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My New and Hopefully Lucky Romance Release

September 6, 2015 by in category Events, Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , ,

by Linda O. Johnston

 I’m full of it.  Romance, I mean.  This month marks the release of CANADIAN WOLF, the seventh book in my Alpha Force miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne, a paranormal romance about a covert military unit of shapeshifters. 

That should be lucky.  Why?  The number 7 is considered to be lucky, and I also write the Superstition Mysteries.  Number two in that series, KNOCK ON WOOD, will be published next month, and I’m knocking on wood that readers enjoy them both. 

Will that consist of the same readers?  Not necessarily.  I realize that, and of course I’ve blogged here before at A Slice of Orange about writing in multiple genres, and all the different kinds of conferences I consequently wind up attending.  

This month, I’m looking forward to attending the OCC meeting, and next month I’m looking forward to attending the OCC Birthday Bash.  In between, I’ve got events and meetings both of Los Angeles Romance Authors and the mystery organizations I belong to.   

It’s all fun.  But I’ve been a member of OCC for a long time now and consider it very good luck that I joined all those years ago! 



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RWA National Retrospective

August 6, 2015 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston, Writing Conferences tagged as , , , , ,
I seem to blog here a lot about conferences I have attended this year, and now I’m doing it again. I went to the RWA National Conference in New York City toward the end of July and had a great time!

I’ve been going to the RWA National Conferences frequently for quite a few years now. They always seem fun and informative. These days, there is so much to learn about changes in how to publish as well as the entire publishing industry. The largest traditional publishers keep merging. Smaller publishers appear frequently and some are quite successful.

Then there’s the whole nearly-new world of successful self-publishing. Plus, the term “hybrid” was used a lot at the conference, meaning it’s good and potentially helpful for an ongoing career for a writer to both traditionally publish and self publish.

So, I attended workshops and panels, including my own panel with other mystery authors who also write romance, about how our careers pre-writing helped us with our writing as well. I saw my agent and my Harlequin editor. I went to the Meet-and-Greets for the two Harlequin series I write for and learned about what was going on. And I of course attended the always delightful Harlequin party.

I wound up staying in an overflow hotel rather than the main conference hotel, and the one I was in was horrible, unfortunately. It was being remodeled. My room was dark at night with inadequate lights. Cleaning was iffy. But at least it was near the conference hotel.

Next year RWA National will be in our backyard: San Diego. Will I attend?

Sure!

Linda O! Johnston
www.LindaOJohnston.com BITE THE BISCUIT, A Barkery & Biscuits Mystery
LOST UNDER A LADDER, a Superstition Mystery
LOYAL WOLF, an Alpha Force Harlequin Nocturne

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More About Multiple Genres

June 6, 2015 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , , , ,

My regular blog here at A Slice of Orange on the 6th of last month was about loving multiple genres. I’m going to focus on that once again now.

Why? Well, when you read this, I will most likely be at the California Crime Writers Conference in the Culver City area of L.A. Unsurprisingly, it’s primarily for people who write mysteries, suspense novels, and related subject.

The following weekend will be all about romance writing for me, since I’ll be attending the OCC meeting on Saturday, and the Los Angeles Romance Writers will meet on that Sunday since the following one, its regularly scheduled third Sunday of the month, will be Fathers Day.

So is it any surprise to you that the subject of my upcoming online class hosted by OCC will be… yes, about writing in both of those genres? In fact, I had a special blog posted about it on Tuesday, May 26, here at A Slice of Orange.

The class is called Kiss Me or Kill Me: Writing Cozy Mysteries 101 for Romance Writers. Those who are interested in adding suspense or mystery to their romances without necessarily changing genres should find it interesting, too, as should mystery or suspense writers who’d like to add some romance to their work.

And me? I’ve said for a while that all romances I write contain some element of mystery or suspense, and all mysteries I write generally contain a romantic interest. Aren’t both some of the most fun aspects of life–or at least reading?



Linda O! Johnston


www.LindaOJohnston.com 

 BITE THE BISCUIT, A Barkery & Biscuits Mystery
May 2015

LOST UNDER A LADDER, a Superstition Mystery
LOYAL WOLF, an Alpha Force Harlequin Nocturne
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Kiss Me or Kill Me is coming soon.

May 26, 2015 by in category Events, Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , , , ,

What’s that? My online class for OCC, with the alternate name of Writing Cozy Mysteries 101 for Romance Writers. This will be my second time to present it.

The class will run from June 15 through July 12, and my intention is to have fun teaching my students how to have their characters solve murders while falling in love!

Here’s the class description:

All romances contain some suspense: will the hero and heroine resolve conflicts by the end and live happily ever after?

All cozy mysteries contain suspense, too, but do they always involve romance? Not necessarily, but the best ones do! Those romances seldom reach HEA by the end of the book, though. Cozies are usually parts of a series, and the suspense of romance can continue through subsequent books–even though the mysteries in each book must get resolved by the end.

What other similarities and differences are there between romances and cozies? They’ll be addressed in Kiss Me Or Kill Me: Writing Cozy Mysteries 101 for Romance Writers.

The class will also address the basics of writing cozies: choosing a protagonist and deciding how she’ll get involved solving mysteries; choosing a theme for the series; introducing and following through with a love interest—or not; throwing in a corpse or two, plus hiding clues for solving the murders; planning a series; and much more!

There will be online class discussions and writing exercises, too. Kiss Me or Kill Me will also contain enough basics on writing cozies that non-romance writers will learn a lot as well.

So… are you a romance writer who likes mysteries? A mystery writer who likes romance? I’ll be delighted to help you learn how to combine them.

I hope to see you in my class.

Linda O, Johnston

Linda O. Johnston’s first published fiction appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Mystery Short Story of the year. Since then, Linda has published more short stories, plus eighteen romance novels, including the Alpha Force paranormal miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne. Alpha Force is a covert military unit of shapeshifters, and the most recent book in the series is GUARDIAN WOLF.  She has also published three Nocturne Bites e-novellas and is additionally writing a novel for Harlequin Romantic Suspense.

 

Linda is also the author of the Pet Rescue Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime which debuted in March 2011 with BEAGLEMANIA, followed by THE MORE THE TERRIER and HOUNDS ABOUND. The series centers around Lauren Vancouver, the dedicated administrator of a successful private, no-kill animal shelter who also finds herself having to solve murders. In the Pet Rescue Mysteries, “no-kill” means pets, not people! The Pet Rescue series is a spinoff from Linda’s Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter, nine-book mystery series, also from Berkley Prime Crime. 

Kiss Me or Kill Me is a 4-week online course that begins June 15, 2015 and uses email and Yahoo Groups. The class is open to anyone wishing to participate. The cost is $30.00 per person or, if you are a member of OCCRWA, $20.00 per person. 


For more information and to register go to http://www.occrwa.org/onlineclassJune15.html        
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Loving Multiple Genres

May 6, 2015 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , , , , ,
 

Those of you who know me also know that I write in multiple genres, which currently include paranormal romance, romantic suspense and cozy mysteries.  And I’m not the only one!

 
Last weekend I attended Malice Domestic, an annual conference held in Bethesda, Maryland, for readers and writers of cozy mysteries.  It was delightful, as always.  I was on a panel about pets in mysteries, and also participated in Malice Go Round, where readers sit at tables while authors, two at a time, sit down with them and get to talk about their work for two minutes apiece.  Exhausting, but fun!  That was in addition to parties and hanging around at the reception area talking with people and more.
 
One of the fun things I also got to do was to meet with several of the people who will be fellow panelists with me at July’s RWA National Conference!  Yes, we’re all attending both kinds of conferences this year.  Our RWA panel topic will be From White Collar to Red Herring, and we’ll be talking about our non-writing professional experiences not only for plotting, but also for managing our writing careers.
 
Come see us if you’re at RWA National this year!
 
Linda

 
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Linda O! Johnston
www.LindaOJohnston.comBITE THE BISCUIT, A Barkery & Biscuits Mystery
May 2015
LOST UNDER A LADDER, a Superstition Mystery
LOYAL WOLF, an Alpha Force Harlequin Nocturne

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