by Christine | Writer Wednesday, Writing
I’m re-launching Writer Wednesday, and am so happy to introduce Teresa Noelle Roberts to you! The first time I met Teresa, it was WAY early in the morning (or WAY late at night) and she was one of my roomies at RWA National Conference. Four of us crammed into one hotel room for several days – and we had a blast.
The lovely Teresa, beachside on the east coast.
Here’s Teresa, and here’s the interview!
- What made you decide to write a novel? Because the voices in my head don’t give a choice? The serious answer is that I started dictating stories to my mother before I’d learned to write, got a subscription to Writers’ Digest for my twelfth birthday, and started my first (aborted) novel in junior high. Story-telling is in my blood.
- What genre do you write in, and why? I write romance, erotica, and some fantasy. Cougar’s Courage is an erotic paranormal romance, which combines all three of my favorites.
- Is this a series or standalone book? If a series, what is the name of this series, and how many books/short stories do you have planned? Cougar’s Courage is numbered as book 3 in the Duals and Donovans: The Different series. Confusingly, there are currently 4 published books in the Duals and Donovans world, but one, Fox’s Folly, takes place before the series timeline. I’m currently wrapping up what will be the last book in the series. I may set more books in this world, but the big conflict of the series will wrap up with my WIP so I’ll need to find a new antagonist.
- Where would you live, if you could live anywhere in the world? That’s a tough question. Definitely near the ocean. Possibly coastal Maine, but there’s so much of the world I haven’t seen yet!
- Name 3 simple joys in your life. Sharing daily life with my husband. (He’s hardly simple, though!). Cooking. My big, lazy, loving cats.
- If you could give just one piece of advice to a writer starting out, what would it be? Write, write, take a break to read, then write some more. Lather, rinse, repeat. Education, be it degree programs, workshops, or online classes, is valuable, but nothing beats the act of beating your head against the blank page.
- What do you do when you’re not writing? Do you have a Day Job? When I’m not writing, I’m often cooking, gardening, or doing something else vaguely homesteader-ish. I’m between day jobs at the moment and am loving it far too much. Past day jobs have ranged from field hand at a winery (my favorite ever, though the pay was just above minimum wage) to development/fundraising officer.
- Name one thing your fans would be surprised to learn about you. This crunchy, hands-in-the-dirt woman went through a phase of wearing 4-inch heels and red lipstick no matter what the occasion. I still yearn for sexy heels, but my knees and back will never forgive me for years of abuse, so I stick to flats even when heels would be appropriate. (Still love deep red lipstick, though.)
- Is there anything else you’d like to talk about? To celebrate the release of Cougar’s Courage, I’m running a contest on my blog—the prize is an e-book of Cougar’s Courage and a print copy of the first book in the series, Lions’ Pride. (Or an e-book if the winner is outside the US.) Comments on my blog count as entries, but check my site for details.
Thanks so much for stopping by, Teresa, and best of luck on the novel! Off I go to download…
FIND TERESA HERE:
www.teresanoelleroberts.com
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTeresaNoelleRoberts?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/TeresNoeRoberts
Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0047V74PC
Blurb: Toronto cop Cara Many-Winters Mackenzie is still reeling from her fiancé’s
murder when her orderly life takes a turn toward the weird, complete with voices in her head and phantom bleeding wounds.
This violent awakening is the rise of her Different gift—a chaotic, Bugs-Bunny-on-crack magic that she must learn to control before it destroys her. There’s only one place to get help: her mother’s ancestral village, and a mentor who seems to have stepped straight out of the smoke of her erotic dreams.
Cougar Dual Jack Long-Claw reluctantly agrees to take Cara under his wing, though he’d much rather take the beautiful city girl into his bed. As he guides her through a crash course in shamanic magic, sparks fly—some sexy, some snarky. But when an ancient enemy attacks the village, they must work together to hone a magical weapon against certain destruction.
Common sense tells them it’s a terrible time to fall in love. Their spirit guides have other ideas. And shamans who don’t listen to their spirit guides are dead shamans…
Warning: Hot shape-shifting feline hero. Strong but shell-shocked heroine. Snarky, meddling spirit guides. And lots and lots of sex: angry sex, crazy sex, magical sex, and just plain sexy sex.
Amazon US/Amazon UK/Kobo /Barnes & Noble Nook/Samhain
Bio:
Teresa Noelle Roberts started writing stories in kindergarten and she hasn’t stopped yet. A prolific author of short erotica, she’s also a published poet and fantasy writer—but hot paranormals and BDSM-spiced contemporaries are her favorites.
Teresa enjoys belly dance, yoga, medieval re-creation, playing in the ocean, cooking, and growing more vegetables than she and her husband can possibly eat. She shares her home in southern Massachusetts with her husband, a Leo who works in law enforcement, and two overstuffed cats, who deserve their own shout-out as inspirations for her works. She and her husband often plan vacations around food, history, and/or proximity to water. Next up, Rome, Florence, and Venice!
~oOo~
Remember, Teresa has a contest going – check out her page for all the details!
by Christine | Life, Observations, Writing
I’ve been a stress puppy, instead of a sleepy kitty. (I prefer to be a sleepy kitty, in case you were wondering.)
Zaphod, snoring.
A total stress puppy. I’m getting snappy and snarly at work and at home, and I’m not loving it.
And then this happened.
My head exploded.
Yep, my head totally exploded. Okay, so I was coughing (but I didn’t have a cold!) and that kicked off my gag reflex, but still. Head. EXPLODED.
Artist’s interpretation of the pain close up.
I could barely breathe, it hurt so bad. Like someone had taken the back of my neck and tried to stretch it to my nose. I haven’t hurt that bad since brain surgery. So, I went to the doc, and got myself diagnosed with a post-nasal drip, plus an ergonomic stress headache. Fix the body, fix the stress, lose the headache but, in the meantime, here’s some muscle relaxants.
What has the hubby been saying to me for the last month? “Get your cough checked out. Sit up straight at the computer.”
Tom Ashworth, Self Portrait 2008 (?)
So, yeah, he’s been saying “I told you so” and nagging in a loving way ever since. (Please note – I am sitting up straight and my shoulders are down as I type this.)
And now I’ve got more stress coming (in a good way) – The play development group I’m with, Fierce Backbone, is doing a full reading of my play tonight. Gulp. And I’m on muscle relaxants.
- Title page to Cassandra Cries.
My two actors were supposed to meet to rehearse – one couldn’t make it the first night, the other couldn’t make it the second night. My leading lady now has an interview at 6pm tonight – which is when they were going to get together to get a quick rehearsal in. And I’m still not sure if I have a narrator (but I’m assured I do). We’re supposed to start by 7:30pm tonight. I’m on muscle relaxants and I’m still somewhat of a stress puppy, but at least it’s a “good” stress. (???) And a milestone event!!!
So, in order to celebrate this milestone, Hubby made cuppy cakes. CHOCOLATE cuppy cakes. Which we shall take with us tonight to bribe everyone. Along with some red wine.
CUPPY CAKES!!! Unfrosted, true, but still…CUPPY CAKES!!!
As I look back at the last two years and three months since I started this new Day Job, I realized one thing – I haven’t had a vacation. I’ve taken time off, but that was always to go to writer’s conferences, not to sit in the Mammoth mountains and chill out for ten days. If I had, maybe I could have missed out on this little stress headache adventure. Because writer’s conferences ARE NOT VACATIONS. They are work days. Fun? Yes. Stressful? YES. I wouldn’t have missed them for the world, but…sigh.
My advice? Vacations. Take them.
Big Squishy Hugs to you ALL!
by Christine | Observations, Writing
What Do I Want?
In August, I had the pleasure of going on a writer’s retreat with the East Valley Authors chapter of Romance Writers of America. The speaker that day was the talented Shannon Donnelly, and her focus was on storytelling (which also included writing well-rounded characters).
What really stuck with me was something that I’m using in my personal life now. As I get older, and as the family dynamic around me changes, and as I spend more time getting comfy with the hour of 2 am during bouts of insomnia, I find myself dissatisfied with certain areas of my life; so Shannon’s story question became personal for me.
I asked myself the question. What do I want?
Insert Superficial Answer Here
When I ask myself that question and I’m at the Day Job, and it’s almost lunchtime, 99% of the time my answer will be the Beef Panang from Vic’s Thai. No, seriously. It’s THAT GOOD.
But when I stuffed myself with Beef Panang and asked myself the question again, I came up with a different answer. And it got deeper (the way it’s supposed to) when I applied Shannon’s method of divining character motivation.
What do I want? – A life free of day-to-day financial worry. (And Beef Panang from Vic’s Thai.)
What do I Really want? – The ability to travel to foreign countries with my husband.
What do I Really, Really want? – To hit all the bestseller lists with my novels.
What do I Really, Really, REALLY want? – A successful career in writing that enables me and my family to live without the day-to-day financial worry, whether that career be in novels, playwriting, writing for the movies, or TV.
Of course, there’s a second part to this. Who am I willing to kill What am I willing to do to get what I want? But that’s a post for a different day.
~oOo~
What about you? What do YOU want? Sound off!
by Christine | Life, Observations, Writing
The lovely wahine, Jill Marie Landis
I met the award-winning, bestselling author of historical and contemporary romance and mystery novels, Jill Marie Landis, almost ten years ago, just the once. I doubt she remembers me, but she did me a kindness I have never forgotten.
She spoke to the Los Angeles Romance Authors in 2004; I’d been writing for a grand total of three years at that point. I’d come close with Harlequin, but had gotten rejected. Three times. Always with an offer to resubmit something else, but still. Rejected. So I was feeling very down.
I’m sure I have my notes from her talk that meeting – I keep all my notebooks (not in very good order, but there you go). But it wasn’t her talk that touched me, per se. Afterwards, she was mobbed (we were at our meeting place in Barnes and Noble in Sherman Oaks). I waited until almost everyone was gone, and finally approached her with tears in my eyes. I don’t remember what I said at that point, but she let me cry on her shoulder and she told me to not give up, to keep at it.
I bought her book, Lover’s Lane, went home and read it and a month or so later (since I’m guessing she
had a spot in the front where you could write to her if you wanted), I wrote her a note telling her how much I enjoyed the book. I must have thanked her for the words of encouragement as well, and also bemoaned my lack of success in writing for Harlequin (again), because she sent me a lovely card back.
She didn’t tell me I had a lot more writing (or rewriting) to do. She didn’t tell me I hadn’t put in my time, to work harder and write more. No. She told me that, maybe, I’d enjoy writing bigger books, and maybe I should try one. “Stretch that story out – add layers – enjoy.” Enjoy. What a concept!
Jill also said the main thing was to find the joy in writing again – and that “we all get this way”.
I’ve kept that card up, with her writing showing, on my bulletin board since the day I received it. When I’ve been discouraged, I glanced at it and took her wisdom to heart – maybe I needed to try something different. Find the joy in writing again.
It’s advice I go back to, time and time again.
Now, being kind, she said to keep in touch and let her know how it’s going. She even left me her email address – but I was shy (I can TOO be shy!), too star-struck to take her up on her offer.
Today, as I was cleaning up my office, I panicked to realize her card was no longer on my bulletin board. I finally found it, layered between letters from my great aunt and my grandmother to my mother, all dated 1966. I, of course, had put it with items that meant a lot to me.
I shall re-pin that card on my bulletin board for encouragement. For courage. And to remind myself that when talking to new authors, it never hurts to be encouraging rather than critical. I’ve developed a very critical mind (due in main to the company I kept in my late teens – early 20s) and I need to learn that criticism is rarely wanted, or needed, unless asked for. That a kind word at the right time can be the fertilizer that makes people blossom.
Jill Marie Landis is Awesome. And I owe her a lot. So go buy her books.
~oOo~
Thanks for stopping by! What good book have you read lately?
by Christine | Life, Publishing, Writing
In late June, Dad went off to the Western Writers of America Conference in Las Vegas with pneumonia, 9 books to pitch, and chock-full of determination. When I left him the Sunday prior to his trip, he looked tired and thin, and I worried.
Chet Cunningham, June 2011
So it was with some hesitation that I called him (after giving him time to recover from the trip) to see how the conference went.
The phone rings. Gooood evening, he says, sounding sprightly. Hey Daddy. How are you? I say. He sounds good. No, he sounds wonderful. I start to smile into the phone.
Heey, Chrissy, he says. I’m doing grrreat. Let me tell you about the conference. And he was off and running. He sounded great, better than he has in a very long time.
So, he says, my first day there, I ran into the gal that has been publishing all my big print books. Who’s that, I say. Oh, you know, he says, the big print folks. Oh shoot. Five Star. They’re a part of Five Star Publishing.
I had sent her a couple new books, he says, a few months back and hadn’t heard from her, but she said they might be on a bookcase somewhere, and to re-send. We got to talking and she told me they buy Frontier Fiction, and mysteries. I told her what I have, and she said to send them to her. That’s six books, right there, that they might like.
The closet where dad stores copies of his books. Yes, those are all his. Not all of them are digital – yet.
That’s great, daddy, I say. Your first day. Yep, he says, my first day. So I’ve been working on those, getting them ready to send to her.
And then I saw Kat Martin, he says. You know Kat, I’ve got some photos with her and your mother from previous conferences. Yes, I say. I remember Kat Martin. (She’s only written a ton of romances, lol.)
Well, he says, I was talking to her husband, Larry Jay Martin, also a long-time friend of mine. He’s a western writer, and he’s putting his up stuff on Amazon. We were talking and he asked if I had anything that hadn’t gone digital yet, and if I did to send it to him.
What did you end up sending? I ask. He laughs. Says, well, what I thought I would send him, I no longer have any computer files for. So I emailed him on Sunday night when I got home, said I didn’t have what I thought I had, but I have these other three that are digital, he says.
By now, I’m so excited for him I can barely stand it. What did he say? I ask. Well, he says, Monday morning I got an email back from him with a three book contract. And all I have to do is send him the digital files. So I did, and a day later I got a look at three possible covers for the books. I could get used to this, he says.
The jubilation in his voice was music to my ears.
Not only that, he says, but I ran into Dusty Richards, hadn’t seen him in a long time. Oh, and I talked to Cherry, he says. She is passing on my Jesse James novel, but is willing to shop around a partial of mine. Then I met another agent who also said he was intrigued by this partial idea, and he’d be happy to shop it as well.
Two agents shopping the same book? I ask. Oh no, he says. I’m sticking with Cherry, and if she doesn’t think she can do anything with it, then I’ll talk to this other guy.
It sounds like you had a wonderful time, I say. My cheeks are hurting because I’m smiling so big. And you sound healthy.
I’m doing pretty good, he says. I’m enthused, and working hard, and I made a lot of contacts at the conference so I’m really glad I went. Gotta go get back at it. You still working on that book?
Yes Daddy, still working, I say. After mutual assurances of love and missing the other, we hang up.
I wipe away a few happy tears. As much as I wanted him to stay home and recuperate, obviously going to a conference with pneumonia was the exact right thing for him. The energy and joy in his voice comes back to me, makes me smile.
I’m really glad I went, he said.
So am I, Daddy. So am I.
~oOo~
by Christine | Writer Wednesday, Writing
Writer Wednesday
Are you looking for some summer reading? You are SO in luck! It turns out that some of my favorite people are now my favorite authors! Here are three ladies I am proud to call friend, and they all have new books out.
Lynne Marshall
Lynne Marshall, a long-time Harlequin Medical Romance author, has the second in her Whispering Oaks trilogy out for Harlequin Special Edition called The Medic’s Homecoming. (You can find my review of it on Amazon, but here’s a hint…LOVED it!) Here’s the blurb:
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR… ALL GROWN UP! Lucas
The Medic’s Homecoming by Lynne Marshall
Grady never planned to return to Whispering Oaks. But when family duty called, the prodigal son arrived like the good soldier he’d been for years. And with him came the unfulfilled expectations of the past-expectations his neighbor, Jocelyn Howard, knew all too well.
Jocelyn had been in love with the rebel next door since she was a little girl. But she couldn’t shake those old insecurities that she’d never be good enough, for Lucas or for anyone else. Still, the newly discharged army medic had scars that could never be truly healed-or so he thought. Maybe together, they could mend their wounds…and make each other whole again…
Dee J. Adams has a very successful romantic suspense series out with Carina Press
Dee J. Adams
called the Adrenalin Highs series. This next book, Against the Wall, a High Stakes novel, is her newest and if its anything like her previous books, will undoubtedly grab you by the throat and not let go until the last, final explosion (and kiss, lol!)
Against the Wall by Dee J. Adams
Here’s the blurb: Tanner Bryant wants revenge. After spending seven long years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, he’s determined to even the score with the man who put him there. The only thing in his way is a slip of a girl in a big-ass bind.
Jess St. John needs eight million dollars or her kidnapped family will die. Caught in a war between the mob and her boss, a corrupt film producer, she will stop at nothing to get the job done.
In a race against the clock, and a deal with the devil, Jess forms an unwilling partnership with Tanner to help find and free her family before it’s too late. In return, she’ll look the other way when her boss goes permanently missing. It soon becomes apparent that Tanner has more honor than he wants to admit and Jess finds herself falling for the gentle man beneath the rough exterior. But love and revenge run a close race and when push comes to shove, Tanner has to decide which one is more important.
Roz Lee
Roz Lee is the author of the successful Lust Boat novels, and she’s just come out with a new series with baseball heroes. Who doesn’t love those boys of summer? The latest, Bases Loaded, looks fantastic! Here’s the blurb:
Antonio Ramirez is ready to leave his wild reputation
Bases Loaded by Roz Lee
behind in New York and adopt a more respectable life with the Texas Mustangs. When he spies the woman of his dreams at a Fundraiser—its love at first sight. Convincing Clare Kincaid that he’s sincere is harder than he expected. Giving Clare what she wants could wreck his career and compromise his feelings for her.
When super sexy Antonio Ramirez approaches her, Clare is sure he’s playing a cruel game, but the Mustangs new Center Fielder won’t take no for an answer. She might be convinced of his sincerity if only he would invite her to play the one game she longs to play.
~oOo~
Links to Amazon are in the book titles – you know the drill! What are YOU reading this summer?
