The HEA Cafe

The first author who resonated with you, made you want to rush out and read the rest of a series, the author who made you care?

For me, it was Anne Rice, during the fall of ‘92 at the University of Missouri. My roommates and I were talking one night and it turned out they’d all read this amazing vampire series.

Vampires were cutting edge at the time. My friend Shay handed me a copy of Interview with the Vampire and an obsession was born. I missed every one of my classes that week as I read Interview, and then The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned and The Tale of the Body Thief. I couldn’t put those books down. And my friends, like the enablers they were, ate it up.

Now, sixteen years later, I don’t remember much about Economics 51 or Calculus (thank goodness), but I can still call up that giddy feeling I had when I discovered a new series, heck a new genre, that I knew I’d read again and again.

Do you remember the first time you discovered a new genre? Or a series that made you the reader or the writer you are today?

I have a question for all you blog-savvy people out there.  Some published writers I know are thinking about creating a new blog.  The purpose, of course, is to draw in readers and get some publicity for their upcoming books.  But should they bother?  Is the blog “market” saturated?  Do people still read blogs?

Since I’m not on many blogs myself (and rarely have time to read them), I thought I would ask you:  If you read blogs, what draws you to a particular one?  What draws you back on a regular basis?  Great information?  The latest gossip?  An interesting guest blogger or a guaranteed laugh?

Or are you sick of blogs?  Do you rarely read them?  Should these writers forget a blog and move on to the next new thing?

I’d like to know.  So if you have a second to post a comment, please do!!!

I’m in charge of coordinating the promotional items for my local chapter’s upcoming Silken Sands Conference (April 11-13th in Pensacola, Florida).  And I have to admit–I’ve started to really look forward to my daily mail delivery. 

So far, I’ve received some gorgeous postcards and bookmarks, clever coasters, buttons with truly snappy phrases, surprise bags, books that I would love to read, notepads, pens, scissors, magnets, excerpt CDs, and rulers.  (Okay, I’ve actually gotten a lot more items, but I think you get the idea.) When it comes to promotion, authors take the business very, very seriously.

My first Kensington Brava novel, HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT, is scheduled to be released on April 29, 2008, so I am paying particular attention to these promotional items–and I wonder…what works the best?  The quality of the materials that I have received is truly outstanding–and all of them have certainly caught my attention.  Is there one supreme promotional item?  I don’t know…I do know that I love opening these packages and seeing what great items the conference attendees will have in their goodie bags.

Do you have any advice on promotional items that you’d like to share? Any particular items that you love?  Or perhaps a story about the most unusual item you’ve seen?

Oh, and, hey–if you’d like to donate some of your promotional items for the Silken Sands Conference, just send an email to cynthia@cynthiaeden.com and I’ll give you mailing instructions.

Thanks!

Cynthia Eden
www.cynthiaeden.com
HOTTER AFTER MIDNIGHT–05/08, Kensington Brava
“Wicked Ways” in WHEN HE WAS BAD–06/08, Kensington Brava

I was introduced to the magic that is Michael Hauge in 2006 while attending the RWA National Conference in Atlanta. I didn’t get a chance to see Michael speak in person because I was sick as a dog. But, Maria Geraci, my best friend and critique partner was able to attend his workshop. The Michael Hauge kool-aid was so tasty that she promptly ran upstairs (took the elevator), woke me from my nap and delivered the workshop verbatim to me and my other crit partner, Louisa.

Fast forward to Dallas in 2007. I was not sick as a dog and was able to worship attend Michael Hauge’s workshop. The information he delivered was familiar (thanks to Maria’s delivery the year prior) but I still gained something new from him. Plus he’s just plain entertaining. I love it when he cracks himself up.

Anyway, Michael joined our table and chatted us up on the final night of the conference. He was very warm and friendly and totally enjoyed our company. (I mean, who wouldn’t, right?) I am a huge fan of the man and am still drinking the kool-aid.
So, what’s my point?

Well, I’m a pantser. It’s very difficult for me to plan a story in advance. But in order to make writing my career, I need to sell on proposal…and to do that, well, I need a strong plot up front.

Last week, I ordered Michael’s audio book, Screenwriting for Hollywood from audible.com. I am not a screenwriter, but this lecture really focuses on the necessary elements to have in your story and how to make a story more commercial. Which, in turn, helps me write a stronger proposal.

One thing I’ve always had trouble with is figuring out the real definition of High Concept. Diana Peterfreund defined high concept on the Knight Agency blog back in 2005, and it helped some. But even after Diana’s explanation, I was still somewhat confused. I needed it broken down in a simpler form–because well, I’m just a simpleton sometimes.
But thanks to Michael Hauge, I think I get it now.

To make a story more commercial, to give it a “high concept” feel…a story must be both familiar and original. It’s a bit of an oxymoron, I suppose, but if you think about it, that’s exactly what makes a story commercial. It’s what makes your story salable. If your story is too original, it will be a hard sell–where will they market it?. If your story is too familiar, it will be a hard sell–the market is glutted romantic suspense, how is this different?

What can you do to make your story more commercial? Is your story both familiar and original?

I highly recommend checking out Michael Hauge’s website or listening to his From Identity to Essence workshop from Dallas 2007. He knows how to break down a story in a way that makes sense, even to someone as unanalytical is myself. If he can help me turn into a plotter, he can help anyone.

Not Trump, the entrepreneur. Maass, the agent.

My local RWA chapter–Southwest Florida Romance Writers–hosted Donald Maass for a one-day workshop a few weekends back. I’d read his Writing the Breakout Novel over a year ago and found it interesting and workable. But like many of you, I’ve read a lot of how-to write books. Maass’ was interesting and workable but nothing significantly new.

Still, a chance to see the man in action enticed me. I heard he does a good dog-and-pony. He does. He’s pithy, personable and dynamic. (He also has a New York sense of humor that worked fine with me but I think may have been a tad off-putting for some non-NY/NJ-ers in the audience.) I’ve also heard that if  you get one workable idea from any book or workshop you attend, it’s worth the money.

I did. He was.

His workable idea–for me–was this: after you finish writing your first draft manuscript, print it out, go to the middle of the largest area of open space in your house, and toss the pages in the air. All of them. Let them fall where they may. Then sit on the floor and read pages at random, adding tension to each and every page.

Sound nuts? I thought so too at first. But he’s dead-on. Reason being, we read our manuscripts in page by page order. Again and again, as we write the story. Our minds get attuned to upcoming conflict (because we put it there) and we may be assuming or reading in more tension than is actually written.

Reading the pages out of order confuzzles the writerly mind. It makes you look at each page as a stand-alone entity. It makes you examine each page to see if you have tension.

What’s tension? To The Donald, it’s emotion. It’s immersing the reader into what the character is fearing, wanting, lusting for.  “What is the most powerful emotion felt in this scene?” The Donald asked in his wry New York accent. “Build details around that emotion.”

Still thinks it’s crazy? The Donald purloined pages from trembling victims in the audience and read scenes out loud. Then he changed one or two things adding emotion. And gosh-golly-dang, if they didn’t come out that much stronger.

And here I thought I’d heard–and read–it all. I hadn’t. Give The Donald’s idea a toss. It works.

~Linnea

SHADES OF DARK, the sequel to Gabriel’s Ghost, coming July 2008 from RITA award-winning author, Linnea Sinclair, and Bantam Books: www.linneasinclair.com
 
Something cascaded lightly through me—a gentling, a suffused glow. If love could be morphed into a physical element, this would be it. It was strength and yet it was vulnerability. It was all-encompassing and yet it was freedom. It was a wall of protection. It was wings of trust and faith.
 
It was Gabriel Ross Sullivan, answering the questions I couldn’t ask. Not that everything would be okay, but that everything in his power would be done, and we’d face whatever outcomes there were together.