Orlando.

Not the Spanish knight, nor the composer, the football player or the actor, Orlando Bloom. The fascinating gender-bending character of literature appeals to me, and there is always Shakespeare’s Orlando. But no. The Orlando I’m writing about is a place in Florida. A few square miles of everglade known as the Magic Kingdom, location of this year’s RWA National Conference. I wasn’t planning on attending this year. I was planning on going to the nationals next year, in NYC. Then my manuscript made the finals in the Golden Heart.

Now, on the eve of my plane flight, I feel like one of those reluctant characters in an adventure novel who has been propelled into a perilous, but exciting adventure against her will. And due to a last minute change in venue, the national’s location is now in Orlando, so I must be a reluctant princess in a Disney animated feature––in 3-D no less.

So, I am off for a week of workshops, pitching and partying. I look forward to the workshops, dread the pitches and plan to have fun at all the cocktail parties/desert receptions and the awards dinner.

Wish me luck.  I’m sure I’ll have lots to blog about for weeks to come.

G. Jillian Stone

There are fields in time that burn with desire. Meet me there.

Jillian is a recent Golden Heart finalist for THE YARD MAN, the first story in The Yard Men Series. Set in late Victorian London, Scotland Yard detectives have never been as wickedly sexy or as brilliantly clever. To read more about her latest work in progress, THE SEDUCTION OF PHAETON BLACK, please drop by her website: www.gjillianstone.com jillstone@mac.com

Messing with Concepts

I’m having a lot of fun with my current WIP, which is a gay male romance (so if you’re not into that or are offended by it, please skip this blog entry).

The main character, Kyle, is smart, funny, sarcastic, and very used to being in charge of his own life. And often in charge in bed, though not in a Dom way, just in an assertive way. He’s also used to being vegan and human, both of which take a hit when he’s bitten by a werewolf who turns out to be one of his neighbors, and becomes a shifter himself.

His love interest, Tobias, is the Alpha of the local pack. A pack which seems to contain almost all of Kyle’s neighbors. Alpha wolves are supposed to be dominant, always in charge, always in control. Tobias hasn’t been an Alpha for a very long time, but he’s been a werewolf since age fifteen and has always been recognized as dominant by the wolves around him.

So one would think that as Kyle and Tobias’s relationship develops, Tobias would be the stronger partner and would control things to a degree, especially in bed.

Except it doesn’t work that way.

I tried to write it that way. I’ve read plenty of novels involving werewolves, and they’re all pretty much in agreement that the Alpha is supposed to be dominant. An exponential version of the Alpha male authors often use as heroes in romance novels, which now that I think about it may be why shifters, and werewolves especially, have become so popular.

The thing is, in my novel, Tobias doesn’t really want to be dominant. It’s his personality and there isn’t anything he can do to change it. He’s the pack Alpha, which includes certain responsibilities to himself and the pack that he can’t just walk away from. Nor would he want to, because he genuinely cares about his pack and doesn’t want to hang them out to dry.

But when he was a child, he had to help take care of his sisters, one of whom was disabled. He had to mediate his parents’ arguments. He was only fifteen when he became a werewolf, and immediately began rising through the pack hierarchy. He’s tired, and what he wants most in the world is someone else to step in and take care of things–and him–for a while.

Which Kyle does. Kyle is the only wolf in the pack who isn’t bound by some kind of magic to follow Tobias’s orders. He does what Tobias says because he knows if he doesn’t, all other wolves will see it as weakness on Tobias’s part, and Tobias might be challenged for control of the pack. Kyle hates doing what he’s told, but he chooses to for Tobias’s sake.

And when the two of them are alone together, Kyle is the one who’s in charge. Tobias finally gets to rest from always being the Alpha.

I have to say I’m having a lot of fun with these two characters. I’m hoping to finish the rough draft of their story today, and then I’ll be polishing it up and sending it off to seek a good home. If Kyle has his way, it will find one.

I’VE GOT MAIL. FROM COUSIN DICK.

Every morning, still in pajamas, with coffee mug in hand, I wake up my computer to check e-mail. This is always a thrill, as New York is three hours ahead, and I have query letters out. I ready my index finger above the delete key, punch through a number of advertisements––and yes, I admit, I often trash my own cousin Dick’s daily e-greetings, without opening them.

Dickey likes to send/forward chain e-mail greetings to everyone in his universe of cyber friends. I’m sure you have received one of these. They often have cartoon drawings in them or funny jokes. Dick makes sure I know they are funny because he tells me so at the start of every e-mail by using a little animated emoticon. Sometimes these chain letters are made up of fantasy billboards or bumper stickers, which often involve Viagra jokes and loads of cornball sexual innuendo, or they can be political and offensive in nature––you know the ones. Anyway, these e-greetings circulate all over the internet. I hesitate to use the word viral, because I refuse to forward any of them……..except…….for this one e-greeting I happened to open and read the other day.

This one actually had some relevance to my daily writerly workload. When the e-mail came, I had received two requests for a new manuscript, one from a contest judge and one from a QL, which caused a week of furious edits/rewrites. Arrrgggh!!! Generally, one of the last things I do, is take a look at how I have used the senses––sound, sight, smell, taste, touch. Which brings me back around to the humorous (?) e-mail of the day. In a way, this odd little piece of prose reinforced the importance of using all the senses. Here is the unedited, (dreadful amount of tell) unexpurgated version, compliments of my cousin Dick:

A new Supermarket opened in Elk Grove, California. It has an automatic water mister to keep the produce fresh. Just before it goes on, you hear the distant sound of thunder and the smell of fresh rain.

When you pass the milk cases, you hear cows mooing and you experience the scent of fresh cut hay.

In the meat department there is the aroma of charcoal grilled steaks and brauts.

In the liquor department, the fresh, clean, crisp smell of tapped Miller Lite.

When you approach the egg case, you hear hens cluck and cackle and the air is filled with the pleasing aroma of bacon and eggs frying.

The bakery department features the tantalizing smell of fresh baked bread & cookies.

I don’t buy toilet paper there anymore.

Choosing a Genre

Monday night, I was interviewed on the Other Worlds of Romance blog talk radio show. Host Linda Mooney asked me if there was any genre I flat out wouldn’t write.

I told her I probably wouldn’t write science fiction, first of all because I’m not confident that I’d get the science part right, and second of all because my mother used to try to force feed me hard core science fiction novels, and so I developed an aversion to them in general. (Much to hubby’s displeasure, because that’s his favorite genre and he keeps trying to recommend books that I refuse to read.)

Linda’s question got me thinking, though, and I realized that when I sit down to write a story, I don’t really think, “Oh, I’m going to write a contemporary” or a paranormal or a menage or whatever. I have the characters in my mind, hopefully, and a general idea of the plot, and I just start writing. It’s rare for me to decide to write something based on a specific submission call or because I’ve been asked to, so I don’t have to stick to genre restrictions for those reasons.

I just write.

Which leads me to wonder whether I’m weird that way. I know that some authors do much more intensive plotting and planning before they write than I do, but do they decide in advance what genre they’re going to write? I’d guess that with historicals, it’s pretty vital to know you’re going to write one because of the amount of research necessary. Probably the same with fantasy and science fiction, because of the world building, though I’d argue that a certain amount of world building is necessary no matter what you write. Even in a contemporary, you have to set the scene and make the characters and the setting believable.

That’s another topic, though… As usual, I’m derailing my own train of thought here.

I set out once to write a paranormal romance novel about a demon who falls in love with the human she’s supposed to destroy. I had a lot of fun writing the character, and I think my world building was pretty solid. (We’ll see what the publisher I’ve submitted it to thinks…) The secondary characters are pretty well-done, and I really like the love interest.

The problem was, it wasn’t a romance. She didn’t even meet the human until chapter three or four, and they absolutely refused to kiss until chapter nine or ten. And nothing happened beyond a few kisses. Which meant I had to reconsider the genre of the thing. Paranormal, definitely. Romance, no. And since I didn’t feel like going back and adding in romance and kissing and sex to make it fit the romance requirements, I submitted it as a just-plain paranormal.

Has that ever happened to anyone else? You set out to write a novel in a specific genre and the characters just won’t cooperate? I hope I’m not the only one… otherwise, we’ll know I’m weird.

I’d be interested to hear from other authors here. When you sit down to start a new WIP, do you decide what genre you’re going to write, or do you just decide on the story? Readers–do you prefer a specific genre, or is it okay with you if the lines blur a bit?

MIA

Sorry for my absense lately. I’ve had a lot going on in my life and unfortunately it’s kept me away from some of my duties. Hopefully things will settle down soon and then I can get back to my schedule, but until then, you may not see a lot of posts from me.

You’ve got a brand profile and tagline. Now what?

One of the fastest and least expensive ways to launch your brand is through social networking. And what might be the best way to do that? Website? Blog? Facebook? Twitter? Can a writer do all that promotion and still have time to write? Time management is a huge concern and rightly so. Every writer has mixed feelings about how much time marketing and promotion takes away from their writing.

Might I suggest you start with baby steps? And only commit to what you can reasonably manage and feel comfortable doing.

Twitter is like a teeny-tiny blog. You get 140 characters (not words) to message your Twitter followers. Great way to announce news and drive traffic to a guest blog or website contest. I was recently told about a writer who only Twitters. That’s it. She finds it easy to bang out a few brief messages every day and stay on schedule. She is contracted to write three books by year’s end. Who wouldn’t choose Twitter?

Published or unpublished, you must consider your website launch a priority. An author website communicates to everyone in the publishing world that you are serious about the business of author/book promotion. If this is your first website, and you are not confident about creating one on your own, there are web development firms that specialize in web design and implementation for small businesses. Many of these companies have hundreds of attractive templates to choose/customize from. And do call in all your favors! Like, do not be afraid to ask for help from a tech-savvy friend or graphic designer relative.

Once your author website is up and running smoothly, you can add a blog. A weekly blog is less of a commitment, but a daily journal/blog is brief and can also be stress free. And if you find you have nothing to blog about, you can always plug in a vacation picture, video of your cat, or a new recipe! Don’t want to blog alone? A blog site concept created with a crit partner or critique group might be exactly right for you. Plus, whatever you blog can be linked to your website.

If the idea of a website or blog commitment is just too daunting, why not ease into your author brand promotion with a Facebook page? It’s a terrific way to network with other writers and romance readers. You can add fan pages and blog links later on. You can also use the tabs in Facebook to post reviews, add book cover art or trailers, and make announcements about signings and workshops.

Website? Blog? Facebook? Twitter? I would pick one or two and then add more, only if you feel like you can handle more. COMING NEXT WEEK: Advanced work in advertising promotion and the importance of testing.

G. Jillian Stone

There are fields in time that burn with desire. Meet me there.

Jillian is a 2010 Golden Heart finalist for THE YARD MAN, the first story in The Yard Men Series. Set in late Victorian London, Scotland Yard detectives have never been as wickedly sexy or as brilliantly clever. To read more about her latest work in progress, THE SEDUCTION OF PHAETON BLACK, please drop by her website: www.gjillianstone.com jillstone@mac.com

I’ve got all these words in my head that are just screaming to get out. Some are descriptive, emotional, sensual, horrifying, loving. I know you understand what I mean. For us, my dear writer, they are the heart and soul of our work.

There are the types of words we scrutinize: adjectives and adverbs. We search them out and agonize over having too many or too few. We edit, re-write and edit some more. We don’t stop there. We hunt out clichés and overused phrases ripping them out of the pages. And all the while we struggle for originality and that magic that hooks the reader and draws them into our stories. We work until our manuscripts shine with a high polish.

The readers are the witness, the hero or heroine, or whomever they prefer to identify with. It’s the juxtaposition of our words that create the pacing, paints the pictures, strikes the chord, arouses emotions and, for us romance writers, brings the story to a happy ending.

Some words we are eager to hear: the call, published, multi-published, reprint, best seller, finalist, award winning. But I’m getting ahead of myself. More often the words are strung a bit differently: I think the concept of your novel has a lot of potential …, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read your manuscript …, Thank you very much for your manuscript which I have read with interest …, I think you have a wonderful voice … The ellipse is followed by the same word but. Different words but all with the same meaning, rejected, although I really prefer passed. It is just so much more humane.

I have worked hard on my manuscript. I am well passed my first draft. I have self reviewed and edited, my critique partner has reviewed and commented, at chapter meetings I have brought my five to ten pages for discussion. The version number on my document is in double digits. I know I have the words just right. I just need an editor/agent to love them as much as I do.

Sure I can. I can love them anyway you want them!

Special thanks to David Coverly for permission to reprint his cartoon.

Dave Coverly admits there is no overriding theme, no tidy little philosophy that precisely describes what Speed Bump, his syndicated comic, is about. “Basically,” he says, “if life were a movie, these would be the outtakes.”

These “outtakes” now appear in over 400 newspapers and websites, including the Washington Post, Toronto Globe & Mail, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cincinnati Enquirer, New Orleans Times-Picayune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Vancouver Sun, Baltimore Sun, and Arizona Republic as well as the published “Speed Bump” books.

In addition to his syndicated work, Coverly’s cartoons have been published in The New Yorker, and his cartoons are now regularly featured in Parade Magazine, the most widely read magazine in the world with a circulation of 73 million.

Coverly works out of an attic studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is married to Chris, and they have two daughters, Alayna and Simone.

Speedbumpcomic@comcast.net

Ruth Seitelman

My New Release!

First of all, I apologize for missing my spot last week. It was my birthday, I turned 40, and my brain kinda turned to mush for a day or so.

This week, I’m thrilled to announce the release of my new novel Eternal Love, which has just become available from Pink Petal Books. For over 900 years, immortal Rhys Trevellian has been in love with the same soul, which once resided in the body of his childhood love Gwen. In seven subsequent lifetimes, she’s returned to Rhys’s life, only to be murdered by fanatic immortals who want to prevent Rhys from transmuting Gwen to immortality. Now, he has found her yet again, living in a small Maine town and hiding from her abusive ex-fiance. As Gwen Davies learns to trust Rhys and accept the truth about him and her previous lives with him, the two must run to hide from the fanatics and from the immortal authorities, who seek to execute Rhys for murder.

A short excerpt: 
He deserved happiness now. They both did. If only he could persuade her to accompany him out of town before the others arrived to separate them once again.

Thunder boomed again, and a flash of lightning illuminated the room. Control yourself. The stern thought pulled Rhys back to his reason for following Gwen when she’d run from him. If he became too intense about convincing her of the truth, she would only run again.

He wanted her to run with him, not from him. He settled on the worn couch to wait for her to return.

After a few minutes, with damp, tousled hair and wearing an oversized T-shirt and baggy shorts, Gwen opened the bedroom door. She hesitated a long moment before she quietly said, “Please excuse the way I’m dressed. I want to be comfortable.”

“It’s fine,” he assured her. He patted the cushion beside him. Instead of approaching the couch, she went to the picture window which overlooked the lake and watched the storm.

Rhys hesitated. “About the kiss—”

 “I don’t want to talk about it. You don’t understand what it meant.” She drew the curtain across the window, keeping her back to him. “You didn’t have to come out in this just to bring me the book. It isn’t that important.”

“I gave it to you as a gift, and that made it important to me,” Rhys said firmly. “The storm doesn’t concern me. And you know the book isn’t the only reason I’m here.”

She peeked through the curtain. “Yeah. You’re only staying till the storm’s over, though.”

He inclined his head. “Thank you.” It went against his better judgment to stay alone with her too long. The desire the kiss had kindled burned at full flame at the sight of her, and he didn’t know how long he could resist it. With time, he would control his lust for her. Right now, his body remembered hers against it when they kissed and wanted more. His heart begged him to make love to her so she would be transmuted and would remain with him forever.

With Gwen, centuries of learned self-control had flown straight out the window. Of course, he would never do anything against her will. However, if they remained here in this cottage much longer, his wanting would change to persuading and seducing.

They had no time for lovemaking now, as much as he wished it. He didn’t know how much longer they had before the Purists arrived.

The lights flickered and went out. Almost immediately a spark appeared, and Gwen lit the candles on the mantel. “I expected that,” she explained. “My uncle told me the power here goes out with just a breath of wind.” She paused, and finally turned to look at him, though her eyes didn’t meet his. “I…I’m glad you’re here. I think this storm would scare me if I was alone.”

The admission touched him. He could imagine how hard she found it to admit to needing someone. He kept his tone light as he replied, “Then I’m glad I came. I don’t scare you?”

“Something about you does,” she admitted. “I don’t think you’d hurt me, though. That isn’t what scares me about you.”

“I’d never hurt you,” he vowed. He almost blurted out everything then, but restrained himself. As much as time allowed, he had to move slowly with her so he didn’t frighten her away again.

“Um, do you want anything to drink or eat?” she asked nervously. “I bought some tea yesterday.”

“Nothing, thank you.” He studied her as he’d done so many times in the café, this time with no attempt to hide his gaze. His Gwen. If only he could find the right words to tell her.

To change the subject, he nodded toward the vase. “That’s very attractive.”

“It’s an heirloom.” Gwen went over and touched the vase. “My grandmother passed it on to me. Didn’t that piss off my mother—she’d wanted it for herself. Gran said her grandmother gave it to her and told her it’s something like four hundred years old. I think her grandfather bought it at some shop in England.” She turned back to him and softly added, “It’s about the only thing of mine that Cole didn’t destroy.”

“It’s beautiful.” He met her eyes. “As are you.”

“Don’t start, please.” She returned to the window and pulled the curtain aside to peek out. “Look at those trees. We’ll lose some of them by morning, I’m sure.”

A sudden flash came to Rhys’s mind. “Get away!” he shouted.

Startled, she jumped back from the window. “What—”

Before she could finish the question, a thick branch punctured the window, impaling the air where she had stood an instant before. Glass flew. If she had remained, it would have gashed her badly. Flecks of blood appeared on her arms and legs and spotted the front of her gown. She stood for a moment, stunned, and then took a step forward.

Gaze into the crystal ball and glimpse the future of e-Publishing

In a 1995 article for Newsweek, Clifford Stoll, an astronomer and author, said “The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.”

Mr. Stoll was not uninformed about the internet. Quite the contrary, he had been working on the internet for years and was one of the first ‘hack hunters.’ But the internet of 1995 was in its infancy and like a newborn it would take time to mature – make order out of the chaos. He went on to say no body would shop on the internet, it would never catch on, it was only a fade. Mr. Stoll contended the internet missed an essential ingredient, the human touch. There were other things he felt would be big stumbling blocks, dealing with money being a big one.

The issue with Mr. Stoll’s position in 1995 was one of insight. He had none.

This past February, Mr. Stoll’s article was unearthed and was the topic of discussion on several blogs including Farhad Manjoo ( Slate Technologies) and Nathan Bransford.

Manjoo presented four principles for more successful predictions about our digital future:

1. Good predictions are based on current trends
2. Don’t underestimate people’s capacity for change
3. New stuff sometimes comes out of the blue
4. These days it’s best to err on the side of (technological) optimism

It goes past people’s capacity for change and to the heart of the matter. Stasis is not the norm.  So to Mr. Manjoo’s principles I have an addition. 5. Change is inevitable

In Nathan Bransford’s blog, originally posted in the Huffington Post, he looked at the ebook controversy and saw the ‘new skeptics,’ the Mr. Stoll’s of today.  He doesn’t speak about the enabling of the technology but rather the inevitability of it. He has his own predictions.

1. The ebook reading experience will only improve as ebook technology improves. As technology improves, new enhancements will be available, color photos and art, embedded interactive features and creative designs even in mass market books.
2. eReaders and eBooks will get cheaper as technology improves and production cost go down.
3. Finding the books you want to read will get easier, reading through the jumble of self published books to find the good books.  Many people have opined about the quality of the work being self published. Anybody can upload their novel to Amazon or other resources such as independent e-libraries, like Lebrary. New literary sites like Goodreads and Shelfari are tools readers can use to find well written, critically acclaimed, prize winning books.
4. People are ignoring the digital trend.  The economics of digital media is compelling. Digitization is cheaper, faster, and provides worldwide distribution. Other industries have embraced the trend (they too went kicking and screaming but that didn’t stop the shift): music, newspapers, and movies. Books are next.
5. Habits change. As people are presented with better options they quickly adapt.

Are we at the same point in publishing as Mr. Stoll was in 1995 with the internet? Will we be looking back at 2010 and see we lacked insight? Or will we look at Mr., Manjoo’s principles of predictions and reflect on those of Nathan Bransford before we put our stake in the ground?

I am more than just a consumer deciding on what device to buy or application to put on my iPad, iPhone or Blackberry. I am on the other side of this tidal wave, a writer. How do writers embrace the digital age when the skeptics, agents and published authors, advise against digital publishing? Is the argument that good writers will be tainted by the poor quality long associated with digital self-publishing real or imagined? Will the influx of poorly written books overwhelm the industry make it harder for good writers to be identified? Will good writers become discouraged and stop writing? What do the publishing professionals really think?

Jesse Glass, co-publisher of Ahadada Books, a self publishing press was quoted by Liz Worth on the Broken Pencil blog:

From the beginning of the history of publishing there have been bad writers and bad books. Though the new publishing technologies might help bad books to proliferate, intelligent readers have a sense of quality, of what draws them in, of what delights and instructs, and they will make an almost instinctive decision regarding what they will read and what they won’t. … Good work – and interesting work, inevitably – given time – wins out.

Neil Nyren, the Senior Vice-President, Publisher, and Editor in Chief of Penguin Putnam was recently interviewed by JT Ellison on the Murderati Blog.  He said eReaders will not kill physical books. He believes the more formats that are available, the more accessible we make books, the more people will buy.

He went on to say that the new technology is subtly changing the way editors do their work. The publishing industry is embracing the new technology to improve their own efficiencies and make their editors and sales people more effective. Some editors use eReaders to read submissions.

It doesn’t really take a crystal ball to see the future of e-publishing. The signs are all around us.

1. Change is inevitable
2. If good predictions are based on current trends, the digital press is the way of the future
3. eBook technology will improve and provide wonderful enhancements not available today
4. eReader technology will improve and become more affordable and grow the reading market
5. Well written and edited books will not disappear. Good books will always be in demand.
6. New literary sites will emerge and provide the reading public with a means of wading through the jumble and help them find well written, critically acclaimed, prize winning books. The reading public will learn which imprints to associate with good, well written and edited books.

I think there will always be a need for printed books. I have a Sony Reader as well as Kindle on my Blackberry. I buy on line, I borrow from the library online, and I still buy books.

Ruth Seitelman