Things That Make Me Go Mmmruh…
April 5, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Things That Make Me Go Mmmruh.
Why Romance?
by Geralyn Ruane
Did you notice? Here on this E-zine for and by romance writers and readers, NONE of the things I mentioned in my last column, the things that make me go mmmruh, had anything to do with love, sex, smooching or marriage. So, if I live for these moments of mmmruh, why the heck and am I so spellbound and compelled by romance?
True, romance rips a pretty visceral mmmruh from me. A billboard on Ventura Boulevard: “Malia, will you marry me? Love, Roberto.†I drove right past it! A radio dedication from a man in Los Angeles, aching to rekindle a romance, to his former lover in Orange County. As I sped along the 101 listening to Nickelback’s soulful singing (I’ve loved you all along . . .), I realized that maybe the former lover in Orange County was, at that very moment, picking up the phone to call the man in Los Angeles! I was possibly listening to the most romantic moment in someone’s whole life!
But if I can be just as moved by a whiff of Chanel No. 5 because it reminds me of my mom, why do I feather my nest with books by Nora Roberts and Susan Elizabeth Phillips? And why do I own three different movie versions of Pride and Prejudice?
It’s simple, really. What is romance, but the perfect vehicle for delivering these moments of mmmruh? A love story is driven by such emotional intensity that it naturally provides fertile ground the poignant, enlightening aspects of life. And the more mmmruh woven throughout a romance, the more mmmruh seeping beyond the heroine/hero plot line, the more unforgettable the story.
Geralyn Ruane’s favorite Hardy Boy is whichever one Parker Stevenson played, and these days she writes romance, chick lit and women’s fiction. Last year her short story “Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants†was published in the New York Times Bestselling anthology The Right Words at the Right Time Volume 2.
Long Lost Loves
April 4, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Long Lost LovesIs there a book you read ages ago and loved, but can’t remember the title and are dying to find it?
Great! Me too!
Today, in our first installment of Long Lost Loves, I will ask (No, beg!) you to dig deep into your memory banks and help a girlfriend out.
I read this novel as a young teen. It was my second single title romance. (The first was Shanna, but I read this one in the same weekend and am feeling nostalgic for it.)
Here’s what I know:
The cover had a swarthy dark-haired hero who looked more like a dirty thug than a hero.
The girl had white-blonde hair and (as I recall) iridescent green eye shadow. And her head was kinda hanging upside down while in his embrace (like we were looking down at her).
(Not that you could see it in the cover-art, but I recall she had green eyes…because I remember thinking, “Why on earth would a green-eyed girl wear green eye shadow?†Browns, oranges, and bronzes to make greens pop…anything but green, really. Duh!)
He often called her angel. They didn’t know each other’s true identities.
Their “cute-meet†involved him finding her sleeping nude on a beach. He took advantage of the situation, of course. And she, a virgin (of course) thought she was dreaming until it was too late. (Ah, the good old days…)
I believe he was a pirate, but also a lord/spy working for the crown or something. She was a lady, but, of course, he presumed she was anything but.
That’s all I remember.
If anyone could shed any light on this Long Lost Love, please reply to this post or e-mail me.
Also, if you have a Long Lost Love you’d like to get reacquainted with, e-mail me at dana_diamond@sbcglobal.net and I’ll post yours too.
Warmest regards,
0 0 Read moreAuthor Interview with Mary Kennedy – part two
April 2, 2007 by Marianne H. Donley in category Archives tagged as Author Interview
Mary Kennedy is a multi-published author, and a clinical psychologist in private practice on the east coast. She specializes in forensic work, and her clients have included murderers, psychopaths and convicted felons. When not traveling to exotic locales, she lives with her husband and five neurotic cats. The cats have resisted all her efforts to psychoanalyze them, but she remains optimistic.
She writes young adult novels, middle grade fiction and mysteries. She has sold 37 novels, and has made both the Waldenbooks, BookScan and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists. Mary’s latest book, Secrets of a South Beach Princess, is available now from Berkley Trade.
Q – Do you ever run out of ideas? If so, how did you get past that?
Mary Kennedy – I’ve always had “day jobs” and I find that my experiences usually show up in my books. I was Public Relations Director for a major travel company and that inspired me to write SECRETS and set it in South Beach. I’ve done some celeb interviews and visited lots of Hollywood sets and that’s how I got the idea for TALES. As they say, “everything is material.”
Q – What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Mary Kennedy – Do you mean besides becoming a writer? Just kidding! I once showed up on a movie set with a bad case of the flu and 104 temperature. They were shooting all night, 10 hours in the freezing cold. I had a four line role in the film and I was determined not to miss my chance. In hindsight, it seems pretty crazy but at the time it made perfect sense to me.
Q – What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Mary Kennedy – Well, I wish I could say the money, but I’m afraid that’s not the case. A lot of writers say it’s the flexibility and being able to set your own hours, but I’ve always done that anyway. I’m a licensed psychologist, which allows me to have a very flexible schedule.
Q – What is your favorite word?
Mary Kennedy – Courage.
Q – What is your least favorite word?
Q – What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Mary Kennedy – Working with animals is enormously inspiring–I can’t imagine not having pets in my life. Volunteering with rescue organizations is also very important to me.
Q – What turns you off?
Q – What is your favorite curse word?
Mary Kennedy – You don’t really expect me to say that, do you?
Q – What sound or noise do you love?
Q – What sound or noise do you hate?
Mary Kennedy – Gunshots.
Q – What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Q – What profession would you not like to do?
Q – If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive?
Mary will be using her psychology experience to teach OCC/RWA’s April Online Class is INSIDE THE CRIMINAL MIND: CREATING THE PERFECT PSYCHOPATH.
Her class will run from April 16 to May 13 (four weeks). COST: $20 for OCC members and $30 for non-member. Enrollment deadline is April 14, 2007.
For more information about the class including how to enroll, please see our website http://occrwa.com/classes_April.htm
Part one of Mary’s interview was posted yesterday.
Author Interview with Mary Kennedy -part one
March 31, 2007 by Marianne H. Donley in category Archives tagged as Author Interview
by Marianne Donley
Mary Kennedy is a multi-published author, and a clinical psychologist in private practice on the east coast. She specializes in forensic work, and her clients have included murderers, psychopaths and convicted felons. When not traveling to exotic locales, she lives with her husband and five neurotic cats. The cats have resisted all her efforts to psychoanalyze them, but she remains optimistic.
She writes young adult novels, middle grade fiction and mysteries. She has sold 37 novels, and has made both the Waldenbooks, BookScan and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists. Mary’s latest book, Secrets of a South Beach Princess, is available now from Berkley Trade.
Q – Do you find yourself returning to certain themes in your stories? What? Why?
Mary Kennedy – I do return to fish-out-water themes because I find it adds ready-made conflict to the plot. In Secrets of a South Beach Princess, my latest Berkley book, the heroine is blonde, rich and famous. She’s the “It” girl of South Beach, the daughter of a wealthy hotel owner. Yet even though her life is all “glitz and glamour” she never feels quite at home in this environment and strives for a new identity.
Jessie, in Tales of a Hollywood Gossip Queen, is another example. She’s a small town girl who finds herself working for an A-List magazine in Hollywood, interviewing stars on the red carpet and mingling with celebs. Yet she never quite fits in, and sometimes her small town values put her at odds with the Hollywood “players.”
The interesting part about fish-out-of-water stories is that you have to decide whether the main character blends in with her new environment, assimilating new values, or whether she stays true to her roots. And sometimes it’s a combination of both!
Q – You’ve written so much…how do you keep your ideas and writing fresh? (How do you keep finding new ways to say similar things?)
Mary Kennedy – I think that’s part of the challenge of writing–to explore familiar themes with a new twist. And sometimes even a very simple idea can develop into a complex plot if you remember to “up the ante” for the main character. In Confessions of an Almost-Movie Star, Jessie is thrust into the limelight when she lands a movie role opposite a Hollywood hunk –but there’s a price to pay when she realizes her best friend wanted the same part. Instant conflict!
Q – Do you have any writing rituals? Schedule?
Mary Kennedy – I don’t have a writing schedule but I make sure every minute I spend at the computer counts! I started out as a copywriter at a rock radio station, and I learned to write an enormous amount of material every day in spite of constant noise and distractions. I moved on to become a television newswriter and that was great training,too. A high-pressure environment, killer deadlines, no second-guessing. You learn to write fast, to be focused and productive, and to not make mistakes.”
Q – What kind of writer are you? A page a day or a burst writer?
Mary Kennedy – I try to write a scene every time I sit down at the computer. And I try to never leave the computer unless I feel good about what I’ve written and unless I know what the next couple of scenes will be like. It’s hard to go to bed if you know you have a “problem” waiting for you when you get back to the computer the next day. It’s much better to know you’ll be able to tackle a new scene–and a new problem–in the morning.”
Q – Are there any words of inspiration on your computer, in your office or in your mind when you write?
Mary Kennedy – “Never give up and never let them get you down.” Also, “Never accept a ‘no’ answer from someone who doesn’t have the authority to say yes.” Both these phrases have been helpful to me in business, in writing and in life.
Q – What’s the best advice you ever received?
Mary Kennedy – The never let them get you down quote. It came from my father who believed in the power of persistence.
Q – What’s the worst?
Mary Kennedy – My fifth grade teacher who told me she didn’t think comedy was my forte.
Q – Have you ever suffered writer’s block? If so, how did/do you get past it?
Mary Kennedy – No, honestly, I haven’t. Taping the Visa bill to the fridge is amazingly energizing.
Q – How do you stay motivated? What drives you to keep writing?
Mary Kennedy – Like all writers, I have dozens of characters and plots running in my head at any given time. Every once in a while I decide that one of them deserves to be in a book. To date, that has only happened thirty-seven times but who knows?
Q – What are you dying to try next?
Mary Kennedy – I’d love to write for television, but since Hollywood isn’t calling, I guess I’ll have to put that at the bottom of my wish list. More realistically, I’d like to put my forensic psychology experience into a book.
Mary will be using her psychology experience to teach OCC/RWA’s April Online Class is INSIDE THE CRIMINAL MIND: CREATING THE PERFECT PSYCHOPATH.
Her class will run from April 16 to May 13 (four weeks). COST: $20 for OCC members and $30 for non-member. Enrollment deadline is April 14, 2007.
For more information about the class including how to enroll, please see our website http://occrwa.com/classes_April.htm
Part two of Mary’s interview will be posted tomorrow.
0 0 Read moreIndustry Spotlight: Selina McLemore
March 30, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Industry Spotlight.
by Dana Diamond
By now we’ve all heard about Warner Books changing its name to Grand Central Publishing. But have you heard about Selina McLemore?
A recent addition to the Grand Central Publishing team, and because she’s so fabulous she discovered one of my all-time favorite authors Mary Castillo, I wanted to know her thoughts on everything from how to get to the top of her slush pile to how much she really cares about author blogs. Along the way, I also found out her favorite all-time book and just what an editor does for fun…aside from reading.
Q – As you just moved to Grand Central Publishing, can you talk about what drew you to them and makes you so excited to work for them?
A – What I have always liked about GCP (the publisher formerly known as Warner) is that they are highly selective about who they publish, and once a project has been acquired everyone is fully committed to making it a success. This is a group of people who truly love books, and their passion for their work is evident in their lists. In addition to GCP being an environment I wanted to work in, it also offered me the opportunity to pursue a long-time personal interest: books for Latinas
Q – What lines are you acquiring for?
My primary focus is to develop our list of high-quality commercial fiction for the Latina audience–specifically English-dominant Latinas living in the US. There are no rigid rules in terms of word counts or content guidelines; I’m looking for richly crafted, culturally significant stories with vibrant voices and dynamic characters worthy of the strong women we’re creating these books for.
Additionally, I’m continuing to work on romance and general women’s fiction. Essentially I get to work on everything I love to read–you can’t get luckier than that!
Q – What is the best way to get to the top of your slush pile?
A – Start with a bang. I think writing a great query letter is one of a writer’s hardest tasks. You have to a lot do to and very little space in which to do it. So know exactly what your hook is and put it up front.
Q – What is the best way to get to the bottom of your slush pile?
A – Emailing me a query without an explicit invitation to do so (you really don’t want to be the person whose large file crashes my server). Sending me a full manuscript without querying me first (my desk is not a party for your 600 page manuscript to crash). Sending me something I’ve turned down before UNLESS I’ve asked you to revise and resubmit (moving to a new house doesn’t mean I left my memory at the old one.) I think I’ll stop now so I have room to answer the other questions…
Q – How much do you pay attention to author blogs when acquiring fiction? Platforms?
A – Blogs are tricky. Generally speaking, I don’t consider a blog alone a platform. True, we’ve seen some bloggers become bestselling authors, but more often than not, that doesn’t happen. That said, I do read blogs in search of new voices and will email bloggers I like to see if they are working on novels. I encourage my authors to start blogs because I think they are a great way for connecting with readers. And, should I publish your book, I always tell sales, marketing and publicity about your blog so that we can incorporate it into our strategy.
In terms of acquisition, sure, platform is important, especially in a competitive market. But no new writer should start deleting files for fear that her lack of platform will forever keep her from selling her book. If I love your writing it won’t matter to me that you don’t have an extensive backlist or a TV show or aren’t a celebrity.
Q – Do you have a favorite/interesting story about how you acquired a manuscript?
A – This is like asking a mother if she has a favorite child. Sure, we all know she probably does, but saying so would make the others feel bad.
Q – What is the biggest mistake you see established authors make in their careers?
A – Trying to jump on a certain trend bandwagon even when it plays against their personal strengths. Every author, new or established, should know her strengths–and her weaknesses. If you’re best at writing character-driven relationship novels, but know plotting is more of a challenge for you, don’t try to write a fast-paced mystery just because you heard those were “hot”. If you’re voice is naturally sweet and funny, don’t suddenly decide to write something gritty and dark because you saw it worked for someone else. I recommend that any established author thinking of changing direction should discuss it with her editor and agent first.
Q – Aside from reading, what are some of your favorite ways to spend your day off?
A – How many times did you have to ask this question before realizing you needed to start with “Aside from reading…”?
I’m a people watcher, and now that it’s getting nice out, one of my favorite places to sit and do that is my fire escape. I realize to those of you with houses and yards that must sound odd, but trust me, it’s great. I live on a particularly bustling, semi-famous street in Greenwich Village, so there is always something interesting happening. And my fire escape is an ideal place to observe without being observed.
Q – Can you name a few of your all-time favorite books and why you love them?
A – Recently a friend recommended a book to me by saying “This will remind you of why you love reading.” The book was I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, (best known in the US for 101 Dalmatians) originally published in 1948. If you ask me what it’s about, my answer would be vague: two sisters, their family, their life, love, anticipation. I suppose I could call it a coming-of-age novel, but that tag tends to solicit an eye roll when used. But my friend was exactly right; the book made me remember why I love reading. I was completely engaged at every single moment. Not a word is wasted. The characters feel completely original and also completely timeless. The focus is always on the present moment, on living, experiencing, surviving the now. It’s become my little black dress of book–perfectly suited for me every time.
For extras from my interview with Selina, be sure to check out her hilarious answers to the Ten Questions. Grand Central Publishing prefers agented submissions. Send to:
Grand Central Publishing
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Dana Diamond is Co-Media Director for OCC/RWA, a contributor to OCC’s e-zine A Slice Of Orange, and hard at work on her next book.
For Dana’s past interviews with New York Times Bestselling authors and other industry professionals visit the Orange Blossom section of OCC’s award-winning website.
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