Anna Campbell Give-Away Winner Announced!

To everyone who shared something about the area where they lived - thank you - reading about them just showed our world is has some wonderful places!

All names were placed into the draw and Anna randomly drew one. And that name is...

May

Contact Anna direct - anna@annacampbell.info - and she'll arrange the specifics to get your prize sent to you.

Happy Reading!

Who's That Girl? Interview - T.G.Ayer

Today, please welcome Tee, another Kiwi and RWNZ'er!

Hi Kylie, I feel honored to be in the company of such wonderful writers.

It's great to have you here, Tee! 

Name? My pen-name is T. G. Ayer aka Tee.

Where are you? I currently live in Auckland, New Zealand but I hail from Durban, South Africa.

How many years have you been a member of Romance Writers of New Zealand? March 2011 will be a full year with RWNZ. A decision I will never regret.

What genre/s do you write? I am currently writing paranormal YA, and have a YA mythological drama on the back burner. I hope to also complete a historical romance based in my home country in the 1700's.

Who are your favourite authors? For YA Melissa Marr and Cassandra Clare and Alyson Noel, Maria v Snyder. Paranormal - Nalini Singh, Marjorie Lui. I also love horror - Koontz. King and Saul. And a secret passion for crime Tess Gerritsen being my current fave.

What inspired you to write romance? I don't write specific to the romance genre BUT romance is such an integral element in any popular written work it's hardly possible to write a novel that's love-free! It's definitely a key element around which my stories grow.

Who's your dream agent and/or dream publisher? I would love to publish with Harper Teen or Walker Books. As for an agent, I'm still on the lookout for one who would love my work and me, too. :)

What's the best thing about going to conference? Conference is like injecting inspiration drive and determination straight into one's veins. My first experience was so amazing I'm still not sure when I'll come down from the high!

I'm still amped and now looking forward to the 2011 conference. It's the amazing people you meet, all the inspirational stories, being able sit side-by-side with published authors, meeting agents, editors, publishers. I've made true some fab friends out of conference too.

And lastly, finish these statements...
My greatest strength as a writer is...my imagination. It's always in control and when it wants out I have no choice but to write.
A sexy heroine needs...courage and fire. Even if she is a damsel in distress she most certainly has to have fire in her blood and a dagger in her boot!
My latest WIP (work in progress) is about...an angel who accidentally ends up as the Ruler of the Underworld. This WIP is Greek mythology meets Nephilim aimed at YA readers aka Hells Angel.
When I write I like to...listen to music anything from melody Gardot to Linkin Park! - depends on the scene.
My best writing milestone to date is...the completion of my very first novel in the space of 8 months. I also completed Nanowrimo 2010 and wrote my first draft for my Hell's Angel WIP and am hoping to complete this novel by the end of February 2011.

You can follow Tee's blog or her on Twitter (Storymage).

Tee, thanks for answering my questions. It's been great having you here!

GUEST AUTHOR: Anna Campbell

Please welcome, Avon historical romance author, Anna Campbell to the blog.

Hiya Kylie! Thank you so much for having me as your guest today on your blog. By the way, can’t wait for your book VENGEANCE BORN to hit the shelves! (Thanks, I can't wait either!)
For those who don't know you (the remaining few :-D ), can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m a fellow Aussie. I live on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast about an hour north of the state capital Brisbane. I write historical romance full-time which is a dream come true for me. I like walks in the rain and dancing at midnight and long chats by the fireside and I’m a Virgo and… Oh, sorry, forgot where I was for a moment!

(A match making service - now there's an interesting sideline for a romance writer...hmm, I might look into that! LOL Thanks for the idea, Anna!)

OK, let's get back to the interview proper. Anna, when did you start to write and how long did it take you to be published?
I’ve always been a book addict. If you saw my TBR pile right now, you’d know that’s never changed. It seemed natural to make the transition from consumer to producer. My mother very proudly kept an essay I wrote in grade two where I said I was going to be the next Enid Blyton (the writer I obsessed about at the time – she’s had many worthy successors in my personal pantheon!).

I started my first attempt at a novel (another EB clone!) shortly afterwards. I fiddled around with various stories, not finishing anything long, until after high school, when I completed a medieval. I count my attempts to be published from that - it was 27 years after finishing that book that I was signed to Avon in New York in a three-book contract after an auction.

Are you a pantster, scener, or plotter? Is it your characters or plot that influence you most? What’s your writing process from start to finish when writing a book?
Definitely a pantser! I wish I was a plotter because I think it’s a more efficient way of writing, but I’m just not. My plot tends to arise out of the conflicts between my characters.

Generally I’ll get a germ of an idea while I’m working on something else. That sets up residence at the back of my brain and if it’s a good idea, it’s magnetic and it draws other ideas to it that start to coagulate into the seeds of a novel.

Once I finish a book, I generally don’t start the new story for a little while. I’ll write a short story or do some promo or something else to clear out the old ghosts and wait for the new people to take up residence. Then I start to write – to begin a book, I need a vivid opening scene, my hero and heroine (sometimes a villain too) and a BIG problem. The rest of the story grows organically from there.

I work on a daily page count and just keep plugging away until I get to the end. Usually at that stage, I have a sprawling, completely unreadable first draft. Then I go back and polish and polish and polish until it’s ready to go to my editor.

USA cover

This week is an excitng week for you - can you tell us about your latest release?
MIDNIGHT’S WILD PASSION (Avon Books/HarperCollins Australia) is out on 26th April in America and on 1st May in Australia and New Zealand. For local readers, you should find it at KMart, Big W, Target and wherever good books are sold (as they say in the classics)!

It’s the closest I’ve come to writing a classic Regency romance and has definite touches of Cinderella. The Marquess of Ranelaw is set on revenge but finds himself stymied by spirited, mysterious chaperone Antonia Smith. Both of these characters are smart and wary and bear wounds from their past, and both know better than to fall in love. But of course they do!

You can read an excerpt at: http://www.annacampbell.info/wildpassion.html

And for all your readers, I'm sure they're hanging out to know what’s next for you. What are you working on?
I’m having a wonderful time doing a very sexy, gothic take on the Beauty and the Beast story. There’s something so invigorating writing a cranky male who’s about to get his comeuppance!

I know you always have some great advice to share with unpubbed writers. Do you have any handy tips/craft skills you’d like to share?
Yes, ignore all the noise around you and WRITE!!!! It’s always easy to be distracted from your work but it’s even harder now – and believe me, I speak from experience, LOL! But you need to do the work, that always has to be paramount.

Thanks so much for answering my questions, Anna, it's been wonderful having you here today - and to top it all off, she has a bonus to finish with...Anna?

OK, guys, I’ve got a signed copy of MIDNIGHT’S WILD PASSION up for grabs to someone who comments today. You now know where I live. Tell me something about where you live! (Contest ends 6pm, Friday, 29th April 2011 - Aussie time). Good luck!

Anna's other books:
(including the Aust./NZ cover of MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION)

If you'd like to find out more about Anna, she has a website, and you can find her on her Facebook page.

ANZAC DAY

To all our brave servicemen & women in the Australian & New Zealand Armed Forces...thank you!

At the going down of the sun...

I crouched in a shallow trench on that hell of exposed beaches... steeply rising foothills bare of cover... a landscape pockmarked with war’s inevitable litter... piles of stores... equipment... ammunition... and the weird contortions of death sculptured in Australian flesh... I saw the going down of the sun on that first ANZAC Day... the chaotic maelstrom of Australia’s blooding.

I fought in the frozen mud of the Somme... in a blazing destroyer exploding on the North Sea... I fought on the perimeter at Tobruk... crashed in the flaming wreckage of a fighter in New Guinea... lived with the damned in the place cursed with the name Changi.

I was your mate... the kid across the street... the med. student at graduation... the mechanic in the corner garage... the baker who brought you bread... the gardener who cut your lawn... the clerk who sent your phone bill.

I was an Army private... a Naval commander... an Air Force bombardier.  no man knows me... no name marks my tomb, for I am every Australian serviceman... I am the Unknown Soldier.

I died for a cause I held just in the service of my land... that you and yours may say in freedom... I am proud to be an Australian. 

(This 60 cm x 90 cm framed message, a poignant tribute to the Australian serviceman, hangs in the offices of the Queensland State Headquarters of the RSL.)

THE ODE
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them. *

Lest we forget.

* For the Fallen, a poem by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyon. This verse, which became the Ode for the Returned and Services League, has been used in association with commemoration services in Australia since 1921.

A Few Good Books...

Today is World Book & Copyright Day so it seems appropriate to feature a few good books.

Nothing satisfies me more than recommending some of the ones I've read and thoroughly enjoyed. Some of these are old favourites I've re-read and some of them are new authors or new releases by favourite authors.

Ladies man & defense attorney

Golden-boy & beautiful nurse

The Firefighters of Station Five series (by Jo Davis) - Ever had a firefighter fantasy? These five books are hot and the romantic suspense elements to each burn up the pages, too. Well worth a read.
Reading order - TRIAL BY FIRE, UNDER FIRE, HIDDEN FIRE, LINE OF FIRE, RIDE THE FIRE.

Die-hard bachelor & school teacher

Virgin geek & exotic dancer

Fire captain & female fire-fighter

MORNING COMES SOFTLY (by Debbie Macomber) - I've read this book at least a dozen times. It's the story of a bachelor rancher-turned-father and how he writes a personal ad looking for a wife before the Dept.of Community Service takes away his niece & nephews.
Think modern mail-order bride where rancher meets city librarian but one that tugs on your heart and brings tears to your eyes.

RAPTURE UNTAMED (by Pamela Palmer) - the 4th in the Feral Warriors paranormal romance series. I loved and hated how the hero, Jag, blackmailed the heroine, Olivia.
Both of them are tormented characters well suited to one another and their personal conflict for dominance over one another was wildly sensual.

NOWHERE MAN (by Rebecca York) - one of the few category romances on my bookshelf. A gripping mystery involving a psychologist brought in to help a covert soldier with no memory but with secrets that could get them both killed.

THE BID (by Jax) - male slave, female mistress-shapeshifter, inter-planetary politics and romance. Phew! SF erotic romance at its best.


I hope you've found a new book or two to enjoy from this list.

Happy reading!

Who's That Girl? Interview - Nicky Strickland

We're back in Oz this week. Please meet a fellow Dark-Sider (from the Dark Side Down Under blog).

Name? Nicky Strickland.

Where are you? Brisbane, Australia.

How many years have you been a member of the Romance Writers' of Australia? I joined RWA 2008 (after it being mentioned to me about 2 years earlier but was too scared to join...)

What genre/s do you write? Fantasy with romantic elements. Even the historical and crime/suspense ideas I have seem to end up with something fantastical in them. I'm a speculative fiction girl through and through.

Who are your favourite authors? Oh, this is such a tough question. There are many and varied. I have so many books to read these days I rarely re-read either.

A few authors who'll I'll look at their new books regardless of what it is would be ...... Paulo Coelho, Kim Wilkins, Scott Westerfeld, Tracey O'Hara*, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Joss Whedon, Keri Arthur*, Erica Hayes*, Jim Butcher, Lilith Saintcrow & Kelley Armstrong.

(* more Dark Siders)

What inspired you to write romance? Interesting question for me this one. One of the reasons I took so long to join RWA (nearly 2yrs)  is I wasn't sure if I was a romance writer.

I've learnt so much about romance since attending the Australian Romance Readers' Association conference & joining Romance Writers' of Australia that I now comfortably use the term romantic elements. One of my favourite couple of characters are heading more and more into Buffy and Angel territory of not being able to be together (or else, you know, the planet is destroyed).

Romances are definitely strong threads in my stories, but they don't necessarily drive the book (more like they ride shotgun, or are very vocal backseat passengers) and I can't guarantee the HEA (happily ever after)...

Who's your dream agent and/or dream publisher? My dream agent would be someone who is prepared to be supportive of me and my writing over the long term. The obligatory 'love my work' plays into this and I know I have ideas that may not always fit the same line/sub-genre but it will always be 'my voice'.
So, my dream publisher may well end up being plural. I have ideas of which publishers I'd like to have books with and it will depend on who take me on first.

What's the best thing about going to conference? Undoubtedly, meeting the people I've met via the loops and chat room.

I don't care how small the world gets via the digital life humans are pack animals and we like to get together and party down. Being able to hug, and place a real life face and voice (instead of photos) to somebody's name is priceless.

And lastly, finish these statements...
My greatest strength as a writer is...telling stories. I describe myself as a storyteller every time. Oh & persistence (some may think I'm a little stubborn).
A sexy heroine needs...shades and dimensions.
My latest WIP (work in progress) is about...there are two battling for priority. One is about a mermaid coming into her powers (& arranged marriage) in our world where the elements are arguing siblings. The other is a 21st century young woman ending up living in 1st BCE Rome with Vestal Virgins during the civil wars of the Roman Republic.
When I write I like to...play music (wearing headphones) & have way too much coffee.
My best writing milestone to date is... surprising myself by semi-finalling in the RWA Emerald Award. It was done as an exercise to see if I could get a book done in a year and I went much further than I ever thought I could.

Thanks for answering my questions, Nicky!
If you'd like to find out more about Nicky then check out her blog, Facebook page or follow her on Twitter.

GUEST AUTHOR: Marcella Burnard

Marcella blames her father for her love of science fiction and fantasy. They watched many a late night science fiction movie together.

She grew up as an Air Force brat, moving often and traveling all over the US. When the tiny base library ran out of interesting books in the kids' section, and wouldn't allow her in the adult section, she began writing her own stories.

She lives with her husband and cats aboard a sailboat on Puget Sound. (How cool is that?!?)

She recently won a Romantic Times Readers' Choice Award in the Futuristic Romance section for her book ENEMY WITHIN. Congratulations!

Please welcome fellow SFRBrigader, Marcella Burnard to my blog.

Hi, Marcella, can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m a geek, married to a geek, and living in one of the geek meccas.

I’m a cat person (I’d be a dog person, too, if I weren’t so allergic). I’m a tea snob and a secret foodie – meaning I love really good food, but I don’t talk about it much because I’m a tough audience. (We all like what we like, right? I figure we’re all tough audiences.)

Let’s see. I’m addicted to music. I think I support any number of record companies all on my own. We won’t discuss my book addiction. It’s…bad.

I think I'm a part of the same book club, Marcella! LOL


When did you start to write and how long did it take you to be published?
I’ve been writing to entertain myself since I was a kid. Maybe that represents part of my learning curve. Hard to say.

It wasn’t until after I was married that I began seriously trying to publish something. I began with short stories. My first rejection letter was from Marion Zimmer Bradley. I switched to novel length. Many, many more rejection letters followed.

Once I joined RWA and began learning the difference between internal and external conflict, it took me about ten years to go from rank beginner to rank published beginner.

Ahh, the winding road to publication - it's always encouraging (in a strange sort of way) to see someone else's journey and identify with them. Thanks for sharing this.


So, what sparks your creativity?
Boredom. Time alone in my own head. Walking around with no schedule just looking at stuff.

I love Port Townsend, WA – there’s a hotel there – the Palace Hotel. Seems it was an old Victorian brothel. There’s a room on the third floor that looks out over Water Street. A huge flock of starlings lives in the town. Every night at dusk, they pour out of their roosts and swoop and play between all of the buildings. It’s a great thing to watch.

Music will also spark all kinds of ideas. Car trips do the job, too, unless I’m driving.

Oh, I like car trips too - my subconscious has time to mull over problems while my conscious self dreams up more scenes in something I'm working on!


What do you think it is about your genre that readers find fascinating?
I cross two genres – romance and science fiction. Romance readers are fascinated by the interplay between two people that leads to love and commitment. Science fiction fans, I think, are interested in speculation – visions of the future whether good or bad.

Fact about Marcella: She's a member of the SFRB (that's Science Fiction Romance Brigade to the uninformed - and now that you are, any SFR junkies might like to hop on over and check out their website or blog! Yep, blatant promotion, I know...)


Are you a panster or plotter? Is it your characters or your plot that influence you most? What's your writing process from start to finish when writing a book?
Both. I’m mostly a pantser. If I know what’s going to happen, why should I write the book? 

However, I did take a workshop with Mary Buckham – she did a Break Into Fiction workshop locally. I use that system of templates to map out my character arcs, motivations, and emotional drives. From there, what happens takes care of itself.

Can you tell us about your new release (see also book blurb below)?
ENEMY GAMES is Jayleia and Damen’s story. They think they know the enemy – they’re wrong. 

What was the easiest and hardest parts about writing this book?
Easiest part was I already knew who these two people were – they appeared in the first book. The hardest part of this book was the deadline. I’d never written a book in nine months and it was one major anxiety attack trying to get the book done and into a form I liked.

What’s the worst writing mistake you ever made that taught you a valuable lesson?
Bickering doesn’t equal conflict. Wrote my entire first novel on the basis of nothing more than two people arguing. It frightens me that I managed to get 100,000 words of nothing but ‘Uh uh!’ ‘Uh huh!’

Now for something slightly off topic. What’s the most unusual place you have visited?
Lived in Iceland for two years when I was a kid. Experienced my first earthquake (that I remember). A volcano erupted while we were living there (Dad even got sent to help keep a town from being buried by ash). We got to explore some of the most interesting and dynamic geology on the planet. I was 9. I will grant that I didn’t realize what I was seeing at the time, but I sure do value everything I got to see. Geysers, blue whales migrating just off shore, huge waves crashing into tall stone cliffs and shaking us where we stood all the way at the top…

Oh, how cool! And what vivid memories for a 9y.o.!

ENEMY WITHIN 

After a stint in an alien prison torpedoes her military career, Captain Ari Idylle has to wonder why she even bothered to survive. Stripped of her command and banished to her father's scientific expedition to finish a PhD she doesn't want, Ari never planned to languish quietly behind a desk. But when pirates commandeer her father's ship, Ari once again becomes a prisoner.

Pirate leader Cullin Seaghdh may not be who he pretends to be but as far as Cullin is concerned, the same goes for Ari. Her past imprisonment puts her dead center in Cullin's sights and if she hasn't been brainwashed and returned as a spy, then he's convinced she must be part of a traitorous alliance endangering billions of lives. Cullin can't afford the desire she fires within him and he'll stop at nothing, including destroying her, to uncover the truth.

What's the most unusual book you've read that's made a lasting impression on you?
Hmm. I don’t know that THE WORLD WITHOUT US by Alan Weisman is all that unusual except that it isn’t fiction. I loved that book. I suppose every scifi geek has an empty-earth fantasy. Or maybe that’s only introverts.

As for fiction, the one foremost in my mind is LORD OF LIGHT by Roger Zelany. It’s a Hugo award winning novel that’s told almost entirely in dialog. Very interesting story telling. It’s about the crew of a starship that has conquered a planet, set themselves up as gods and turned the conquered peoples into their worshippers. Need it be mentioned that few of these gods are benevolent?

Do you have a pet that keeps you company when you write?  Have they taught you anything about writing?  If so, what?
I have four. Erie is our matriarch feline. Deaf, arthritic and wobbly with age, she nevertheless insists upon a lunch break so that I can take her for a  walk.

Autolycus is our only boy cat. He’s a terror. We’ve threatened to sell him into slavery at Microsoft as a computer tester. That cat has caused more blue screens by walking across keyboards than anything else we’ve ever done.

Don’t get me started on the time I’d shut my computer down for the day, gone to dinner and yet came home to find him laying on the keyboard. He’d restarted the machine and pressed F10 – running Windows through it’s set up program. The cat was trying to reformat my box. I caught it before lasting damage was done. That and the fact that he’s cute are the only reasons he’s still alive. Needless to say, he taught me to keep backups of my work.

Cuillean is next. She’s a sweet-talking, shy girl who comes to lay across my lap and keep me company while I work. She’s never more content than when I’m sitting, intent on my story while she purrs herself to sleep. She helps keep me focused.

The baby of the bunch is Hatshepsut. She is 100% my cat and believes she has special claim on me. When she approaches me while I’m working, it’s to interrupt. She will not allow me to divide my attention. No way. She requires and deserves my full attention. If I try to keep working, she climbs into my arms and tucks her head into the curve of my shoulder and neck. She has a purr that’s as much an assault as it is expression of pleasure. I call her Little Purr. (Dumb, really. It should be BIG Purr, but she’s a little cat…). She’s the model for the heroine for book four in this series.

Oh, how gorgeous - all four of them! I suspect there's a link between SFR authors and cats. Jess Granger, yourself, me...we all own cats...hmm...


If you weren't doing what you do today, what other job would you have?
I’d likely have been committed…writing is how I stay sane. If I weren’t writing…I shudder to think.

Are there any particular settings or sorts of characters you'd like to use in a future book?
I do want to play around with Steampunk. I love the gadgets.

What's next for you? What are you working on?
Book 3 in the Enemy series. I can’t say much more without introducing spoilers.

ENEMY WITHIN is the first book. All of the subsequent books are about people you met in that first story. ENEMY GAMES (out in May, 2011) follows Jayleia and Damen.

ENEMY GAMES

Kidnapped while combating a devastating plague, Jayleia Durante fights to resist the attractive Major Damen Sindrivik, an officer from a rival government’s spy corps. But with her spymaster father missing, and mercenaries hot on her trail, Jayleia must join forces with the magnetic, charming and manipulative spy. She must see past her desire and remember that his single-minded agenda is for the protection of the empire - not her or her people.

Damen knows a shadowy network of traitors has allied with the violent Chekydran, and that Jayleia’s father holds the key to dismantling that web. She becomes his only lead in a circuitous round of hide and seek and despite their opposing sides, he can’t resist her. Too bad his instincts tell him Jayleia is lying to him.

Now Jayleia and Damen must find the love to match their passion and end the war or they’ll become the prey of the traitors they stalk, and one species’ civil war will consume the galaxy.

Do you have any advice/handy tips/craft skills you'd like to share with unpublished authors?
The same trite thing we’ve all heard. Never give up, never surrend…oh…wait…movie.

Uhm. The never give up part. That was good. Really. Persist. Learn everything you can. Most of it won’t work for you. Fine. But go find that out. The few things that do work for you will push you over the edge. Trust yourself, trust your story, trust your readers. 

Thanks, Marcella, for visiting. It's been great having you here!


To find out more about Marcella or her books, check out her website. She can also be found on Facebook and chatting on her blog.