Book 2 Has a New Name!

Yipppppeeeee! We have renamed book 2, and I love it! Ready?

LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT

Okay, it's so perfect that I've spend most of the day wondering how I didn't think of it. Whereas some of my books simply name themselves, I struggled with one name after another for this one. The editorial team at Sourcebooks came up with this new title, and they did a great job.

The story, in a nutshell, is this: A Baltimore prosecutor set to begin the biggest trial of his career and a hair stylist with a dysfunctional family meet in the airport on their way to visit their significant others in Florida. After they each endure a disastrous weekend, they meet up again on the flight home, striking up an unlikely friendship that leads to love.

I posted Chapter 1 on my website tonight. Another thing I love about this title is how it plays into a change my editor suggested to the opening. In the first rendition, the book opened from my heroine Juliana's point of view when she is running for a flight that ends up delayed. In the final version, we see the opening from Michael's point of view and get to experience his visceral reaction to meeting Juliana. Later, he realizes he fell in love the instant he first saw her. Immersed as he is in a long-time relationship with his fiancee, Michael, a serious, grounded prosecutor, is freaked out by his reaction to Juliana. I love the new opening. I love it even better with this new title.

Renaming books is part of being published. I got lucky with Line of Scrimmage, which was published under the name I gave it. I like LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT much better than the name I gave book 2. However, the process does feel a little like giving birth and then handing over the child to someone else to name. It's grueling for authors. But what I've learned over this last year is that there's a whole team involved with making my book fly (here come the flight puns). They want the same thing I do: to see this book do as well as it possibly can. The name they gave it today definitely helps our cause.

I'll post the new cover when I get it.

Year in Review

As 2008 comes to a close, I'm watching snow and wind derail my plans for tonight. Boo hoo!

This has been a difficult year for our country. The publishing business, in no risk of receiving one of those lovely federal bailouts, has suffered just like many other industries. I've said before that the only thing we as writers can do in this economy is to keep writing and hope for better days ahead. I still firmly believe that the stories we're working on right now will contribute to the industry's resurgence in 2009 and 2010. Three weeks from now we'll inaugurate a new president, and I can't wait to be dazzled by him. But before we step into the New Year, here are a few of my writing highlights from 2008:

--Seeing a book cover with MY name on it for the first time.
--Getting PAID for my work. Twice. WOW!
--Gaining admission to RWA's Published Author Network, a major feather in a romance writer's cap.
--Returning from vacation this summer to find a box full of MY books on my front porch.
--Sharing the moment I first held Line of Scrimmage as a real live book with my husband and kids.
--Getting one excited e-mail after another from friends and family, letting me know their pre-ordered copies of Line of Scrimmage had shipped from Amazon.com.
--Receiving many wonderful reviews for Line of Scrimmage, including this one from Booklist, "With its humor and endearing characters, Force’s charming novel will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, reaching far beyond sports fans." (To read all the lovely reviews, click on the "reviews" link below this post.)
--Signing with agent Kevan Lyon, who has been TERRIFIC to work with and lots of fun to hang out with, too.
--Walking into Barnes & Noble and knowing MY book was there after years of wishing just ONE of the thousands of books in the store could be mine. (Ryan and Susannah's wedding song, "You're in my Heart" by Rod Stewart, coming on the radio as the kids and I were pulling into the B&N parking lot gave me chills and made me feel like my late mother was with me, sharing in the joy.)

Here I am visiting Line of Scrimmage at my local Barnes & Noble!



We're in a very good neighborhood next to Lori Foster, one of my favorite authors and a new e-mail buddy this year.



--Holding a launch party for Line of Scrimmage, where I was able to recognize and thank the friends who'd held me up on the long road to publication.



--Befriending Elena, the author liaison at my local B&N, who referred to me as her "most successful local author" in the four years she's been with the store. She says we're going to lunch when the 100th copy of LOS sells in her store. At last check, we were at 88. She held a fabulous book signing for me in September, made me feel like a star on more than one occasion, and became a valued new friend and advocate.
--Receiving real, live fan mail! One of my favorite comments about Line of Scrimmage came in August from J. Kaye Oldner on her blog: "It was a book that made me laugh as well as cry. The three-dimensional characters were so vivid. I’d have no trouble plucking each one out of a crowd. LINE OF SCRIMMAGE is Marie Force’s first novel. Her next is scheduled to be out in the spring of 2009 and it’s titled SAME TIME SUNDAY. You can bet I’ll be in line to get my copy, because hands down, this is the best romance I’ve read this year."
--Attending the National Romance Writers of America annual conference for the first time in my favorite city of San Francisco where I met so many of my online friends, rode in a limo to the publisher's dinner, and met my editor, publisher, agent and publicist in person.

Here is the Sourcebooks Casablanca gang at the publisher's dinner in San Francisco:


Back row (l-r) Michele Ann Young, Linda Wisdom, Dominique Raccah, Gail, Beth, Sharon Lathan, and our lovely publicist Danielle Jackson. Front row (l-r) Deb Werksman, Robin Kaye, Marie Force, Malena Lott, Judi Fennell and "Aunty Cindy" Loucinda McGary.

--Selling my second book, formerly known as Same Time Sunday, during the RWA conference. (New title pending, hopefully in early January.) I'm very excited about this book and can't wait to hear what readers think of it. I take a few risks in this one by showing my hero and heroine with other people before they get together. (And when I say with other people, I mean WITH other people... Tee hee, yes, there's sex in chapter 2!)
--Being featured twice in local newspapers.
--Attending the New Jersey Romance Writer's Conference where I participated in a multi-author book signing for the first time and connected with readers, one of whom gave ME a gift to thank me for writing a book she loved so much. That was pretty cool!
--Signing books at Annie's Book Stop in Sharon, MA. Thank you Merry Cutler, a great friend of romance writers! Hope we can do it again when the second book comes out.



--Making an astounding array of new friends, both writers and readers, who have been so supportive and invested in my writing career. My fellow Sourcebooks Casablanca authors have been such a joy to me, keeping me sane, focused and enormously entertained. You ladies are my favorite writing friends, bar none. Our Casablanca Authors blog has been a lot of fun this year, and I look forward to the start of another terrific year together.
--Participating in a group signing in Baltimore's Inner Harbor B&N with my good friends Robin Kaye and Kendra Leigh Castle, with whom I also share agent.



--Starting this blog and committing to it as an almost-daily endeavor beginning in November. Nearly 3,000 readers have stopped by, which is a major accomplishment in and of itself.

Yes, there have been downs to go with the ups, but as I look over the list above, I realize that the highs have certainly outpaced the lows. I will look back at 2008, my debut year, as a year to be remembered and savored as I go forward, hopefully for years to come, with new books, new adventures, and more new friends. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who loved Ryan and Susannah, who wrote glowing reviews, who took the time to send me fan mail to tell me they loved the book, and who made my year by getting what I was trying to convey about a marriage in crisis. I know this may sound hokey, but I also want to thank Ryan Sanderson for being one hell of a fun character. He is the heart and soul of Line of Scrimmage, and readers have responded with passionate love for him. Publishers Weekly said of him, "Ryan . . . is a good guy desperate to fix past mistakes, a terrific change of pace from the typical reluctant hero."

By far, the best part of this debut year has been sharing the excitement with the people I love and seeing my Dad enjoying every minute of it after years of urging me to get serious about my writing. At every party, cookout, gathering, and event I get grilled on how it all works: how you write a book, how you sell a book, how it feels to be published, etc. As my fellow writers will attest, we love to talk about what is for most of us a lonely, solitary pursuit. My secret life came busting out of the closet this year. I'm a writer, and now everyone knows it.

Wishing you good health, good friends, and good books in 2009!

My Life is Now Complete

Yesterday I was in the same room with Nora Roberts. I know, take a breath, don't hyperventilate! Her chat was my only MUST on the workshop agenda at RWA Nationals. That makes me sound like such a fan girl, I know, but hey, I am! I love her books, I adore her practical, plain-spoken wisdom, and I admire her longevity in a difficult business—a staggering 193 published books and still going strong. I always knew I wanted to write fiction, but Nora and her books helped to steer me toward romance. I wanted to take a picture to post here, but I didn't want the camera to flash during her talk. Oh and guess what else? I even asked her a question. I did not, however, run my fingers through her hair like I did when I met Patrick Kennedy. I'd like to think I've grown up a little bit since then. When you read the next paragraph and see what ELSE happened yesterday, you will have a better appreciation of just how big a deal seeing Nora for the first time was for me.

Yesterday afternoon, I also met my editor and publisher in person, and we worked out the details of what will probably be books 2 and 3. That was a pretty big deal, too! More to come very soon on that! My editor, Deb Werksman, is as lovely in person as she is on the phone. I really enjoyed having the chance to sit and talk with her. This can be such an odd business where you have these intense and very important relationships with people you've never met. That's also true for fellow writers. I got to have dinner in Chinatown last night with my dear friend and Sourcebooks sister Cindy Munoz—again, someone I feel I know so well but had never met until yesterday. Do check out Cindy's book (written under the name of Loucinda McGary), The Wild Sight, out October 1 from Sourcebooks. Last night, I also connected with some online friends at the From the Heart Chapter gathering.

Later today, I'm looking forward to meeting Danielle Jackson, our Sourcebooks publicist, and to our Sourcebooks dinner where I'll get to meet online friends and blog mates Robin Kaye, Linda Wisdom and Michele Young. I hope to also run into my lovely new agent, Kevan Lyon. This morning I played hookey from the conference and went down to Fisherman's Wharf. It's a beautiful, clear day in San Francisco, my favorite city in the world. I'll post some photos when I find my doo-dad for the computer. I'm starting to feel ragged after eight days on the road and living out of a suitcase!

Will post more from RWA National over the weekend!

Surreal Moments Along the Way

Last week, one of my Sourcebooks sisters, Loucinda McGary, whose book "The Wild Sight," will be out in October, hosted our lovely editor Deb Werksman on the Romance Bandits blog. As part of Deb's day on the blog, IOU copies of the Fall releases were offered.

The woman who won "Line of Scrimmage," Australian romance author Suzanne Brandyn, posted this note on her blog after winning the book:

"Oh, I won a novel on Romance Bandits, which was a pleasant surprise. The story, a contemporary (right up my alley) Line of Scrimmage by Marie Sullivan Force. The excerpt sounds fantastic. I think this will be another one of those sit/lie down and keep reading right until the very end, all in one sitting. Don't you just love books like that. You can find Marie's website here:
http://www.mariesullivanforce.com/"

I have a reader in Australia! Loucinda and I have had several chats about how surreal it is to realize that people we don't know will soon be reading our books. Just another fabulous--and surreal--moment on the journey. Watch for our books on September 1 (Line of Scrimmage) and October 1 (The Wild Sight).

Wednesday, the 18th

If you came by on Friday, you read my rant about my least favorite number (at least until recently), which is 13. Today, I'm all about my favorite number: 18. I've had a long and fruitful relationship with the number 18. Both my kids were born on the 18th of the month—July and October. I finished my first book, "Treading Water," on May 18, 2005, and today I added another item to my list of why I love the 18th of the month: I signed with a fabulous new agent, Kevan Lyon.

This exciting development came the day after my Sourcebooks editor offered me a contract for book two and beyond. As my writing friends know, we spend a lot of time waiting for stuff to happen. To have two such huge events happen in one twenty-four hour period is beyond amazing. Today, I had my wonderful new agent and my lovely editor give me insightful, detailed feedback on two of my books. I told my friend Chris that I wondered briefly if I had died and gone straight to writer heaven!

For those keeping score at home, this love of the number 18 is why I gave Ryan that uniform number in "Line of Scrimmage."

To cap off my day, I just got an e-mail from my friend Linda Wisdom that I won her new book for commenting on a guest blog. What a great day!!