Manic Monday

It's just another Manic Monday, as The Bangles would sing. Sometimes, I get curious about a term I use frequently, such as manic, and look it up in the dictionary (usually dictionary.com since I'm on my computer). Manic - adj. - of or pertaining to mania. Now that's helpful. The synonyms were much more helpful...frenzied, agitated, frantic. Yep. Today is all those things.

Poor baby boy was showing all signs of recovery from his cold and then started running a temperature again last night. No sleep for the weary. He's sleeping now so I am scheduling guests on my blog. (Don't forget to email me at EmmaLaiWrites @ gmail.com if you are an author who would like to be interviewed or do promo on my blog.) I'm also making sure I have sent out all the material for my upcoming guest spots.

Hope your Monday is marvelous! If not, feel free to leave a comment, and who knows, I might send you a copy of one of my stories!

Jennifer Jakes, author of Rafe's Redemption

How many works in progress do you have? 

I have a novella and a full-length novel going right now. 

What is your writing process? 

Binge/purge. I wish I could say I have this very orderly routine, but I don't.

What writing mechanic challenges you? 

Learning to be more descriptive. I write sparse. Without my wonderful critique partners my 300 page novel would have been 150.  :)   But I'm getting better. Now as I write I can hear their voices saying, "Annnnnnnnnndddddd?????" That helps me realize where I need to "give" a little more.

What’s your favorite part of the writing process? 

Getting to know my characters. I love creating their backstory -- which nobody but me may ever know -- but to know who they are 'now', I have to know who they were 'then'.

What’s your least favorite part of the writing process? 

The first page. I will spend an eternity on that. I want it to be just right, to set the tone for the story, to make sure I've dropped enough clues to make the reader want to turn the page. . . . LOL  

How long did it take to write your latest release? 

My average is about 4 months for a novel. I can do a novella in month to six weeks if nothing goes wrong (ie: life).

Do you have a favorite line or scene from your story? 

Oh, gosh. That's a tough question! I think my favorite scene is when Rafe admits why he carries so much guilt from his past.

Blurb for Rafe's Redemption:

He rode into town to buy supplies, not a woman.

For hunted recluse Rafe McBride, the raven-haired beauty on the auction block  is exactly what he doesn't need. A dependent woman will be another clue his vengeful stepbrother can use to find and kill him. But Rafe's conscience won't let him leave another innocent's virginity to the riff-raff bidding. He buys her, promising to return her to St. Louis untouched. He only prays the impending blizzard holds off before her sultry beauty breaks his willpower.

She wanted freedom, not a lover.

Whisked to the auction block by her devious, gambling cousin, and then sold into the arms of a gorgeous stranger, outspoken artist Maggie Monroe isn't about to go meekly. Especially when the rugged mountain man looks like sin and danger rolled into one. But a blizzard and temptation thrust them together, and Maggie yearns to explore her smoldering passion for Rafe.

But when the snow clears, will the danger and secrets that surround Rafe and Maggie tear them apart? 

Blog: http://www.authorjenniferjakes.blogspot.com/
Webiste: www.jenniferjakes.com


Click here to buy from The Wild Rose Press.
Also available at Amazon.com.

Rhonda Lee Carver, author of Second Chance Cowboy

How are your story ideas born?

My stories grow from something I’ve heard or seen. It can come from a movie, a news program, a sentence someone said…and then my mind runs away with an entire storyline.

How many works in progress do you have?

I have four books in progress. I have a sequel to Second Chance Cowboy, two erotica’s, and a paranormal.

What is your writing process?

When I first wake up, my computer comes on. I spend about an hour or two concentrating on marketing details, email, etc. while I drift around the house doing what needs to be done. After lunch, I sit down and spend as much time as I can to work on a story. There never seems enough time in a day to accomplish what I need to.

What’s your favorite part of the writing process?

I love every aspect of writing, except I’m not so thrilled about editing. I love the process of creating characters, a story and putting into something that a reader will hopefully enjoy.

What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

Haha…editing. I am horrible with details and I make the most idiotic mistakes. Editing my own work is like pulling teeth.

How long did it take to write your latest release?

It only took me two months to write Second Chance Cowboy; however, it took awhile before it was contracted. I had many changes to the Cowboy before it sold.

Do you have a favorite line or scene from your story?

Yes, and it is in the excerpt…

Chance didn’t blink an eye as he gazed at her across the room. “Honey, I can keep my pants zipped just fine. Problem is, you can’t keep your fingers off my zipper.”

Excerpt from Second Chance Cowboy:

Carly squeezed her hands into fists. “My poor husband. How difficult it is for him to manage his inflated ego and keep his zipper closed.”

“We’re divorced, remember?” His voice reeked of sarcasm.

She groaned in irritation. Her pulse pounded in her ears like the beating of a drum. Her claws were showing.

Chance didn’t blink an eye as he gazed at her across the room. “Honey, I can keep my pants zipped just fine. Problem is, you can’t keep your fingers off my zipper.”

Carly’s palm itched to slap him. “We live in a small town, Chance. How do you think it’s possible we haven’t run into each other more than three times in the last two years?” She cocked her chin. “Let me fill you in. I’ve done everything in my power to keep from bumping into you. Do you realize how difficult it is to plan my schedule weeks in advance so I don’t have to see you? Is that a description of a woman who can’t keep her fingers off your zipper?”

“No, more like a woman who’s afraid she’ll forget what screwed up our marriage in the first place, realize she’s made a huge mistake and get her ass back home.”

“Humph, fat chance that’ll ever happen.” She fumbled with the sheet in irritation and gave her hair a toss over one shoulder.

Damn, he did have a point, although she’d never admit it to him.           

“Yeah, right, Carly, because you can’t ever forgive and forget, can you? You think you’re the only one who has lost, don’t you?” His eyes became steely pools of green. His voice turned low and controlled. “I lost Devon, too. He was my son--our son. How long are you going to keep blaming me for his death?”

Carly swallowed the painful lump in her constricted throat. “I don’t blame you.”

“Could have fooled me.”

 “We both know why I left.”

“We do?” His bitter laugh split the air with its razor-sharp intensity. “I know you want to hold on to the belief that I am the bad guy who drove you away, but isn’t it time you took half the responsibility for the failure of our marriage?” A trace of compassion softened his expression. He tugged on his shirt and finger-combed his hair.

“It wasn’t my fault you cheated.” Once she said it, she wanted to yank the words back. Too late, just like their relationship.

“You’re a broken record, sweetheart. It’s not worth denying the accusation any longer. Maybe eventually you’ll believe your words and feel justified in leaving.  Devon died, Carly. He’s gone and we can’t change the truth. One of us needed to make the decision to let him go and I made it. I held out hope you’d eventually find a sliver of forgiveness in your cold heart. I guess I was wrong.”

The old wound broke open and her lungs emptied of oxygen. She wanted to lash out at him, tell him to go to hell, but the words didn’t come. Instead, she whispered, “I’m going to the bathroom. When I get back I want you gone.”

“Carly, you’ve become an expert at sucking all the joy out of your life and pushing away anyone who reaches out to you. You’re living in a self-made prison, founded on guilt and pain, and there is no key to unlock the cell door.”


Second Chance Cowboy, available from Lyrical Press. Click on the following link to purchase now.
http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=96&products_id=370 


You can find Rhonda at

www.rhondaleecarver.com

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000265604936

Facebook/Author Page

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000265604936#!/pages/Rhonda-Lee-Carver-Author/155568577811615

TWITTER

http://twitter.com/RLCarver

Seriously Reviewed - Twice is Not Enough

Twice is Not Enough received 8.5 out of 10 from Seriously Reviewed.

WOW! Ms Lai has penned a wonderfully written story that just popped off the cyber pages. Well written and creative, I have to say that this little story went beyond my expectations.

I have read a lot of Regency stories lately, and this one was well worth the read. No doubt that Ms Lai has a knack for writing love scenes that are both titillating and sexy. I found myself riveted and wanting more when the story ended.

Click here to purchase.

Slave to Innocence Available

My writing recently took an unexpected turn. Those of you who know me, know I like a challenge. However, the one challenge I was sure I'd never rise to was to write a F/F scene. *Gulp.* I couldn't wrap my head around it, whether from prudishness or lack of personal experience (though I've written first-person male and male/male and am certainly not a man), I just didn't think I could do it.

I started writing a story for the Sins of Sybaris line at Sybarite Press with one idea in my head, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get past the opening scene. My heroine refused to be shoved into the plot I had in my mind. She wasn't interested in being rescued by a man, turns out she wasn't really even interested in men. *Gasp.* Not only that, but her mistress (the heroine is a domestic slave in Ancient Greece) quickly stole the limelight. The result?

Blurb:

Selene, the wife of a wealthy merchant, has few freedoms. To entertain herself, she uses her male slaves to fulfill her fantasies. However, she finds herself drawn to the innocence of her favorite female slave, Parthenope. Will Selene resist temptation, or will she become a slave to innocence?

Buy now at Smashwords.com or Amazon.com

Rachel Leigh, author of Explicitly English

How are your story ideas born?

I find this a really hard question to answer! I really have no clue what sparks an idea that will turn into a story. Sometimes it can be a situation I read or hear about. Or even better, I get a character talking in my head, they’re my favorites!

Explicitly English came about because I was worrying about a train journey I had to take – then I started thinking if a lone woman on a train wanted to make the journey a little bit more interesting…

How many works in progress do you have?

Usually I have two stories on the go at any one time along with a ton of promo people are waiting for me to get back to them! I write mainstream romance as well as erotic romance so ideally I like to have one story from each genre in the works and then the interviews and guest blogs I need to complete.

I love being busy and work best under pressure so sign up for quite a lot!

What is your writing process?

Initially, I write a ‘dirty draft’ which is writing the story (whatever its length) from start to finish without looking back. Then I let it rest for at least two weeks before going back and seeing what I have. Usually there are bits that I am pleasantly surprised with and then other bits that I am appalled with, LOL!

And then revision starts which I love – adding flesh to my skeleton is always the best part.

What writing mechanic challenges you?

Plotting – I always feel that sounds ridiculous coming from someone who chooses to write books but it is absolutely true. I love dialogue, characterization, setting, revision – but always worry that my plot isn’t credible, or I forget to tie up loose ends or I have lost my reader somewhere over the thousands of words…

I feel that if someone has spent their well earned money on my work, they deserve to get their money’s worth!

What’s your favorite part of the writing process? What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

Favorite – Revision

Least Favorite – Finding ideas

How long did it take to write your latest release?

Um…probably around three months from story idea to handing it into my editor. This is the shortest story I have written but taking into account the dirty draft, resting and revision, I think about this amount of time. Maybe a bit less.

Do you have a favorite line or scene from your story?

Definitely the scene when Laura (the heroine) decides to give the handsome male passenger sharing her train cabin some free onboard entertainment…yum!

If you would like to read more about Laura’s story, here is the ‘buy link’ enjoy!

http://thewildrosepress.com/wilderroses/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=86&products_id=790

www.rachelleigh.co.uk

www.rachelleighromance.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rachel-Leigh/266044849655

Where Am I?

Thursday, February 10th I'll be in two places at once. Isn't technology great?

Stop by Sarah Grimm's blog at http://authorsarahgrimm.blogspot.com/ to find out the most useful thing I've found out from an editor.

Stop by Rachel Leigh's blog at http://rachelleighromance.blogspot.com/ to find out what I found challenging about writing my latest release, Twice is Not Enough.


Return here and post a comment about either blog and be entered to win a copy of Twice is Not Enough available from The Wild Rose Press.

After several disastrous engagements, Lady Minerva Peters is an expert at suppressing her own needs. Only in the darkness of night does she give in to her wanton desires with a fantasy lover.

In the middle of a crowded ballroom, she learns her father is not yet ready to let her fade into spinsterhood. Humiliated, she ducks into a dark alcove only to find out she's not alone. Her hiding spot is occupied by a captivating stranger. Before she can escape, the two become voyeurs to another couple’s sexual rendezvous. The atmosphere heats up and so does her body, especially with the tempting offers whispered in her ear.

Will Minerva deny her needs once again or will she embrace the anonymity of their seclusion and finally explore her basic impulses and the startling attraction to the compelling mystery man?

Welcome Alison Henderson, author or Harvest Dreams

How are your story ideas born?

All our stories come from the same sources: things we’ve seen or read, people we’ve known or observed, places we’ve been, dreams we’ve had.  Even if an idea or image pops fully-developed into our brains, it comes from a kernel somewhere, although we may not make the connection.

The setting for my latest release, Harvest of Dreams, was inspired by the small river town of Weston in northwest Missouri, just north of Kansas City where I grew up.  The Civil War devastated the local economy, which had been based on tobacco farming and riverboat commerce, and the downturn allowed Weston to move gently into the twenty-first century with many antebellum buildings still intact.  I was able to walk the old brick streets in the footsteps of my characters and use original buildings as the settings for a number of scenes.

My heroine, Lisa McAllister, was based on a young woman I worked with many years ago.  While she was in the hospital giving birth to her first child, her husband announced he was leaving her for another woman.  Although barely out of her teens, she handled the situation with grace and courage, and I always wanted to give her a happy ending, even if only in fiction.

How many works in progress do you have?

In order to stay completely in my story, I can only work on one at a time.  My current WIP is a contemporary romantic comedy/suspense, the second in a series about an all-female bodyguard agency.

What is your writing process?

I’m a plotter, but I start with characters – either the heroine or the hero.  Once I know the first character well, I brainstorm about their perfect match/foil and develop the second lead.  With my two main characters fleshed out, I can begin the “what if” process and brainstorm plot ideas.   I also start the research at this point, which may lead to additional plot ideas.  By the time I’m ready to write, I have a 3-4 page basic outline of the plot.  I’ll make changes along the way, but if I know where I’m headed, I never get blocked.

What writing mechanic challenges you?

Not writing like I talk.  I like crisp, tight writing, and I tend to ramble when I speak.  I always have to go back and cut out as many adverbs as I can.

What’s your favorite part of the writing process?

I love writing dialogue.  Since my books unfold like movies in my head, dialogue flows as quickly as the characters talk.  I may labor over descriptions or transitions but rarely over dialogue.

What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

Getting started.  I find that blank first page daunting.  I re-work and re-work the opening lines and scene until the story really starts to flow.

How long did it take to write your latest release?

Harvest of Dreams took about nine months from concept to completed manuscript.  After that, however, it underwent one very major re-write and several rounds of self-edits before it was ready to be submitted.

Do you have a favorite line or scene from your story?

I love the scene where the characters share their first kiss.  The scene allows a measure of release from the tension that has been building between them for chapters but also opens the door to the much greater tension ahead.  Here’s an excerpt just after they kiss:

Jared was the first to speak.  "I'm not sorry."

She remained silent.

"This doesn't change anything," he said.

Lisa pulled back and looked up, shaking her head.  "It changes everything."

"No, it doesn't.  The feelings were there before, and they'll still be there whether we act on them or not."

She didn't try to deny it.  "But we can’t, and it will be so much harder now."

"That's true.  Now you know how much I want you, and I know you want me, too.  I don’t know where this is going, but we have to find out.”

“I don’t want to find out.”  But a small voice inside denied the words.  Part of her had to know. 

“I think you do, and I know I do.  I'm not going to offer to leave, even though it might make some things easier, not unless you can convince me you really want me to go."  He cupped her face in both hands and searched her eyes.  "Do you?"

  Lisa knew she should say yes and remove the unbearable 

temptation of his presence, but she couldn't bring herself to speak the lie.  She shook her head.  "No."  

Jared's lips moved in a tiny smile, then his serious expression returned.  "I can't tell you I'll never kiss you again, or touch you, or that I won't want to get even closer to you, but I promise I won't press you for anything you don't want to give.  I'd never do anything to hurt you.  You know that, don't you?"

She nodded.

"Good.  Now it's time for you to get some sleep."  He led her to the bed and tucked her in, his hands lingering as he smoothed the quilt across her.  Then he leaned over her, his expression rigid and deadly serious.  "I want you to know leaving you tonight is the hardest thing I've ever had to do.  But I want more from you than one night in your bed.

Wednesday's Writing Tip: Short Stories

Those who know me, know I love short stories. I like to read them and I like to write them.

I think they're a great exercise for all writers. Short stories are a way to explore story ideas, character development and plotting. Some story ideas aren't meant to be novel length and the writer doesn't figure that out until the plot is captured, and a short story with one or two characters is a great way to explore ways for characters to grow as the result of an event.

So, maybe you've written a short story that you thought would be longer; or maybe as an exercise; or maybe because you had a short story to tell. What do you do with it now?

If you're like me, you submit it to the markets that you find open to short stories. There are a few out there. And, if you're like me, you've heard "Great story, but not quite what we're looking for." The story gets shelved after sending it to the few places you can find.

I've recently become involved with two new ePublishers dedicated to the short story (under 5,000 words.)

Twenty or Less Press publishes fiction and its sister press, Sybarite Press, publishes erotica/sensual shorts. They're both open to submissions and both have fun story lines to write for. I'm in the process of writing one for the Sins of Sybaris line. (Visit Emma Lai Visits the Spicier Side for more details about the wip.)

Reader Review for Twice is Not Enough

Like many authors, I have a Google alert set to send me an email whenever my book title and name get posted. A few days I ago, I received a notice when the search found my story on Amazon. First, Yay, I have an book on Amazon. (Neither of my previous stories are available there.) Second, I found a reader review titled, "Twice is DEFINITELY Not Enough," posted by Alexandra Cenni. I loved the title of the review. I also enjoyed reading her synopsis and opinion of the story from the opening scene was "kind of an amusing tennis match" to the library scene "was blazingly hot" to her conclusion about what she enjoyed most about the story. (Click here to read the full review.)

Ms. Cenni also reviewed The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance, of which my stories are NOT included, but she said, "If you count e-books, then Emma Lai's 'Mates of the Guardians' stories are also time travel (the Guardians protect time and such), both of which I enjoyed quite a bit." 

All I can say, is thank you Ms. Cenni! And, of course, thank you to everyone who's purchased a copy of any of my stories!