Romance Unleashed

Yahoo! Laura’s new cover is here. Maybe she will stop by and tell us about it!

I’m continuing Yummy Heroes Week over at my blog. Today’s featured guest is Eve Silver.

At the RWA National conference in Dallas this year, Eve’s editor from Kensington spoke at the Spotlight on Kensington and told the audience that Eve had reinvented the gothic. Eve takes the dark spirit of the classic gothics and kicks it up a notch. Her novels are also set in an earlier time period than the classic gothics.

So putting up Eve’s excerpts got me thinking about those dark heroes from the classics–Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. I loved Jane Eyre, but I found Wuthering Heights extremely frustrating. I kept waiting for Heathcliff to be redeemed. Beautiful writing and a fascinating story, but it just didn’t satisfy my need for joy in the midst of pain. I love the way Jane brings out the best in Rochester. We have to wait a generation in Wuthering Heights to see a similar redemption.

But I do love dark when it is seasoned with a bit of hope. Eve’s romances do that for me. Another example would be Lori Devoti’s Unbound. Lori applies a dash of humor that reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And there is always a sense of hope that good will triumph over evil.

I read romance for hope and joy. Dark can be thrilling and fun, but don’t take away my hope!

What are your thoughts on the dark side of romance? Do you love dark? Does it just not work for you? Is dark sexier than light?

I’ve declared it official (that should be OFFICIAL) Yummy Heroes Week over at my blog.

I was inspired after teaching the Creating a Yummy Hero workshop at RWA Online over the past few weeks. Reading all those class assignments, describing their yummy heroes made me want to re-start the Mind’s Eye Candy feature on my blog. So this week, I’ll be posting a great description of a drool-worthy male every week.

So, drop by and check it out. Post your ideas about what makes a man special and worth a second look. Or tell me about some of your favorite heroes from novels, movies and television.

Passwords are becoming like my desk–impossible to control. I remember twenty years ago when I worked for IBM in Florida, we had to change our system passwords monthly. At that time, I had one other password to remember: for my savings account at an S&L in Kansas.

Somewhere along the way, my passwords and PINs proliferated. I try to use the same one for different accounts, but often find that certain system reqs make using my preferred password impossible.

Yes, I have a softward program to keep track of all my passwords–but it also requires a password for entry. In my IBM days, writing down our password was verboten.

And if you did write it down and left it where it could be found, wellll, it was worse than going to the principal in grade school. (Not that I ever went to the principal in grade school, but I certainly knew the terror it struck in the hearts of those who did go).

Since I’m no longer in grade school or work for IBM, I wrote down my password manager password.

Guess what? I apparently wrote it incorrectly. (I don’t believe I did, but try making anyone else believe that).

So I’m stuck and thinking how great the days were when . . . and then realize that makes me sound like a Luddite (I am, sort of) and remind myself that I need to use low tech pens more efficiently. Asi es la vida.

Okay. It’s not the “right” week for shameless promotion of what’s new, but we’re Unleashed, so I can break a rule now and again!

Haunting Melody, my new release from Cerridwen Press is now out!! Today!! I have no real idea how the E-book thing works, and it was interesting doing edits online through something called track changes (and I was very glad to have that done last spring because my computer died a couple of weeks ago and I lost my hard drive and was computer-less for over two weeks - but enough of that.)

It’s been a long summer for me. I moved from Alabama back to New York (having now made four moves in less than two years) and have been trying to get settled in and deal with all the stuff that comes with moving again. (Including dealing with a bank that - ready? Took my cash so I could open an account and immediately have access but then put a block on the acccount! Even the bank managers couldn’t figure out why, but after a month of patiently going in and saying, “Okay - can I take some of my own money out now?” and being told, “Uh, no - wait - sign another signature card - maybe that’s the problem” - I said, “Enough” Closed the account, went to another bank and had an account open and ready in fifteen minutes.)

But the big news is that Haunting Melody, a time-travel that sends my heroine back to the year 1919 when the Ziegfeld Follies were the hottest thing in New York, has now officially been released through Cerridwen Press. So if anyone wants to check it out they have a blurb and an excerpt ( all the things I wish I could add to my web site - but that’s another story since I lost Dreamweaver when I lost my hard drive so I have to find a way to update!) The Cerridwen July newsletter also has a short interview with me - it was fun.

Here’s the link: http://www.cerridwenpress.com/index.asp

One of the most exciting things about this book is that I LOVE my cover! Most publishers don’t give authors much (if any) say in the cover, but Cerridwen does and I think the art department did a marvelous job.

So - check it out and check back and tell me what you think!

Did you all see this blog by Brenda Novak? Personally, I think it is way harder to figure out what you write than people act like it is. But I lover her idea of calling it a promise to the reader—what you strive to put in your books. Thinking of it that way, I can think of brands for my dark stuff–there are definitely things I try to put in those books (lots of action and a high emotional punch), but I don’t think those things are the same promise I would make for my light stuff. And common wisdom seems to be that your books no matter what genre should have something common—but mine are just SO different. At least I think so.

So, this leaves me scratching my head…again.

How about you? Anyone here figured out their brand? What would you say is your promise to your readers?

First:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SANDY

HAPPY late BIRTHDAY, KATH.

HAPPY, HAPPY.

Second:
I just finished reading an old Edith Layton, The Abandoned Bride, and oh, how I love that woman’s writing. I picked it up, thought hmm, Layton’s not going to catch me with this one and a few hours later….I’m writing this.

Third:
My latest Summer Devon book has been out in in print for a while and I haven’t posted a cover of it, so here you go. And below that, a link for you to run out and buy it. (Wishful thinking)

click on the thumbnail of you want to see it BIGGER. Revealing Skills is in bookstores (I hope) and also available online at places like Amazon.

Whatever happened to that concept of summer as R & R?

Everyone I know is busier than ever this month and through Labor Day.  Half of June is gone, and I haven’t finished one around-the-house projects I had planned.  Oh, well.  Our houseguests will get to see “the real us.”

I’m in the middle of reading three books, and my hope is to finish all of them by the end of summer.  With no away-vacation coming up, I doubt I’ll reach that goal.  THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE gets top priority.  Too bad I didn’t have it with me last summer when I read ten books on the 14-day river cruise on the Danube and Rhine.

My biggest project is to critique 3 manuscripts from the Brenda Novak Diabetes Auction.  I won the bid on a MySpace spot.  In retrospect, I’m not sure why I bid on it, but providing input is a challenge.

Here’s hoping you find time this summer for fun, reading, and writing.  Sounds like a perfect summer to me.

Sorry I haven’t blogged of late but we’re downsizing and our home is on the market. I’ve been out straight with painters, decorators, appliance installers and all manner of beasts who make messes wherever they go.

Being the seller in a “buyer’s” market is much akin to being an author. Rejection becomes part of your everyday life. While someone looks at your “baby,” you hope, you pray and then you get those 4 dreaded words, “We loved it, but…”

In the case of a book, the but might come in the form of “we just bought a similar plot,” or “there wasn’t enough emotional depth.” In the case of this house, the but(s) amounted to “it’s too formal,” “it’s too white”, and “it needs updated appliances.” 

Our agent has been as kind as can be—as any agent or editor worth the name should be—when delivering the bad news, but it still hurts.

So, like any good author–or desperate home owner—I went into revision mode. I took what the buyers said to heart, made some changes on my own, and then called in a “young” decorator.  One whose taste would hopefully shout from my lofty 24 ft ceiling, “Hey, I’m hip and trendy.”

Five serious digits later, we now have an all stainless steel kitchen with built in wine cooler, new light fixtures, textured walls, fresh paint in colors that would make any coffee shop proud (Toffee crunch, Cocoa Latte, Espresso bean), not to mention the furniture has been rearrange to such a degree that we don’t dare walk around without a light on for fear of killing ourselves. Yes, neither Scott nor I recognize the place.

And so now we wait some more. Hoping. Praying.

Bottom line: I’ve tweaked this place so much in the last few months that I’m sick of it. Can’t wait to be rid of it.  Have you ever done that to a house…or manuscript?

www.SandyBlair.net

This week is supposed to be dedicated to things we love. It can be any old thing, related or unrelated to writing. So I’ve been thinking. . .a la Julie Andrews. . .about a few of my favourite things.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. . . .

No, that’s not right. We get more rain than is imaginable, and I’ve never EVER been a cat person. Let me start again. (I’ll skip the part about me loving my kids and DH because that’s a given. I couldn’t ask for better or be more blessed)

These are in no particular order:

I love the smell of fresh cut grass.

I love playing crack the egg on the trampoline with the boys (even tho the 3 of them combined can’t bounce me high enough to do any damage - sigh)

I love House (LOL)

I love that my kids love living here (and so do I!)

I love my iPod

I love the trees and mountains that surround our town (dang, but I missed those when we lived up north)

I love watching my 6-year old’s baseball team (and soccer team) - if ever you need a good laugh, go watch little kids play sports

I love lemon cake

I love Mary Balogh’s books. LOVE THEM

I love watching them sing the national anthem at the Canucks games because the main dude stops singing about 1/4 of the way thru and the crowd takes over

I love road trips

I love taking my kids to the movies and listening to them laugh (and I have to admit Shrek 3 was pretty funny)

I love anticipating the next Harry Potter book

I love that I could go on for pages about the things I love :)

I do not, however, love this Mexican Style Chicken Tortilla soup I’m eating for lunch. Nasty!!

What do you love?