TOPIC: Do you have any ideas for your book cover?

To be asked for your thoughts and impressions on what should appear on the cover of your book is the most wonderful, exciting feeling - especially if it's your debut book!

Hair length/color (hero material!)

I experienced this process for the first time a few weeks ago. When I received the email from my editor (who mentioned she was off to a cover conference in a couple of days), my full-throated shout of delight scared my three cats silly.

What sorts of things do you submit to your editor? Well, some suggestions I made included:

• physical descriptions of my characters (which I took straight from scenes in my book & I also included photos of models to depict their hair length/style/eye colour)
• clothing (photos of styles of dress as well as armor, weapons, jewelry with examples of designs)

Eye color

• tattoos/body markings/features (keep in mind I write paranormal so had to draw features of my non-human characters)
• background settings (again I used descriptions taken from my scenes as well as photographs to depict the topography of major scenes in the book & flora)

Design on jewelry

• diagrams (hand drawn sketch of a significant landscape within the book)
• comments on tone of the book/colours (that need to be conveyed on the cover)
• a 2-4 paragraph synopsis (a bit like a back cover blurb)

I put all this into a "mini-portfolio" (about 9 pages worth once I was done) in Word document then saved it as a PDF. A lot of fun and I'm happy to have had an input into this process.

Armor design

The good news is my editor had been thinking along the same lines, turns out we had similar ideas for the concept of the cover. Phew!

So, with the conference over and our ideas safely in the cover department's hands, now begins the wait to see what they come up with.

Tones/background

Did I mention how excited I am about this?

Rough sketch

I can't wait to see the finished product!

Gone over to the Dark Side!

Eleni Konstantine has me strapped into the Dark Side DownUnder interview chair today.

She's asking all sorts of tough questions like who my favourite authors are, how entering contests helped me, sharing some info about VENGEANCE BORN: A Novel of the Light Blade (my debut release from Berkley Sensation), what my favourite SF movie/TV show is, and do I have any hints or tips for emerging writers.

Feel free to wander over and visit.

Sara Creasy Give-Away Winner Announced!

It was great to read your responses to the question posed for this giveaway - thank you for participating.

Without further ado, everyone who answered the question had their names placed into a draw and Sara drew one at random. The winner is...

Cath

Congratulations!

Please contact Sara - saracreasy(at)gmail(dot)com - and she'll arrange to get your prize to you.

Who's That Girl? Interview - Gracie O'Neil

Let's zip across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand today to meet one of RWNZ's Heart to Heart magazine editors, high concept pitch goddess, one half of a website design team, good friend and conference roommate...

 
Name? Hi, I’m Gracie O’Neil.

Where are you? I live in the central North Island of New Zealand.

How many years have you been a member of RWNZ? I joined RWNZ in 2004, so it’s a little while now. (Gracie was the first RWNZ'er I met at my first RWNZ conference! and we've been friends ever since)

What genre/s do you write? I write both paranormal romantic suspense and romantic suspense.

Who are your favourite authors? There are so many, but the ones on my bedside table at the moment are Karen Rose, J. D. Robb, Terry Pratchett, Robin Owens, and Karina Bliss.

What inspired you to write romance? I never thought of writing romance. I thought of writing a story. If it happened to contain romance—and every good story did, didn’t it?--then that was a part of the deal. It wasn’t until I had contact with RWNZ that I learned there were elements required for and nuances to a good romance, and by incorporating those things into any genre I could make every story I wrote stronger.

Who's your dream agent and/or dream publisher? I’m lucky enough to have my dream agent—Nephele Tempest at The Knight Agency. Dream publisher? That’s a hard one, but I think either Berkley or St Martin’s Press. (It was sooo exciting to phone Gracie last year to share the good news with her that I was now not only her conference roomie but an agency-buddy as well - we're both represented by TKA )

What's the best thing about going to conference? Learning something new, confirming where I’m headed, and meeting up in person with the girls I correspond with every day via our BILD (Book in 50 Days) loop. Oh, and sharing a room with you, of course, Kylie!! :-) (Not a lot of sleep happens during conference...so much talking and catching up to do!!!)

And lastly, finish these statements...
My greatest strength as a writer...is dialogue.
A sexy hero needs...dark hair. Sorry all you blond guys. In my personal universe every sexy man has dark hair.
My latest WIP (work in progress) is about...an ex-CIA operative who is hiding her new career on the gray edge of the law, and who becomes the target of an assassin’s vendetta when her current job goes bad. Now her life--and heart--lie in the hands of a man who has already betrayed her once. Can she trust him to help her expose the past when he has more secrets to hide than she does?
When I write I like to...use a timer to keep me on track. Nose down, tail up for fifteen minutes at a time.
My best writing milestone to date is...probably...well, again, that’s difficult too. Finishing the first, second, and third books. Getting my dream agent. Finaling and winning in competitions. But there’s no point in looking back at past milestones. For me, the best writing milestone is always the next one, which in my case would be a sale. (Oh yeah. Please, let there be a sale!!)

Gracie, it's been great having you here, thanks for answering my questions. If you'd like to check out Gracie's website, feel free.

She also has a fant-abulous writing website called Romance She Wrote, with lots of helpful tips on the craft of writing.

GUEST AUTHOR: Sara Creasy

This author grew up in the West Midlands of the UK, moved to Australia as a teen, and spent most of her life either reading fantasy or science fiction books or acting out scenes from them.

She's worked as a textbook editor, project editor, has one science degree and in 2005 married an American (and subsequently moved there) but has since returned DownUnder and is now living in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and baby daughter.

She's a 2010 Aurealis Award finalist (for Best SF Book), a Phillip K.Dick Award nominee, and a member of the Science Fiction Romance Brigade and the Supernatural Underground blog. She is represented by Kristin Nelson from the Nelson Literary Agency.

Here's what Publishers Weekly (starred review) had to say about her first book, SONGS OF SCARABAEUS - "This brilliantly conceived debut heralds a significant new talent... Creasy's convincing scientific speculation, appealing characterizations, and eerie alien landscapes make this science fiction romance deeply satisfying."
Please welcome Sara Creasy as she shares some interesting facts about herself and talks about CHILDREN OF SCARABAEUS, the second novel in her SFR series.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you write?
I write science fiction romance and my second book, CHILDREN OF SCARABAEUS, is just out from Harper Voyager. The prequel, SONG OF SCARABAEUS, has been nominated for an Aurealis Award and the Philip K. Dick Award.

I live in Melbourne, Australia, but was born in the UK and recently lived for 5 years in Arizona. I’m married to an American who also writes (sci-fi and fantasy), and we have a beautiful 10-month-old daughter. I worked in publishing for many years, and have also worked for a bank, a private detective, a computer shop, a curtain shop, an online company and the Commonwealth government.

How’s that for “a little bit”?!

What sparks your creativity?
All sorts of things. Images, especially of exotic places or things. Orchestral music. Certain scenes or visuals or even actors’ performances in movies. Sometimes, just thinking, letting my mind wander, usually just as I’m falling asleep. I love researching, and the internet makes it quick and easy and cheap. One idea leads to another and I end up with all sorts of largely irrelevant bits and pieces, but you never know which insignificant detail will generate a whole new character or setting or plot.

For anyone who hasn't read Sara's first book (not only should you get it ASAP), here's the blurb:

The best cypherteck in the galaxy, Edie can reinvent planets with little more than a thought. Trained since childhood in advanced biocyph seed technology by the all-powerful Crib empire, her mission is to terraform alien worlds while her masters bleed the outlawed Fringe populations dry. When renegade mercenaries kidnap Edie, she's not entirely sure it's a bad thing... until they leash her to a bodyguard, Finn - a former freedom fighter-turned-slave, beaten down but never broken. If Edie strays from Finn's side, he dies. If she doesn't cooperate, the pirates will kill them both.

But Edie's abilities far surpass anything her enemies imagine. And now, with Finn her only ally as the merciless Crib closes in, she'll have to prove it or die on the site of her only failure... a world called Scarabaeus.

Can you tell us about your latest release?
The Scarabaeus books take place in a far-future, somewhat dystopian universe, with a governing bureaucracy called the Crib ruling the central planets, surrounded by the outlawed Fringe worlds that are struggling to survive under Crib oppression.

The science part of the story involves using genetic engineering to terraform alien planets, which is what my heroine Edie does for a living. In the first book she is kidnapped by rovers (pirates) who need her help on the Fringe. They leash her to an unwilling bodyguard, Finn, who will die if she dies or goes out of range.

In the second book she and Finn are back in the hands of the Crib, and Edie is forced to work on a new project she predicts will be highly destructive to hundreds of planets across the galaxy. The Crib is using talented children on the project, and she feels compelled to help them as well as to help Finn escape.

There is a strong attraction between Edie and Finn, whose relationship is complicated not only by the leash but by their stressful situation that doesn’t leave much room for your typical romance. Still, the relationship moves up a few notches in the new book. There is definitely a stronger romance angle this time around.

CHILDREN OF SCARABAEUS blurb:

Edie Sha'nim believes she and her bodyguard lover, Finn, could find refuge from the tyranny of the Crib empire by fleeing to the Fringe worlds. But Edie's extraordinary cypherteck ability to manipulate the ecology of evolving planets makes her far too valuable to lose. Recaptured and forced to cooperate - or else she will watch Finn die - Edie is shocked to discover the Crib's new breed of cypherteck: children. She cannot stand by while the oppressors enslave the innocent, nor can she resist the lure of Scarabaeus, the first world she tried to save, when researchers discover what appears to be an evolving intelligence.

But escape - for Edie, for Finn, and for the exploited young - will require the ultimate sacrifice... and a shocking act of rebellion.

What was the easiest and hardest parts about writing the book?
The hardest part was the final rewrites for my editor. I was doing them just before and just after my baby daughter was born last year. I was not really in the best physical or emotional state to be creative or technical – both of which are needed at that stage of the process. The easiest part was writing the scenes between Edie and Finn. I know them so well now that their scenes flowed onto the page without any problems.

Do you have a pet that keeps you company when you write?
I don’t, but I really wish I did. I would love to be one of those writers who has a few cats lying around the place, rubbing against my legs or walking over my keyboard. But I’m allergic to cats. Until recently we had dogs, and I love dogs too, but they take a lot more work and I don’t have time with a baby.

What’s next for you? What are you working on?
I’m writing a new book, possibly a series. There’s more romance and a bit more fun planned for this story, although it does get quite dark.

My heroine is captain of a mapping ship. She navigates unknown wormholes in order to map them for future safe travel. The universe I’ve developed is a bit different this time – there are aliens, for a start. It’s great fun thinking up histories and cultures and biologies for alien races.

Do you have any advice/handy tips/craft skills you’d like to share with unpublished authors?
Here’s just a small piece of advice for those writing genre fiction who aren’t yet published: know your market.

Book sellers, and therefore editors, and therefore agents, want to know where to shelve your book. They want to know how to describe it in terms of its niche. So if you’re writing a historical gladiator murder mystery with space aliens and magic crystals and fourteen explicit sex scenes, you’re just confusing everyone. I’m not saying that book can’t be written and sold, but if you’re trying to attract attention for your first book you’ll increase your odds by sticking to established subgenres.

Sara, thank you so much for visiting today! It's been a pleasure having you here. And to keep the good times rolling, folks, there's a giveaway!

To celebrate the release of Sara's CHILDREN OF SCARABAEUS and keeping with the SFR theme, which alien culture in a movie, TV series or book really appealed to you when you saw or read about it?

Answer this by Friday, April 15th (Aussie time) and you'll go into draw for this great giveaway!

Check out Sara's website to learn more about her or her books.

REVIEW: Invitation to Ruin (historical romance)

Most of my friends know I love, live and breathe paranormal romance. My bookshelves are full of series and favourite authors who write in this genre - Nalini Singh, Larissa Ione, Joss Ware, Jacqueline Frank, Angela Knight, J.R.Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Joey W.Hill, Denise Rossetti...the list goes on and on...

So, when I tell you I can count the number of historical romance authors I've read and enjoyed on one hand, you'll understand why I'm posting a review about this debut author's book.

I read Bronwen Evans' debut historical romance, INVITATION TO RUIN, in a day. I'd only intended reading a few chapters during my lunch break, but I ended up reading it well into the afternoon and then evening. What did I find so appealing about it?

It wasn't the story line, although I did enjoy the grittier, darker elements within it.

It wasn't the historical period; I'm afraid I wouldn't know if Ms.Evans portrayed her world accurately or not simply because I'm not an aficionado of that time period.

It wasn't the style of her writing, although I certainly enjoyed it and going back over sections of it (after I finished it) to analyse how she constructed various scenes.

Quite simply, it was the characters. They engaged me.

The Lord of Wicked - Anthony Craven - is a true tortured hero. I loved that he wasn't an overbearing alpha character. Without giving away any spoilers, this hero's tormented childhood left him determined not to care about anyone, to hide his emotion from everyone and to ease the pain of his past through the pursuit of pleasure rather than love. No emotion, no connection, no advantage given.

He was taught that to show any of the softer emotions was a weakness. So, watching his transformation from a hard, cold, almost ruthless rake into one who recognises that love strengthens instead of weakens was an experience that, as a reader, left me very satisfied. It was extremely well done and entirely believable.

I also found Miss Melissa Goodly a refreshing heroine, not quite what I expected in an historical heroine (you can probably blame my ignorance and instinctive stereotypical mind-set for that). She's a woman of strong convictions, opinionated, worldly-wise in some ways and innocent in others, passionate and vulnerable without being over the top. A lovely balance of conflicting qualities.

Phillip Drake is the quintessential villain. You were pretty much rooting for his demise from the first scene you witnessed him in. What I found fascinating about him was his past. I kept wanting to know what made this man like he was. Again without giving away any spoilers, Evans' explains this in snippets throughout the book. The tie between the hero and the villain deepens the connection I felt for these characters - good, bad and ugly.

The way she explained what made each man who he is left me thinking about how the events of our pasts shape what we are now and how we act or conduct ourselves, and this was especially true of Craven and Drake.

I put down the book knowing that I'd just spent several hours reading something that left me feeling satisfied and entertained.

Everything a good book should do.

INVITATION TO RUIN

One Good Lady is About to Go Bad...

The only thing Miss Melissa Goodly has ever wanted out of a marriage is love. But any hope of that dissolves one wild night, when she loses herself in the arms of the most irresistible-and unobtainable-man in all of England. For when they are discovered in a position as compromising as it is pleasurable, she has no choice but to accept his proposal.

Avowed bachelor Anthony Craven, Earl of Wickham, never meant to seduce an innocent like Melissa. Yet now that the damage is done, it does seem like she'd make a very convenient wife. After all, she is so naive he won't have to worry about ever being tempted. Or so he thinks, until the vows are spoken and they are left alone-and his new bride reveals a streak just as brazen and unrestrained as his own...

TOPIC: The tough world of contest feedback...

ADD+DA

No, this is not some strange chemical formula or a new classification for attention deficit disorder. It's the acronym for the emotional fallout we all experience from contest feedback (and the same can be said of rejection letters if truth be known - ask me how I know!).

So, you've entered a writing contest with your work. You've put your baby out there and spent the last few months eagerly awaiting the results and feedback from the judges. You get it. You read it.

Some of it's positive. Some of it's mediocre. Some of it rips the rug out from under your feet - cuts you off at the knees and leaves you bleeding - makes you want to crawl under the bed and chew on your knuckles for the next hundred years.

The myriad of emotions sparked by this sort of feedback is what I want to address in this post. Firstly though, what does the acronym stand for?

A - anger.
(And at this point in time, I'm going to share your pain by baring some of the most gut wrenching comments I've received from judges over the last eight years, so you know you're not alone.) Here are some examples, some ranging from inappropriate to "constructive-but-I-felt-the-need-to-disagree-with-them" comments.

Example 1. (judging 3 chapters) "Heroine seems to be a plaster saint. Hero a lout with unreasonable expectations. They don't talk like people. Their names have a real '70's fantasy ring to them. 
Voice: stop using $10 words you don't know how to use well and talk naturally. Get deeper into your characters' heads and your POV problems will clear up. Five spaces begin a paragraph, not two. Don't worry about the premise. Fix the voice. Premises are cheap. Voice is golden. 
I feel this entry has been critiqued to death. You have the basic skills to tell a story and keep it interesting. That is ALL IT TAKES to get published, so screw your critique group!"

Example 2. (judging 3 chapters & synopsis) "The hook is pretty generic."

Example 3. (judging a synopsis) "To be honest, you can probably cut most of the first three paragraphs. I can see you're trying to hook the reader with the first para, but character introductions and action can do that as well as or better than a tag line. I'd recommend you get your world-building/setting out there, and then get straight to the characters."

OK, now that you've read them, can you imagine feeling angry? With maybe all three in varying degrees? Hmm-mm. I did.

So, there I am brewing with anger. The next stage of this cycle:
D&D - disbelief & denial, and these comes in varying forms as well.

• After reading the first judge's comment I was spitting chips and hurling the score sheets across the room.
• The second made me wonder how the judge got past judge training school - where was the follow up advice? What suggestions could they have offered to improve a "generic" hook?
• The last one drew out a knee-jerk reaction. I was attached to that synopsis beginning, do you know how much time I spent slaving over them, how dare they suggest I cut out the opening paragraphs! etc.etc.etc.

Moving on to:
D - despair.
Admittedly the first two comment examples came at a stage in my contest career when I'd developed a pretty thick-skin, and after the initial shocking read I could relegate these judges comments to the "Disregard" file.
Very little of what they had to say was going to help me develop my skills as a writer other than to infuriate me on behalf of the beginning writer who did take their comments to heart and decided never to write again.

All that aside, there have been times I've read comments and begun to doubt my abilities as a writer. Am I good enough? Why do I bother to put myself through this? Will I ever reach a standard acceptable to be published? I thought I had this entry pretty well nailed, where did I go wrong? You ask yourself all these sorts of questions in this stage. You've got to push through, analyse your feedback objectively - see the gold amidst the debris - and come out more analytical & tougher on the other side.

And the last stage is:
A - acceptance.

The good thing about the last comment example is that the judge offered constructive advice. And once I'd cooled off and gone back to look I could see the value in what they'd suggested.

I reworked the synopsis, wrote a couple of alternate beginnings, used the advice and came up with something that incorporated some of what the judge said and something I could live with.

Some of those knee-jerk reactions you have to the judges comments are probably the ones that strike a resonating chord within you and subconsciously you know they're right. Also if more than one judge point out the same thing then you need to look seriously at that feedback with a view to editing your work.

Most judges volunteer to help you improve your skills and craft. They're not in it to belittle your ability or scoff at your plot or characters. If you take anything away from this post, and listen to some hard learned wisdom from a contest diva, remember this...you WILL go through every stage of the process I've outlined. Many, many, many, many times and at difference points in your career as a writer.

A last word on the issue - get used to it or (as one of my more shoot-straight-from-the-hip writing buddies says) get out of the game. Harsh advice. Yep. This business is tough.

But if you manage to stick it, develop that tough-skin and improve your craft, then the rewards will outweigh the hard times. Guaranteed. :-)