Romance Readers Luncheon Recap

Did anyone know I am a bundle of nerves? Well, I got over myself and went to the Romance Readers Luncheon yesterday. What a great time! I worried I wouldn't have anyone to talk to or sit with, had horrid flashbacks of junior high - I swear that was where my food issues started. I never once ate in the cafeteria after elementary school. But I digress...

Elizabeth Boyle was the keynote speaker...and she's hilarious! Oh my gawsh! Everyone was giggling as she worked us through Mr. Ed, Oprah, women's magazines, and why we all need more romance! Every author there was friendly and personable, Elizabeth and Lucy Monroe especially.

But unlike most romance events I've attended - which are admittedly few - this one was stuffed with readers! People like me who never go without a book in their purse, and one in the car, and another in the diaper bag. Heck, I have one in the stroller. The women at my table loved historicals and so gave me some authros to look for there.

I even got to meet some people I 'know' from online. It's amazing to find people with similar passions for reading. Each author got their own 'table' and the readers sat with them. I piggybacked onto Lucy Monroe because I didn't have my 'own' table. Such a blessing. She's a real role model of how I want my career to go. Except I don;t think I could handle things moving as quickly as hers has. I think I'm nervy now!

The only downside? I need a new bookshelf. I only have a 3 foot, 2 shelf jobby. I need a six footer. When we arrived they gave us a book bag with three books, then I won a door prize and got two more. A raffle for book baskets where the proceeds go to help the local literacy program netted me two baskets. Yes, I was a lucky gal today. Just look what I took home!

Evil Editor - Why you don't get published.

T steered me to an entertaining and informative blog called Evil Editor. What Snark is for agents, EE is for editors. EE is doing query letter facelifts this weekend...and he worked wonders on mine. Why is he helping?

"Your Evil Editor's goal is to get more editors to request more manuscripts, thus increasing the income of the U.S. Postal Service, thus delaying the inevitable raising of the price of a stamp to 41 cents. True, all these extra manuscripts being printed will necessitate the destruction of another rain forest, but these two cent increases every couple years are mildly annoying to Evil Editor."

I wish blogger had a giggling emoticon.

High Concept

This is one of the phrases in every writer's vocabulary right now. What does it mean? A one sentence pitch. Yep, your novel in a sentence. If you can't do it, it's not high concept. Now, it doesn't need to be. Slice of life isn't high concept...but then...sometimes it's all in how your phrase it.

Mr. Buttoned Uptight needs a caterer and a girlfriend and decides to multi-task. -- Come For Dinner
A virgin erotica author meets his match and earns his reputation. -- If You Say So
Betty Boop puts a hulking CEO through his paces when he is ticked into being her partner for a kama sutra yoga class. -- Breaking His Rules
Along came Polly...in sneakers -- For Kicks
Sex in the City meets Tin Cup -- Par For The Course

Your turn writers! You can do it. Maybe. I couldn't get Just One Spark or Stripped.

Submission

In addition to reading and gutting up for the Romance Readers Luncheon tomorrow...I've made sure all my short stories are submitted. I proudly told my husband last night about my accomplishments - the partial at Blaze, revised full and MX, the promising response thus far on the ST at Avon, three poems and all nine of my shorts off...he wondered why. Did I want to write poetry or prose? Shorts or novels? Category or single title?

The accountant in him was baffled. If I picked one and focused, wouldn't it be better?

For some, but not for me. Poetry teaches me about word choice and makes my prose more vivid. Shorts teach me to use the right word instead of ten wrong ones, making my writing tighter. Category teaches me to focus on the romance and motivations, shedding a different light on what kind of story arc works in that medium and what doesn't. Single Title gives me the freedom to tell the story that comes to me.

So for now...I'm scattered. And loving it!

The BEST Advice

Now that my revisions are done (on these projects) I can do what I do best -- read. Today I started a book I'm reviewing and read the April Writer's Digest cover to cover. Did anyone else read the "A Guiding Hand" article about writers and their mentors? Fascinating.

Jennifer Crusie's professor Lee K. Abbott is one of my new heroes. Jennifer worried about joining his PhD creative writing program because she wrote category romance and worried the others students would ridicule her for it he announced to the class - "Anybody who makes fun of romance fiction is making fun of Jane Austen, and anybody who makes fun of Jane Austen answers to me."

In the piece Jennifer paraphrased the best advice he ever gave her, and it's great!

1. "Don't go for the cheap laugh" -- I so have to learn this one. Elvis anyone?
2. "No sittin' and thinkin' scenes" -- I think this was the crux of my hero issue in the last book. Too much introspection about things he would never have admitted to himself. I needed to know it, but the reader doesn't need to read it.
3. "Remember you're writing for the woman on the bus. Your reader is smart, but she is tired, she's had a long day and she's not reading to see you show off, she's reading for story and catharsis, so you deliver because you owe her for the time and money she's giving to you. You owe the reader everything you can give."

Wow. Why is it I want to say Amen?

The Cinderella Project by Kate Hardy (Modern Romance Extra)

Kate Hardy's The Cinderella Project puts a modern twist on the fairy tale without being forced or farcical. A truly original spin on a story we’ve all fell in love with a million times, and will again with this book.

Cynthia Reynolds, an IT genius and one of the most intelligent heroines I’ve ever read in category romance, has to go back to her small village for a wedding and face the snobbish cliques that tormented her school years. Her best friend comes up with a winning solution – bring a date to the wedding that shows how far Cyn has come from her hand-me-down days. Except Cyn has no time for dating, so it’s up to her friend to find the perfect stand in. Enter Max Taylor, successful architect and her best friend’s boss.

Max has eyes for nothing but renovating historical buildings. His relationships never last because women expect to come before his career, and he’s never met a woman who interests him more than restoration. When his assistant explains the plight of her friend and pleads for his help, he refuses. Until his assistant pulls all the right heartstrings and Max relents.

The visions of Max & Cyn dancing at the reception, sharing a bed after his car gets crunched and they have no way home, and walking along the Thames are rivaled only by the intensity of the physical reactions between the two. This book and its characters never confuse sex with lovemaking, and the result is a heartfelt, sensual read that leaves you with a belief in happy ever after. ut being forced or far

Visions of Revisions

Notes to self:

• If you know you don't like to write two books back to back without a week of play (reading, writing shorts, recipes and the like) don't try it with revisions. Egad. It's like looking at yourself in one of those ultra close-up mirrors that makes your pores look like moon craters.
• Don't use a plot device. Your editor and your agent will NOT let you get away with it. They'll demand you think of something better. So, just think of something better to start with. Do not throw in cancer at the last minute just to up the tension. Do not try and connect books at this point in your career. Do not fill your book with Elvis jokes, just because they make you laugh. Especially if that book comes out in the UK, where they think of Vegas Elvis and not young postage stamp Elvis, because Elvis was not on their stamps.
• Hide your To-Be-Read pile. The pull of an escapist book (Peggy Webb's Flying Lessons anyone? I wanna run away too!) is too much when you have work to do.
• Stop reading your own book! This is my biggest issue. A good sign when it's eventually published, but when it comes to changing minute details, it makes them too easy to miss.

Must get off the internet and finish up the revisions. Made it to chapter 9! And my m-i-l took the boys so I could get down to business.