Archive for August, 2006
August 31, 2006
11:00 pm • Filed under: Uncategorized
Yet again something fun from Amie Stuart’s blog…
| You Are Fun Sexy |
 |
What Kind of Sexy Are You?
(You can’t read the headline but I’m fun sexy…whoo hoo!)
Check out my post on Friday at The Word Flirts.
August 30, 2006
11:37 am • Filed under: Uncategorized
I hung out at Joyfully Reviewed yesterday. It was contemporary day for authors and it was swamped with excerpts, contests, excerpts and more excerpts.
Let me tell you, I read soooo many good excerpts! I can’t believe how many great ebooks there are. Actually, I can believe it. I just hadn’t faced the reality yet, I guess.
What I’m saying is there’s a lot of talent in the epublishing ranks. I was literally reading samples from author’s books and writing down the names of them so I can go buy them later. I also bought two. And I want to buy more. A LOT more. Which means I’m going to be broke, but I’ll have some great reading material.
I’m just floored by the writing talent. The creative plots. Stuff that made me think, “Wow, wish I would’ve thought of that!” Just really impressive books.
You know, there’s such a limited amount of room in the NY publishing houses. They only produce so many books per month, per year. And there’s so many talented writers out there, so many people who would love to be in print with a NY house, but your chances are slim cos the slots are so few.
That’s the great thing about ebooks. They are producing quality work in mass amounts. Which for us, as readers AND writers, is a plus. All the books to choose from to read, and so little time! All the publishers to submit to, whoo wee! It’s wonderful!!
So today I sing the praises of ebooks. There are some pretty fantastic authors out there — and some pretty great publishers too. And to think a year and a half ago I really didn’t know much about them. I was missing out!
What’s your overall impression of ebooks? Wave of the future? Gonna grow bigger and brighter or slowly die out? Personally, I think they’re here to stay. But maybe I’m partial…
August 28, 2006
1:44 pm • Filed under: Uncategorized
First of all, thanks Julie Cohen for turning me on (ha ha) to this website. She helped me out after I complained I couldn’t find any good man hand pics.
Of course, this isn’t a man hand pic but I couldn’t resist:
Ryan Reynolds is HOT! I shall be sampling from the vast amount of pics the website has for many weeks/months to come.
Second, I have become a part of a Yahoo author loop, started by fellow Cobblestone author Ann Cory. She has expanded it to include me, along with other Cobblestone authors Madison Chase, Emma Petersen and Mia Romano.
This group is going to be a lot of fun, and is very author friendly. We encourage other authors to hang out, share their news and promote themselves shamelessly!
I will be hanging out over there off and on for the rest of the day, sharing excerpts, a last chance to enter my contest and other fun and exciting stuff (well, I hope so!). Email anncory-subscribe@yahoogroups.com to subscribe.
Okay, and I’m swamped because I just finished a short story, I started the first edits on Haunted Dreams and I’m one-third in on a novella I’m writing for Cobblestone. Besides the fact that I want to clean my refrigerator today.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!
August 25, 2006
10:35 am • Filed under: Uncategorized
Okay, when I first think of man hands, I’m always reminded of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry went out with the woman with man hands. Every time they’d have a scene together it was literally a man’s hand reaching out to touch Jerry. Hilarious, but anyway…
I have become obssessed with men’s hands. I check them out as much as possible, and I also like to admire the arms that are attached to those hands too.
What is wrong with me? I was behind a car this morning with four dudes in it, all of the windows were rolled down and every single one of them had their arms hanging out, hands gripping the top of the window frame. I was in man hand heaven!
I tried to find a picture of some hot man hands, but that was impossible. I found a lot of porn though. What else is new? But check this pic out. Not only are his hands sexy, but the whole dang package is sexy! Except the cig hanging out of his mouth.
August 24, 2006
10:39 am • Filed under: Uncategorized
I’m such a dork! Fellow Cobblestone author Madison Chase posted an interview she did with me a few days ago and I forgot to post a link of it! I’ve been busy since husband came back home and daughter’s been going to preschool. That’s my only excuse.
So here it is.
If you want to learn a few things about me, check it out. If not, don’t check it out. I’m not that exciting anyway. LOL
On a positive note, I’ve been writing like a fool. And it feels good!
August 22, 2006
5:01 pm • Filed under: Uncategorized
I received the results of a contest I entered back in June. I entered a scene from a manuscript I wrote for HQ Blaze (never sent it), and yeah, I didn’t place, but my average score was 84.67.
Not great but not terrible. Here were the break downs — 4 scores, lowest thrown out — 95, 86, 73, and 64(!!!).
The two highest scores, you could tell they’ve read some Blazes. I felt like they “got me,” and what was so funny is that one of the judges said, “heat this up a notch or two and make it erotic romance!” Ha ha, I’ve been thinking of doing that with this manuscript, so I found that fitting.
The 73 was a bit too picky about adverbs and thought the premise was completely unbelievable, which was fine cos she also admitted she doesn’t read Blazes at all. The worst score actually gave me the most interesting comments. She didn’t think the story was bad, just needed some work. And she had some interesting points that I won’t go into here cos they’re just too numerous! Plus, she wrote all over the entry so she really put a lot of time and energy into it, which I appreciate.
I don’t plan on entering any more contests - I sent this one off the day before I submitted Release Me to Cobblestone, and I’m not saying I’m a bad ass or anything, but I don’t want to enter contests because I just want to get to work on submitting actual manuscripts to publishers.
Besides, they cost too much and right now we’re broke.
So do you find contests helpful or a waste of time? I know people have blogged about this before but I just wanted to get opinions.
And I do plan on revising and sending that Blaze hopeful to an erotic romance publisher. I hope to work on that near the end of the year.
On another note, my daughter went to her first day of preschool today. **Sniff.**
She was so excited, and did so good. I’m proud of her.
August 21, 2006
2:20 am • Filed under: Uncategorized
Found this on Amie Stuart’s blog.
August 19, 2006
3:06 am • Filed under: Uncategorized
And it might get me in trouble again, considering Photobucket banned Mr. Bean in his underwear. I had a small copy of this pic up on my desk at work a few years ago, my kind and thoughtful friend and coworker gave it to me, laminated and everything (to prevent it from getting ruined by drool, I guess) and a manager (male) said it was a form of harrassment and I had to take it down.
He said this cos he just got busted for having some sexy girls in bikinis-type calendar in his office. Ha ha - my pic of Marky Mark grabbing his crotch in his undies harrassed him. I still have that laminated pic.
>Oooooh, Marky’s pissed! I hear he HATES being called Marky Mark. Sorry, Mark Wahlberg.
I’ve blogged about men’s backs before, but I’m going to say it again. Love ‘em!
Aaah, my Saturday homage to Marky Mark, a la Calvin Klein underwear ads from 1992-1993.
August 18, 2006
10:56 am • Filed under: Uncategorized
Come see me over here.
August 16, 2006
10:59 pm • Filed under: Uncategorized
In my blog hopping travels I came across Alison Kent’s blog, where she was asking fellow writers to read and blog about a chapter from her book coming out, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Erotic Romance.
I decided to jump on that opportunity and Chapter 12 - Sex Isn’t Always About Love, arrived in the mail on Monday. I’m going to blog about it for the next few days, so I hope you tune in because the chapter was an easy and interesting read. I’m definitely going to buy this book. As I read it a lightbulb went on over my head and caused me to add something to my current wip. See? One chapter and it already helped me! Guess I’m a complete idiot. LOL
Here are the main topics:
- Connecting physical and emotional pleasure
- Using sex as a plot device in an erotic romance
- Discovering the most intense and intimate reassurance of life
- Curing a character’s ills
As Kent points out from the get-go, authors of erotic romance normally write the opposite of a “traditional” romance - the love grows from a sexual relationship instead of sex coming after love between the hero and heroine. So true.
Sex feels good and our characters wanna do it, a lot of the time with no strings attached. Of course, this is never the case, because after all, it’s about the romance. There are all kinds of strings attached, but our silly characters just don’t realize it yet, until after the fact.
So what kinds of realistic activities can our characters participate in that seem simple on the surface, but turn into something much more complicated? Here are some examples:
- The good ol’ One Night Stand: A standard, one I’ve used more than a few times. But come on, you can’t miss with this one.
- The “Bed Buddy”: You know, the couple that get together when nothing else is going on and they want to feel connected to someone, enjoy a little free and easy sex. Then one of them realizes they want more than just occasional sex, which really throws a kink in the term “bed buddy.” Damn emotions. LOL
- The Casual Affair: Similar to the Bed Buddy, but with a little more thrown in. The heroine has no time for a romantic relationship, she just wants someone she can rely on when she needs a date to a company function, or wants to go out to dinner, and maybe a little sex thrown in to sweeten the deal. Then she starts to fall in love with Mr. Casual. Uh oh.
And I haven’t even gotten into the meat of this chapter! Check back, I’m blogging next about the emotions involved in sex that don’t include love. Yeah, baby.
