At DABWAHA for a bit

Those of you who have been following my DA BWAHA saga know that I rather surprisingly slunk into the back row of the competition.  I've managed to survive one bout and have now come up against the redoubtable Courtney Milan.  In particular, her excellent Trial By Desire.

More below the cut:

My Romance Trading Cards

My Romance Trading Cards -- here.  I'll be handing these out at the RT Convention and at RWA National.  I don't know which one is going to be more popular -- the realistic or the manga style.

ETA:  I wanted to do one for my Adrian, but I haven't really got my act together for this yet, so I won't be handing out an Adrian trading card at RT.  I tried out a manga version -- no dice on this so far.  I don't have enough dpis or something on my anime picture. 

I will give this some more thought in April.
 

More Reader Favs from DABWAHA

And here's a long list of reader favs that didn't make it into DA BWAHA.  Readers really liked these.

Are you looking for great 2010 books in all the many fields and aspects of Romance?  Find them there.  I've added 20 of the 80 to my yearly Da BWAHA book-pimping post which is here.

Writers and Cats

My cat, (and me,) making a guest appearance in today's blog post at 'Isn't it Romanctic?'

I'm about halfway down the page, my cat appearing with the cats of such greats as Mary Jo Putney, Anne Stuart and Theresa Meideros.

We meet Hemingway's cat.  There's also a beautiful screen shot from Breakfast at Tiffany's. 

I do not know what it is about writers and cats. They just seem to go together.
Is it because cats are graceful and restful? Because they are quiet and do not disturb the writer while she is working? Or is it that they seem to expect so much from us? I don't dare stop working early when I'm under my cat's eye.
. . . 





For the rest . . . see here.  I'm way down the page . . . and . . . ok . . . it's in Italian mostly.  But the cats are fascinating.

How far the Candle

I'm over at Word Wenches today, talking about light, and how folks avoided being the thing that went bump in the night and banged its shins in 1800 or so.

"How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world."  William Shakespeare

For the most part, people took the low tech approach.  Daily life followed the sun.  Country folk got up with the chickens, not just because the chickens were making an almighty determined racket, but because there was a day of work to get to.  Every hour the family stayed awake past sunset cost money.

They made good use of the daylight while they had it.  The well-to-do had tall  windows in their houses, the better to invite the sunlight inside.  Even the stables had windows. If you want to shell peas or sew some fine embroidery, you took it to the window seat or went out to sit on the doorstep of the cottage.  The hero is apt to find the heroine reading a letter on the garden bench because that's where there light was good.

"When Thomas Edison worked late into the night on the electric light, he had to do it by gas lamp or candle. I'm sure it made the work seem that much more urgent. "
George Carlin

 The rest at WordWenches here.

I'm In DA BWAHA

I saw in Sonomalass's Blog this morning that I'm in DA BWAHA.  Here.

This is wonderful and very exciting, and also worrisome, because there is nothing I cannot look at -- all eight sides, six in the physical dimensions and two in time -- and obsess over. 

So I am surprised and pleased and delighted because I thought I wasn't in, but now it turns out I am after all. 
Life is not so much good or bad, but more along the lines of weird.


My post with this year's DA BWAHA book pimping is here.


Who else is newly in?
These are the ones I know a bit about:


All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins  (She is so good.)

Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews  (I.A. is now competing against herself.  Magic Bleeds versus Bayou Moon.)

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins  (Yes!  I mean, like, somebody is surprised . . .?)

Storming the Castle by Eloisa James (I haven't yet read this one, but I love her writing.)

My stones . . . Let me show you them

I'm making comment over at Word Wenches (here) about stones in general -- and standing stones in particular.  So I will celebrate some stones I am particularly fond of.

These two pictures show a couple of the few dozen large rocks I have transported one by one to my house so I can enjoy them. 

I walk by my rocks and get all joyful because they are so whole and solid and perfect.

I am actually pretty easy to please.

 

DA BWAHA Finalists

This is book pimping here.

The DA BWAHA is a yearly contest where Romance and quasi-Romance books slug it out for world domination.
For information on the contest and how to play (vote) see here.

This post here below is me reminding everybody of some wonderful books that came out in 2010.

I've listed 15 of the 64 DA BWAHA books.  Most of them I've had the opportunity to read and like.
There's also some that are on my TBR shelf that I haven't got around to reading yet.


I'm saying -- "Hey, go take a look."
Because the DA BWAHA always has great books.

(Click on the book to go to the book.  Click on the author to go to author website.)


Cold Magic by Kate Elliott
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn
Naked Edge, Pamela Clare
Something About You by Julia James
The Time Weaver by Shana Abe
Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews
Iron Duke by Meljean Brook
Archangel’s Kiss by Nalini Singh
Last Night’s Scandal by Loretta Chase
The Summer of You by Kate Noble
Trial by Desire by Courtney Milan
His at Night by Sherry Thomas
Wicked Becomes You by Meredith Duran
Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn

And, as long as I'm here,
let me add a couple few books that didn't get picked up by DA BWAHA.
These are some of the just Great Reads of 2010.
Some of them are just beautiful.   

Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage by Jennifer Ashley
The Accidental Wedding by Anne Gracie
Whisper of Scandal by Nicola Cornick
Barely a Lady by Eileen Dreyer
Blameless by Gail Carriger
In Too Deep by Jayne Ann Krentz w/a Amanda Quick
Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas
A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh
Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin
Queen Hereafter by Susan Fraser King
In for a Penny by Rose Lerner
Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn
Lessons in French by Laura Kinsale
The Golden Season by Connie Brockway
Sinful in Satin by Madeline Hunter
Promises in Death by Nora Roberts w/a JD Robb (ok.  ok. It's from 2009.  So sue me.)
The Wicked Wyckerly by Patricia Rice
Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie
Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt
Marry Me by Jo Goodman
Three Nights with a Scoundrel by Tessa Dare


ETA:

Now I am going to add some few selected more books.  Maybe like twenty.  These are reader favs.  These books competed for the 'empty slot' the DA BWAHA folks left as the 8th book in each category. 

I've listed the ones I know a bit about and like. If I already mentioned them, I don't repeat.

YA
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Finalist)
Matched by Ally Condie
The Duff by Kody Keplinger
Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly


PNR/SF
Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews (Finalist)
Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs
Warrior by Zoe Archer
Play of Passion by Nalini Singh
 

Crossover
City of Ghosts by Stacia Kane
All Clear by Connie Willis



Contemporary
All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins (Finalist)
The Search by Nora Roberts
Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas

Historical
Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean
The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig
Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas  
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig
The Heir by Grace Burrowes
A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James




For the whole shebang of 80 reader nominees -- go here.  It's an interesting list.

If there's a book on the DA BWAHA list or some other 2010 book I've missed, let me know.

The backbone of a query letter

Talking query letters,
which is one of the all-time horrible tasks in a writer's life.

Once you get past the, "this is why I am drawn to you as an agent," moment,
and the, "title, genre, length," moment,
you are likely to get to the "what is the story, anyway," moment.



There are two ways to go on from there.  Two organizational styles, if you will.



1.  You can relate the story.

Gordon and his squire rode into the tugley wood till they came to a mysterious hut beside a crystal lake.  The wizard who lived there gave Gordon a magic ring and the words of a prophesy.  "You will find what you seek in the mouth that does not close, behind the door that does not open."  Gordon continued into the wilderness till he encountered some bandits who took him captive and . . .

and so on and so on.

The agent may or may not find this useful.


2.  There's another way to approach the query.

This is not so much telling the story, as answering questions about the story.
We will choose questions of breathless interest to the agent.

This second sort of query is logically organized as 'question answering' --
an organization that may not be the way stuff happens chronologically in your story.

So.  What questions?



What kind of story do you have?

Heat of the Blood is a paranormal thriller
Running with the Bulls is a Suspense novel
Bump and Grind is Contemporary Romantic Comedy 
 
[with strong Romantic elements/with a mystery subplot/set against a backdrop of the California cult scene . . . or whatever is different about this story.]


Who is the protagonist?
What is her problem?

Kemp Trey is a paranormal investigator out to prove his best friend was murdered by demons.
Jenny Binn, Las Vegas cocktail waitress, is on the run from the mob. 
Bumper Grind, porn queen, is determined to marry the Reverend Goodman.


What is the setting and atmosphere of the story?

in the dripping alleys of . . .
under the deadly sun of . . .
and heads for the sleepy hamlet of Righteous Valley.


What does she do about her problem? 

Trey must penetrate the paranormal underworld to . . .   
Jenny heads for the Rocky Mountain cabin that had belonged to her grandmother, planning to . . .    
Bumper redyes her hair mousy brown, changes her name to . . . 

We are not looking at all kinds of actions.
Only action that deals directly with the central problem of the story.

(We know what the central problem is because those actions are going to solve it, which is kind of circular, isn't it?)

What or who is the major antagonist?

and mets the goblin king who ordered the hit on his partner.
. . . the crooked lawyer who . . .
Reverend Goodman's spinster sister, Maude, is skeptical of . . .


We can spot the major antagonist because this is what the protagonist faces at the turning point or climax of the story.


What are the stakes?

may lose not only his life, but his soul.
accused of a murder she did not commit.
the one man she could ever love.

Heat of the Blood is a paranormal thriller set in an alternate near future.  Kemp Trey, paranormal investigator, is out to prove his best friend was murdered by demons.  He must penetrate the dripping, demon-infested alleys of the New Orleans French Quarter to face the goblin king who ordered the hit.  One wrong move and Trey may lose not only his life, but his soul.

The question-answer query doesn't try to cover plot events unless they speak to the specific 'agent questions'.

Just general writing advice

Someone asked --"How do I make myself write?  How do I get writing again?"


First off -- congratulations.  You're way ahead of most folks who want to write.  You're doing it instead of talking about it.


Let me offer a few random pieces of advice.

-- Follow a writing routine.  Same time.  Same place. 

Put your butt in the chair.
Write every day.

Treat writing as a job.  You don't complain that you can't do the accounts today or you don't feel like teaching sixth grade this morning.
Write as if you were working for somebody else. 



-- The edges of sleep are strong writing times. 

Keep your computer set up and ready to go in a quiet place.  If you have ideas when you're falling asleep, get out of bed and go type them.

Write early.  Get up in the morning and head directly to the computer and work. 
Eat later.  Shower later.  Walk the dog later.  Don't talk to anyone.  Hold onto the dream state as long as you can.

If this works for you at all . . . give the first hour of the morning to your writing.

-- Write in little corners of time.  Keep a laptop with you, or a notebook and pen.   Write while you're eating lunch.  While you're waiting for the kid to finish dance class.  On the flight to L.A.

-- Write even when you're writing crap. 
Write bad stuff.  Just write something.
Nora Roberts said, "I can fix anything but a blank page."
Fill up the page and edit it later.  Just get something down.

-- Treat your writing as serious work.  It's not a hobby. 
It is more important to write than to have a clean kitchen floor.  You can send out for pizza.

-- Trust yourself.  There's endless creativity inside you.  If you lose an idea, it returns to the sea of your unconscious.  It will emerge again, that or something better.

And

AAR WIN for Best Non-UK Romance

I am so very delighted, so honored, and . . . may I say  . . .  surprised and knocked off my feet and spit-drying-in-my-mouth excited, that Forbidden Rose won one of AAR's categories.

See all the winners here.

Forbidden Rose, winning 'Best Romance not set in the UK'.


This is what I say:

Thank you very, very much. I am honored beyond words that folks nominated Forbidden Rose.

This book was hard for me to write.  I'd already pictured my hero and heroine as a happily married couple. I had to delve back into the past and imagine them much younger. See them at the moment they met. There was this also - their love story was set in a grim era of history. I wasn't sure anyone would want to join me in an adventure there.

Thank you so much for followin my Doyle and Maggie back into their dark and dangerous past. I am so delighted you liked the book.


I take this and I hug it close.  Because this is isn't just one reviewer saying she liked it.  This is READERS saying they liked it.

Since Readers were cool enough to say they liked the book, let me list the other cool books that won accolades.  There is just nobody on this list that isn't worth tracking down and reading if you haven't already.

We haz links.  Click on the author name to find out more about the book and buy it.


 

Best Romance of 2010  

Last Night's Scandal by Loretta Chase

Honorable Mentions for Best Romance

The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne

The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook

Best Historical Romance Set in the UK

Last Night's Scandal by Loretta Chase

Best Historical Romance Not Set in the UK

The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne

Best Paranormal
The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook

Best Contemporary Romance

Something About You by Julie James

Best Short Story
Here There Be Monsters (from the anthology Burning Up) by Meljean Brook

Best Romantic Suspense 
Naked Edge by Pamela Clare

Favorite Funny

Ten Things I Love About You by Julia Quinn

Biggest Tearjerker
Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas

Best Chick Lit/Women's Fiction

All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgans
The Bikini Car Wash by Pamela Morsi

Best Series Romance

Marrying the Royal Marine by Carla Kelly

Most Kickass Heroine

Elena Deveraux, in Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Best Romance Heroine

Olivia Wingate-Carsington in Last Night's Scandal by Loretta Chase

Honorable Mentions for Best Romance Heroine

Margeurite de Fleurignac in The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne
Beatrix Hathaway in Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas

Best Romance Hero 

Leo Hathaway in Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas

Best Romance Couple

Olivia Wingate-Carsington and Peregrine Dalmay in Last Night's Scandal by Loretta Chase

Best New Author of 2010

Rose Lerner

Best Love Scenes   
Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt

Best Romantica

Patience by Lisa Valdez

Black Hawk -- the Excerpt

In celebration of February 19th, (why should one not celebrate February 19th, eh?) and because the excellent Annie asked -- here is a short excerpt from Black Hawk.

Black Hawk won't be published till November.  We will hope this excerpt does not make that seem too soon.

***

Justine had told the boy to meet her at the guillotine.  It was not because she was blood-thirsty--indeed, she was not--but because they would be inconspicuous here.

She was dressed as a housemaid today, in honest blue serge, white apron, and a plain fichu.  She became indistinguishable as the tenth ant in a line of ants.  She held her basket to her chest and leaned on the wall that marked the boundary between La Place de la Révolution and the Tuileries Garden. 

She was too young to pretend to the august status of lady's maid.  A thirteen-year-old must be a housemaid, no more than that.  But a housemaid was exactly what a respectable woman would take with her when she went to an assignation in the Tuileries Garden.  A housemaid could be left in a corner of La Place de la Révolution, bored and resigned, while her mistress played fast and loose with her marriage vows. 

To play this part realistically, she assumed her appropriate expression of bored and resigned.  She waited.  Hawker would find her easily.  She was still when everyone else was in motion.  Nothing is more apparent to the eye.

This was a good spot for enemy spies to meet.  From a hundred yards away Hawker could look across the Place de la Révolution and assure himself she was quite alone.  The chattering stream of humanity that flowed through the square would allow him concealment as he approached.  Beyond, to her right, the tight, milling confusion of the arcade and shops of the Rue de Rivoli offered a dozen paths of escape.  Her good intentions would be clear, even to an English spy of limited experience.

Or perhaps not.  She would not trust herself if she were an English spy. 

DABWAHA

Smart Bitches kicks off the 2011 DABWAHA event, here.

Nominate your favorite book.  The entry form for nominations is online.


For instance . . . you might have liked some of these:


The Accidental Wedding by Anne Gracie, ISBN  0425233820

The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, ISBN 0316043966

Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin, ISBN 0373296142

Changeless by Gail Carriger, ISBN 0316074144

Forbidden Rose  by me, ISBN 0425235610

Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie, ISBN 0312303785

Spider's Bite by Jennifer Estep, ISBN 1439147973

The Wicked Wyckerly by Pat Rice, ISBN 045123071X

Sequels . . . Love 'em or Hate 'em

Over at Word Wenches, seven Romance authors discuss how and why they write sequels.  

My contribution:

What's written in the pages of any book is only part of the whole story.  There's worlds of delving and spinning, working and loving going on outside the scenes that land in Chapters One to Thirty-two.  I think we all feel these stories buzzing and nudging at the edges of books, begging to be told. 

And onward over here.

He loves her. Let me count the whys.

In celebration of Valentine's Day . . .

Let us consider the delightful question of why the hero loves the heroine.

Let me count the whys . . .








 
1. -- Because of her strengths.

Why did the author write about this woman?
Why did the writer decide to spend a couple months inside the heroine's head?

Because the heroine is smart and funny, or strong, honest and kindly, or courageous and resourceful.  Whatever she is . . . she has wonderful qualities.

Lasting love arises from an appreciation of the beloved's strengths and virtues. What the reader sees in our heroine, however deeply buried, the hero is going to see.

He loves her for being wonderful.

2. -- Because of her weaknesses.

Love is not only based upon what we want from the beloved, but also upon what we can give.
Nobody wants to live their whole life with somebody who doesn't need them.

If our heroine can't cope with large social functions or can't cook or is scared of lightning, the hero loves her because he can guide her through the intricacies of a formal dinner, or cook her a tarte tatin, or hold her during thunderstorms.

He loves her for what he can give her.


3. -- Because she has something he needs.

The hero needs something. Everybody does.
Validation of his beliefs. Healing for some past trauma. A challenge that excites him. Guidance. Inspiration. An audience. A safe harbor in a chaotic world.

He loves the heroine for what she can give him.



  4. -- Because together they do what neither can do alone.

The two are greater than the sum of their parts.
They become a gestalt.
What is added to the mix when these two join hands?

Do they become Gilbert and Sullivan? Spies working together? The heads of a Nineteenth Century mercantile empire? Nick and Nora Charles solving crime?

He loves her because she is the other half of his team.

5. -- Because it is natural for him to love.

The Romance hero has a great capacity to love.  He's not afraid to be a lover.  Not ashamed to be a friend.

Heroes may express their love in a thousand different ways, but the heroic quality of these men springs from a heart that knows how to love.


 
And y'know what. 
These are the same reasons the heroine loves the hero.

Technical Topics -- The Final Edits

Someone asked:  HOW can you tell if edits you made on work you let sit for a while are good?
I'm having A LOT of trouble with this.





 Couple o' thoughts.

It seems to me the last work on the manuscript falls into three stages:

Rewriting
Final polish edit
Specific fixes.

It is good to know which stage are you actually in.

-- Are you committed to the major plot points? Do you feel the events make sense and they're in the right order and you are not going to fiddle with big story stuff any more?

Until you declare the plot pretty much fixed, you are still in the 'rewriting' stage, not the editing stage.

In 'rewriting' you're still dreaming up story. Your eyes are all unfocused and you get surprised by new stuff you come up with. You're not analyzing. You are still creating.

I'd say to finish this creative stage, if you can, before you start your last edits. It is frustrating to spend Tuesday nitty-grittying away at Chapter Twelve, then toss it out on Wednesday or change the POV or something.



 -- The true 'final edit' process is a trip through the entire manuscript, reading out loud, fixing infelicities of language, character incongruities, plot glitches and pacing.
The final edit is going over the manuscript with a magnifying glass. it is inherently detailed, small-scale process work. The approach is starkly analytic. It works best if it proceeds as one fast, continuous run through.



-- During both rewrite and final edit, you may concentrate on specific problems. That is, you may go into the manuscript with a defined and limited goal.

This might be something your beta readers brought to your attention.  Might be something your editor wants worked on.

You want to "expand the protagonist's internals," or "add more description," or "clarify how the suspense plot works."

In 'fix-it' mode, you skip forward and back, following that one thread of the story wherever it may crop up.

This limited-goal approach is tremendously useful. You look at changes in terms of what they accomplish for the story as a whole. You can ask yourself whether an edit expands the character POV or clarifies a story point instead of a nebulous 'is this better?'.



As a purely housekeeping note,
it's best to keep both old and new version. Come back in a day or two and compare them.

You can keep the old version in another document, or you can keep it in the major working document by putting it in brackets or a different font or color.

Secrets from the Underbelly of Paris

 
It's 1800 or so. 
There you are, sitting in a café in Paris, relaxing, wearing something Parisian with great éclat and style. 
Unless you are feeling deeply philosophical it's unlikely you wonder about what secrets lie hidden beneath your feet.   

"All secrets are deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets." 
Cory Doctorow

It is not solid earth down there. 

See the rest  at Word Wenches here

Sign up for the AAR Annual Reader's Poll -- Best of 2010

All About Romance is holding its Fifteenth Annual Readers Poll for Best Books of the Year.

When do they meet?

Someone asked:  In a Romance, how long can you wait before the hero and heroine meet?


All else being equal,  [(all else) = (=)]  in genre Romance, you put the protagonists together in Scene One or Scene Two.
This is because the story is about the relationship between the H&H
and you want to get the story started.

Now, sometimes you can introduce that relationship without putting the H&H onstage at the same time. Books might start with letters exchanged or one protagonist neckdeep in dealing with problems related to the other.  In such stories the H&H do not 'meet', but they do have a relationship,
and that relationship is put onstage.

Or, look at the question the other way round --

What is more important in those early chapters than the relationship story? If you decide not to put the H&H together . . . are you instead frontloading backstory, worldbuilding, or suspense subplot.  Consider whether those would be better fed in later as backdrop to your main line of story.

When traditional wisdom says, 'the H&H should meet in the first or second scene,' what C.W. is saying is, "Stop putzing about and Get The Story Started.'
That is good advice in any genre.

Technical Topics -- Five Pointers on Openings

Someone asked:
What should I do?  I'm sixteen.  All my openings are lame.


Whether you start writing at sixteen or sixty, the mantra is:  The first million words are for practice.

You are not unique in having trouble with openings.  It is technically difficult to write the start of a story.

The very first page of a book has to strong-arm the reader away from the checkout line at the drugstore or the kitchen table at home over a bowl of oatmeal
and into your story.

You have to make the reader care about the character before she knows much about him.
Grabbing the reader is never about something the reader knows.  It's always about how she feels.

But -- talking information here -- you also got to get across where everybody is and why,
and what it looks like,
and what's gone on,
and what just happened,
so the reader doesn't feel all-at-sea.

That's just in the first couple paragraphs.

So beginnings tend to give a writer the pip.
Even if she is not 16.

General advice
(and what is an army of suggestions without a general?)

1)  Hit the ground running.

This is sometimes expressed as 'start in the middle of action'.
But what it boils down to is -- something interesting is going on.

Not so much, Grandpa lost the ranch fifty years ago.
And more, signing the mortgage that buys the ranch at great financial risk.


Not so much, the airport and talking about take-off and checking through baggage.
But more, the protagonist, 30,000 feet over Cleveland, noticing that the cabin crew are all giant penguins.
With teeth.


2) Reveal character.

Many people believe, (well, I do,) that stories grow out of character.

So one purpose of the first scene is to reveal character.  We disclose the inner heart of our protagonist with action.

So, not so much folks explaining the protag's problems.
And more, noting that our heroine is up to her knees in dragon guts and wiping the ichor off her blade and shuddering  but even so she steps over the still-twitching dragon and heads inside the cave.

3)  Something is about to happen.

It's not just that Penelope has slain a large reptile.  It's what awaits her in the cave. 


It's not that Mary stands in the lunchline, swiping change from the backpack in front of her.  It's Gregory, turning around, catching her with her hand on his wallet.

Why?

4)  Leave questions.

Don't tell the reader all the 'why'.
Make the reader ask . . .  'why'?


5)  Keep it short

Here, if ever, be concise.  Stick to the point.  The reader will forgive discursion later, when she is immersed in the story.  Not on page one and two.