Wishing you all a lovely holiday with your families and friends, safe travel, and good fortune at the malls!
The Dare family will be laying low this weekend--Mr. Dare is working the holiday (someone has to, and we luvs that holiday overtime pay), and I just received my copy edits on Goddess, which will keep me busy. I am thankful that they look pretty minimal!
As a family, we have much to be thankful for this year and every year. But as a writer, I am especially thankful for all of you, my wonderful friends who come visit this blog and give me your support and encouragement. I can't imagine muddling through this process alone in the dark--for one thing, it wouldn't be half so fun. For another, I'd be banging my head against a lot more walls. Thank you, thank you, all of you!
It's been a while since I wrote a newsy little post about my exciting life as a soon-to-be-published author. I know a lot of you who read this blog do so because you're either traveling the same journey or will be soon, and want to know what lies ahead. So here's the status update:
Cover art for Goddess of the Hunt exists, but I cannot yet show you. It's pending approval by...all those mysterious, powerful people who approve such things. Covers for the second and third books are in the works, and I hope to get a peek at them soon! My relatives can breathe a sigh of relief, because (unless something drastically changes) the "look" for the trilogy is very tasteful and pretty, with nary a nipple in sight.
I am expecting my line and copy edits on GOTH any day now...I've been assured I'll have a whole week to go over them. My second book, Surrender of a Siren, has been sent off for copy editing too, after I added a few pages to the epilogue at my editor's request. No word yet on the third book, A Lady of Persuasion.
I was mentioned in Romantic Times! Okay, so it was half a sentence (maybe a third-sentence?) in a 2009 preview article (page 10 of the current issue, if you're curious), but hey - Romantic Times!
Oh, and this is super exciting for me - that little novella I wrote over the summer? It's going to be published as an e-book with Samhain Publishing, next May! SQUEEE! So there will be a little taste of Tessa Dare out there in the world a few months before my print trilogy releases. More about that in months to come...
And of course, I continue to work on The Desire of a Duke, AKA Stud Club, book one. LOL. You don't know how much I want to write a scene with this dialogue:
"The first rule of Stud Club is: You do not talk about Stud Club."
"The second rule of Stud Club is: You do not talk about Stud Club!"
Um, that would be referencing , for anyone who's scratching her head.
Oh, what the heck. While we're breaking the rules and talking about Fight Stud Club, let's have some shirtless Brad Pitt.
So, moving right along with the writing process...
I've got characters, a vague plot built around these "moments", and I've started my research. As part of the research, I collect pictures. I find it helpful to imagine my settings and characters' physical traits from the foundation of a painting or photograph of an actual place or person. Or horse.
For example, for the book I'm working on right now (working title The Desire of a Duke, since it includes the essential Tessa Dare titling element: the word "of", LOL), I'm loosely basing the hero's estate on an actual estate in Cambridgeshire: . Pretty impressive, no?
And there's a very important racehorse in the book, who I am making the fictional "great-grandchild" of the famous stallion .
Lastly, I also pick celebrity models for my hero and heroine. I know different authors have mixed feelings about this - I don't know why I find it so helpful, but I do. It's important that it not be just a photo of a model, but someone I can watch in action, on TV or in movies. Somehow this helps me develop a visual image of how my character moves, reacts, stands, sits, relaxes, and so forth. Seldom does the character in my mind match up exactly with his/her inspiration, but it's just a helpful starting place.
If you're one of those readers who prefers her own imagination, I'll put the pictures of my Spencer and Amelia inspirations below the fold:
Holiday shopping is upon us. Does anyone else share my sense of creeping panic? I don't like shopping under normal circumstances. Factor in the holiday madness, and it's all over. Malls make me itchy. Online shopping it is.
Fortunately, the darelings are easy. They're already conditioned by our grand consumer culture to blurt out, "I want that! Me, me, me!" at every toy they see on TV or in the print ads. So I figure they'll be happy with anything.
But I never know what to do for the adults in my life. My family is very geographically dispersed, so I tend to go for the easily shippable items. Books go without saying--I usually give books. But then what else? It's barely November, and already I'm suffocating under the avalanche of mail-order catalogs: wine gift basket, cheeses and hams, baked goods, fruit, etc.
Anyone have any cute gift ideas to share? Any new online stores to check out? Mail-order gifts you've given or received lately that were a pleasant surprise?
Okay, I know the world is abuzz with exciting news, but this is my own little tiny piece of excitement.
My first book, Goddess of the Hunt, is now ! It's not available for pre-order quite yet, but imagine it will be soon. You can pre-order it now! Hooray!
Actually, you can already pre-order it from the Random House site .
I may be insane. I plan to take the darelings with me today to the polls.
I don't have a sitter, for one. And for another, I just like taking them there, to see what this whole democracy thing is all about. Plus, they get stickers!
My eldest and I have been having lots of adorable conversations over the past month or so about just what it is a president does (hard to explain, when she still can't quite grasp the distinctions of city/state/country) and what voting is all about. I can tell it distresses her shiny new sense of fairness that only one of the two candidates can win. When I told her that the grownups will all be going to vote so they can choose the new president, she said, "I don't want to grow up. I don't think I could choose. Can't they share?"
I've also been hearing from my mom--who, for the first time in my memory anyway, has been actively campaigning on behalf of her candidate, calling voters, standing out for hours in crummy weather to hear him speak. I think it's awesome.
I write historical romances because I find that long-ago, far-away time to be swooningly romantic. But today, I could not be more happy to be a modern woman. I'm so glad that this is the very first election my daughter is aware of. I can discuss the four main candidates with her, and she can look at that group of people and see herself someday fitting among them--because they include both a female candidate and a biracial candidate. When she says "When I grow up, maybe I can be president," I can say unequivocally, "Of course you can!" and the media images she takes in will actually back me up! (Of course, most days careers like "teacher", "doctor", and "restaurant girl" seem to hold more appeal for her, but we encourage her to keep her options open.)
I'm also grateful to have my children around me, because explaining all this to them makes me even more conscious of the responsibility of voting, the wonderful thing that is democracy. And some masochistic part of me wants to make my children stand in a big long line to witness it, because they should know that it's something worth waiting in line for--even moreso than their favorite rides at Disneyland.
So if you see some frazzled woman at the polls today with her two noisy children in tow, cut her some slack and pass the stickers. She might be me!
Did you vote! How were the lines? Did you hear Starbucks is giving out free coffee to voters? I'm going to need it! I thought I heard a rumor about Ben&Jerry's giving out ice cream, too. Any more freebies?
Thank you, thank you, all of you!
It's pending approval by...all those mysterious, powerful people who approve such things. Covers for the second and third books are in the works, and I hope to get a peek at them soon! My relatives can breathe a sigh of relief, because (unless something drastically changes) the "look" for the trilogy is very tasteful and pretty, with nary a nipple in sight.
Oh, what the heck. While we're breaking the rules and talking about 
