The HEA Cafe

Author Archive

Happy Holidays! Santa and I talked it over, and I have a few gifts under the tree for my readers.

This December, I’m participating in a Find the Icon Scavenger Hunt with about 30 fellow authors. Prizes include a Sony Pocket Reader and a $50 prepaid Visa card. The contest runs live from today, December 1st, through Christmas Eve. For details, visit http://www.ravenhappyhour.com/Rockin_Raven_Xmas_Tree_Contest and start hunting!

On December 15th, I’ll be on www.maryeason.blogspot.com from 10 to 11 am for a Christmas extravaganza full of good books and great giveaways. Along with me, Mary Eason, Cindy Green, Inez Kelley, Renee Wildes, Jane Toombs, Tina Donohue and Mary Wine will also have an hour apiece on the blog to showcase their books and give away prizes.

My free short story, White Collar Christmas, releases December 16th if all goes as planned from www.samhellion.net . Take one rookie FBI agent and put her undercover with a sexy art forgerer and see who gets on Santa’s list of Naughty Girls and Boys.

The TICKLE MY FANTASY anthology is now available, WITCHES ANONYMOUS included, just in time for gift giving. For anyone who enjoys werewolves, ghosts, witches and love, this anthology is perfect! It’s available from www.samhainpublishing.com , Amazon, Barnes and Noble and your local independent bookstore.

May health and joy be yours this season. Please feel free to stop by my website, www.readmistyevans.com , drop me a note at misty@readmistyevans.com or find me on Twitter, www.twitter.com/readmistyevans .

Happy reading!

Any spy worth her secret decoder ring must have a fabulous trench coat in her closet.  I personally have several and love them all, but in writing my Super Agent Series, I had yet to put one of my lady spies in a trench.

 

Until now. Brigit Kent, the no nonsense psychologist who moonlights for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service in my latest novel, Proof of Life (Super Agent Series, Book 3), is perfect in a trench. She isn’t a fashionista by any means, but she has deep, dark family secrets and is playing with fire when it comes to blackmailing the deputy director of the CIA, Michael Stone. While I didn’t want her hung up on clothing labels, she was part 007 and part traditional ingénue, and I wanted her to have a signature piece.

 

Enter the trench. With Brigit’s dark looks, I imagined her as a modern day Audrey Hepburn, using her trench to its fullest. It was sexy and classic, just like Brigit’s character, and both the coat and the woman held the perfect combination to attract Michael.

 

Moving to the window next to Brigit, Michael tried not to stare at her peaches-and-cream skin, or her thick, dark hair, free of its ponytail and brushing her shoulders. He tried not to examine the way her trench coat molded to her waist and flared out at her hips, emphasizing both. Her body hummed with energy and his happily tightened in response.

 

The trench worked as a symbol of Brigit’s growth in the story as well as a handy accessory. In the opening, she uses the trench to hide her gun and her generous curves. Internally, she’s also hiding her insecurities and family secrets. As the story goes on, the trench and Brigit take a beating when Brigit is shot at and nearly blown up in an airplane. The coat gets mended and cleaned, and so does Brigit when she divulges her secrets to Michael and saves her sister from a terrorist group.  After all that, she was ready to take more chances, and at one point, I had fun letting her pull a classic Marilyn Monroe when she attends a meeting with the President of the United States.

 

The trench coat still had the plastic bag over it from the cleaners. She ripped it off and shrugged the coat over her shoulders. The silk lining brushed against her skin, and she wondered if she really had the courage to go to the White House in such a Marilyn Monroe style.

Hell, what did she care? No one would know unless the Secret Service felt her up.

 

Through the whole story, the trench helped me keep Brigit mysterious and desirable. She needed to be a puzzle Michael had to figure out, or if not completely figure out, at least enjoy trying.

 

Without a knock, she burst through the door with Helena on her heels and a set look on her face. A look Michael had seen repeatedly from Ruth’s house to Ireland. The soldier was ready to take on the world.

His heart stuttered and then stopped in wonder for a split-second as he took her in from head to toe. The wavy dark curls, the baby doll eyes, the bright lipstick. The gaudy earrings, the expensive trench, the moderate heels. She was still a conundrum. Still beautiful.

 

The trench coat seduction works and Michael finally understands Brigit and what a future with her holds.

 

The future stretched out in front of him with endless possibilities. Brigit understood who he was, what he did for a living, what he had survived. She could relate and love him for all his faults, for all his regrets. She gave him hope, and most of all, she gave him back his desire to live again. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, let her go. “Call me as soon as you can get away.”

“Is that an order?”

“Yes,” he said, grinning again so hard his cheeks hurt. “And wear the trench. I like it.”

She squeezed his hand before pulling her own away and saluting him. “Yes, sir.”

 

I was thrilled when the cover artist for Proof of Life found a dark-haired model wearing a trench for the cover. What makes it even better is the way the woman is lifting the collar to partially hide her face.  While trench coats are often associated with spies, Brigit’s trench coat showcases her personality and symbolizes her internal struggles rather than turning her into a clichéd stock character, and that made her all the more fun to write!

 

Misty Evans is an award-winning, multi-published author of CIA thrillers and paranormal comedy. Visit her at www.readMistyEvans.com or join her Yahoo! Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MistyEvansSuspense where you’ll find free reads and all the latest news!

What could be better than bringing romance readers and writers together? Just like ComicCon and other fan conventions, the upcoming RomCon in Denver next year will be an exciting venue for readers and industry professionals alike.

 

According to Tiffany James, one of the founders of RomCon 2010, the convention’s focus will be on readers. To draw them in, all workshops and events will be geared toward educating and entertaining them. “One of the big events we’ll be hosting at RomCon is the announcement of winners of our new contest–the Readers’ Crown,” says Tiffany. “We have a vetting process in place to ensure, to the fullest extent possible, that our contest judges are readers.  And, we’ve partnered with Borders to bring a true market impact to our entrants with things like end-cap placements, invitations to be interviewed on Sue Grimshaw’s True Romance program, listing of winners on her site, and much more.  Plus, winners will get airfare, hotel (2 nights), and RomCon registration paid for the next year’s RomCon event.”

 

How will RomCon bring authors and their readers together before and after the convention? Check out the new website Tiffany and her partners have built www.romconinc.com (the site goes live this month, so if it’s not up yet today, please keep checking.) They’re pulling together the huge amount of information that is available on the internet about the industry to really connect authors with readers. 

 

What’s there for authors?

·         Authors with syndicated blogs can repost headlines and/or excerpts of them with links back to their blogs. 

·         A shared calendar of literary events capturing author book signings, lectures, blog tours, charity events, etc. 

·         Forums where live chats and on-going discussions can take place. 

·         Twitter ticker tape feed that updates continually with tweets from subscribed authors

 

What’s there for readers?

Registered users can rate author sites, romance friendly bookstores (where are the friendly stores, do they pass out author promo items, etc.) and review sites.  That will build a knowledgebase of information that authors can use to target book tours, submit books for reviews to the highest regarded review sites, and know better what readers like in an author web site when they go to build or overhaul their own site.  And readers get to know where they should shop, what sites have the best reviews and what author sites are fun and should be in their hotlinks.

 

A win-win situation in my book (pun intended) and I can’t wait to join in and participate. I love to meet new readers and this website and the romance convention will provide great opportunities to for me to find new authors to read as well as new fans!

 

Please stop by on Thursday, October 29^th for my debut guest blog on www.romconinc.com. I’ll be talking about my super agent series and giving away a free copy of one of my books to a lucky commenter. The whole kick-off month of October will be filled with guest bloggers, like me, so visit often and enjoy!!

My baby came two weeks early. She measured eight and a half inches long and weighed fourteen and a half ounces. Completely caught off guard by her early arrival, I was nonetheless totally in love the moment I saw her face.

 

I’d just gotten home from an errand when the brown stork, commonly referred to as UPS, pulled up outside. My husband answered the door, took the delivery, and handed it off to me. “What’d'ya order?”

The package was book size but I hadn’t ordered anything recently. I shrugged and tore the cardboard open.

 

And there she was. My first print novel. Operation Sheba, in the flesh. Or in the paper, as the case may be.

 

I wrote the first version of Sheba after the towers fell. It was my way of coping with a world gone mad. Creating a fictional world where good guys won and brought justice to the world gave me back a sense of control and from then on I was hooked. Spies took over my imagination, invaded my dreams and monopolized every free moment I had.

 

In the past eight years, I raised twins, rewrote Sheba twice, hired an agent, fired an agent, moved my family to another town and lost a dear pet. A couple friends departed and a bunch more showed up. While Sheba was making the rounds to agents and editors, I completed several more full length novels and a couple of novellas.

 

And then, last year, I sold.

 

Sheba came out first in eformat last September. It was a thrilling moment for me to see my baby with a cover and ISBN number, which was sort of like an ultrasound. I could see it, see the sales and good reviews, but I still couldn’t actually put my hands on it.

 

Nothing can compare to holding your print book in your hands. Just like you count the fingers and toes of a real baby, you flip through the pages, reread the reviews and pause for long moments at the title page, soaking it in. You put it on a special shelf and stare at it with a goofy smile on your face. You talk to it, smooth its cover. and hug it to your chest.

 

I wonder if the next book will get such special treatment. Will these feelings ever get old? Or will subsequent books be special in their own ways, just like kids?

 

I don’t have those answers yet, but I sure look forward to finding out.

 

 

“Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.” – Don Miguel Ruiz.

I recently read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and am trying to apply them to my life, because, hey, like everyone else, I want to help change the world.  It begins with me, right?

Only, applying the four agreements to every area of my life feels like moving the proverbial mountain, so I decided to do a test drive with my writing career. So far, it’s working. Better than working, it’s actually providing what Miguel promised it would: freedom, happiness and yes, even beautiful art.

Agreement One is Be Impeccable With Your Word. In life, this translates to stop the negative voices in your head and quit gossiping about others. When it comes to writing, you can apply this agreement to the voice inside your head that tells you your writing sucks. You can also apply this to your characters. In the beginning of your story, they’re lying to themselves and lying to other folks as well, trying to keep some secret buried or their feelings under lock and key. As the story progresses, they should come to terms with their truth, internally and externally, in order for them to grow.  Make this particular agreement with your readers and deliver it faithfully and you’ll have fans forever. 

Agreement Two is Don’t Take Anything Personally. I struggle with this agreement a lot. I take everything personally. Once I came to terms with the idea behind this agreement, though, I fell like a weight fell off my shoulders. It’s NOT about me. The way others react to me is a projection of their reality, not mine.

With my writing, I’ve learned it’s not about me either. It’s about the story. As the insightful Stephen King tells us, we should serve the story, not our ego. When an agent or editor rejects what we write, it sucks, but remember the rejection is about their reality. They have markets to abide by, budgets to keep in mind, office politics to deal with. Yes, the story is our baby, but it’s also a marketable (or unmarketable) commodity. The book of your heart is not the book of everyone else’s heart.

Agreement Three is Don’t Make Assumptions. Personally, I spend a lot of time reliving the past and projecting into the future.  If I’d only said this, or did that, or stood up to so-and-so, I’d be happier. As writers, we make a lot of assumptions, too. My critique partner said I better drop my prologue or no agent will ever sign me. The hero and heroine must meet in the first chapter because Bestselling Author always writes her stories that way. I’m doomed because I’ve accumulated five rejection letters.

Can you feel the drama? The heartbreak? The despair? Save it for your characters. Channel it into them. And while you’re caught up in their story, pause for a moment to realize you’re living in the moment when you’re writing. Not the past and not future – well, at least not your past or your future. You’re in the present, no assumptions in sight. Live it to the fullest and I guarantee it will show in your story.

The final agreement is Do Your Best. Unlike life, we can redo and rewrite our stories ad infinitum; however, if you do your best with every draft, you’ll end up with a wonderful story you’ll feel proud to show the world.

Even if you’re not a writer, you’re an artist of your own dream, your own life. Check out the four agreements, take them for a test run in one area of your life, and see what comes of it. You might just make beautiful art.