It’s Worth It
August 10, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as It's Worth ItSTARTING OVER
Last month, my agent gave me notes on my latest novel. I’d turned in what I thought was “the†book – it was funny, in a subgenre that was selling well, and most importantly, it was a story I loved with a passion. This was the book I thought would be my breakout work.
Instead, I’m going to have to do a page-one rewrite.
It’s embarrassing to admit, but the quick-to-be-emotional nature that helps me write romances brought a quick rush of tears at the news. I took a few deep breaths, washed my face and waited until the next day to think about it. I saw where my agent was coming from and agreed with her. But still, I was going to have to start over.
From the beginning.
My first thought was that I’d completely wasted a year of my life. My second was that if I’d known I would suck as a writer, I wouldn’t have spent last year in another country stuck in my tiny cockroach-infested apartment. I would’ve been out seeing the country!
My third thought went somewhere along the lines of “Get over it!†(I might not have been that nice though.)
My head agreed that the book would benefit from the changes. My heart wasn’t there yet.
It’s been a few weeks now and I’ve done a lot of brainstorming, taken pages and pages of new notes, and created a brand new (empty) file for the new version. A few days ago, I finally “got it.†The story is coming fast and furious now – and it’s so much better than the initial version that I don’t even know how to compare the two. And THAT is exciting!
Starting over is rarely easy – new book, new job, new home. But if you look for it, you’ll always be able to find something that makes you say, “It’s worth it.â€
Kitty Bucholtz writes romantic comedies because, well, she lives one! She wrote her first book in the NBC cafeteria, the second snowed in at a Reno hotel, and the third from a tiny apartment in Sydney. Even though she loves talking about, writing about, and teaching about writing, she’s pretty sure she knows at least three people who aren’t writers.
A Writer’s Life: If I Were A Man, I Never Would’ve Gotten Any Action
August 10, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as A Writer's LifeBecause in my 20’s, I had a real problem with asking for what I wanted.
I remember the very first query letter I wrote to Harlequin Silhouette. I was almost apologizing for wasting their time in asking them to consider my book. Admittedly, it wasn’t a great book but you think after all the nights and lunch hours I spent on that thing that I would’ve been a better advocate than that.
As time wore on, I wanted to be published so badly that it became my life purpose to sell Hot Tamara. Maybe I was tired of rejection, or just getting ornery as I approached my thirties. Whatever the case, I began thinking about why I should be published as opposed to why I shouldn’t. When I wrote that fateful query letter to Harper Collins, I shook my moneymaker, baby. I was damn proud of that story. Having reread the letter recently, there’s a chutzpah to it even though the book had already been rejected by ten agents.
The thing is, when you finally climb up into the realm of publishing, you have to keep on asking for what you want. You have to risk that someone will tell you no, which then requires that you do some fancy footwork to change their mind, or maneuver around them. Even though I consider myself to be moderately ballsy, I still squirm just a little bit when I ask my agent to do something on my behalf, or my readers to buy my next book.
When I hesitate, I remember that no one else will do it for me … unless of course, I ask them to.
Mary Castillo is the author of In Between Men and Hot Tamara. Her website is www.marycastillo.com.
My Keeper Shelf
August 9, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Keeper ShelfBy Monica Stoner
The keeper shelf for an eclectic reader can be a thing of wonder and mystery. You wonder how one person can possibly enjoy all these different books. Dick Francis sits next to Julie Garwood and one shelf up from Laurie Berenson. Anne McCaffery overflows onto Suzanne Brockmann’s spot and Nora Roberts fills in the non existent holes. Ayn Rand lives next shelf up from Laurie R. King. And that’s just the fiction bookshelf. Non fiction covers canine structure and health, herbs, raptors, all phases of horsemanship through the ages and organic gardening (did you know just having the books doesn’t make you an organic gardener? You actually have to get out a shovel and DIG.)
Most of these books are allowed out on loan to people who can pass a government level security check. After all, they’re just books, right? Yeah, right.
Then there’s the “real” keeper shelf. Books tattered and torn, spines carefully taped over, and pages brittle with age. Here you find Andre Norton, who did more for fantasy writing than any ten other authors. Laura London – surely you’ve read Windflower? Have you found Lighting that Lingers, probably the most romantic book of all times? Remember the owl? Remember her loving him even though she just knew he was a bad, bad person?
And here, also, you find Theresa Weir. Not just the wonderful bigger books like Last Summer (bad boy actor and small town school teacher), Cool Shade (an agoraphobic former rock star and an insecure DJ), Bad Karma (a for-real psychic and a disillusioned sheriff who’s forgotten how to dream), Amazon Lily (the ultimate jungle romance); but also the smaller books, where every word is a treasure, and you only wish the book could last forever. Loving Jenny, about ordinary people in an ordinary small town where we all wish we could live.
It’s no wonder I can’t settle down to one style of writing, or confine myself to one era. Right after I read Saving Grace for the umpteenth time, I pick up a perfectly crafted mystery set among horses in England, only to move on to a perfect love story about ordinary people who live ordinary lives but love each other extraordinarily. Maybe I could write more if I boxed up all these books out of sight, but I’m not going to risk my sanity with that kind of experiment!
BBB Awards
July 13, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category ArchivesThe Book Buyers’ Best Awards Ceremony was held last night in the OCC Hospitality Suite.
The winners are:
Series Short Contemporary
THE SINS OF HIS PAST by Roxanne St. Claire
Series Long Contemporary
A CANDLE FOR NICK by Lorna Michaels
Single Title Romane & Single Title with Romantic Elements
PERFECT WEAPON by Amy J. Fetzer
Historical & Regency
(tie)
LADY X’S COWBOY by Zoe Archer
TEMPTING JULIANA by Lauren Royal
Romantic Suspense & Mystery with Romantic Elements
DEAD SILENCE by Brenda Novak
Paranomal/Time Travel/Fantasy
CAPTIVE MOON by C.T. Adams & Cathy Camp
The winners of the two Top Picks by our Book Buyers –
BORDERS TOP PICK
SINS OF HIS PAST by Roxanne St. Claire
LEVY TOP PICK
DEAD SILENCE by Brenda Novak
THINGS THAT MAKE ME GO MMMRUH!
July 12, 2007 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Things That Make Me Go Mmmruh
by Geralyn Ruane
Taking Back the Magic
The water in my Sam’s Club backyard pool looks green, feels suspiciously silky and comes up only a little higher than my waist. Not exactly Bel Aire luxury, but so what? In this blistering sauna of summer in the Valley, I flop around my pool with the abandon of a breaching whale. I let the chlorinated water buoy me, engulf me, and go up my nose! Mmmruh!
I HAVE SUMMER BACK!
Fourteen years ago, I lost it. I graduated, got a job, and became an official grown-up. No more breaks from school. JuneJulyAugust became nothing more than a block of ordinary days during which I had to crank the AC in my car. Like Jackie Paper, I let my beloved magic slip away through neglect.
But one good dunking in my improperly pH-balanced pool opened the flood-gates to all the mmmruh! I’ve been missing:
The smells of freshly cut grass, sunblock, and hot dogs getting crispy on a neighbor’s grill – mmmruh!
The sounds of fireworks, laughing, whistles and splashing – mmmruh!
The taste of an ice cream cone, a lover’s sweat-salty skin, or a combination of both – mmmruh!
The carefree feelings of reading in a shady hammock, eating supper outside, or wearing nothing but a bathing suit all day – mmmruh!
Now that I’m awake, I can bite into the succulence of summer almost anywhere. The flavor rolls across my tongue, sweet and fresh, and so, so familiar.
The sight of a young woman taking her little girl to the Community Pool, reminding me of how Mom used to pack the four of us kids into the car and drive forever, just so we could spend the day swimming at the State Park – mmmruh!
Geralyn Ruane’s had a crush on MacGyver since the middle school, and these days she channels all that fantasy energy by by writing 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.
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