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Going in Blind

No, this isn’t about my pansting tendencies…I’m about to hit my first conference. In fact, I leave a week from tomorrow (Tuesday).

And no, I’m not going in blind-blind. The super wonderful and most excellent Lynn Raye Harris has seen that I’ve been given a full rundown, and I will be rooming with the awsomely fabulous Lisa Hendrix (Check out her Immortal Brotherhood series…wow!) and she’s a conference veteran. But, no matter how many tips I read, no matter how many conference survival lists I peruse…the fact is, I’m about to be the country mouse in the big city, so to speak.

I’ve squeezed a lot of life into my twenty-four years. Five years of marriage, three gorgeous kids and four books sold, but something I haven’t done a lot of is…traveling. (can a Presents writer even admit that?)

Combined with the fact that I’m leaving my hubby and kids for the first time, and the fact that it’s my first conference…well, it’s a lot of new!

So here’s Maisey’s newbie survival guide, by someone who has no idea what’s going to happen, for someone who has no idea what’s going to happen:

1. Clothes: Uh…I might wear these. Oh, and these are cute too. And I like this…I’ll bring them all. (this ends with me putting the entire contents of my closet into a bag)

2. Airports: I looked them up. And there are maps. I studied the maps so I know where my gates are, how to get to the shuttle etc (remember now, I live in a town with a one terminal airport…so Orlando and Denver? Whole new world) And when I get to the airports I’ll know exactly where I…*snicker* no, this is where I’ll realize I was looking at the maps upside down and I’m now all disoriented. Then I beg someone for directions.

3. Getting there and interacting with people: Okay, this I’ve got, people are my thing. And in some ways, I may have exaggerated the country mouse thing, since I went to a church that had 5,000 memebers for…well….19 years. So lots of people in a small space? Great. I’m the rare writer extrovert.

Anyway, be nice. To everyone. This is usually followed up by “Because they could become the next Nora, or the next big acquisitions editor”. But I say, be nice just to be nice. Also, don’t talk about people behind their backs, because, inevitably they’ll be standing behing YOUR back when you say it. This is something I learned in jr. high.

Also, don’t fawn all over the big name authors. They’re just people. But you can fawn over me, and you can bring me a fruity drink. And five dollars. (ha…I’m sure you know…I’m absolutely kidding)

4. Disneyworld: Have mouse ears, will travel. And I’ll be eating lunch in Cinderella’s castle.

5. Enjoy. If the tight schedule stresses you out…loosen it a little bit. This is supposed to be a great networking/learning/social experience, and if you’re too strung out to enjoy it and take it all in, it won’t be worth much of anything but…well, a week of post-conference hangover, so to speak.

Hope to see many of you there!

Inspiration and more *delete* *delete* *delete*

Well, I don’t know if I mentioned here that last week I got some pretty hefty revisions on my proposal (The Russian) from my editor.

And today, I finished the partial. The new partial. Totally rewritten and a whole lot better than what I had the first time. So, proudly, I handed it to my husband to read and said ‘So? Whatdya think? Huh? What? What?’ and he said…’meh.’

*face palm*

So I sent it on to the sisters, who were a bit more enthusiastic, but still full of new suggestions. And their suggestions sparked…inspiration.

Totally new inspiration for the same characters. And now…well…that means *delete* *delete* *delete*. Forty pages of *delete*.

Hey, as long as I’m inspired, I do not fear the delete key. It’s that moment, that moment that’s like jumping out of an airplane and wondering if your chute will open, when someone says ‘yeah, that doesn’t work.’ and your mind is totally blank. No idea how to fix it. That’s what scares me.

But going into the big DELETE with inspiration? As Cuzco would say, “bring it on. Boooyah.”

Also, on another, kind of bummer-ish note, I just wanted to touch briefly on book piracy. Any piracy really. If you’re a reader, and you love the books, please do the right thing and support the authors by buying them legally. Writing is our job, the book is our product, not paying for that product is stealing. And it just kind of…sucks. :-/

Now I want to end on a high note… 😀 It’s just over a week until I leave for Orlando for Nationals! I’m super excited to meet my editor, my fellow Sassy Sister, Abbi, and a lot of the wonderful writers, both published, and un-published, I’ve met here on the interwebz!

If you’ll be at Nationals, let me know in the comments, and also, give me a hollah if you see me!

Chuffed

I have to say, it’s a scary thing sending your book out into the world. Of course I want my readers to enjoy what I write. That’s the whole point, after all!

So, I have to say, I’m very pleased to say I have one four star and three five star reviews on Mills and Boon UK (although one came from Jackie Ashenden…and she might be biased…)

And, I’ve been having SO much fun over the past three days while Emma Peterson read His Virgin Acquisition and tweeted her reactions to certain scenes.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I thank her for letting me experience her experiencing the book. LOL.

I was treated to gems such as: :Haha! How do you like that, Marco! The tables have been turned! Ha! #HisVirginAcquisition #SexyArrogantBastard

“U kno that heart tug feeling you get at a certain point in a book when ur heart/chest really hurts?…I’m at that part!”

She also pegged, dead on, that I like to torture my characters. 🙂

So, thanks, Emma! I really enjoyed that! And now I’ll close the day with a great big smile on my face.

And, and now I have to add the fabulous review Emma left on Good Reads!

What would you do to get what was rightfully yours? If you are Elaine you’d go to the man who bought your father’s company, the company that should be rightfully yours, and you’d proposition him.

It should have been a simple arrangement, one that would benefit them both but when gasoline meets a lit match nothing is simple about the explosion to follow.

His Virgin Acquisition is an originally awesome book that tugs at the heartstrings and not only has the reader suspending belief but convinces at the end there will absolutely be no chance for a happy ending.

Maisey Yates is definitely an author to keep an eye on.

My Fave Harlequin Categories (well…some of them)

Ooh…have been a bad little blogger…*blows dust off dashboard*…here we go…

I’m in a list mood tonight. I’m gonna make a list. A list of my fave all time, Harlequin Category romances. Do enjoy. 🙂

My top five list (which…well, it’s not in order):

5. Anything For You by Sarah Mayberry, Harlequin Blaze- Why do I love it? Friends to lovers is a storyline that gets me every time, and Sarah Mayberry did a wonderful job with Sam and Delaney. It’s funny, it’s sexy, and I just feel (every time I read it…and I’ve read it lots of times…) like they HAVE to be together, and with no one else. Ever.

4. The Ruthless Greek’s Virgin Princess by Trish Morey, Harlequin Presents/Modern- Why? The opening of the book had me hooked. And more than that, it had me utterly heartbroken for the heroine. Her botched attempt at sixteen to show the hero how much she loves him and his denial of her…it’s rare to find me welling up in the first pages of a book..but I did with this one.

3. The Sheikh’s Forbidden Virgin by Kate Hewitt, Harlequin Presents- *cries* it was so good. There’s nothing like a scarred hero, and Kate has a great one here. A man who is burdened by tragedy in his past and who needs redemption, but can only find it with the one woman he cannot have…*cries more*

2. The Antonakos Marriae by Kate Walker, Harlequin Presents- I just love the premise. And the execution. The heroine is determined to have one night of freedom and be with a man of her choice before she’s married off to an old man she doesn’t love…but she picks the wrong man…and it causes *lots* of trouble…

1. Expecting His Love-Child by Carol Marinelli, Harlequin Presents- The hero is perfect, so damaged and so lovable even in his damaged state. He doesn’t treat the heroine well at first…but it’s clear he simply doesn’t know how to treat people, and immediately after he does something wrong, it’s clear her wants to do it right. A powerful story. And I will never forget the painting the heroine did of her Autistic brother’s world. Very touching and personal to me.

So, that’s my list…what category books rock your socks?

On New News, Repeating Mistakes and Slumps

I’ve been around the interwebz, lurking on blogs (maybe yours!) and I’ve seen a lot of people who are very frustrating with this whole getting published process, and, even more, with themselves.

Now, this is a hard business. Writing requires you to invest your heart into something that you’ll likely have to tear apart (multiple times…holla!) and then it could still get rejected. So yeah, that right there, in a nutshell…well, that’s what hard is really. There’s no diminishing it, there’s no pretending it isn’t.

Getting revisions still takes the wind outta my sails, even though at this point I’m familiar with the process and I know they’re an inevitable part of the process I can’t, and shouldn’t, avoid.

I got revisions yesterday. And this brings me to the part about repeating mistakes, and people being hard on themselves for doing it. Guess what I did, guys? Guess! I didn’t have enough dialogue in my beginning. My heroine was limp and unbelievable and there was too much focus on the external elements. I’ve sold, and revised, four books before this one, and I still did all of that.

You don’t have to stop making mistakes to get published, you just have to be able to fix them. And you really can’t beat yourself up for it. Writing is a learning process, before the Call and far beyond it. Don’t expect to be perfect, just endeavor to be better than you were before. Take advice onboard, and…(and this brings us to the new news!) trust your voice.

We had a bit of news this week out of Romance HQ. I wasn’t terribly surprised to hear it, because it’s been in every revisions letter I’ve had to date, but this was sort of the official word:

The focus is to be on writers and their unique voice, the stories, focused on the characters on the central romance. (character, character, character, ya’ll…note to Maisey: character and not jewelry and private trains…mmkay?) The core promises of the line (glamour, passion, seduction) remain the same, and of course they want those alpha heroes and some modern, feisty heroines. (note: feisty does not mean, stomps her foot and thrusts her chin in the air at every opportunity)

So what does it mean and what does it come down to? Your voice is going to be what makes you stand out, pre and post publication. That means be you, don’t copy what you’ve seen other people do, don’t us an expression just because someone else uses it, don’t have your heroine give a cry if she wouldn’t. (guilty)

And as for ensuring your MS is character driven? This is what I’ve had to do: see what external elements can be stripped away. In the case of my Sheikh (Now titled The Inherited Bride) that meant: no terrorists, no threat on the princess’s life, no bouncing from one place to another to keep everyone and everything (except for the relationship…) moving. And when I lost all of that, I was left with the word count to just tell the story of my Sheikh and his Inherited Bride. (do you see what I did there?) I was able to take more time to explore their relationship, their conflicts, and how they were going to solve them, and grow together as a couple. And that’s a win, win, win!

Okay, got any new news for me? And what do you do when you’re thinking of giving up? And…well, it’s your comment, you can say what you want. 😉

Winners!

Okay, ya’ll, my very sexy husband has drawn names out of my iPad keyboard box (classy, yes?) and I have selected winners!! Now, I ended up drawing four names because I couldn’t just pick two…So each website has two winners!! Yay!!

The winners for the Sassy Sisters’ blog are: Anne and Kerrin!! 

And the winners for the Maisey Yates site are: Kristi and Lacey!!

And, I also had to give the early adopter award to Jannette because (other than Jackie…you don’t count…sorry Jackie.) she was first commenter on BOTH sites and I think she deserves a copy for her speediness! 🙂

Soooo…if you winners could contact me with the contact form over there on the sidebar so I can get your info and send books…that would awesome!!

If you didn’t win, I’m sorry. 🙁 Meh. I’m sad I couldn’t pick everyone! But we can still party over awesome covers and debut releases! Yay! Cyber champagne (and sparkling cider) all around!!

And also, please do enjoy this again: