The HEA Cafe

Archive for December, 2008

I think it was the fabulous Clair Delacroix/Deb Cooke who once told me that writing is a job. I sort of believed it then, but not as much as I do today at this particular point in my career. I remember when writing was fun, exciting, joyful, passionate and EASY. So what happened? Where along the way did writing become less of these things.

While, I don’t think I’ve lost the excitement, the joy or the passion of writing, I now understand far better the words of wisdom that well-establish writers have handed down to those of us who haven’t hit certain levels in our career. But, the writing has become more of a job and these things I’ve always associated with writing seem a bit out of reach at the moment. I don’t know if it’s because I took a step up the career ladder or if it’s because I’m putting extra pressure on myself to do more than I’m capable. Super Writer syndrome as it were. Maybe it’s the holidays, but I feel like I’m in the Foreign Legion with my back to the wall and I’m smoking my last cigerette.

Why am I feeling this way? Part of it is my October contract with Berkley for a three-book paranormal series. Writing paranormal is new to me, so as Yanni says, “A little bit of fear means your are doing something worth doing — you are stretching — you are going outside your immediate grasp. Out of my immediate grasp? Can we say outside the atmosphere and I’m scared spitless? A three-book historical series would be easy. I know that world. But creating a new one definitely makes me stretch. And it’s scary as hell!

Another monkey wrench that’s been thrown into the mix is that I’m trying to market my newest release Dangerous, which comes out the end of January. I’ve got advertising in place, but I’m already planning for Mirage’s release in June!  I need to hire Baby to help me out. Problem is she’s just 11, and she’s not savvy enough to do it without me guiding her, and if that’s the case, it’s easier to do it myself. So I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. If only Oldest were more computer savvy and eager to help.

Then the week before Christmas, I landed my second contract with Berkley, this time for two historicals. One of those books is written (THANK GOD) but I have to write a new one. I’m over the moon about another NY sale, but OMG, my scared spitless monitor just went through the roof. I’m now facing deadlines unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in my entire career. Normally deadlines excite me. Right now, I’m asking myself, “WTF were you thinking you idiot! Three and half books in 13-14 months???”

All of these things mean I’ve got writing deadlines, proposal deadlines, marketing deadlines and then the actual marketing of the releases. Maybe this wouldn’t be so daunting if I didn’t have to work a day job, but like most struggling new writers, I have to work the day job to keep a roof over our head.

So perhaps you can see where I’m wondering what happened to the days when writing was fun, exciting, joyful, passionate and EASY. I think those things are still there, I just don’t see them as well as perhaps I once did. It was much easier when there weren’t deadlines to deal with. I’ve always submitted completed books, now I’m selling on proposal, and the books ARE NOT written. Then there are the craft issues to include at the editor’s request, learning the technical and financial business aspects of the publishing industry (I’m a VERY SLOW learner) and this or that business piece to comprehend. And for the newbies reading this and thinking, “I don’t know what she’s whining about, she sold.” All I can say is, my Mom used to tell me you’ll understand when you grow up. She was right, damn it.

So Claire, and any other writer I ever dismissed for telling me it was hard, my apologies for my arrogance. It is easier to sell than it is to keep up with the results of selling. However, the one thing in my favor is my stubbornness. I’ll make it just to have the pleasure of saying I made it. *grin*

What do you do to keep deadlines and everything else from driving you insane?

Monica
Monica Burns | http://www.monicaburns.com
Dangerous, 4.5 Stars Romantic Times
“…a pretty good read.” MrsGiggles.com
Master of Sin, Berkley 03/10

Since the day is almost upon us, let me wish you all the very best of the season.

All I want for Christmas ~~~ is a new name!
I always thought I would write under my own name and have done so since 2006. Imagine my surprise when my new publisher asked me to find a new name because they had too many authors with my first name.

The request opened up a couple of  possibilities and a couple of concerns.

The pros:-I could keep my last name
My last name being near the end of the alphabet means my books are always on the bottom shelf in the corner. Always. So I could pick a last name that came in the middle of the alphabet, at eye level, which sounded like a pro to me.
The cons:- People who were reading my current books wouldn’t be able to find me.

I would lose my author brand.
Who would I be?
In the end I decided to go with a completely new name, and a new website, but I would still keep writing under my own name, for other publishers, but to deal with the reader issue,  I would have my new persona contribute to blog with my old persona and we would be bff’s.

So here I am, meet the new my new best friend forever.   Ta daaa.

Ann Lethbridge, writing for Harlequin Historicals. My first book comes out with them as a short story in the Undone line, cover shown here. It is called The Rake’s Intimate Encounter. It will be available in January from e-harlequin.com. I love the cover and I must say I am very excited to be writing for Harlequin. This novella  is a prequel to my full length book ~The Rake’s Inherited Courtesan which is out in April 2009.

Next time I will tell you how I set about choosing the perfect new name.   Or at least, perfect in my humble opinion.

Yikes, I hit publish instead of save–I’m a day early with this. Sorry! ~Linnea, who should know better than to multi-task when uploading blogs…

(this blog was originally published as part of my monthly column, The Full Sass, in Futures magazine, 2001)

A dinosaur came into my classroom last week, courtesy of one of my students, Celia. Now, let me make clear right up front that I teach “Investigative Methodology For Writers” online, so that at best, the dinosaur was an E-mail-osaurus Rex.

     But he was a useful bugger and I’m glad Celia brought him in. I’ll tell you why.

     He was a motivated dinosaur. I named him Celia’s Jurassic Passion.

     The class was discussing ‘motives’ and the dinosaur was an example Celia used to illustrate a fictional character’s hobby: “A passion so intense that his thinking is temporarily turned off.”

     Passion. Habit. Achilles’ Heel. Motive. In this particular example, this character is tricked into revealing his true identity because of his fascination with dinosaurs. He couldn’t stay away from a specific exhibit. This one last shred of his real self gives him away.

     Fiction, you say?

     Naw. Really happens.

     One of the interesting things about a character, or a person’s, motivations is that it’s often a key issue both in fiction writing and investigative work. It’s life imitating art, and art imitating life.

     In the case of Celia’s Jurassic Passion, we have a unique flavor of motive that works well for a PI and damned beautifully for a writer. It’s that one unattainable goal that drives a writer’s protagonist or antagonist. That hones a conflict line. That keeps a reader turning pages (or clicking the mouse, if it’s an e-book).

     For the PI, it’s the road sign saying: He Went Thataway.

     In any really good PI work, a PI has to climb deeply into the psyche of subject of the investigation. She has to do more than find out the facts. She has to understand what motivated the subject to lie, to steal, to philander, to connive, to run. She has to know what drives him, and what drives him is called motivation.

     And it has to be something strong enough, deep enough, to make him go against the norm. To take the risk. To take it all with him or, conversely, leave it all behind.

     In an effort not to violate the dictums of “believable characters”, many writers seem to choose mundane motivations. One hundred per cent plausible, believable motivations. A drunk driver mows down Alphonse’s granny in the middle of Main Street, so Alphonse goes on a rampage against all drunk drivers.

     But after ten-plus years as a private investigator, I can tell you that it’s not the logic or the believability of the motive that is the crux, but the intensity. I have seen people take actions for some remarkably stupid reasons, in my estimation.

     But to them, those reasons were everything. Their own Jurassic Passion.

     Intensity is what fuels the motive. Because the motives are, for the most part, as instinctual and primal as, well, a dinosaur, living deep in the very beginnings of our psyche. And often just a beastly.

     Many writers develop only lofty, altruistic and logical motives for their characters in the belief that the noble goal is universally understood. In my humble estimation, those writers are missing out on one of the most fascinating elements of the human psyche. Our ability to defy reason, ignore logic, damn the torpedoes and go full speed ahead because we are so blindsided by our passions we can see no other way of responding.

     Give me Grieving Alphonse who isn’t raging against drunk drivers but against television weather reporters. For it was the TV weather report that made Granny leave her humble home that day, and cross the street to buy an umbrella. The drunk driver is simply, in Alphonse’s primally passionate mind, a bit player.

     As a reader, a passionately illogical motive gives me the better hook, the better twist, the bigger surprise factor when all is finally revealed on the last page.

     It also, whether I like it or not, draws me into a shared identity with the character. We all have our Jurassic Passions buried somewhere inside. And motives stem from our passions. The one thing we cannot live with. The one thing we cannot live without.

     As an investigator, I sought out motives as my pinpoint flashlight on a roadmap through the winding, bumpy terrain of misinformation. As a writer, you can develop a character’s motives and passions as a pinpoint flashlight to zig and zag your reader over a similar emotional terrain.

     It’s been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s only fitting, then, that the guy driving the bus to hell is none other than E-mail-osaurus Rex, your friendly and illogical Jurassic Passion.

~Linnea

www.linneasinclair.com

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

I don’t know if any of you have noticed but Christmas is ALMOST HERE!

I always try to keep my focus on the true meaning of Christmas, God’s gift of His Son into this world which had room for Him at the inn.

But I love all the holiday fun too.

I want to let you know about another way you can have some holiday fun.

Another Love Inspired author Margaret Daley has come up with her version of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Tomorrow drop by www.craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com
and join in the fun and a chance to win $50 for taking part.

I’d also like to invite all of you to the www.eharlequin.com Holiday Open House on this Thursday the 11th. Here is the link to join in the fun all day on Thursday.

BTW, two copies of my first Love Inspired Historical will be given away during the chat. It’s released today. Drop by my website www.LynCote.net to read about it, view a trailer I made myself and perhaps buy a copy for yourself or someone for Christmas.

Most of you know that I’ve been a long time Love Inspired author and I am thrilled that LI now has a historical line.

My book is titled Her Captain’s Heart and is the first in my Gabriel Sisters series which will be released one each December starting this year and finishing in 2010.

These three sisters, Verity, Felicity, and Mercy, live in the turbulent period after the Civil War and do their best to try to bind up the wounds of the injured nation both North and South. If you have a heart for children, you will love the first, Verity’s story.

I’ve also just launched my first personal blog on my website. It’s titled “Strong Women Brave Stories.” This is the emphasis in all my stories and I believe that every woman has a story. Please drop by each Tuesday and Thursday and read about real and fictional strong women. I’d love to hear your story or one of a woman in your family history.

Merry Christmas!!

Lyn