The HEA Cafe

Obviously not all that I learned. But perhaps some of it.

This was my first signing at RWA, though not my first conference, so that was pretty exciting. It is a whole different experience sitting at the table, than wandering around buying books and visiting friends, and frankly for the first time I felt like a real author. Oh, I have been a published author for quite a while, but this felt real. Perhaps it was the fact that my books and my name were on the table in front of me and JR Ward was sitting nearby, with a line up.
I did go to some workshops. I learned that my focus on workshops have changed. I mostly went to panels on web presence and branding and publicity. Nothing about writing at all. Not that I couldn’t always use help with the writing, but I really need help with the promotion side of the business
I and some of my chapter mates here at RWA online, who are also American Title Finalists, and two of the other American Title Finalists gave a workshop–on Saturday morning at 8:30 am. People actually came to hear us talk. And we had fun. I’m thinking our audience had fun too, because they stayed to the end. Mind you, that might have been because we bribed them with door prizes, but that was fun too.

But I what I really discovered is that once you are published, networking is the name of the game at Nationals. First there are the meetings scheduled ahead of the conference, with the editor, with the agent, with the publicist. And then there are meet and greets and dinners arranged by the publishing house. And parties. The Beaumonde Soiree, the RWA online Chapter party to mention only two.
After then there are meetings with people who you only get to see once a year. It was non stop networking.

I also learned that historicals have resuscitated. Since I only write historicals, regencies in fact, this was a good thing. Series/category are doing very well at the moment also. Did I mention historicals are back?

I did want to load a picture or two, but can’t figure out how to do that.

I hope all of you who went to RWA had a productive time, and I can’t wait for Washington to roll around.

Michele Ann Young

Today’s my birthday!  Okay, I’ll admit that at my age, that’s not the momumental event it once was, but it’s still worth celebrating, right?  And to make this birthday particularly memorable, my November book cover just came out!

Now that might not mean much to you, but for me, the first glimpse of a new book cover is a major, life-changing event.  Each time I see one, I spend the entire day enthralled, scrutinizing every detail, emailing the jpeg to my friends.  I’m like a mother eyeing her newborn child for the first time (Are his toes and fingers all there?  Whose eyes does he have?  Look at his beautiful hair!)

So you can imagine my excitement the other day when I saw the cover of TO PROTECT A PRINCESS, the second book in my Crusaders miniseries.  All work ground to a halt.  I spent the afternoon staring at the picture, studying every inch of it, flipping through my mental checklist to see if the artists got it right:

-Is the hero attractive?  Yes (huge relief)!

-Do the cover models resemble my characters?  Yes again.  The heroine’s coloring is a bit light, but that’s minor.  No one will notice.  And the red tinge is probably due to the explosion in the background, not the color of her hair.

Do the clothes work?  The heroine’s jeans and t-shirt are perfect.  The hero is wearing a leather jacket that isn’t in the book, but again, no one will care.

The background: I love the lights, the intensity, the way the artists caught the moment when the bridge blows up.  They made the Inca suspension bridge out of wood instead of rope (a minor mistake) but the overall effect is still great.

So I’m thrilled, relieved.  They gave me a good cover.  What a wonderful birthday present.  I can’t wait to show it off.  Here’s a link so you can see it better:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0373276087/sr=1-1/qid=1219087084/ref=dp_image_text_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1219087084&sr=1-1

And in case you’re thinking I’m neurotic, I can justify this obsession.  In a recent Live Journal poll, 63% of readers said they purchased a book based on the cover art.  That’s not as significant as familiarity with an author’s work (99.1%) or the recommendation of a friend (91.1%), but the cover can certainly influence sales.

So what do you think?  As a reader, does the book’s cover matter to you?  Can it influence whether you buy or reject a book?  How about my new cover?  Do you like it?  Any thoughts?

And if you’re wondering how I’ll spend my birthday…  I’ll be staring at my cover, of course. 

… also known as the nature or nurture argument. Which wins out, do you think? Do we have to have talent first, a natural ability that with persistence ensures success? Or does writing success come with a mere grain of ability and then by working at it, learning and practising until our minds and fingers hurt?

I’ve been thinking on this for a while now and not sure I’ve reached any conclusions. Sometimes it feels like the more I know the less I know, if you get my drift. I’ve GMC’d, plotted and pantsed, snowflaked and what-if’d until my head spun, yet lately it feels like wading through treacle. It feels like I’ve hit a barrier which I can’t get through.

The first stories I wrote were as an innocent. I was totally green and naive and just enjoyed the wonderful process of making up those stories and developing the characters who inhabited them. I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong. Then comes the reality of trying to sell those stories, of having them fester in that awful thing they call the slush pile. Of having them critiqued and rejected. Of learning from mistakes, and trying to move forward.

So, my question … Does there come a time when those with the raw talent power ever onward and upward? While those with less talent reach a plateau and stay there? Is there a limit to what we can learn as a writer, a barrier beyond which we cannot move no matter how hard we try? Are writers born or made?

What do you think?

I teach conflict. I teach a fair amount of writing subjects, having made my living from writing in one form or another for almost thirty years (in addition to writing science fiction romance for Bantam, I’m a former news reporter and a retired private investigator–some day I’ll figure out what I want to be when I grow up). My novels are known–according to reviewers–for characterization and conflict (and world building, too, but that doesn’t have the “c” alliteration so I’m leaving that out for now). So if I teach conflict and if I’m known for being a writer who writes good conflict, why am I blogging about learning about conflict?

Because with all that I knew about writing conflict, I learned more about it from a Donald Maass seminar. Almost a year ago.

I’m not a slow learner. Quite the opposite. I generally can’t wait to try whatever new technique I find via an online class, a how-to tome or an in-person seminar. I’d read Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel a good six months before attending his seminar (which was hosted by my local Florida RWA chapter, Southwest Florida Romance Writers). Having read the book, I went more to see “The Donald” in action. I’d heard he was a good speaker (he is). But I really didn’t think he could teach me anything new on conflict.

As I said, I’d read his book. I found it interesting and I’d highlighted a few points that intrigued me but overall, it didn’t knock my writerly socks off. It wasn’t anything I honestly hadn’t heard or read before. It was just presented in his style. The same was true of his seminar. I found it reassuring that such a famous agent had come to the same conclusions I had about structuring conflict. But there weren’t any Aha! moments.

So color me awfully surprised when the past month, slogging my way past yet another howling deadline, “The Donald’s” advice suddenly came home to roost.

* What does your character most want?

* What is the moment the protagonist abandons what s/he most wants? What inspires those feelings and how thoroughly can you burn those bridges?

* What is the one thing your protagonist would never say, never do? Find three places in your story where s/he says or does that thing.

* Who else could solve the central problem? Remove them.

* Can bad things happen sooner? Who gets crushed? Who is ruined? Who goes postal?

* Take the protagonist through failure and beyond.

* Who can betray the protagonist?

* Make it worse, make it worse, make it worse.

These are all culled from some twenty-plus pages of notes I took that January, amused and entertained by his presentation but not really feeling the pull of his words. Maybe the book I was working at at that time didn’t need them. Maybe I had too much fun the night before with my author buddy, Stacey Klemstein (watch for her faboo YA Paranormal debut from Hyperion/Harper Collins in 2010!) and her husband, visiting from Chicago. Maybe the words just needed time to ferment.

Whatever the reason, I pulled out that battered legal pad at the halfway point in Hope’s Folly (Bantam, February 2009) and they hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. Me, who teaches conflict, who thinks she has a handle on how to torture characters and enthrall readers.

The moral of this blog is 1) don’t think you know it all, 2) don’t throw out those old notes from a seminar/writing class and 3) continue to attend writing seminars and take craft of writing classes. RWAOnline offers oodles. You can do them on your schedule in your pink pjs and bunny slippers, if you so desire. Your talent for writing is a growing, shifting thing. It needs to be fed often. It needs to be exercised often. It’s like a capricious (and likely not housebroken) pet that inhabits your brain. Without proper attention, it will just curl up on the couch and snore loudly. It won’t return your affection. It won’t defend you from that home/brain invasion posse known as “Writer’s Block” when it comes bursting through your door.

It took eight months for Maass’ words to prove their usefulness. But they did. I’m happier for it, my characters are happier (well, not yet but they will be) for it and when my editor gets the manuscript in a few weeks, I hope she’ll be happier for it.

Take time out of your writing to insert some learning, especially in craft areas you think you already have down pat. Shake your writerly brain up a bit with the challenge of a new technique, a new twist.

And don’t throw out those notes!

Namaste, ~Linnea

Linnea Sinclair
RITA award winning Science Fiction Romance
Bantam 2007-2008: Games of Command, The Down Home Zombie Blues, Shades of Dark
2009: Hope’s Folly
http://www.linneasinclair.com/

Every year Romance Writers of America holds an annual conference. This years was in SF CA. I had not attended for 9–count em–NINE years.

I had forgotten how much fun RWA is!

I got to meet with two of my editors, my agents, AND FRIENDS!!

And this year, my dh accompanied me and had his first taste of RWA. My husband loves to attend meetings where I speak and he was able to watch me give the keynote address at the luncheon at the Faith, Hope & Love Inspirational Chapter mini conference. And he also attended the workshop I gave to the general conference about the ever-expanding Christian romance market.

In September I’m also attending my first American Christian Fiction Writers conference in Minneapolis, MN. I will be participating in their HUGE booksigning at the Barnes & Noble at Mall of America. 107 authors will be signing books Sept 20 Sat 1-3 p.m.

If you live near there, drop by and say HI!!

At RWA, I finally got to meet some of my RWAonline friends. But not nearly enough.

Anybody else attend RWA? Going to ACFW?

The only bad thing about attending conferences is that it puts me behind on my deadlines and how does a house get messier while I’m away???

Where are the house elves when you need them?

Ta!

Lyn