New Romance Imprints!

E-books a go go!

From Random House - In August, a new digital imprint Loveswept launched!
They say: Loveswept is a publishing collaboration between Transworld Publishers and our sister company Ballantine Bantam Dell in the U.S., and it's logo says 'Classic and Original E-book romances from the Random House Publishing Group.
There are a list of authors and releases on Romance At Random
Sue Grimshaw at Romance At Random advised me that the word count for submissions ranges from 30-90K, and they are looking for all sub-genres of romance. Most importantly, Loveswept are not category romance, so there is not a set criteria or guidelines to follow. They are looking for the best books, with emotion, well developed characters and strong plots.
Sounds great, doesn't it? If you think you have written something that fits the bill, query Sue at romanceatrandom@randomhouse.com.

And in other news: Another publisher in the Random House Group, Ebury Press are launching a new digital imprint too called Rouge.

Here's what the press release says:
Ebury haved announced the launch of an exciting new straight-to-digital romance list, Rouge, which will launch on 29th September with eight titles, and four titles per month thereafter, to satisfy the huge reading appetites of romance readers. Ebury have also designed a dedicated and interactive website, http://www.rougeromance.co.uk/, where readers can discuss the books, read extracts and enter competitions.

Editorial Director (Fiction) Gillian Green said 'Given the growth in eBooks and new developments in technology, we felt that the time was right to launch a dedicated romance list. We know that romance readers have been among the first to embrace ebooks and we want to bring them the best romantic fiction out there. Our list is diverse and there's something for every romance reader on it. What all the titles have in common is they are all utterly escapist sexy romances with a guaranteed happy ending from some of the brightest names in romantic fiction. Whilst we're initially looking at eBooks, we have print rights in all the titles on the Rouge list and are looking forward to launching print editions of our most popular titles too.'

The Rouge list will be split into six sub-genres - Regency, Historical, Suspense, Contemporary, Paranormal and Occasions and includes many award-winning, New York Times best-selling authors. All the novels are full length and feature covers specially designed for the UK market. They will all be available for under £5. Ebury has bought UK digital and print rights for all titles in the list.

In other Minx news, two more minxes have entered New Voices -

You can read Sri's entry here:
http://www.romanceisnotdead.com/Entries/316-The-Price-of-Freedom

And Lorraine's here:
http://www.romanceisnotdead.com/Entries/369-Confessions-of-a-Chalet-Girl

Great work, Minxes!

Author Spotlight - Cathy Maxwell

It's the equinox today, the day where the northern hemisphere hovers on the brink of winter, and where we in the southern hemisphere rejoice as summer makes its debut. It's a good moment to take stock of what's important, and so we ask that you take especial note of the appeal at the bottom of this post.

Today's author in the spotlight is Avon historical author Cathy Maxwell (who hails from the northern hemisphere).

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What is your writing process?

I don’t have any one process. Each book seems to take up a life of its own and has to be worked in whatever manner is demanded. Kinda like my kids. What worked for my oldest, didn’t work for the second, and the third? Forget about it!

Everyone who writes knows it's not easy - what methods do you use to keep at it on days when it would be so much easier to go shoe shopping?

The methods I use to keep at it on days I don’t want to write . . . .thinking about my mortgage, college tuition, the electric bill. Seriously! I support myself with my writing. I remind myself that I am doing what thousands for writers wish they could do. I put my tush in the chair and slog through. Then I keep my tush in the chair and revise. Good books are in the revisions. The revising part is my favorite. I like working off of an outline, even one that is a mess. (By the way, thank you for reminding me of that since I am currently creating a mess.)

Keeping fit: Do you have an exercise regime to counterbalance all those hours sitting at a computer?
I have a horse and I ride him. We put around and it is good for both of us. I love to get my chica on and Zumba. I’ve recently taken up a Spin class. I prefer the express ones--45 minutes vs. an hour. Spin is not my favorite, a necessary evil. I attend at least one water aerobics class a week. Great for my core and my water baby soul. And I try to practice yoga every day. I also catch a yoga class with my teacher once a week. It’s one thing to practice yoga on my own and another with my teacher. Reading this, you are probably wondering when I have time to write.

Do you believe in writer's block?

Yes. There are all sorts of factors that can weigh on creativity. Doubt and uncertainty are two major ones. I expend good energy on maintaining my creativity. The hardest time I had writing was the year after my husband died. I tried to remind myself that he would have been disappointed if I gave up. My publisher was very supportive during this time. Focusing on renewing my energy helped me finally regain my writing balance.

Have you ever used an incident from real life in a book? If so, did it get you into trouble?

I use real life all the time. Where else should I draw inspiration? I don’t believe it has gotten me into trouble. I think everyone is still speaking to me . . . hmmm, well now, you’ve given me something to think about. Is everyone still speaking to me?

In what way is being a published writer different to how you thought it would be?

If anything, it is better than I could ever have imagined it. I like setting my own hours. My husband traveled and writing allowed me to be available to my children and still work. I also like following anything that interests me, knowing every experience, every meeting, every adventure is all fodder for books. And I like the people I meet. Writers come from all different backgrounds. I’m never surprised to learn who is writing a book and find their life stories fascinating.

Promotion is no longer a dirty word. In what ways do you strive to reach more readers?

I do the usual, a website, FB, guest blogging on loops. I’ve never minded promotion. I enjoy people so I like to talk and rub shoulders with folks. But the most effective way to win over readers is to put my energy in my books. People can lack me all they want, but if the book isn’t good, all the promotion in the world will not help.

What is your top promo tip for other authors?

Write the best book you can. Readers will find you.

What did you learn while writing this book?

I toyed with the Alpha/Beta male. Over lunch last week, some readers were complaining about the men they were meeting. They want a take charge man who can change a tire, fix the plumbing, and tell them to stop shopping. Okay, well, maybe not the latter. But they want someone they will listen to and respect. In THE SEDUCTION OF SCANDAL, I’m riffing on that same idea. Do we really want the ueber-strong male? Or a cross of strength and compassion? I sense the last. I believe that when we break down what we want, both men and women, we are all looking for someone we trust and someone who isn’t afraid to step up to the plate. Whiners and welchers are not heroic.

What was the most fun part of writing this book?

The dynamic scenes between Corinne and Will. You know, the ones where they go toe-to-toe. Great fun!

And just for fun: what would your hero’s honeymoon destination of choice be?

Spending a summer week in the Cotswolds lazing in a hammock and enjoying the peace, the calm, the beauty--wait! That is my dream. Lazing around is what I want to do!
As for my hero, he doesn’t care where he is as long as there is a feather mattress and his wife. Men have a remarkable habit of cutting right to the chase.

And finally, some extra thoughts from me--

The most important news about my new book THE SEDUCTION OF SCANDAL doesn’t have anything to do with the book, but about the meaning behind the K.I.S.S. and Teal label on the book’s cover. Avon Books has donated $25,000 to ovarian cancer research and has also committed to donating 25¢ from the sale of each book, physical and eBook, in the "K.I.S.S. and Teal" promotion between 8/30/2011 and 2/28/2012, up to an additional $25,000 toward programs that support ovarian cancer patients and their families. More important, the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer are printed on the back page of every September book.

How did Avon Books get involved in promoting awareness of ovarian cancer? Avon Editorial Director Carrie Feron lost a family friend to this cancer and super-bestselling writer Eloisa James lost her mother. They were talking and realized there wasn’t enough being done to promote awareness--and it is such a killer. Of the 21,000 women who will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year, 15,000 will die because the cancer has been discovered too late. It is important we learn the signs and share them.

For your information, those signs are: bloating; pelvic and abdominal pain; difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency). I know, I know, too common, right? You are correct. But if you are feeling any of those symptoms on a daily basis, please, get yourself to a doctor. Or in historical terms, hie thee to a doctor!

I know you're busy. I know you are juggling far too many tasks and heading into the doc for bloating isn’t something you want to do right now. I know money is tight. But please do it anyway. Think about the statistics--15,000 out of the 21,000 diagnosed with ovarian cancer will not survive. Better the doc tells you it is nothing to worry about than finding yourself one of the 15,000 ovarian cancer patients who will not beat this disease.

And take care of yourselves! There is only one of you. Treat yourself as the unique, vibrant person you are.

* * *

THE SEDUCTION OF SCANDAL is available in paperback and eBook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Indie Bound, as well as any good book store near you.

Beat That Negative Voice!

So, you did it.  You submitted your New Voices entry.  Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for the email announcing you're in the top twenty, right? 

Right.

Or at least that's how it should be.  Unfortunately, your inner critic often gets louder at times like these.  It'll quite unhelpfully compare your entry to one you just read and enjoyed.  It'll prevent you from finishing your chapter.  It'll convince you that submitting is just too hard.  In short, it sucks.  It's also what's standing between you and your dreams.

The good news is that you can conquer it and here's how:

1. Recognise it.

Whether it's doubt (telling you that you can't or shouldn't do something), excuses (that are so easy to accept but in the long run prevent you from achieving your goals), pressure (telling you it's too hard and to stop now) or fear (that speaks of your inadequacies to prevent you moving forward), you need to be aware of the thought when it happens.  Often this enough to pull it up short.

2. Replace it

Replace it with a positive thought.  At first this may feel idiotic depending on how long your negative inner voice has had free reign but find comfort in the fact that you're not alone.  Olympians use these same techniques and they had to start from scratch too.  If that inner voice is telling you that your writing isn't good enough for New Voices, replace it with the thought that it is.  Of course it is!  Your voice and writing style is unique to you and the judges are looking for new and unique.  If you don't enter, they can't discover you, and that would be a shame.

3. Reject it

If you find your inner critic is on some sort of playback loop you can interrupt it by saying "Stop!" in your mind.  Sounds ridiculous, yes?  Ah, but the mind is a funny thing and this sort of technique is enough to shock it in a similar way to if someone shouted the word in your face. Pinching yourself is another option, but it's a bit more of a shock to the system.  Your mind will associate the thought with a negative response and do exactly as you say: stop.  The more often you break the pattern, the less the loop occurs. 

4. Reconstruct it

When you find yourself thinking negatively about your entry, use the word "but" and point out the positive aspects.  For example, "My punctuation is lousy - but my characters are unique and engaging."  We all want our entries to be perfect but "to err is human" and we often place too much importance on the little things that editors can be quoted saying won't rule you out.  You won't be disqualified for forgetting comma, so don't sweat the small stuff. It's much nicer to focus on the things that are great about your entry because they're what will be responsible for getting you into the top 20.  And if you don't know what they are, how will you repeat themin round two?

So, now you're all set to banish the crows of doubt.  Remember, thoughts have tremendous power.  They've been linked to the recovery or exacerbation of illnesses.  Athletes the world over use these techniques. You don't get to the Olympics by believing you suck.  You don't win the Olympics by believing you suck.  The exact same thing can be said for your writing.

Source: Body and Soul

New Voices

Entering this year was not something I was *always* going to do. After last year and the demoralising depletion of rose count I was determined this year I would sit on the sidelines and cheer on others. But as the months wore on, it became clear that this year's competition would coincide with a really difficult time for me personally. So I decided I would enter and use it as a distraction from reality. I had a hero in mind, one that has been nagging at me for a few years now. He's inspired by James Blunt's song "No Bravery". As soon as I heard that song, I knew I needed to create a hero who doesn't feel brave simply because of the job that he does, that's his duty--his life. But he will come to realise that his true bravery is the way he has got right back up after adversity and made new goals for himself and carried on simply living his life. And I guess that's what writing is like. Sometimes it sucks and you never want to pick up your metaphoric pen ever again but then at other times it's the only thing that keeps you sane and you know you'd only be existing, not living, if you never wrote again.

http://www.romanceisnotdead.com/Entries/92-Coming-Home

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Romy sneaking in here:

Thank you so much for entering this year, Catherine. Your hero is divine, and I'm so glad readers are getting a chance to meet him - and I'm really, really grateful that you're there to hold my hand!

I've been feeling pretty okay with entering this year. I wasn't worried about rose counts, and didn't pin my hopes on getting anywhere. I just wanted readers' feedback on my writing, and hoped for a passing comment from an editor or published author.

So why, when the moment came to upload my entry, did I feel sick? My mouse hovered over the "enter" button for an age before I finally steeled myself to do it.

But it's up, the nerves are gone, and now we can sit back and enjoy the rest of the contest. And there are so many really excellent entries this year, that we can keep busy reading, and reading, and reading ...

http://www.romanceisnotdead.com/Entries/89-Once-Upon-A-Time

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Congratulations to SONALI who has won a book from Natasha Tate. Contact us with your details via our 'Contact' link.

Author Spotlight - Natasha Tate

We're honoured today to welcome Natasha Tate, one of the newly acquired Harlequin Presents authors.

Welcome, Natasha! Take it away...

What is your writing process?
My writing process varies, depending on how close I am to my deadline. When I’m in first draft mode, I tend to write at a more leisurely pace. I find I spend time writing a lot of narrative and dialogue, trying to figure out what resonates, what feels awkward, and who my characters want to be. I typically write this part of the book while walking on my treadmill, and can log as much as 10 miles in a day. After I’ve written about half the book, it either takes off or I have to go back to the drawing board because I haven’t settled on my characters’ inner conflicts yet. If my characters are muddled, I have a really hard time moving forward. But once I’ve written enough to settle on a theme and my characters’ inner conflicts, then the writing really starts to gel. I abandon my treadmill and commit to having my butt in the chair because multitasking too much slows my pace. Sometimes, when the inner conflicts come to me early on, I can write a book in less than a month. But at other times, when I’ve danced around the theme for what feels like forever, it can take up to three months. My hope is that one of these days, I’ll be able to figure out the inner conflicts and theme before I’ve written 25K words!

Everyone who writes knows it's not easy - what methods do you use to keep at it on days when it would be so much easier to go shoe shopping?

I am pretty type A in just about every area of my life. I set goals, have spreadsheets that track my word count, and would rather lose an arm than miss a deadline. I’m also a people pleaser, so I tend to be one of those annoying “turn-it-in-early” types. If I’ve got a four month contract, I set my weekly goals based on a three month schedule. That way, if something unexpected comes up (like that can’t-miss-it shoe sale), I can take a day off with upping my stress level too much. I suppose it doesn’t hurt that I grew up with a military father and suffered through a regimen of white glove inspections and demerits. I wake up at 4:30 AM in the morning at least five days a week to keep all my various plates spinning, and since I also have a full time day job, slacking off when I have time to write is just not an option.

Keeping fit: Do you have an exercise regime to counterbalance all those hours sitting at a computer?
I work out at a local gym in the mornings and I walk on the treadmill while I’m writing. I used to walk at the gym, but fitting writing into the day has meant that I can’t waste too much time on an activity that only works my body. So I’ve started running, just so I can burn the same number of calories in less time.

Do you believe in writer's block?

I believe that my writing only gets blocked when the story or the characters are blocked. If characters aren’t behaving in a way that is properly motivated, the writing stalls. I can still produce pages and word count, but the story doesn’t work and I don’t really move forward until I have a handle on how the characters need to change. So if by writer’s block you mean staring at a screen and producing nothing, then no, I do not believe in it. But if it means that you’ve hit a wall and you have to burrow through it through sheer force of will, then yes. It’s alive and thriving.

Have you ever used an incident from real life in a book? If so, did it get you into trouble?
Fortunately, I haven’t had to rely on real life incidents yet. I’m still relatively new and I have enough fantasy incidents that have been living in my head to populate stories for a while yet. But when those run out, I may have to start digging a little deeper for inspiration. I suppose in a pinch, my in-laws could supply a lot of fodder for my writing. They’re good natured enough that they probably wouldn’t punish me too harshly for exploiting them!

In what way is being a published writer different to how you thought it would be?

Since I have so many friends who’ve entered the published ranks ahead of me, I think my expectations have been more realistic than those who plunge into the publishing world with little ramp up time. I will say, however, that I’ve had to adjust my time management a bit more than I expected, simply because there are other tasks writers must do in addition to writing. Now, I find I need to allocate time to updating my website, responding to fans (the best part of my new writing life yet!), mailing out books for reviews, and juggling all the various components of promotion. Before I was published, I had far more flexibility with my timelines. Now that I’m on a three books per year schedule, I can’t take a month off to focus on the day job. Things are a lot tighter than I expected them to be.

Promotion is no longer a dirty word. In what ways do you strive to reach more readers?
I’m really, really fortunate to write for Harlequin Presents, which takes a lot of promotional pressure off of me. The brand itself sells better than anything I could singlehandedly do to promote myself, so it grants me a bit of breathing room to learn as I go. My first priority was to have a website built, and that took a while to find a designer (Rae Monet did an awesome job for me!), settle on a website that matched my vision and voice, and get it populated with content. Keeping that up to date requires a bit of time, so that’s always the first item on my promotional to-do list. I also have a blog and a twitter account, though those have taken the back seat until I finish this current book. I’m also presenting a workshop at the Emerald City Writers’ Conference this year with my good friend Candis Terry, so hopefully, that will help to get some name recognition for me and help me give back a little to the writing community who has helped me so much over the years. I’ve also created author pages on the amazon.com websites, Harlequin offers an author bio on their site, and I participate in various blogs as an invited guest. (Yeah Minxes!)

What is your top promo tip for other authors?
Definitely have a professional website built, and have it up and running before your first book hits the shelves. I believe that this is where readers will go first to find information about you and your books. Its value cannot be underplayed.

What did you learn while writing this book?
I learned that my voice actually works better with contemporaries than with historicals! For years, I’d focused on historicals to no avail. Discovering that I had the ability to write a book set in the here and now was a real eye opener for me.

What was the most fun part of writing this book?

The best part of writing this book was how escapist it felt. I love the whole Presents promise, and diving into a story that fit the line felt like I was playing instead of working! I loved layering in the drama, the glamour, the emotion, and the heightened sensual tension into my story. It felt like I was creating a wonderful dessert and a guilty pleasure all at once. Writing a story where two wounded characters find their way to love and forgiveness is a catharsis all its own, and I loved every minute of it!

And just for fun: what would your hero’s honeymoon destination of choice be?
Ethan’s honeymoon destination of choice would be the idyllic Caribbean island he purchased from Cate, of course! What better place to seduce his lovely new bride than the birthplace of their love?

Blurb from An Inconvenient Obsession:

The Carrington family's island is up for auction…

Now, that's an invitation Ethan Hardesty just can't refuse. This groundskeeper's son turned global entrepreneur has it all. All, that is, except a piece of the Carrington estate—the island that holds all his most pleasurable and painful memories.

Ethan doesn't count on the beautiful Cate Carrington handling the transaction—and providing him with the perfect opportunity to take her into the bargain. But toying with the woman who was once the girl he loved and lost soon turns from a game into an all-out obsession…

Natasha is giving away a copy of An Inconvenient Obsession to one lucky non-Minx reader, so don't forget to leave a comment!

Links to purchase:

eharlequin store

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

Thanks so much for being here today, Natasha! It's been great getting to know you :)