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Authors Ann Aguirre, Megan Hart, Victoria Dahl, Lauren Dane, Gennita Low, and great agent, Laura Bradford
The OASFIS is holding its annual convention this weekend. It's a fun gathering, with lots of interesting workshops and gaming.
Here is the the SCHEDULE.
I'll be on two panels, discussing about romance in SF, UF, cross-genres, etc. It's a very relax affair, so I hope you can make it!
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Other news, thank you for the feedback about the Mammoth Book novella, The Game. I appreciate the kind comments, especially since there are so many wonderful authors in that anthology. I admit I was a tad nervous to be with those excellent writers, this being my first novella.
I'm working on making the novella available as a download on Kindle. Just a quick survey--would you download it for a couple of bucks?
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The half-year mark is almost here and the annual tradition of compiling the Best of for the first half of 2010 is on. What great books have you read these past six months that you'd nominate for your Keeper shelf? My list is going to be pretty short because I haven't done as much reading as I wanted, what with trying to finish VOne, getting proposal ready, signings, and roofing non-stop seven days a week the last couple of months. Very exhausted by evening, and veging out seems to be the agenda.
So, come on, give me your list. You have no excuse!
Today, the Shuttle Atlantis comes home from space on its final flight. I'll miss all the early morning BOOOOOOOMs announcing your re-entries into space. You were the newest and the bestest in space research and space flight for a long, long time. Now, I'm awaiting the space elevator. Bring it on, Bryan Laubscher!
And my darling Jack. You were the Spy Who Shoots Thighs, the angstiest of the angstiest, the one who could and would get the job done. You ruled the 2000s. I'll miss your ability to heal from three gunshots, five stab wounds, four concussions, 2 spinal taps, and major liver transplant AND STILL save the world from terrorists all in 24 hours.
For more motivational posters like the one below, please visit www.tropichunt.com/24, an avid 24 fan.
Here is a funny video of what most of us authors experience when we do our rounds of booksignings. I don't like doing them alone any more because of what Parnell Hall went through ;-). Also, never sit beside Sherrilyn Kenyon (Low is near Kenyon) during one. Much as I love, LOVE, that woman, you'll end up doing nothing but exercising your smiling muscles.
Unless, of course, you're a Mega Author. Totally different then!
Here is a piece of news I've waited my whole life for. From AOL Health News: So, eat some chocolate a day, keep the wrinkles away! Of course, there is no mention about how much you have to eat to get rid of All the wrinkles already present. I probably have to eat massive amounts. Massive. And then join the Biggest Losers to lose the weight gain ;-P. But hey, I'd be wrinkle-free!
One of the world's largest chocolate makers, Barry Callebaut, says it may have developed a chocolate bar that could slow the aging process and help fight wrinkles, Reuters reports.
Studies conducted by the Swiss company found that eating 0.755 grams of this chocolate, which is packed with antioxidants, could fight wrinkles by enhancing the skin's elasticity and increasing its hydration, according to Reuters.
I was having a conversation and was told, very earnestly, that one needs to be commercial to break through these days. I've been around long enough to hear this line at least twice or thrice a year, but my acquaintance was a newbie, and sometimes, they just want someone to listen--not lecture--to them.
My first question to this kind of throwaway wisdom is--what does it mean, "to be commercial?" I know that, in the case of celebrity actors/singers, being commercial has to do with looks, but writing a good book has nothing to do with a good-looking author, although if you looked like the TV character, Castle, it doesn't hurt ;-).
Is it writing what's out there? Part of the reason why some trend is so popular is because someone has made it popular, usually someone who brought an "IT" factor in her writing and actually doing something different, perhaps not very commercial even. I know for a fact that, in the mid-90s, all was doom and gloom for paranormal romance and the few who toiled it was told to write something "more commercial." Some did. Some toiled on.
In 1999, I sat beside a woman at RWA. I was the newbiest of newbies. So newbie, I didn't even know what I was supposed to be doing at RWA except wander around staring at groups of women talking about this agent that, that editor this. I didn't even know the concept of networking. This woman and I had a very short, but nice, conversation.
I had no idea who she was, and when I asked about her being there and whether she was published, she said, yes, she was, but not quite in romance. Her story, she told me, wasn't the usual commercial stuff. The conversation went on a bit, and finally, she signed a book for me and left. I think that was my first ever signed book, one that I hadn't even requested, by the way. It had never occurred to me to ask for an autograph, LOL.
The book was Outlander. The author, Diana Gabaldon. She wasn't very well-known in the romance world at that time, although her time-travel was getting a very good buzz. She was right; she wasn't the "usual commercial stuff."
Look at her now.
As the newbiest of newbie, I learned an important lesson that day, but I didn't know it till much, much later.
For those who enjoy novellas, the Mammoth Book of Spec. Ops Romance is now available in print and Kindle format. You can purchase it at Amazon, the Book Depository, and other online book stores. The Book Depository, by the way, has free shipping INTERNATIONALLY.
My contribution to this anthology is titled The Game and I'm considering lengthening it into a book because as all novellas go, the ending is always just the beginning ;-). Maybe I'll post part of the first chapter tomorrow so you can have a preview. The story is just three chapters long, so yeah, novellas can be frustrating reading for some. And tough to write, by the way.
Other interesting publishing news, that is not mine, but has caught my interest nonetheless because of its possibilities:
J.A. Konrath, author of the Jack Daniels mystery series, has a press release. He just sold an exclusive print book to Amazon for release. Yeah, THAT Amazon.
AmazonEncore to Publish Bestselling Author J.A. Konrath’s Upcoming Book
Amazon’s publishing imprint to release the next book in J.A. Konrath’s Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series, “Shaken.”
SEATTLE—May 17, 2010—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that AmazonEncore, Amazon’s publishing imprint, will release the newest book in bestselling author J.A. Konrath’s Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series, “Shaken.” The AmazonEncore Kindle edition of “Shaken” will be available in the Kindle Store www.amazon.com/kindlestorein October, and the print version of the book will be available in February 2011. For more information on AmazonEncore and upcoming titles, visit www.amazon.com/encore.
Konrath wrote an answer-and-question blog post today about this:
A Newbie's Guide To Publishing
This is BIG news, especially for midlist authors like me. Publishers have been dropping many in their midlist stable this past year and the half, leaving many of my friends with uncertain futures or, at least, a canceled series (like me) hanging midair. Many writers have to changed genre to start afresh.
This news give some of us hope that we could still write the series we want and make a living off our chosen career. Of course, I have no idea what the contract looks like so one has to research this carefully. But still, J. A. Konrath, dude. Who's next?
Eileen Dreyer wrote a wonderful article about why she writes romance on CNN.com. I couldn't agree with her more:
I Write Romance, So What?
I don't own bunny slippers
I don't wear boas and eat bonbons in bed (yet)
I am not looking for sexual fulfilment through PRon
Robes?! Very impractical to wear while typing; the front keeps falling open....
Bored housewife? Tool belts for me, but isn't bored housewife an oxymoron?
What other cliches can you come up with?
Here are some of my Romantic Times Convention photos. Hope you enjoy them. You have to be there to see everything ;-). I'll try to get a picture of my loot when I get the chance to unpack the bags! In the photos are, not in any order, Ann Voss Peterson, Cindy Gerard, Victoria Dahl, E. Paul Wilson, Barry Eisler, J. A. Konrath, Kathy Love, John Scalzi, and many more.
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| This free photo slideshow customized with Smilebox |
Roofing, roofing, writing, writing.
So eye candy for now till I get a minute to finish the RT slideshow, 'kay? Enjoy these sexy beasts ;-).
This will be my first time trying to accomplish this feat:
Work all morning till noonish on a roof, then run off home to maybe feed doggies and get dressed, THEN drive an hour to:
MULTIPLE AUTHOR SIGNING
BORDERS
880 STATE RD 436
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS
FL
2-4pm 8 May, 2010
After signing, jump into truck, try to get back to jobsite to finish roofing till dark. I wonder whether I'd remember to brush my hair and look human for the signing. Come on down to Borders, if you're nearby, to make my day. Uber rooferauthor is the one sitting there panting and looking dazed.
For those of you who had planned on going to the RWA Conference (Nationals) which was going to be held at Nashville at the end of July, you'd know that the event has been in limbo because of the massive flooding in the area. The Gaylord Hotel's first floor has water and there is massive damage. If you've been checking out the news, you'd know that the city of Nashville (and Tennessee) is in a state of emergency.
Today, RWA has announced that the conference is taking place in ORLANDO instead:
The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that the 30th Annual RWA Conference will be held at The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida, July 28–31.
My website went down while my sister and I were trying to migrate the FYEO blog to Wordpress.Org due to Blogger's no-more-FTP friendliness. Apologies to those of you who go to my "world" through my website.
Anyway, because we couldn't figure out how to get my blog to work with my host, ReliableSite, I finally, as a temporary solution, migrated FYEO to a Blogspot address. So, for now, please change your FYEO link to:
http://www.fyeo-gennita-low.blogspot.com/
until I solve my Wordpress.Org/Reliable Site puzzle. Sigh. I really want my FYEO blog to use my own www.Gennita-Low.com/blog link because that's all connected to my books and my world, you know?
Thank you for your patience.
P/S For those of you wondering why there hadn't been any updates, it's because of the FTP problem as well as real-life stuff these past few months. But there WILL be updates, as soon as I get Virtually One all done, there will be lots of hints and excerpts for those of you who love to read the behind-the-scene stuff through the eyes of Eight Ball.
Again, I'm grateful for your understanding. I promise to make it up to you, okay?
Bear with my pictureless RT reports. My brain, it hurts.
I'm still recovering from driving all the way home from Ohio. 1000 miles. 500 of which seemed to be in a perpetual rainstorm. Right now, all I really want to do is sit down and stare at the bottom of my coffee cup, but bills, blog, and work are demanding me to come alive again.
I know many of you just load up the pics and that's it, but I've deliberately set my camera on photo-sized quality because I'm old-fashioned enough to think I'd actually print these out one day--you know, on Real Kodak paper. Ridiculous, I know. Noone does that any more. But anyway, I did, and so that means I have to resize every pic I post and loading them one by one takes enough time to make my lazy butt squirm in protest.
I love updating my blog, but loading pics is apparently too tough for the brain right now.
So, today I want to talk about last Saturday, the Giant Booksigning Event. It's a marvelous event. Here is a pic I borrowed from the Ninja Photographer aka Morgan Doremus, the Romantic Times Book Reviews Web Editor. See the crowd?
I love the Booksigning the most because this captures readers' love of my genre, romance. Their passion is talked about by other genres' writers in their blogs all the time:
***Readers walking around with bags on rollers to BUY books
***Fans holding a list and bringing their husbands along to carry their buys
***Booksellers dropping by to say hi to their favorite authors
***Happy reunions of readers who are on the authors' newsletters or forums
***The instant recognition of covers and titles of books and lines forming around a popular author
(Edited to add. I forgot to mention the number standing in line for J. R. Ward and Rachelle Mead! Readers were given a # and they were called to the author in blocks of ten so they could browse other authors' tables instead of waiting for 3 hours. Great system, by the way. Anyway, at one point, the announcer was calling out for #901-910, and I was like, Hholey Brothahhood Bathman! Mead's were in the 400s or so. Kathy Love, my signing partner, and I just shook our heads in awe)
Check out Alexandra Sokoloff's blog about her RT experience. She is one of many non-romance authors who has been spreading the best-kept secret about romance readers to her fellow authors. Others who are now regular attendees are F. Paul Wilson, Barry Eisler, Joe Konrath, Robert Gregory Browne and this year's virgin, Brett Battles. They love all the attention and plan to come back.
I love my readers so much. They dropprf by to visit me even when I hadn't any new books to sell. Some of them sent friends to come by, to make sure I was doing okay, and even got their friends to buy one of my books (thank you, Wendy Keel, Leiha Mann, and Leslie A. for thinking about me). Some of them drove hundreds of miles to come to SEE ME (thank you, Mo from DC, Jane from Indiana). Some of them came to find out when Virtually Hers was coming out in print. I was happy to have an answer for them: August! I was also very happy to get readers who attended my workshops/chats who were entertained by me enough to want to try my books ;-). Thank you to them too, and I hope they enjoy my stories.
Readers make the convention, and indeed, romance readers are the best readers in the world, buying and reading across all the genres. It's such a pleasure to meet them at RT and I want to thank every one who took time to attend part or all of the convention.
A convention is also nothing without its attendees poking a little--and having a good time doing it--fun at themselves and their favorite genre. The SF people do it with their Trekkies and Star War maniacs. Thrillerfest authors and readers have their parties too. For RT, it's the Romance Model Competition, you know, the one that launched John de SalvoSalivate onto every cover of every book for a whole decade. And let's not forget the beautiful and sultry Rob Ashton; I still have many pictures of that man.
So, in the spirit of fun, many attend. And even though many make fun of the idea of a "mangeant," (as twitterers were calling it), the contestants every year are serious about the idea of launching a career through a win, or at least, through exposure to the book industry people. Every one of them has hopes of landing on TV, like that reality show with Fabio, who invited Mr. Romance 2001 Tony Ranaldo (one of my fave winners). Some do hold the mistaken belief that authors have power over their covers and many a time, I have had to hold back my amusement at the model's earnestness in trying to persuade me and my fellow authors to give them a chance. Hey, we're all noobs at one time or another--tell me one freshman writer who didn't think talking to an author would help her work get read faster.
Anyway, this is the male models' "break," and many of the readers have a good time having the role reversed. We are so used to having female strippers at male-dominated conventions and male-themed events. RT is a female-dominated convention, and a romance clinch cover--that thing many profess to hate--is an important part of the industry. I know some are cringe-worthy, but I have seen and loved many good sexy ones.
I thought this year's mangeant was a lot less hysterical than previous years. Heck, the contestants hugged and teared up about being a daddy and being so loved by their supporters. In previous years, some of them had really beefed up and acted out a role, taking their time to even pose like a cover. I even recall some form of elaborate dance/pose routine that had the contestants moving around a work zone stage set, dressed up as construction workers (Chris Winters won that year). This year was more relaxed, with each man escorting a Dorchester (sponsor) author to a table, as if on a date, and answering a question or two.
One particular "date" scene gave me a good chuckle. Previously, Mark Johnson (Mr. Romance 1996, popular RT emcee and volunteer) had played a joke by pretending to be an author (he had a hood on) and asking a suggestive question, "What would happen if you and I were trapped on the 7th floor of an elevator?" over and over, trying to embarrass the poor model. Anyway, he was properly scolded and the real author showed up, and her question (all from memory, so not quoted directly) was, "I'm old enough to be your older, ahem, sister, and my question is, how would you seduce an older woman?" The poor contestant squirmed in his seat for a few moments (the author was actually more around his mom's age), and as the audience giggled, he finally said, "I'd start in the elevator." At which the whole crowd roared and even Mark Johnson had to stroll back to the table to highfive the dude. If I could have voted, I'd have given the model mine right there and then. I do like a quick-thinking man ;-).
The winner was Jamie Ungaro. He's a shy young man who had worked hard all week to garner the readers votes. I'm sure he's going to enjoy his winnings--$1200 cash, a paid-for trip to NYC for a cover shoot for Dorchester, and starring in a movie trailer for the same book. While he was taking his walk down the stage, being photographed and showered with shouts of congrats and approval, I overheard him saying while shaking his head, "This is ridiculous!" Which it was. But it was all good funning. Most of us had a good time enjoying the show because yeah, it was ridiculously entertaining. And yeah, like it or not, a few of these young men will grow up to be on many of our romance covers. And no, I'm not ashame to admit that I know more about the careers of Mr. Romance winners than I should; some of them have become my good buddies through the years.
Besides the fun of meeting readers and watching Mr. Romance 2010, I also attend for the networking opportunities. I've saved the best news for last, and I hope it will have a happy ending. An editor who attended my workshops came over to talk to me and asked whether I'd be interested in submitting a manuscript to her.
Hell. Yeah. :D
So, I'm going to take time this next week to polish up T and Diamond's story really, really well. Maybe they'll finally get an editor who will love them as much as you and I do. Wish me luck?
More later. Hope you're enjoying the non-pic reports.
That was part of a very serious and intellectual conversation. Really. Brett insisted that, if I did quote Rob, I must also add that he was adamantly denying the fact that he PARADED.
The very popular vampire ball had many attendees parading in their best costumes, though. The turnout was fabulous and I'm always amazed at how elaborate the make-up and costumes were. I stood in line with Cindy Gerard beside a woman who gave us a detailed account of how she sewed her vampiress outfit from her old suede curtains. And how she stuffed the horns on her head. It was just simply amazing.
Heather Graham and gang did another of their crazy skits. This year it was Alice in Underland, and I'll never hear the word Twilight again without the image of F. Paul Wilson sauntering on stage in Edward makeup and wig. There was also a male Lady Gaga at the end of the play, the perfect guest for the Mad Hatter's Party indeed.
Workshop-wise, I had the bestest time captaining my second romantic suspense panels. My guests were Cindy Gerard, Ann Voss Peterson, Caridad Pineiro, Nina Bruhns, and Shiloh Walker. The ladies were wonderfully eloquent, talking about the perfect alpha hero. One of the fun questions was "How long and how many times a night?" ;-)
I also asked about the qualities of our heroine--what qualities do we writers give them to make them The Woman for our hero? Bruhns talked about strength; Peterson wanted her heroine to have the "heart of a warrior;" Walker liked her heroines to be capable and smart; and Pineiro agreed, adding that she and many readers didn't like the TSTL (too stupid to live) heroines, so she always try to avoid writing those. For myself, I said that I liked to give my heroines two things--a sense of humor, so she could laugh at that silly alpha male or coax him to laugh at himself too, and, she must pull one over her hero at least once in the story. I related the story of Marlena's Tweety Bird tattoo in Into Danger as an example. Got a good laugh out of that ;-).
The e-book signing, my very first, went well too. It was two hours long and newbie that I was, I managed to sell six CDs of Big Bad Wolf as well as two downloads of Virtually Hers. I was very happy to know many fans were waiting for the print copy of Virtually Hers (coming out in August) and all my homemade Jed-bookmarks were popular--all gone within an hour!
That's the report for now. It's time to pack and drive home, so posting will be sporadic for the next 20 hours. It's raining so think GOOD THOUGHTS FOR GENNITA, 'kay? I hate driving in the rain. The next report will be about Saturday's main event, the Booksigning, tales at the bar, esp. one about a potato, MR ROMANCE 2010, which some bloggers are calling the MANGEANT (heh), and the Dorchester Rock and Roll party. I'm sure you're all waiting breathlessly.
Again, photos when I get home (and after rest). My little puter isn't made for resizing. Can't wait to show you all the crazy costumes and happy faces at the convention!
MAY 07
