my own website while I'm there. Why didn't I think of that all-important detail before I chose a behemoth like Yahoo to host it? Aargh!

Pruning

2006-05-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

I suffer from verbosity. Here's an ironic example, an actual line from Confessions:

She tried to prune her words to a bare minimum--the sooner he tired of her dull company, the sooner she could escape the disturbing intensity of his eyes.

Hello!?! "She tried to prune her words to a bare minimum," needs serious trimming. Why not just say, "she pruned her words." Ah, the simplicity.

I have so many ticks. I love to write things like, "she felt his hands begin stroking her thighs," instead of "his hands stroked her thighs," and then there is the dreaded "seemed."

All the years of self-denial, all the elaborate barriers she had constructed to contain her emotions, suddenly seemed like flimsy paper creations that one strong breeze could blow away forever.

All the "she felt" and "she seemed" and "as if's" have got to go. Luckily, I have two amazing critique partners with big sharp shears who aren't afraid to go "snip snip." (I pictured Martyn Jacques from the Tiger Lillie's singing those last two words--god I love him!)

But the hacking and slashing is almost finished and I'm sending it off today or tomorrow. So cross your fingers for me--soon I'll have feedback on Confessions from industry professionals.

It's my poor, long-suffering sweetie's birthday tomorrow, and I haven't even bought him a present yet. I'm a bad girlfriend.

In China related news, my cat got all her shots, and a microchip, in preparation for the journey. I've never taken her with me before. She's going to love it. Guangxi is subtropical and the city I'm going to is right on the ocean so she'll get lots of fresh seafood and real sand in her litterbox.

First Base

2006-05-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

Where do I start? The conference was a stomach-churning, nail-biting, delirium-inducing whirlwind of sheer amazingness. I got requests from everyone I pitched to (seven total), which makes me very, very happy. I'm going to take a week to polish the novella until it gleams and then send it off.

Kerensa Brougham, my critique partner and conference roomie, also got requests. We were both so keyed-up, we woke at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday and started pitching to each other before we even brushed our teeth. Nervous energy is such a strange phenomenon. I'm accustomed to being on stage, but nothing could have prepared me for the terror that struck when I realized that in two minutes I would be face to face with a senior editor at Kensington (she was extremely nice by the way). I had my lines carefully rehearsed, but promptly went off script. Luckily, she seemed to like it.

And all that time I spent analyzing what outfit to wear paid off as well. My sweet vintage red shoes with the white piping got lots of compliments, as did my business cards with the plush red wallpaper on the back (thank you, Laura!). I was glad I spent the time to research and create my identity system before the conference.

Julia Quinn taught a very helpful dialogue class. She's funny, honest, and down-to-earth. But my favorite speaker was Stella Cameron. I've never read any of her books, but I'm going to. If she were a guru, I would grasp the hem of her robe and follow her to the ends of the earth. All the speakers shared a common theme: don't let fear hold you back. I needed to hear that. I've spent too long doubting myself.

It's time to let the world see what a shameless hussy (er, talented writer) I truly am.

First Pitch

2006-05-04T16:59:00.000-07:00

I've been writing historical romance for just over a year. But this weekend I'm actually going to try to sell some at a conference organized by the Romance Writers of America's Silicon Valley chapter. I'll get to meet other authors, go to fun workshops with titles like "Say Goodbye to the Slush Pile," and flirt with agents and editors at the Speed Dating event.

I've practised my pitch ad nauseum (even going so far as to set it to a Cole Porteresque tune -- for my own private amusement, of course). I bought a cute black and white vintage sundress, had a fancy website made, and picked up my fabulous red business cards today. Now I just have to glue flocked velvet wallpaper to the backs of them. They'll scream bordello, but that's appropriate. I am writing erotic, gothic, Victorian-era romance, after all!

I'll check back in a few days and blog about the conference, and my upcoming journey back to China!