Blog

Ramblings About Things

I’ve been a lax blogger, I know. I like to blog more than this, but it seems like the past two weeks if I’ve been at the keyboard I’ve been working furiously on a book which, you know, *is* what they pay me for so that’s reasonable, I guess. But a lot has happened this week! Which means this post will be a collection of my thoughts on things.

1. My friend and CP Jackie Ashenden has signed a three book deal with Entangled publishing. She’s also got MORE things going on. And I just wanted to hold her up for a moment as an example of what happens when you keep trying. I know it wasn’t easy for her, and she went through the ringer with rejections, but she kept going. Not only did she keep going, she took editorial feedback on board and made herself a better writer. She was always good, trust me, I’ve been reading her MSs for nearly three years now. But she spent time working, learning craft, getting better and WRITING during her waits and after her rejections.

That’s what my other CP and Indulgence author Robyn Thomas did too. She has her debut out with Entangled in July. She had her rejections, but she got back on the horse continually, with renewed determination.

And there’s my other CP Rachael Johns, whose single title rural romance is out in Australia this month with Harlequin Australia. She worked for that, she whether rejection got this success. And I think every one of them would tell you that in the end, it’s worth it, and that persistence pays off. *beats persistence drum harder*

2. Tendonitis sucks rocks. When I write as much as I have been writing, I really struggle with it, and after I finished this last Presents I was in pretty hideous pain. So when I decided I was going to write a novella during the wait time on the Presents, my tendons cried.

BUT I made a pact with myself NOT to write at the computer in the living room because I know it irritates my wrists. And then I went out and bought an Apple Magic Trackpad for the computer in my office, because my mouse hand was getting particularly bad. This has helped TONS. I can angle it and put my little gel pad under my wrist and I don’t sit there making Claw Hand while I scroll through pages and pages of MS. If you’re having mouse hand problems, I recommend giving this a shot. 

Also, I recommend adjusting the height of your chair, getting an ergonomic keyboard and a rest for your wrists. Because dangit, it doesn’t get better, it gets worse. I’m twenty-six and having these problems so I know I have to stay on it or I’ll be in surgery.

So I’m making an effort to take better care of me.

3. Author copies never get old. I always love seeing a physical copy of my book.

4. I had a book out in Thailand. Found that out when I got my royalty statement. I think that’s basically the coolest thing I can think of. I’d love a copy.

5. It’s nice to write something different. Presents is my favorite thing to write. I love alpha males and angst and deep, dark conflict and emotion. But my last two Presents in particular were total bears and they were VERY dark, so I’m working on a rom com right now that’s been a nice palate cleanser. I like humor, and it’s been fun to sit down and let that fly. If you’re ever stuck, or not enjoying what you’re working on, I think doing something wildly different can help get your head in the game again.

6. Waiting sucks. I feel like waiting is my actual profession. It’s not just writing either. We’re waiting to hear back on an offer we put in on a house and it’s been two weeks.

7. Worrying about things (like the above) doesn’t change the outcome, and it only gives you heartburn.

8. Keeping glasses on a 2yo is hard work.

9. There are as many story ideas as there are people. When your books are character focused, new ideas will always be there, because even if you tackle a similar plot, it will be totally different depending on the characters you populate the story with.

10. Liege Waffles are my new favorite thing. Why do they have to be so bad for you? (pictured is the strawberry  lemonade waffle I got at a food cart on my anniversary trip to Portland with the husband)

11. No matter what’s going on, I’m thankful I have my family. They are the best. My parents have been a support all my life, my husband has been fantastic from the moment I met him and continues to be my helpmeet in every area of my life. My kids cause endless trouble but they make me a better person and a better writer. My brother still makes me act like a kid, and he always pulls me into bickering with me. I’m still sad that he moved. But I’m proud of him and his new job.

12. If I didn’t have a crock pot, my family would probably never get dinner.

If you stuck with my list this far, you are a trooper. 🙂 Those are my thoughts for the week,  hopefully there was something useful in there.

A Tale of Two Heroes

I’m going to try not to be unbearable over the next few months as I gear up for SO MANY RELEASES ZOMG #(*%^&49Y!!!

As it is, I have two books hitting the M&B UK site on June 1st. (Stores in the UK June 15th, and 1st of July…then I have an August re-release of my debut in the UK in a two in one with Lynne Graham…and a Presents EXTRA coming in the US…and a Sexy in Australia and and *ded*)

It’s interesting, the two books that are coming out in the UK right now. They are very different books with very different characters. Okay, the heroines are both processes. But in PRINCESS FROM THE SHADOWS (Santina Crown book 6) Carlotta Santina created a pretty major scandal and has spent the years since with her head down, raising her child on her own, and staying out of the spotlight. While Evangelina Drakos in A ROYAL WORLD APART is actively courting scandal in order to deter potential suitors!

In spite of her best effort to keep out of the center of the spotlight, and her family’s issues, Carlotta is dragged right back in when her sister runs off before her engagement to Prince Rodriguez Anguiano is announces…and Carlotta’s father suggest that she will make an excellent replacement.

Eva, on the other hand, has Makhail Nabatov forced on her after giving one too many security guards the slip. Mak is put in charge of keeping an eye on the scandalous princess. After all, his reputation is impeccable and to Mak, honor and duty trump everything else.

The heroines are quite different from each other, although, deep down I think what they both want is something of a normal life outside of the expectations of others. Eva is trying to shake the bonds of responsibility by forcing her father to wash his hands of her. And Carlotta has already experienced what it is to make a mistake and fall out of favor, and now all she wants is to be left alone.

Rodriguez and Mak on the other hand were two VERY different men. I think these two blurbs from each book…sort of sum it up. Here we have Rodriguez, talking sex with his new fiancee Carlotta:

“And lust? What are your feelings on lust?” The teasing light in his eyes was gone again, replaced by something dangerous, that intense darkness she’d sense in him earlier.

“Lust is unnecessary, certainly nothing to overturn one’s life for.”

“Lust keeps things interesting,” he said.

“And what’s the point of lusting after a husband who intends on taking other women to his bed?” she asked, her words clipped.

“That’s only sex. Sex is cheap, Carlotta.”

She laughed. “Sex has always been very expensive for me. But then, I suppose that’s how it is for women.”

And a scene with Mak talking to Eva about the same subject:

I’ll bet you say that to all the women,” she said.

He felt his muscles tense, his fingers curling into her back. There was no easy way to have the conversation they would have to have tonight. But she was owed his honesty. She was giving him her body, and she deserved to know.

This was the conversation he’d never wanted to have. And yet, somehow, with Eva, it didn’t seem so impossible.

“There have been no other women.” He watched her face, waiting for his words to sink in, for her to understand. Waiting to see if she would be horrified. If she would want to stop.

Her dark eyes widened. “That’s not possible.”

“It is. When you’re married for over ten years to a wife who is incapable. And when you refuse to violate your marriage vows, no matter what.”

“And for the past year?”

“I haven’t been ready to seek anyone out. I haven’t wanted anyone.” He touched her face, traced the line of her brow, her nose, her lips. “Until you.” 

As you can see, two very different guys with very different takes on life and love and lust. And I have to say, I ended up loving them both. Mak is my kinda guy for sure. A man with a serious streak of honor, who tries to protect everyone and has sacrificed everything for the needs of others. Rodriguez was a continuity hero, so he came to me with a bit of his background already written. He’s NOT the kind of hero I normally gravitate towards. If you’ve read my books, you know my heroes aren’t often playboys.

But the thing is, I ended up loving Rodriguez. I loved getting in his head. Understanding this man who had come from a childhood filled with so much pain that he’s spent his adulthood escaping it by chasing shallow pleasure. He loves women, he respects them, even, but he’s afraid of having meaningful connections.

So I have two very different offerings for you. I have Untouched Hero, and I have Hot Rod. Whatever tickles your fancy. Or hey, you could even have both. Variety IS the spice of life.

The Saga of Superbad Sheikh and…Where Are My Cookies?

I don’t know what just happened to me. I feel like my brain got zapped into a gelatinous goo. I blame Superbad Sheikh. So…I DO know what just happened to me!! Superbad SHEIKH happened!

This was not an easy book. Not even so much because it was emotional. I kind of WISH that’s why it was hard. It was more that, for some reason, it took me the whole book to really nail down what the HECK was up with Superbad. I mean, I knew in a sense. I knew how he was. But WHY he was that way kept changing on me.

I had this scene with him in the desert and it was meant to be SO angsty and it was him, roaring to the heavens and railing against the world because of the THING THAT HE HAD DONE. And I was like HECKS YEAH MAN!!! And one of my CPs read it and was like: That wasn’t IT was it?

O>O … well…no. I don’t supposed it was. DARN YOU, SUPERBAD SHEIKH!

So I had to go back and fiddle with that. And then as I got further in, I realized that I was still under serving the issue.

Part of the problem with this book, I think, was that I came at it with the external conflict being foremost in my mind. That’s partly because my editor asked me to write a duet with two books that shared a common theme, and partly because I got a hook in my head that I couldn’t quite shake. And while I managed to create the heroine all right, and not put the external stuff way before character, with the sheikh, I had a harder time.

He was a more closed off character, which didn’t help. He wasn’t putting it all on the page for me, the heroine OR the reader to see. For some reason, I just had a mental fog with him.

At about 47K I had a breakthrough. Pathetic, no? Then I went through the book and did some tweaking and it’s now been turned in at a whopping 53K which…for me is very long pre-revision.

This is going to be a serious, cookie-eating wait, my friends. I worked really hard at mining his conflict, and I THINK I found it, but it will be interesting to get my editor’s take on it and see if I went deep enough. It was an odd process, finding the story and then going through and, after all that groundwork was laid, finding the character. And because it worked that way, I had a hard time seeing how the pieces all formed one in the end.

Pass me the chocolate chip.

Fortunately, while I wait, I’ll have a lot to work on! I’m toying with the idea of another novella, and there will be, of course, another Presents in the works soon!

*eats cookies*

Just Keep Swimming

Perseverance –

Noun

1. Steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc, especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles or discouragement.

2. (Particularly for writers) The act of banging one’s head against a keyboard, swilling vodka, proclaiming that this time you REALLY DO QUIT. Then starting all over again.

I’m becoming convinced that perseverance is one of the most important things a writer can have. Because no matter how talented you are, in this business, you will hear no. You’ll hear it a lot. And when it’s not no, you might hear ‘your heroine is an idiot. Fix her.’ And you’ll have to do it. Sometimes you’ll hear ‘your entire MS is totally jacked up. start over’ and you’ll have to.

Doors will close in your face, and you have to go away, create a new reason to knock on it, and stand outside until you get let in.

There are no guarantees in this business, which should be no surprise to anyone since live in general comes with no guarantees. Well…no…that’s not true. I DO have a guarantee for you: If you quit, you won’t make it.

That’s a simple one! And it’s true.

That is the only way to guarantee an outcome in this business (or anything!). Stop trying. But the minute you do that, you reject yourself. As much as it sucks to get a rejection from someone else, rejecting yourself is just harsh!

I once heard it put this way: Don’t make the editor’s (or agent’s!) decision for them by not submitting.

There’s risk involved in perseverance. You risk rejection. Rejection can knock you on your butt. Rejection may require you take to your bed with a cool compress and David Gandy. That’s fine. Be mad. Wail about it. To your husband, your mom, your critique partners (NOT TO THE EDITOR OR AGENT). But then, get up again. Gird your loins. If it helps, look to the heavens and shout I AM LOKI OF ASGARD AND I AM BURDENED WITH GLORIOUS PURPOSE!!! (I mean, or don’t. But you could.)

And then keep going. As Dory put it, just keep swimming. Even when you feel like you’re swimming upstream, do it. Ask a salmon, it’s possible.

Or, if you don’t want to ask a salmon, as someone who kept going. I know a few people who were perilously close to giving up, who nearly didn’t submit that last MS…who then sold it.

This is a game of perseverance. No matter where your at in the process, it simply is. Rejection still happens even after you’ve gotten accepted. Perseverance still required.

In the end, it’s the perseverance that often separates those who make it from those who don’t. And perseverance is in your control.

So, go on. Put your war helmet on and kick some literary butt, baby. Today could be your day. But it won’t be if you just sit down and stop trying. That’s why you have to keep swimming.

Stuck in the Middle With Superbad Sheikh

Superbad Sheikh is living up to his name and being a gigantic pain in my butt. Well, it’s not just him. It’s my heroine too. Now, she’s adorable, and I love her, but I gave her a specialty that is um…not my specialty.

My heroine from Mr. Personality was this kooky, left-handed artist who liked glitter and shoes, and I felt like we had a mind meld. I *got* her man. She was so very relatable to me.

Chloe, on the other hand…is not. She’s a science brain. And I, my friends, am not a science brain. The thing is, I feel like someone’s passion colors the way they see the world.

Like Ella from Highest Price to Pay, she was a fashion designer and when she described color in her mind, it was very specific. Because for her, the variations in shade mattered. Noelle, from Girl on a Diamond Pedestal heard music, was very conscious of rhythm and tempo, because music was her passion. Ella and Noelle’s views of life were somewhat intuitive for me to write. I’m a left-handed artist type myself.

I’m NOT a scientist, so getting into the groove of Chloe’s thoughts has been challenging. Fun, but challenging.

And then there’s Superbad Sheikh. Oh, Superbad Sheikh. *beats him about the head*

He’s hard!!!! Mainly because his character is taking me in a direction I haven’t gone before, and it’s going to be very interesting to write.

But I’m going to try to remember some of my own advice: When it scares me, I promise to push even harder, go even deeper with it. When it hurts, I’ll make it hurt more. And when it feels like I’ve gone too far, I’ll go further.

And hopefully, I’ll get past the middle one of these days!

Make it Sustainable

There are a lot of opinions out there about how many words you should write a day. How fast. How many hours you should spend in your office, hunched over your keyboard, banging out words until your finger joints lock up. About what the perfect balance is between writing and life, and how often you should stop and sip from the well of sparkalay creative magic that imbues you with the power to continue on.

I personally think the answers to all of those questions if completely subjective. It’s going to be different for every person.

The question I ask myself isn’t so much ‘how much should I do? How much should I not do?’ it’s ‘what is sustainable for me?’ I think it’s important to know yourself. In fact, I think very often when making business decisions the key is knowing yourself. What will make you happy. What will make you comfortable. And what will make you have an extreme meltdown of epic proportions and curl up into a ball of angst, never to unball.

I think periods of stress are normal. Periods of taking on way more than you can handle are…normal. I don’t care if you’re talking writing or a different sort of job, or family life. This past few weeks has been like that for me in terms of family. My mother, who helps me a lot with the kids, was gone for two weeks, at the same time my husband was working extra hours. And then just a couple of days after she got home, we all traveled north to help my brother move into his first place (which is hours and hours from us!! SOB) and in between that I had a few specialty Dr appointments for the kids, planned a going away party for my brother, and dealt with a sick kid.

THANK GOD that’s not my life every day. I could handle it, because it wasn’t forever and I knew that. But the idea of doing that every day for…forever would defeat me pretty quickly!

I think writing is the same. There’s surges of insanity, sure, but I think it’s important that the general pace of it, and what you expect from yourself on a daily basis, isn’t going to fry your brain. And to answer what the right pace is means looking at yourself, not other people.

It’s impossible, I think, to really get an idea of how much someone else is working and how much they have on their plate unless they walk you through their day. Which means it’s really impossible to try and hold yourself to what someone else is doing, or conversely, judge them for what you think they’re not doing.

I know I say this a lot but you have to look at yourself, and not others. It’s fine to get advice from other people, and it’s fine to try and change your process because you like the sound of someone else’s. Fine to increase your productivity or step it back. But it’s not fine when the angst over it becomes self-defeating.

It’s very difficult to write when you’ve had to move your personal homeland security threat level to red and your family is dodging you, trying to escape verbal execution. 

I’m all about competition. I have a competitive nature. But what I try to do is make myself my competition. I make my work, my productivity, or lack of it, my career choices, about me, and not about what someone else is doing. Taking on that mindset has really helped me eliminate a lot of stress. It helps to filter out the voices telling me: YOU SHOULD DO THIS, SHE DOES IT! Or…WHY DID SHE GET THAT AND I DIDN’T!? (notice I said it helps…it doesn’t eliminate. But hey, I’m only human. 😉 )

This isn’t a sprint. I would love to write until I die, and may that be many decades from now. That means finding happiness in what I do is REALLY REALLY important. That means enjoying my pace and workload is really, really important.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I encourage you to look at yourself, and how YOU can make things for workable for you. Because your life is your own, not anyone else’s. Shut out the outside influences for a bit (of which there is no shortage!) and ask yourself what YOU want. Your happiness is important. Don’t underestimate the importance of your well-being.

On Agents

I’ll say right up front: I don’t have a lot of experience in this business. It’s true. My book sales in category have been fast (thank God!) but I haven’t been around all that long. That said, this post is coming from my perspective and there will be other people who have more/deeper/different insight.

So, there’s the caveat. 😉

I submitted to Harlequin Mills & Boon via the slush pile at the London office. I didn’t have an agent or a single contact in that office, and when I sold, I did so without an agent. That meant reading the contract and making sure everything was all right, was up to me! Fortunately, some fellow Harlequin authors and my friend Lisa Hendrix, gave me some tips on what I might look out for and ask to have changed (I made minimal changes, and they were painless).

I’ve done six contracts with Harlequin now and I feel very comfortable working with them.

Because of the relationship I have with my editor at Harlequin, when I signed with my agent last year, I opted to keep the Harlequin work separate. So it’s interesting because I have an agent that handles things for me, and I’m also still doing some of it for myself. I am both with agent, and without. 😉

So with that in mind, here are some of my thoughts on being agented…and un-agented!

Without an agent…

1. You have to really be your own agent. And by that I mean: ask questions, negotiate, talk about money, ask for stuff. Not everyone is comfortable with that, and I totally get why. It can be UNCOMFORTABLE. But if that’s the road you take, it’s what you have to do.

2. If you’re unpublished, you have to make sure you’re following the guidelines for querying. Make sure you follow up on submissions, etc.

3. Be your own advocate. This sort of is the same as point one, but that’s really what it comes down to. Un-agented, you are your own advocate and you must take it seriously. (This requires taking yourself seriously as a business person…and you should!)

And now…What a good agent can do for you:

1. They know the market. They know who to submit your book to. They are familiar with different editors at different houses, what they like, what they don’t like.

2. They have a clear idea of where your voice will fit, because they have a clear, unbiased view of your voice.

3. They are your contact. Just one. You don’t have to keep in touch with every editor that has your work. And when you have things on multiple submissions? That is SO nice.

4. They are your advocate. They are on your side, not the publisher’s side. Their income is tied closely to yours and it is personally in their best interest for you to do well.

5. They handle the talk of money. (I have a hard time saying…look, I’d like more money. I DO it, because as I said, without an agent in one portion of my career, I need to. But I don’t like it.)

6. This isn’t a clear and concise point as much as me just saying I feel like it’s SO VALUABLE to have a good agent putting your work out there. They have all of the above knowledge, and they use it to your advantage. The amount of work my agent does for me…I don’t know how in the world I would do it with what’s already on my plate.

The key word here is Good Agent. You and your agent should share a vision, your agent should be excited about your work because…well, they have to go out there and sell it!

Having an agent doesn’t take away all of the business side of the job. You still have to pay attention to your contract. You still have to know what you want from the business. You STILL need to be your own advocate. But an agent relieves a lot.

So those are (some of) my observations from both sides. Any questions? Ask in the comments!

Conflict Exercise

“Paranormals are great to study, because they make all the metaphors real.  Do you feel like you might die, you love him so much?  Well, in a paranormal, you very well might, as it’s likely he’s some kind of scary thing with fangs who might chomp on you.  Paranormal characters have the advantage on non-paranormal ones in this sense, because when they get angry, they can literally let out the beast within in the middle of a fight.  You want to do the same in your writing, which may or may not feature supernatural creatures.” (Read the entire transcript of this amazing speech here)

This fabulous quote from Megan Crane during her panel at the Romantic Times Con was very impacting for me. It really got me thinking. And reading some paranormal. (Nalini Singh, in fact, who I was lucky enough to meet at RT and who is a very lovely Kiwi!)

So, I’m reading all this paranormal (The Psy-Changeling series, go buy them all. Now. Do it.) and I started thinking about how much Presents IS very like a paranormal. I’ve often described Presents as a Contemporary Historical, and I think in many ways that description holds.

Still, I’ve been struck recently by how many key points Paranormals and Presents often have in common. And taking paranormal themes and applying them to Presents is helping me find my way with conflict. (If you don’t write Presents, this exercise might still be helpful for you…and if you write paranormal, you can do this in reverse!)

Here are some commonalities I’ve been noticing between Paranormal and Presents:

1. Very often one of the characters (usually the heroine) is pulled out of her comfort zone, her world, and taken into the hero’s world.

2. Alpha heroes. Alpha heroes who play by their own rules!

3. Heroes with a lot of power. In Presents it’s the kind of power brought on by money and status, in Paranormals…it can be Telekinesis. 😉

4. “Fated Mates” This is often done in a literal way in paranormal, but in Presents you often have that concept. The woman he can’t get out of his mind, the only man to awaken her desires…

5. Tortured characters with big traumas in their pasts. Again, in paranormal, this torture is often literal. In Presents…it sometimes is. But it’s usually emotional.

I’ve also really been thinking about things the way Megan said…the literal vs the figurative version of a conflict. In a Paranormal, you might have a hero who fears that his power might actually kill the heroine. While in a Presents you might have a hero who fears his power (status?) might destroy the heroine in that it will stifle her. Or in a Paranormal you may have a hero who cannot love because he’s been programmed not to, and the heroine deserves more…while in a Presents you have the hero who can’t love because of pain in his past, and he knows he can’t give the heroine all she deserves. (See where I’m going with this?)

I find it a really fun exercise to analyze the conflict in a book that’s in a different sub-genre and try to see how it might fit in a different sub-genre. It helps you figure out what the CORE of the conflict is, I think, and helps you get a firm handle on the what the internal conflict between the characters really is.

So really, you can use the concept of this no matter WHAT you write.

I’m going to give an example of how you can play with this. If I take Nalini Singh’s Caressed by Ice (which you must read NOW BTW, I read it on Friday. In one day. It was that good.) and translate the heroes conflict (he’s afraid he can’t feel, can’t give the heroine what she needs, and that if he ever did, he might hurt her in a physical way as he can’t control his power) to a Presents I might end up with a hero very like Mak in A Royal World Apart, a man who’s shut off his ability to love because of a loss in his past, who is afraid to release his control and act based on emotion because when he did so in the past, his impulsive actions caused a terrible accident.

In the reverse, if I took my hero Stavros from At His Majesty’s Request and made his conflict literal, what might we get? Well, Stavros is bound by duty. He has to do the right thing for his country, marry the right woman. As it’s mentioned several times in the book, the world rests on his shoulders. If we made his conflict literal, perhaps he has to marry a certain woman, create an alliance or, literally, the world, civilization might crumble around him. Or something. But you get the idea. It’s playing with concepts of conflict and I think what sticks is revealing, and it can help you get a handle on what it all means. And maybe on playing with writing some things you might not have tried!

Because often, something might seem completely different from what you do, but the core remains the same: Character, emotion and conflict.

Thanks for bearing with me. 😉 I’ve been playing the conflict reversal game for a couple weeks now and had to share it!

Adding the Sparkle, or, The Very Best Part

I’m sort of between projects right now (new contract means writing some synopses. And also I’m waiting for something sekrit that I will share with you later) so I was struggling to think of a craft post to write. Usually, I blog about what I’m dealing with in my writing personally, and try to reinforce what I KNOW I KNOW by writing it down here.

But since I’m not currently angsting away writing a book, and since I’m not the authority on synopses in any way shape or form (fun fact: the synopsis I sent to my editor last night contained the words thrust, parlayed and cutthroat. It is not about pirates) I’ve decided to blog about the last thing I did, which was revisions for Mr. Personality.

I have oft joked that I am The Revision Queen. (I’ll take my tiaras wherever I can get them.) What you can take away from this is that I have done a lot of revisions. Like, lots. Three of them have been rewrites, one of which resulted in me getting hives all over my body. *angst angst angst* (but, Maisey, you ask, were there cookies? YUH HUH.)

It used to be that I would worry about that. How big the revisions would be, and how bad, and maybe I should do this so I don’t get big revisions, or maybe I shouldn’t have my hero do that because my editor might say that he’s mean, or…or…

A little while ago, my thought process changed in regards to revisions. I’m not sure why or what happened. I’ve always known that it’s the revisions that make the book. I’ve always believed that and enjoyed getting feedback (once I’ve picked myself up off the floor) and applying it.

Whenever I would get revisions though, I would feel gobsmacked and like I had failed the book and my editor in some way. I remember my dad saying to me, I think you need to accept that this is a part of the process just like writing a book in the first place.

So, at least a year after he said that to me, it sunk in. Part of that sinking in came during a phone call with my editor when I said (for the hundredth time) “I was afraid I was taking it too far.” And she said: I think we always have this conversation. You say you were afraid of going too far and I tell you that you didn’t go far enough.

From there, I started realizing that a huge reason I pulled myself back while writing was the fear of not ‘doing it right’. So when something felt risky…I adjusted.

It wasn’t like one day I sat down and though…who cares if I get revisions? I think the feeling shift was too subtle. But a couple of books back I remember telling a CP: Well, if I do it wrong I can fix it later. It always comes together in revisions anyway.

And then I realized that I DID feel that way. That the idea of revisions didn’t fill me with dread. That I wasn’t afraid of having done it wrong.

I had a particularly amazing round of revisions on my October UK book, A Game of Vows that only solidified my change in thought on the subject. With my editor’s feedback I found a scene that, in my mind, is the most important scene in the whole book, and it’s one I would have missed without going through the revision process.

And so I thought again: Why do I fear this part of the process? It’s the best part. It’s what makes it sparkle.

Not only that, but what I’ve found is that the scenes that scare me, the ones that challenge me, feel too weird, too outside my comfort zone that, when embraced, are what my editor feel is strongest in the book.

For me, personally, accepting the possibility of ‘failing’, has freed me up to write better books the first time around. And seeing revisions as part of the process, not something I HAVE to do, not something I’d like to avoid, but an integral part that is designed to help me put out the BEST BOOK POSSIBLE, has changed…everything.

It’s my chance to go back and make it BETTER. My chance to make it the best it can be. My chance to add the sparkle.

Also maybe eat cookies.

One Night In Paradise and Good News

Remember that time you were in the book shop thinking: If only I could find a nice friends to lovers book, set partly in Thailand, that features a billionaire alpha male coffee shop owner who gets left at the altar and takes his pleasingly round, cupcake baking best friend on his honeymoon (platonic, of course!) only to give in to one night of unexpected passion?

No?

Well, if you were thinking that…One Night in Paradise is now in shops in the UK and available for your e-reader!

It’s coming next month in Australia and I have no date for you in North American yet, sadly, but you will be kept posted!

In other good news…

Mr. Personality marked the end of my last Harlequin contract, and yesterday I was offered another one! And I have accepted, which means you will be seeing more Presents from me in the near future. 🙂 And hey, I’m excited about that because I love writing these books SO much.

I started working on an outline for another two book series yesterday (two independent but connected books) and I’m really looking forward to working on it. I have a couple of other projects to get to first, but my mind is already turning over a little scandal in the desert…

Finding Ways to Find (and manage) the Time

To my eternal annoyance, there’s only so much of it in a day. I would take several more hours, kthxbai. (although, I heard it said once that if we had more hours in the day, we’d waste them too. But I maintain that IS NOT TRUE. *looks at Twitter*)

Regardless, we only have those 24 hours. And in them…there’s a lot to do. Work, kids, husband, pets, parents, no matter what combination you have of the things listed, that right there represents a massive chunk of time. So where does writing fit in to this?

Luckily, for me, it’s work. Which means it (theoretically) fits in where work fits in. I say theoretically because I don’t work 9-5, far from it, but my writing DOES benefit from getting a high priority as it’s, at this point, necessary to our survival.

But that wasn’t always the case. There was a time when it was a gamble, and it wasn’t contributing much. It was just a pipe dream of mine that I suddenly got the urge to chase with total focus. At the time, I had just given birth to my second child, and my oldest was 20mos old. My husband had two jobs. Sleep and time were tight. Just getting started on my writing journey required me to be creative with my time management. And now, after four years of writing, I’ve become pretty good at finding ways to find the time.

I think it’s important to understand that life is always changing. That means solutions for schedule and time management don’t always stay the same, and don’t always work as well today as they did yesterday. I think it’s important to meet yourself where you’re at TODAY and don’t spend a ton of time beating yourself up over why you aren’t being as ‘productive’ today as you have been. Some days just aren’t as productive. And being able to let that go is important.

Also, some days you don’t wanna, and you hafta. And that’s okay too. 😉

On that note, here’s my epic list of Finding the Time, Getting it Done:

1. Be forgiving of yourself. Don’t wast time beating yourself up, or feeling guilty for what you didn’t do, whether it’s the dishes or another page. I don’t think that helps, and I think it can force you to end the day feeling like you did nothing when…oh my gosh, you did SO much! As my husband and I often say to each other: Is everyone alive? Then your mission is accomplished for the day.

2. Be proud of yourself. This sort of piggybacks on the other one, but please let yourself feel a sense of pride in your accomplishments, in your talent. Feeling positive about yourself and about your work makes it SO much more sustainable. And sustainability IS important.

3. Trick yourself. I make up deadlines. They are earlier than my real deadlines, and they accomplish the ‘under the gun’ feeling that really gets your fingers moving. I’ve been doing that since before I got published, and I’ve found it really useful for me. All the flame and terror of a deadline, but you cut out that bit in the middle where you count ceiling tiles instead of working with urgency. 😉

4. Make the most of the time you have. I would prefer to sit and write for six hours at a time. That basically NEVER happens. So I’ve had to learn to snatch an hour, or twenty minutes, here and there some days to get the words down. Those little snatches of time add up, and they teach flexibility which leads me to…

5. Take control. Some days I write in the morning, some days in the afternoon, often at night. At first I found it really hard to write ANY time but at night, but with practice, it’s become something I can turn on and off a lot easier. Some times are still easier than others, but I feel like this has given me the control of my writing and productivity, and not giving it over to a mystical force that says I must be creative after midnight.

6. Set Goals. When I have a LOT of words to get done in the day, I make a plan of attack in the morning. I want to get this much done by this time, take a break, go back and do this much, take another break, go back, be done by early afternoon.

7. Time challenges. I use these a lot for the ^ above. Like 1k 1hour. One hour, nothing but words. No internet, no getting up. No stopping to edit (that comes later). Butt in chair, words on screen.

8. Think about what you’re going to write before you sit down to write it. This is really helpful to me on totally crazy days. Doing dishes, waiting in the parent line, I can plan what I’m going to do to make my time really count later. I can start mapping a scene out, or really ponder the hero’s conflict so that I’m ready to go when I actually get to the computer.

9. Have fun. I’m serious. Leave room for mistakes, write with abandon, play with possibilities. I think the biggest breakthrough in writing for me was when I stopped trying to write a book that wouldn’t need major revisions. It stopped me from being cautious, it stopped me from second guessing so much. It’s helped me to just let go and immerse myself in the world. If it needs fixing later? Fine. That’s okay. That freedom has made it all less ARGH STRESS and more fun. And you know how time flies when you’re having fun? More words get on the page too. 😉

Have you got any suggestions of your own for making time a slave to YOU? Or do you have questions? Leave it in the comments!

The Call of Duty

(Not the kind where you get extra points for a head shot!!)

I just got the cover for A Royal World Apart, the first book in my The Call of Duty series, starting release in the UK in July (December US).

Some of you may remember the man I oft referred to as Untouched Hero. He is a man who is, indeed, untouched. In THAT way. And yes, I have to mention it again. Only because I think he might be about my favorite hero ever.

I love a strong man. And to me, Mak’s resistance of anything that might compromise his morals or his focus was extremely sexy. Sexier still was letting Eva push him, challenge him, and ultimately…*sigh*…break him.

Without further ado…a look at Mak and Eva.

When duty wars with desire, which one wins?

With her life mapped out since birth, Princess Evangelina Drakos—known for her dramatic flair—hopes the minor scandal she plans to create will deter potential suitors.

Hired for Eva’s security, unemotional bodyguard Makhail Nabatov never makes a mistake—but the impulsive princess pushes his resolve to the limits. It’s not long, however, before the beautiful and imprisoned Eva entices him to leave his bonds of duty and honour behind.

Whilst their chemistry reaches fever-pitch, Makhail knows he knows he must deny his desire—for Eva is promised to another man…