Ah, February...the month of romance! For me, this is going to be the month of romance and work, work, work, as I finish up the writing, revising, and editing of the 2010 trilogy (starts with One Dance with a Duke on May 25!). So I may be scarce on the internet for a few weeks, but in the meantime I've opened a new "New Authors" contest, giving away books from historical debut authors and . Happy Valentine's Day!
If you've read Goddess of the Hunt, you already know that I find this an irresistible romantic trope: the poor guy who falls under the spell of his best friend's little sister, all grown up. For years, she's been nothing but a sister to him, or a friend--perhaps even an annoyance. And suddenly, Little Sis has grown into that awkward coltish frame, set aside her hoyden ways (well, in Lucy's case - never!), and become a woman. So tempting, and yet so forbidden.
On her side, she's been yearning for him for years (or, in Lucy's case - that other guy he hangs out with), just hoping one day he'll stop cavorting with a string of brainless beauties, put down the brandy flask, and notice her. She's knows in her heart they're meant to be, and in almost every case (ahem, Lucy once again being the exception. She's incorrigible, what can I say?) the heroine's proved right, and all her years of awkward teenage hoping are vindicated.
I never tire of this setup, in historical or contemporary romance. Some recent favorites have been Victoria Dahl's and Beverley Kendall's debut, .
Today, a brand new take on this ever-popular theme hits the shelves: , author 's utterly charming debut historical romance. Here's the blurb:
Isabella is determined to marry James…
Isabella Weston has loved James Sheffield for as long as she can remember. Her come-out ball seems the perfect chance to make him see her in a new light.
James is determined never to marry…
James is stunned to find the impish girl he once knew has blossomed into a sensual goddess. And if he remembers his lessons, goddesses always spell trouble for mortal men.
A compromise is clearly necessary.
When Izzie kisses James, her artless ardor turns to a masterful seduction that drives him mad with desire. But, no stranger to heartbreak, James is determined never to love, and thus never to lose. Can Isabella convince him that a life without love might be the biggest loss of all?
I've been lucky enough to read this book in several incarnations from first draft to print, and I can tell you James and Izzie, and indeed the whole Weston family, are a complete delight. Sara Lindsey's voice is humorous and sexy, her characters are completely endearing, and the tension between them is scorching. If you're in need of a fun, funny, sexy, sweet read to brighten up your February, you couldn't do better than Promise Me Tonight! Best of all, it is the first in a series - woohoo!
Are you a fan of the best friend's little sister setup? What are your favorite examples? Leave a comment, and you could win a copy of Promise Me Tonight! Deadline is midnight Friday, PST.
In my own little bubble, anyway. Of course, the past week has seen horrific news on the global scale, and my thoughts and heart are with the people of Haiti as they continue to suffer the aftereffects of the catastrophic earthquake. But in times like these, it is some comfort to find small reasons to celebrate.
Last weekend, I was invited to speak at the San Diego chapter of Romance Writers of America. I jumped at the chance, seeing as I love RWA and I love San Diego! We rounded up the darelings and made a weekend out of it. I had a wonderful time meeting the chapter members and chatting with the industry professionals in attendance. My speech is sort of a smudge in my memory now, but I think it went okay. I told a lot of embarrassing stories. Anyway, I want to say a big thank you to the members of the RWASD chapter, for making me feel so welcome. I had a great day.
Second, I came home to find some truly thrilling news on the Internet. My debut, Goddess of the Hunt, was shortlisted on the which is put together by the RUSA division of ALA to recognize "outstanding genre literature." This thrilled me for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, because I'm a librarian myself, so any recognition coming from librarians is extra-special to me. Second, because - zomg, did you see that shortlist? My name is there alongside those of Julia Quinn, Nora Roberts, Lauren Willig, and Anthony Strong. How unbelievable is that? Pinch me, and hard.
Lastly, I just received word today that Goddess of the Hunt has been licensed for Turkish translation by publisher Pegasus Yayinlari. Sooo very cool! For anyone interested in the rundown of coming translations: Goddess of the Hunt will be forthcoming in Japanese, German, Slovak, Thai, and Turkish Surrender of a Siren and A Lady of Persuasion have thus far been licensed for German, Slovak, and Thai editions.
I owe many, many thanks to the wonderful rights managers at Random House.
I hope good news has been happening to you! I look forward to the good news that my latest manuscript is finished - but that will not happen unless I go work. Like, now.
As I write this, I'm in the lovely (well, rainy and cold...but to me, it is lovely!) Pacific Northwest with my dear friends and critique partners, and Carey Baldwin. We're celebrating the release of Courtney's amazing book (see previous post) and eating great food and enjoying wonderful conversation. Today we're actually going to write!
I decided to keep the New Year's Resolutions low-key this year. My contractual obligations are enough to keep me busy without added unrealistic goals to the mix! I think my only resolution for 2010 will be: take my vitamins. I always forget.
Whether your corner of the world is rainy, sunny, snowy, or scorching hot - I hope you're kicking off 2010 in grand style!
Happy New Year! 2009 was a fantastic year, thanks to the wonderful family, friends and readers who made my debut trilogy a success. I'm so grateful. It's hard to imagine topping that excitement...but 2010 is shaping up to be pretty darn cool, too. A new back-to-back trilogy will hit stores this summer, starting with One Dance with a Duke on May 25.
So, I have this friend. A brilliant friend. And she wrote this book. A brilliant book. It officially releases January 1st, but you'll probably start finding it in stores any day now.
My friend's name is and her debut historical romance is .
When Courtney and I met over three years ago, neither of us had ever written a full novel. We started working with another friend, Carey Baldwin, who had a full draft under her belt and a few more clues than we did, and together the three of us worked our butts off to figure out this romance-writing thing.
I still remember the day Courtney sent me the first draft of her first scene with Proof's heroine, Jenny Keeble. Jenny just leapt off the page with intelligence and secrets and desires and delicious potential, and I did a little dance in my chair because I just knew Jenny would be the star of Courtney's dazzling debut. And here she is!
Of course, by now, a lot of other people have figured out how brilliant Courtney and her book are, so don't take my word for it! Here's what the early reviews are saying:
“Historical romance fans will celebrate Milan’s powerhouse debut, which comes with a full complement of humor, characterization, plot and sheer gutsiness.”
—starred review, Publisher’s Weekly
“A dazzling debut by a multitalented author… Milan steams up the pages while drawing readers into an emotionally powerful relationship centering on the true meaning of love. Completely satisfying, this is a book meant for all time.”
—4½ star review, TOP Pick! RT Book Reviews
(To read yet more praise and an excerpt, check out Courtney's .)
To mark the release of this amazing book, today (Monday) we're kicking off a Twitter countdown to the official release day. It's the 12 Days of Proof! If you're on Twitter, join the fun by , or the #12pbs tag. For each of the twelve days, we’ll be tweeting a twist on the classic Christmas song, inspired by Courtney's book. The...verses?...are the collaborative creation of Courtney's most devoted fan base, the Bonbons/Vanettes.
AND, on each of the 12 days, we’re giving away at least one autographed book. Authors who've graciously donated their books include , , , , , ,, , , , , and of course Courtney Milan herself and yours truly, Tessa Dare. We're all fans of Courtney!
To enter each day, just and use the #12pbs hashtag in a tweet—either by RTing our 12 Days tweets, or by using the hashtag to do your own gushing, yearning, posting of book-spotting photos, etc. Winners will be picked at random from the #12pbs twitter stream. The entry period for each day will run from 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM EST, and I will do my best to announce winners promptly after close of each day, but it being the holidays and all, please forgive minor delays. Winners will be asked to DM their snail addresses.
On the 12th day, Carey Baldwin and I will be in Courtney’s hometown to celebrate her official release day! We’ll be heading around to different bookstores, spotting and signing stock, and we’ll give away copies of PROOF all day long.
If you're not on Twitter and want a chance to win PROOF and two other great debuts (or even if you are on Twitter and want to hedge your bets), enter my monthly website contest!
Thanks for playing along! However you celebrate the holidays, I hope you find the time to give yourself the gift of reading!
The good news is, as of this morning, those three tasks I mentioned in my last post (page proofs, revisions, partial manuscript) are all completed! (So is Thanksgiving, for that matter!) The not-as-good news is, I still have a lot of writing to do on THREE NIGHTS, my house is a disaster, and I haven't wrapped or shipped a single Christmas present yet. uh.
But...I also have great news to share! I was extremely honored to learn that Goddess of the Hunt has been nominated for the RT Reviewers' Choice award for Best First Historical Romance. The awards ceremony will be held at the RT Booklovers convention next April, which I had luckily already planned to attend. Now I just have one more reason to look forward to it.
And then I learned just this morning that those lovely people at Random House have sold some foreign rights for my books. The entire trilogy will be translated into German, and rights to Goddess of the Hunt have been sold for a Japanese language edition! So exciting.
Whether you're naughty or nice, I hope you all are having a great holiday season! Now I'm off to try to cross one more thing off my list...
Please bear with me, I'm just drowning in work right now. BUT - I hope I will be forgiven a bit when I tell you those titles above now link to individual book pages! (In)complete with covers, blurbs, pre-order links, and - in the case of One Dance - a teeny teaser excerpt. These pages aren't looking as spiffy as they eventually will, once I get my fab web designer in on the game, but they're up!
Happy Thanksgiving to my U.S. readers! Wherever you live, I'm thankful you've dropped by.
Next year's Stud Club trilogy is now available for pre-order! The sizzling new covers and story blurbs have been posted on individual book pages, all linked from the Bookshelf page. I've even posted a short teaser excerpt for One Dance with a Duke!
A while back, I shamelessly asked for blogging ideas, and (I believe?) suggested I blog about how my writing process has changed since I began writing romance.
Gee, what an interesting question! Honestly, I am not sure. Let's see. I'm currently writing my 6th romance novel (not counting the novella).
Things that have not changed: My pace of writing. Compared to many, I am a relatively slow writer. If I get 1500 words in a day, I'm thrilled. With deadlines every 5-6 months, this has meant I must be very disciplined and write almost every day. Of course, I inevitably fall behind--and I'm able to push myself to write 4 or 5,000 words in a day occasionally, when I need to. But that's rare.
I still use the same method of plotting (or lack thereof). I tend to sketch out a fairly loose plot, basically strung around a series of "moments" I'm building toward (turning points, I suppose you might call them). But the connecting scenes between points A, B, C, etc. usually develop and evolve as I'm writing.
I like to think I'm a little better at identifying plot or characterization problems as they arise, and taking steps to correct them earlier rather later. Not perfectly prescient, of course, but to some degree I think I've internalized the voices of my trusted CPs and editor and can "hear" what they'd say before they say it.
Which leads me to another difference--I don't exchange writing with critique partners as much as I used to. Or at least, not on a chapter-by-chapter basis. Part of that is sheer time constraints, but also just a certain comfort level we've gained with our own voices and craft. I still try to recruit several people to read finished drafts of every book so I can get a variety of reactions to the plot and characters, check for continuity and confusing scenes, etc. And if I've written myself into a corner, they help me talk me through it.
So those are my thoughts on it, unorganized as they might be. For the writers out there, how has your process evolved?
Anyway, I want to say a big thank you to the members of the RWASD chapter, for making me feel so welcome. I had a great day.
