This is an exciting week for me - my book comes out this Friday. Whoo hoo! I'm going to be honest - I never thought it would happen this fast. I started writing a year ago, have amassed quite the collection of crappy half-assed manuscripts on my hard drive. There are so many things I want to do with my writing, so many ways I want to go, and it surprises me still that I ended up writing a steamy erotic romance and it's actually going to be sold to the public. With a cover and everything.
So I want to share my excitement with you all. Everyone who posts on my blog this week -- starting today -- will be entered to win a goody basket. I'm not quite sure what's in the goody basket yet but know that it's gonna be good! It's gonna be fun! It's gonna be ------- exciting!
Well, I don't know about the exciting part, but come on, I can't help it. I'm excited.
Tomorrow I'll share an excerpt of Release Me. A teaser if you will. And you can tell me if you like it or hate it. I hope you'll like it.
Yep. I'm so out of shape it's not even funny.
Went to Yosemite National Park yesterday with my family and my brother in law's family. Should've known better. Should've known it would've been a non-relaxing type of day when all I really wanted to do was relax.
I need to mention my bro-in-law loves to hike. So when he mentioned a hike I thought, 'Ok, I can do this. No sweat.' Saw the sign listing the distances to the various locations, saw where we wanted to go was only .8 miles so I thought, 'Not so bad. Better than the last time we went on a hike with him and it ended up being 9 miles round trip.' (I'm not kidding - sheer torture. I felt like my legs were wobbly masses of goo for two days after that hike)
Well, that last hike was seven years ago and I must've been in better shape, but this .8 mile hike was nothing but a constant uphill climb that just about killed me. Throw in two kids who don't want to climb either and a husband huffin' and puffin' behind you and all that equals -- UGH!
I was sweaty. And dirty. At least the weather was nice. Did I mention this path takes you all the way up to Half Dome? Sixteen miles round trip to see that wondrous splendor.
Now it really is a wondrous splendor but I for one prefer to stare at it from the lookout point.
Don't get me wrong, Yosemite was beautiful. The weather was gorgeous, but the park was kind of crowded. They have an entire transit system in there - like a mini city in the middle of all of this natural beauty! Cool. If you're ever my way, I recommend going to Yosemite. It's a sight that can't be missed.
Let's party! In honor of my 100th post, here's a pic of a hot couple. Ahh, the life of the beautiful people. Must be rough...
The male model was the inspiration for my hero in Release Me. This photo doesn't do him justice -- he has the most amazing eyes I've ever seen! Just gorgeous. Whoo-wee...excuse me while I fan myself.
In other news I've been busy hanging with my family since the husband is on vacation and I think we're even going to venture on up to Yosemite tomorrow (about an hour and a half drive). That's why I haven't been blogging or blog surfing. I've barely had the time - I miss my internet!
Oh! I got a new laptop today! It's awesome with a 17 inch screen and all of this bad ass stuff on it that I don't even know how to use yet. Not used to the keyboard though - keep hitting the wrong keys! And I have a 60 day free trial of Microsoft Office, and it's sooo bogus cos you can't open up any new documents or anything. Hah! My parents bought Office a few days ago and I'm going to install theirs. But this means I'm not going to be able to actually write on this silly laptop till they come to visit me on the 7th. Lame free trial, let me tell ya.
But I got a free trial of Bejeweled 2 and it's awesome! And not the best thing to have around when you should be writing...
1. When did you first start blogging and why?
I started back in March. I thought it would be a fun way to share my thoughts and frustrations and also a great way to meet new people.
2. What don't you talk about?
Religion, politics, and I don't want to bash anybody. I try to keep it light and fun.
3. Are you and your blogging persona the same person?
Pretty much! I'm a people person, I like to talk, so yeah, I like to blog too. Plus, I reveal just how lame I can be as well...
4. How do you use blogging to build friendships?
Well, I have found some great people with blogging, similar women with similar goals. Similar problems, similar experiences. Through bloggers I have made friends with, I've branched off and found other blogging friends. And I'd always like to meet more!
5. How would you describe your writing style?
Sexy! Steamy! Sizzling! LOL With a dash of humor thrown in for good measure.
Ok, I'm tagging ---- Emma!
...old books this week. Books that have been on my keeper shelf since I was in my late teens, early twenties. When I first discovered romances and devoured them at lightning speed. Ahh, back in the day when I had a lot of time on my hands and I filled it with reading. I miss those days...
Anywho, I was inspired by my fellow Flirt Emma to reread some ol' favorites and here's what I've read so far.
Separate Beds by Lavyrle Spencer. Classic Lavyrle. I believe it was originally released as a category but I'm not sure. I read it when I was 19 and the heroine is 19, pregnant and forced into a marriage of convenience with a damn sexy man. Who wants her but she's so screwed up in the head she denies him. Repeatedly. I wanted to shout at her when I first read it, "Tear down your wall and let him in! He wants in, you idiot!" This is a book so touching, so emotional that I cry every time I read it. Seriously.
Paradise by Judith McNaught. I read an excerpt of this book in Cosmo magazine back in like '89 or '90 (showing my age here) and was like, "Whoa. Who the hell is this? She's good!" Bought the book, proceeded to buy every book she ever wrote after that and read through them in one summer, way back in the day. Judith is very descriptive. She's a fan of the word ache, or achingly and the term "lazy smile." Um, I don't know about you, but I love a good kind of ache and when a "lazy smile" appears on a handsome man's face well, I kinda like it.
Ok, I've only read two but here's what's next on my list. A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux. I love, love LOVE this book! Jude is the first author (at least that I read) who had flawed or feisty heroines. They weren't all perfect and beautiful and timid. No way. Some of them were major pains in the ass, but the hero loved them anyway. She wrote one book where the heroine was (gasp!) chubby (Three Wishes, I believe) - wonderful book! Nothing wrong with chubby heroines. They're all the rage right now anyway so Jude was way ahead of her time. After that is Once and Always, by Judith Mc. A historical. A really good one. Her heroes are the best. They can be jerks but are brought to their knees by the heroine. Nice.
And the one I'm saving for last, Dream Fever by Katherine Sutcliffe. A historical, set in Australia. Flawed hero, flawed heroine, awesome secondary characters. Freakin' wonderful book. Wrenches the emotions right out of you.
I'm in for a cry fest with all of these books for sure. But I don't care. It's gonna be awesome!
So share what's on your keeper bookshelf. Any oldies but goodies? Something new and so good you just couldn't put it down? I'd love to hear about them.
That's what I did this weekend. I had a lot of stuff to do and I desperately wanted to get it done, so I tried to limit my internet goof off time and got to work. It helped - I finished all of my blurbs, etc. for Haunted Dreams, worked on a lot of promo stuff for Release Me, but I didn't write hardly anything for the new one.
Oh, well. At least I got all of the other stuff done that's been hanging over my head.
I think it's really hit me that this writing this has turned into a business. It's a whole new ballgame when you're writing to sell and meet deadlines, vs. writing for your own pleasure and enjoyment. No pressure except for the self-imposed kind. It's a different experience, but one I am adjusting to.
Anybody else have email congestion? My gosh, I spent over an hour on Friday just cleaning up my email account. Ridiculous! But I printed a ton that I needed to keep and filed them all away. And I opened up a Gmail account. I need to separate the personal from the business. My Yahoo account was groaning with all of the emails coming at it.
Ok, this was a boring post but hey, this is what I did this weekend. What did YOU do this weekend?
...is over at the Word Flirts blog.
Check it out!
I freakin' love it!
I sold my Halloween story! Cobblestone bought Haunted Dreams. Hurray!
I'd give you a blurb but I haven't written it yet! I'll put one up in the next day or two.
I'm having a contest in honor of my first book release with Cobblestone Press.
Now my book Release Me doesn't come out for another two and a half weeks (August 4th), but I want to give everyone plenty of opportunity to enter to win. All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter by August 3rd. That's it. Simple as that. And if you don't want to sign up for my newsletter through Yahoo, just send me an email at karen @ karenwritesromance. com (minus the spaces) with "Newsletter" as the subject line and I'll sign you up that way, too.
What do you get the chance to win if you sign up, you ask? Well, I have a few choice products from Bath & Body Work's Tutti Dolci line to give away. This stuff smells so delicious, you will absolutely love it!
So sign up! And if you've already signed up, don't worry. You're already entered!
Didn't write a word this weekend. I feel bad about it but I couldn't muster up one word. Awful! Really need to get on it this week.
Instead, I cleaned out my kids' clothes, cleaned out my sock drawer (I'm not kidding, I had socks in there that were 10+ years old - unreal!), did major laundry. You know, the fun stuff in life.
I'm going to admit it - I feel a bit uninspired. I've done lots of research for my next book, I've worked on an outline (though I really need to work on a timeline - that's next), but I can't figure out how to start it. Ugh! I think I'm putting too much pressure on myself and therefore am unable to come up with anything. I need to just let the fingers fly on the keyboard and see what happens.
Does anybody else do this? Have a decent plot and come up with all kinds of scenes/ideas for later on in the book, but can't get the damn thing out the gate? Frustrating isn't it?
...but I don't give a damn. My main man on Big Brother won Head of Household last night and he was soooo happy. And now that he feels confident and on top of his game (however momentarily cos that's how it is in that house), he is sooooo damn cute, I can hardly stand it.
I mean, look at him!
Yeah, yeah, I post about this guy all the time, but I can't help myself! And last night the live feed cameras were on him while he talked and talked and talked - and got cuter and cuter and cuter. Sigh...
I have a sickness.
It's pretty much done and it looks awesome! Well, at least I think so.
Check it out here.
So you wanna read an excerpt from Release Me? Look here.
...I'm just about ready to send my Halloween story to the powers that be at Cobblestone. I need to go over it a few more times to make sure it's relatively clean and then I'm sending that puppy off.
Good riddance, I say. Not that I don't like the story, but it was such a struggle to write. So outside of my comfort zone. But enough of my whining.
And I came up with a title! Can you believe it? Haunted Dreams, I think. I don't know if that title will stick, but that's the best I can come up with right now. I suck at titles. Totally suck. All of the other titles I've heard for the various Halloween stories are so clever, so fun. Mine is just...blah.
Enough whining. I need to start working on the outline for my next book. And I need to work on promo'ing myself. My book comes out in a little over three weeks. Aaaah!
If you're lucky I'll post an excerpt soon. ;)
I stayed up too late Saturday night and it fried my brain for the rest of the weekend. Really. I went over to my girlfriend's house - she lives across the road. She and another friend were hanging out - they're the fresh divorcees of the group, so they've been lying low until recently. That whole "who gets the friends in the divorce" thing was hanging over their head and I told them I wasn't about to take sides. Just because my husband had known Anastasia's now ex-husband since they were 5 didn't mean I wouldn't hang with her.
Anyway, I went over there, had a few drinkies and did a bunch of man bashing. I didn't bash my husband - he's a good guy and I can't protest about him. No, I was bashing their ex-men along with them.
It's so sad to see what people do to each other when they split up. Mean stuff. That saying "there's a thin line between love and hate?" So true. This person you married and planned on sharing your life with, have children with, etc. - you're so in love with him/her it's almost sick.
Then stuff happens, you can't work it out anymore, you break up, you file the papers. You end up hating each other and do anything and everything you can to screw with their world.
My friend's ex came to their house when she was gone and took EVERYTHING. Every spoon, every piece of furniture, practically every decoration hanging on the wall. All of it. What's the point of that? So petty. And these two have children - children she took care of! So she's sitting in an empty house with their children and he won't give up a plate to her. Crazy.
So I stayed there til nearly 2 a.m. (!!!!) and woke up at 6 a.m. (!!!!) cos of my daughter. Went back to sleep but it wasn't good sleep. Hubby watched kids but they kept coming in and out of the room til I finally gave up. Hence the fried brain and the lack of writing this weekend.
After listening to all of this, I've decided that's why I like to write romance. Too much real world, everyone hates each other, divorce battles stuff can make you feel so depressed. I know this stuff goes on - hell, I've been divorced so I've lived it, but when faced with it every day, man - it sucks.
That's why writing a love story is so great. Let's you get caught up in the flush of first love. The rush of meeting someone new. Don't have to deal with too much b.s. cos you know the HEA is just around the corner. That's why I love reading it, too.
Why do you write/read romance?
Look at this guy! He's saying to me (and all the rest of you ladies as well), "Come and get me. I'll do anything you want."
Ha! Gotta love it.
...Is here.
Check it out.
Yes, I have become a member of another blog. This one is a little more informal though, which you can probably guess because of the title.
So visit The Slackass Clan. No formal schedule, no formal topics, just general blogs about doing anything but what we're supposed to be doing. Like how we're blogging, or reading, or surfin' the 'net instead of cleaning, writing, sleeping, or feeding our children...
Never mind about the feeding our children part. I do feed them, I swear. Really. Just let me finish this page first...
Ok, here is the new look for my blog. Pretty cool, huh? It matches my website, which is debuting soon, soon, soon!
Laura from Swank Web Style designed my website, as well as this blog template. She's done beautiful work and is great to work with, too.
I've also just started a newsletter. I will be sending the first one out soon - and it'll give you contest information to win free stuff! Gotta love free stuff.
So sign up! Please! And let me know what you think of my pretty new blog.
Okay everyone, I want to let you know that starting tomorrow you can visit the blog The Word Flirts. Seven of us writers have gotten together to blog about the writing life and I think - no I know it's going to be a lot of fun.
April is kicking off the blog tomorrow, and my first post will appear Friday, July 7th. After that, I will be posting every other Friday.
Other writers participating?
Emma
Sarah
Julie
Stacy
Nicole
What a great bunch! We hope to see you at the launch tomorrow!
Finished the first draft of my Halloween story yesterday. Came up shorter than I thought it would but that's all right. It's not totally finished - I'm going to have to revise and layer in some stuff but I was on a roll and wanted to push through to the end so I did.
I'm going to submit this to Cobblestone when it's ready and I'm already nervous cos it's so different than what I normally write. Ghosts and star crossed lovers and reunited souls oh my! I have no idea if it's any good.
So it's sitting for a few days and I'll go back to it and polish it up. I don't even have a title for the thing. Ugh! Wow, really makes you want to read it, huh?
Your weekend dose of eye candy is here!
I cropped the pic. He's really in his undies - with his hand in his undies. But I didn't want to violate photobucket again so here you go!
Sorry I had to tease you all like that with the REAL description of the photo.
