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Thanks for a great week!
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Congratulations to Beth! Beth, you’ve won some great stuff – just email me your snail mail address.
Thanks so much to all of you who’ve hung out with me all week. It’s been so much fun, and a great way to prolong the high from my trip. I wish I had a prize for every one of you.
Aside from that great day at Avon, the best thing about my trip was just feeling like a writer in New York – sitting in the cafe of the hotel, scribbling outlines in my notebook for Goddess of Beauty, and knowing that, published or not … by vocation, I’m a writer! I couldn’t say that about myself six months ago, but now – when someone I meet asks me what I do, I tell them I’m a writer. It’s a lifelong dream for me to be able to say that and mean it. And it wouldn’t have been possible without FanLit, and without all of you. So thank you, so much.
What about you? When people ask what you do, do you tell them about your writing?
And now, it’s time for me to knuckle down and start working on my next book. Between the trip and the queries and submissions I’ve been sending out for GOTH, I’ve gotten nothing done on it, and I’m itching to start.
A while back, I asked you for celebrity inspiration for my new hero and heroine. Here’s what I’m working off of now for the hero. Looks-wise – a scruffy Hugh Jackman – oh, yum. (Did I mention this book takes place at sea, and people spend a lot of time wet?) I picked Hugh as inspiration, because … well, doesn’t the picture say it all?
But also because he makes such a nice matched set with the inspiration for Gray’s half-brother, Josiah (Joss). Yep, that’s Andrew Dan Jumbo from While You Were Out, and yep, Gray’s half-brother is half black.
But Gray’s personality has a healthy dose of Lost’s Sawyer.
And thanks to Lindsey’s suggestion, I’m working off this lovely picture for my heroine. That’s Christina Cole, most recently seen in the BBC’s production of Jane Eyre.
I’m posting them here for my inspiration and hopefully your enjoyment! This book will be sooooo much fun to write.
April 21st, 2007 at 9:53 am · Link
Oh, Good Lord, those pictures would inspire me too! I love Andrew and of course Hugh Jackman. sounds like a great book, just from looking at the pics.
Thanks for sharing your Avon experience with us, Tessa. You’ve been a true inspiration to ME, on how I want to behave when/if I ever get the chance to share my experiences.
April 21st, 2007 at 10:45 am · Link
A big hug for Tessa–Thank You!
I do not share this vocation. I am quite contentedly living a double life right now. When (yes, when! I shake my fists at Fate and say, confidence!) I publish, then I’ll deal with letting people know.
🙂 G.
April 21st, 2007 at 11:01 am · Link
I was in the library picking up books on ghost hunting when the librarian “said, oh, scary.” I replied, “Oh, it’s just research.”
“Research?” She said. “Yeah, I’m writing a book.” I replied. It just slipped off my tongue and felt really good to say that!
Anyway! Thanks for sharing your day with us!
April 21st, 2007 at 11:55 am · Link
I really enjoyed all the posts this week. I have no aspirations to be a writer but you and all the other destined-to-be-published writers here have my utmost admiration for what y’all have to go through to get your foot in the door of publishing.
Thanks Tessa!
April 21st, 2007 at 12:18 pm · Link
When people ask what I do for a living I tell them I’m an accountant, then give them a funny smile. They never ask.
Alice
April 21st, 2007 at 12:26 pm · Link
With that kind of inspiration I’ll bet your next book will be fun to read as well as to write.
Alice
April 21st, 2007 at 12:55 pm · Link
I tell everyone that I write historical romances!!! It’s such a great icebreaker.
I love the men. So very, very, healthy.
James (from AHR) found out at the end of the book he had twin sisters who are 1/4 black. Love the diversity showing up in these books. Hurry up and start your next one!
Thanks for a week of great information and sharing your experience at Avon.
Bev
April 21st, 2007 at 12:57 pm · Link
Well, I certainly don’t do it for a living, but I’m a writer. As are you–and you, and you, ladies.
When are ya gonna take that word “aspiring” off your website? Everyone knows Tessa Dare is a goddess of romance.
What do I say when people ask what I do for a living? I pretend I didn’t hear the question.
Thanks for sharing New York with us! You’re the best. 🙂
April 21st, 2007 at 12:59 pm · Link
Good Luck on the new book! You’ve defo got some great inspiration!
April 21st, 2007 at 1:18 pm · Link
Ericka – you most certainly should be telling everyone you meet that you’re an author! You’re published all over the place!
Beth, India, Alice Audrey – you all have other jobs that sound cool at dinner parties! If I had something else to say for myself, I might not be as quick to say “writer,” either.
Terry, Seton, Kelly – thanks so much for joining us this week. I hope you’ll keep visiting!
April 21st, 2007 at 1:53 pm · Link
That’s some very yummy inspiration there, Tessa. I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Hugh. And I love the cultural diversity that’s turning up in these new historicals!
I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m going to explain what I “do” at my class reunion next weekend, since it’s a bit complicated and I’m kind of in transition right now anyway. Maybe I’ll go with “writer” – my brother assures me that the fact that I write romance is a great conversation starter!
Thanks again for sharing your day at Avon with us. I can just picture you sitting in the hotel lobby, writing away in your notebook, drinking your Coke. 🙂
April 21st, 2007 at 2:45 pm · Link
I don’t mind talking about my writing if I think someone’s truly interested, but I’m rather shy & reserved in general, so I’d just as soon not talk about a lot of aspects of my life. I was out with a friend the other night who’s very excited about my writing. She got pretty drunk & practically had me signing autographs at the bar. It was funny (and sweet) but kind of embarrassing.
Love all your choices! I am SO excited about this book. And glad I could help – I’m usually crap at the casting game, so it’s fun to get it right for once. Though you should really thank Colin Firth – if I hadn’t caught him in What a Girl Wants (in which CC also has a role) the weekend before you posted that blog, I wouldn’t have remembered how much I enjoyed her in JE. 🙂
April 21st, 2007 at 3:01 pm · Link
Lindsey – yet another thing I owe to Colin! Oh, Colin… *sigh*
The plot of the book has changed since you heard it last … that thing that it was probably a Bad Idea to write into a romance novel? Yeah, I decided it was a bad idea – didn’t really pan out, the more research I did. So that ship has become a very different sort of ship, but the rest of the plot line is similar.
April 21st, 2007 at 5:53 pm · Link
Did you just decide it didn’t work, or did you also ask at Avon? I’m still curious whether something like that is a problem marketing-wise. I’m still SO excited about this book – it wasn’t exactly the ship that I was looking forward too. 😉
April 21st, 2007 at 7:13 pm · Link
The funny thing is that just today someone asked me what I did, and I bit my tongue, because I thought I’m not published. Your words are inspiring and very truthful.
I have played the wife/mother role up since I woke up this morning, between a sick husband, two soccer games, and taking prom pictures.
But I am proud to say, I am a writer, and nothing has ever felt more right.
Christina
April 21st, 2007 at 7:16 pm · Link
Oh I forgot to thank you for such a wonderful week.
April 21st, 2007 at 8:03 pm · Link
Good for you, Christina! I’m proud to be a wife and mother, too – but those are roles I play in relation to other people, and “writer” is who I am for me. I was hesitant to tell people for the longest time, but now people who know are so excited for me.
Lindsey – I didn’t ask at Avon because I’d already decided against it. I just didn’t want to go there, and some research I did suggested it would quite work the way I wanted it to, anyway.
April 21st, 2007 at 9:41 pm · Link
Tessa:
You had a great day and thank you for letting us live it vicariously. Good luck in your writing!
Liese
April 21st, 2007 at 10:38 pm · Link
Thanks for an excellent week of fun and blogs!
I tell everyone that I’m a romance writer. It’s a good ice-breaker, and it’s either that or unemployed, and I do so hate the sound of “unemployed.”
Poor Sir Toby. He’s a dear, but he can’t live up to Hugh… Did you talk about GOB at all with Eloisa and/or Tessa and Esi? Oh, and if you need any books about naval ships in the Regency era, I’m your gal. I’ve also got one about women on ships called Female Tars… Amazon is just so freakin’ addicting!
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:17 am · Link
Tessa, thanks for sharing your trip to Avon with all of us. Just another mark of your generosity as a person and a fellow writer:)
I love your casting choices–and CC was in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer type show called HEX that ran on BBC America last year. I quit watching after the first season, but she was quite good.
I don’t introduce myself as a writer–but I’m getting pretty close…
April 23rd, 2007 at 11:35 am · Link
Funny, since RI is running a similar blog on pictures as inspiration and I just admitted I wasted a good hour of my day yesterday cutting and printing!
Everyone in my world knows I’m writing romance novels. I have to fend off questions all the time — Are you published yet — Sigh, no — which can get a little depressing 🙂 But I also get a huge kick telling people about my day job, because it’s another few-and-far between sort of occupation. The best thing in the entire world is to be writing/editing while on a flight and have the woman next to me ask me what I do for a living!
And I love Romance with Color. Keep it up! We’ll infiltrate it all…Paranormal, Historical, Contemporary, Erotica… Erotica…
September 15th, 2007 at 1:25 am · Link
Very enjoyble. good luck with your book