Eight Years Ago Today

Many of the most important things in my life have occurred on the 18th of the month, which has made 18 my lucky number. Both my kids were born on the 18th, and on this day in May 2005, another of my "kids" was officially born when I wrote the words THE END for the very first time in TREADING WATER. Little did I know then, during this moment of tremendous personal satisfaction and achievement, that Treading Water was an overwritten, 150,000-word, self-indulgent DISASTER. I also didn't know then that Treading Water would mark the start of the most incredible journey, filled with many soaring highs and just as many crushing lows.

Treading Water took me on a roller coaster ride of edits and revisions and rewrites and critiques and soul searching and questions for the ages: What would I do if I was in Jack's situation? Several of my late mother's friends read it, told me it kept them up all night and demanded I write a follow-on story for one of the characters whose story was left unfinished in Treading Water. I had many deep conversations with friends who'd read the book and found themselves questioning their own belief systems.

I began to think... If this book had affected the people in my life so profoundly, maybe, just maybe it would strike the hearts of others, too. I worked on that book for YEARS after I wrote THE END. Even as I wrote a bunch of other books, I returned over and over again to Treading Water, applying everything new that I learned to that first book. Traditional publishers, however, had absolutely no interest in my square peg book, which was heartbreaking at the time. I'm skipping a huge chunk of my writing career story as I jump forward to the fall of 2011 when I self-published Treading Water at a lean, mean 92,000 words. Over six years, I cut 58,000 words (!! almost another full book !!) from that first version. Talk about killing your darlings!

Taking the advice of my mother's friends, I wrote book 2, Marking Time, in three months, and have hardly changed a word since I finished it in early 2006. I learned all the most important lessons about storytelling, pacing, character development, point of view and over-writing from Treading Water. It was then and remains today the ultimate book of my heart. My company is named for Jack, the architect in Treading Water: HTJB, Inc. The House That Jack Built. Everything goes back to Jack and Treading Water.

Almost eight years after I wrote THE END that first time, I got to see my name on the New York Times bestseller list. And then it happened again, with a different book, three weeks later. I have thousands of readers who wait with anticipation for my next book, which is the absolute dream come true times a million because I never dreamed it would be as amazing as it is to have such incredible readers. I have a career I could've only imagined on that day eight years ago today. As a very special thank you to all the friends and readers I've met along the way on this amazing ride, Treading Water is currently free in e-book format. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you all.
xoxo
Marie

Kindle: http://amzn.to/10ugEpi
iBookstore: http://bit.ly/WA9Cwb
Kobo: http://bit.ly/11BZKJN

**We are waiting on Nook to make it free at http://bit.ly/WNAs3R. It's been submitted and is in the queue! So check back frequently.** In the meantime, you can get it for free in ePub format for the Nook at Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/98722

The Book That Almost Wasn't: Fatal Deception's Bumpy Road to Publication

Fatal Deception, book 5, in the Fatal Series hit the e-book shelves today after a long and winding road to publication. In the midst of my 23rd book, something happened that had never happened to me before. I dropped my laptop and FRIED my hard drive, taking TEN chapters of Fatal Deception with it. If you'd asked me when the last time I'd backed up was, I would've said a week, maybe two. It was more like a month. Painful lesson learned. I was also working on one of my Gansett Island books when the fry-o-lation occurred. I very easily recreated the chunk I was missing in that book. Not so easily done in Fatal Deception.

I always say the Fatal Series books are my most complicated. Because they are so bendy and twisty, there was NO WAY I could easily recreate 10 chapters. My brain was resistant to even THINKING about it. Thus, I had to bring in the experts. To make a very long and UGLY story short, it took TEN WEEKS and THREE THOUSAND dollars to recover my ten chapters. Yep, you read that right. Disk Doctor in California got back the missing chapters, but it wasn't cheap. Since my choice was either to abandon the book or pay the money, I paid. During the ten weeks in the abyss, I kept plugging forward with Fatal Deception from where I'd left off, not knowing if the missing chapters would ever be recovered. When I got back the missing chapters, I pasted the whole thing back together and finished it up--in time for the deadline. Minor miracle! I don't recommend writing a book under these conditions. I now have extremely sophisticated backup systems that I rely upon to keep this from ever happening again.

Fatal Deception, the book that almost wasn't, is out TODAY! Here's what you can expect in this latest installment—my favorite yet in this series. Jealous Nick, Kinky Nick, Sam more obnoxious than ever! Fun, fun, FUN!

The wife of the White House deputy chief of staff has been beaten to death, and their one-year-old daughter is missing. D.C. Police Lieutenant Sam Holland is in charge of the murder investigation, but she's forced to collaborate with Special Victims Unit detectives as well as thorn-in-her-side FBI Special Agent Avery Hill. Then, a cold case of her father's resurrects old hurts—a distraction Sam cannot afford.

As Sam's investigation heats up, so does Nick's political career—and the heat carries over to their bedroom. Will Sam put the pieces together in time to catch a killer and find the baby, or will ambition, greed and lies prove fatal?

Get it now at Kindle • Nook • iBooks • Kobo • Carina Press

Read an excerpt.

Join the Fatal Deception Readers Group on Facebook when you're done with the book to dish about the story with other fans of the series.

And don't forget: Book 1, Fatal Affair, is FREE this month everywhere ebooks are sold! 

Hope you enjoy the latest installment in Sam & Nick's ongoing love affair!

Why I'm a Selfish Author :-)

So it's occurred to me recently that I'm a rather selfish author. Now, now, it's TRUE. I write my books the way I want to and don't spend much time obsessing or worrying if there's something about them people don't like, or if a reader doesn't like the entire book. That's okay. That's their prerogative. I've decided it's far, far, FAR more important that I please myself than it is that I please anyone else. See how selfish I am? :-)

Let me give you an example. When it comes to my McCarthys of Gansett Island Series, there is a small camp of readers who do not like the fact that I include rather extensive stories for characters other than the hero and heroine. I absolutely get why they don't like it. The thing is, though, I like it. I love going back and revisiting couples who starred in past books and seeing what's up with them. Sometimes it's big stuff. In Season for Love, for example, Grant and Stephanie from Falling for Love hit a rather big speed bump in their love story. Doesn't that happen in real life? Don't people who are madly in love one minute start to wonder in the next minute if this thing that's sprouted between them will go the distance? See, I thought so! That's right when it starts to get interesting to me. How about you?

In Longing for Love, book 7, Evan and Grace from Hoping for Love will hit a bump when her parents come to the island for a surprise visit and discover that not only does their daughter have a boyfriend she never told them about, but he's living with her, too. Something tells me Evan is going to be rather hurt by the fact that she never bothered to tell her folks about him. Will that be the main story in Longing for Love? Nope. Tiffany and Blaine will be the main attraction in that book, but life hasn't stopped for the rest of the Gansett Island community, and I like to write about that. I suppose that makes me a selfish author, and shockingly, I'm quite okay with that.

The first person I have to please with my books is ME. If I don't love them, how can I expect any of you to love them? I will be the first to admit there is a LOT going on in Season for Love. I can totally see how some people might think it's too much, and I've already acknowledged that we can't have story for every past couple in every future book. Season was  definitely Laura and Owen's book, but I also used it as a wrap-up of the first six books and a launch pad for the next few. Did I succeed? I'll let you tell me!

The vast majority of readers, especially those in my McCarthy Reader Group, enjoy the subplots and want more of them in future books. Those of you who agree with them are in luck, because I do, too. And since I'm a selfish, selfish author, I plan to please myself first and foremost. :-)

Of course I'm teasing about being selfish. I always hope readers will enjoy my books, but if I'm not enjoying the writing of the books, there won't be any more. I've made a career out of breaking the mold a bit, such as the Fatal Series that features the same couple in every book (supposedly a no-no in romance) and now the McCarthy Series that keeps past couples front and center in future books. You may not always get what you expect from me (hello, Seamus and Carolina?), but just as I hope to keep things interesting for you, I've got to keep things interesting for me, too. Thus the road less traveled. I hope you'll continue to come along for the ride, even if I take you places you didn't expect to go. After all, my journey would be absolutely no fun without my lovely readers riding shotgun.

So tell me, are you in the "Want more of the past characters" camp or the "Want less of the past characters" camp?

End of the Fifth Month

Five months of self-employment in the bank and what have I learned? Well, first I truly LOVE working for myself. As if that's any sort of news flash, right? I was talking to a friend who recently left my former company, and I was telling her it takes a while to de-program from the pace we used to keep. Our jobs were BUSY. We were on a constant merry-go-round of deadlines, publication schedules, editing, writing, designing. It was nonstop. We loved it, but it was a lot to manage. For me, it was doubly complicated by the thriving writing career that cropped up from something that started as a hobby and turned into something more than I ever could've imagined. As the fifth month ends, I think I've succeeded in deprogramming. I don't think about what I SHOULD be doing for the day job at this time of year anymore. I've stepped off the merry-go-round. I'm still a little dizzy because merry-go-rounds make me sick, but I'm better than I was.

I've learned that I'm not quite as disciplined as I thought I was. After working at home for 13 years, I figured, hey, I've got this covered! Turns out that when you don't have 27 co-workers and their needs framing your day, it's easy to forget that you are supposed to be WORKING right now. It's me vs. the computer and sometimes me loses. I've learned that's okay. You can't force the creative process. If it ain't happening, walk away and do something else for a while. The words will come back. I've learned that I need to compartmentalize. I'm fortunate to receive quite a lot of reader mail every day. I've learned that each email does not have to be answered the minute it is received. Now I save reader mail--the nicest part of my day--for the end of my day and that seems to be working out well. I can take an hour or two at night and veg in front of the TV and answer emails.

I've learned to not let my accounting and bookkeeping slide. I update my business accounts every day rather than twice a month. Of course I hate that part of self-employment, but it is a necessary evil. Luckily, I have an accountant who does the true heavy lifting, so all I have to do is provide the info. That sounds easier than it is, especially if I let it slide. I'm trying to be more disciplined about that. What's funny is my mother was a bookkeeper by trade. She would've taken care of the accounting books before the other books, you know, the ones that MAKE the money? :-)

I've learned that it's okay to take a day off every now and then, and I've learned it's fun to take a day off just because I can. I recently worked 12 straight hours getting Season for Love ready to go to the copy editor. That night I was making dinner and it occurred to me that I could take the next day off if I wanted to. The day after that, too. So I did. And I loved every minute of my two days off, even though I worked for a portion of both days. "Work" these days doesn't feel like at all like work.

Finally, I've learned that it's okay to exhale. Eighteen months after I self-published my first book, my business is booming, I'm writing a lot, I've got plans for books that will take me well into next year and things are good. Breathe... For the first time in YEARS, I feel like I can breathe...

I'm thankful every day to the readers who continue to make my lovely new life possible. You are among the true blessings in my life, and I am grateful for every one of you.

Now for some book news:
Reminder that Fool for Love, book 2 in the McCarthys of Gansett Island Series is on sale for 99 cents for a brief time. Get it while it's cheap! You will enjoy it more if you read book 1, Maid for Love, first.


Joe Cantrell, owner of the Gansett Island Ferry Company, has been in love with Janey McCarthy for as long as he can remember. At the same time, Janey has been dating or engaged to doctor-in-training David Lawrence. When things go horribly wrong between David and Janey, she calls her “fifth brother” Joe, one of the few people in her close circle who lives on the mainland. Janey decides a few days with Joe is just what she needs before she goes home to the island to face her parents and family with the news of her broken engagement. It was bad enough for Joe loving Janey from afar, but having her in his house is pure torture. Will he take advantage of this opportunity to show her what they could have together? And what will Joe’s best friend and Janey’s protective older brother Mac have to say about it?Get Fool for Love here:
Kindle: amzn.to/KYoYWO
Nook: http://bit.ly/KaIXGA


Apple: http://bit.ly/MWm0qH 


Kobo: http://bit.ly/KcnHQW

Dear Diary: School Vacation Week

The kids are home this week, which clearly changes the writing dynamic. One of them sleeps until noon and the other is up earlier, but he's good about entertaining himself when I'm working. So I'm trying to get some writing done in the AM and then hang with them (as much as teenagers wish to "hang" with their mother) in the afternoons. Tomorrow, we're heading to NYC for a few days for college tours at NYU and Fordham for my daughter, the artsy-theater-musical type. While we're there, we also plan to tour the 911 memorial, which both my kids wanted to do, and go skating at Rockefeller Center, which my hockey-playing boy wants to do. He also asked if we could score some tickets to a Knicks game so he could see their new sensation Jeremy Lin play. I laughed. Hard. As if! I'd like to see Wicked while we're there if we can fit that in. We'll see! My husband HATES NYC, so it's a great time to go with just the kids since he is working this week.

Some of you have asked how our new dog Louie (also known as Screwy Louie when he is being crazy and just LOUIS when he's misbehaving) is fitting in. Well, it's like he's always been here. He fits in perfectly with all of us. He and Brandy get along great. They love to wrestle and play and then they collapse for a nap before starting the whole process over again. We have an invisible fence in our yard, which is the only kind of fence we could possibly have since our yard is really weird. The invisible fence gives them the full run of the place, and Louie is now fully trained on the fence and knows his limits. It makes life a lot easier when we can send them out to play in the yard when they are getting too wild inside. Brandy really seems to like him, but even she has her limits. On the first night we let him sleep outside the crate, it was like she told him, "I don't mind having you around here, but don't get any ideas about sleeping with us." That first night, he got in bed with Jake and has slept there every night since. Jake loves having Louie snuggled up to him. He says, "Let's go to bed, Louie," and off they go. The only bad part is when Louie uses Jake's belly as a springboard when he bounds out of bed in the morning. Ooof! He's a cute little dude, and already love him.

Next on my mind is the season finale of Downton Abbey. WHOA! Did you see it? That last five minutes made my foolish heart go pitter patter. My friend and fellow Downton addict, Julie, sent me this link to a blog that deconstructs each episode. It's pretty comical reading and the author is, like me, a HUGE fan of Maggie Smith's dowager countess, who in my humble opinion, steals every scene she is in. I agree with the blog's critique of some of the second season's bigger failings, but even with the glitches (Robert's "thing" with the maid? UGH!), it's still riveting TV. I've even got Dan watching it, and he agrees that Maggie Smith is hysterical.

On the writing front, I made great progress on Duchess by Deception this weekend. It's coming right along. I'll be spending more time on that today along with Fatal Attack, which is also continuing along. There won't be much writing getting done while we're in NYC, so I'll hit it hard again next weekend.

I'll be back on Saturday to report in on our trip. Wish me well! Three days in NYC with two teenagers! Pray for my sanity! :-)

Dear Diary: The Cheese Whiz Effect

Someone was asking me today if I'm keeping busy with my new job. Umm, yes. Yes, I am. In fact, I have no idea where the days are going. Time is flying by as if I stepped into a machine that puts life on overdrive. You know that January was full of home renovations that took way too much of my time and brain space. This month, it's all the details of incorporating my business and establishing new bank accounts and various other details that involve phone calls from the lawyer, the accountant and the bank.

Today, I actually used a Cheese Whiz analogy to describe the way my writing life has exploded to fill the available time. You know how the whiz is compressed into the can but explodes the minute you let it out? That's what's happened to me since I left my job to write full time. The new "job" (that still never really feels like a job) has exploded to fill the available space, and I love everything about it!

Thanks to everyone who gave Fatal Flaw such a great release day! I so appreciate all the lovely emails and comments about the book. Once I get Hoping for Love off to the copy editor, I'll be back to Sam and Nick and their latest adventure in Fatal Attack. All the chatter on the Fatal Flaw Readers Group has me jonesing to get back to that world for another visit. If you've finished the book and want to join the chat, just click on the link. We'd love to have you!

Dear Diary: Launch Day and Other News!

Happy Launch Day for FATAL FLAW, book 4 in the Fatal Series! Sam and Nick are back with a whole new adventure.

Back from their honeymoon, Senator Nick Cappuano and D.C. Police Lieutenant Sam Holland are ready for some normalcy after the whirlwind of their wedding, but someone has other plans for them. When Sam discovers wedding cards containing thinly veiled death threats, she's not sure if she or Nick is the target.

Already on edge, Sam and her team start investigating a series of baffling murders. The victims are well-liked with no known enemies, and the murders are carried out in a clean and efficient manner. Unable to find a clear motive for the deaths, she feels like she's chasing her tail.

With no obvious connection between the victims, Sam soon suspects that she may be the ultimate prize in the killer's clever game. When the danger starts to hit a little too close to home, she has two goals: find the elusive murderer and manage to live long enough to enjoy her happily ever after.

Read an excerpt!

Get it at:
Kindle/Amazon
Nook/Barnes & Noble
iPad/Apple
Kobo
Carina Press
All Romance E-books


Audio Book
Audible
iTunes

I'm really excited to get this one out to readers. I finished it back in July, and it's been hard to keep quiet about everything that happens in this new book. When you're done reading, join the reader chat at Fatal Flaw Readers Group on Facebook. But don't join the group until you're done reading since we'll be spilling spoilers over there.

My lovely beta readers, Ronlyn and Kara, who love to tease me about everything they can think of, reminded me last night about some of the off-color names I had for Fatal Flaw during the writing. I can't repeat any of them here, but suffice to say this book put me through the paces. For the first time in 20 books, I rewrote the entire first chapter when I was three-quarters of the way through. Something just wasn't working, so Ronlyn, Kara and I put our heads together and discovered the story had a... wait for it.... FATAL FLAW! LOL! Once we figured that out and I redid the first chapter, it was smooth sailing to THE END. I learned a lot writing this particular book, and I think it'll be easier to write future Fatal books knowing what I do now. Let's hope so anyway!

In other news from this weekend, HOPING FOR LOVE, book 5 in the McCarthys of Gansett Island Series, is now finished! I love the way Evan and Grace's story came together. It was so fun to write Evan as he resisted the overwhelming feelings he had for Grace until he could no longer deny that his life as a single guy is O-V-E-R. It couldn't have happened to a better man, and Grace is a lucky girl to have one of the McCarthy brothers madly in love with her! I had planned to write Tiffany's book next, but over the weekend I decided I might do a "winter on Gansett" book before I get to Tiff. I'm toying with the name SEASON FOR LOVE for this one. Let me ask you this: How do you feel about reading a Christmas-related story when it's not Christmas on the calendar? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that!

For my fellow New England Patriots fans out there, I have one word for us all: OUCH. That one hurt. They didn't look like our usual Patriots last night with the receivers missing more than they caught. While there is always next year, I plan to lick my wounds for a few more days anyway! How about you?

News on my latest addiction: Downton Abbey. If you aren't watching this show, you're missing out on some great TV. I realized this weekend that Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) is the same guy who didn't recognize Julia Roberts' character Anna as a huge movie star in Notting Hill. Loved that scene! Today I found season 2 of Downton online and started watching the two-hour season premier. After an hour, I had to LITERALLY drag myself away and get to work. It's that good. Do you watch it?

Well, back to work promoting FATAL FLAW and proofing HOPING FOR LOVE. I'm also planning to do some work this week on my historical romance in the making: DUCHESS BY DECEPTION. Did I tell you my agent LOVED the first half? Now I just need to finish it up, and I can't wait to get to that as well as the next Fatal book, FATAL ATTACK. Busy, busy!  Hope you have a wonderful Monday!

Dear Diary: The First Month

Here we are at Jan. 31, the end of my first month as a self-employed writer. So how did it go? Well, it's been an interesting time of transition and discovery, that's for sure. As I've mentioned before, I expected things to go on pretty much as they had when I was working full-time from home for an outside company. The biggest surprise of this month is that wasn't the case. I'm finding I have to be a lot more self-motivated than I was when I had requests from coworkers and contractors and association members framing my days. It's also been an adjustment "giving myself permission" to write during the day after so many years of only being able to write at night. That adjustment seems to be happening finally. Yesterday, I wrote nearly 5,000 words in HOPING FOR LOVE. Yay! I'm really loving this new McCarthy book, and I hope you guys will, too. I've been torturing poor Evan, who can't quite figure out what's so different about this one woman who turns his head around and makes him forget all about his best laid plans to stay far, far away from anything that smacks of commitment. Super fun!

Another thing I'm trying to "train" myself to do as new life enters the second month is to allow for an occasional night or *gasp* full day OFF. Imagine that. I honestly can't remember the last time I took a full, complete day off from all things "work" related. Nothing about writing books or corresponding with readers feels like "work" to me, so that's part of the so-called problem. I like my work. Thus, it doesn't feel like work to me. Not a bad problem to have, all things considered!

I'm getting excited for the release on Monday of Fatal Flaw, book 4 in the Fatal Series. Here's what you can expect in the new installment:


Back from their honeymoon, Senator Nick Cappuano and D.C. Police Lieutenant Sam Holland are ready for some normalcy after the whirlwind of their wedding, but someone has other plans for them. When Sam discovers wedding cards containing thinly veiled death threats, she's not sure if she or Nick is the target.

Already on edge, Sam and her team start investigating a series of baffling murders. The victims are well-liked with no known enemies, and the murders are carried out in a clean and efficient manner. Unable to find a clear motive for the deaths, she feels like she's chasing her tail.

With no obvious connection between the victims, Sam soon suspects that she may be the ultimate prize in the killer's clever game. When the danger starts to hit a little too close to home, she has two goals: find the elusive murderer and manage to live long enough to enjoy her happily ever after.


If you haven't yet pre-ordered a copy, you can get it here:
Kindle
Nook
iPad

Also, if you haven't yet joined the Fatal Series groups, we're having a lot of fun chatting about the earlier books as we prepare for the launch of book 4. Find the groups here:

Fatal Series

Fatal Affair

Fatal Justice

Fatal Consequences

Fatal Destiny

After you've read the new book, you can join the Fatal Flaw Reader's Group to dish with other readers. Just don't join until AFTER you read so we don't have to worry about spoilers. 

Thanks to all of you for reading my books. You'll never know how much I appreciate you!

Have a great day!

Dear Diary: One Word—OUCH

The new mattress is here. They told us it would take some getting used to. We aren't sure we'll survive the "getting used to" phase. Dan suggested we both might need a sick day to recover from the first night. In the store it was soft and squishy and lovely. In our house, it's made of concrete. The good news is that Brandy had no complaints and slept like a baby. And of course that's really all that matters because the new bed is for her. Ahem.... We can return the mattress within 60 days if it's not working for us. They suggested we give it two weeks before we decide anything. I wonder if we'll make it that long. Dan moved to the sofa at 3 a.m. Not a good sign! On the plus side, the new bedding looks AWESOME with the paint. You gotta love when that happens. :-)

I got some good writing done yesterday on Hoping for Love, and we're up to about 45,000 words. I hope to bang out a big chunk this weekend to keep things moving. I'm also thinking a lot about Fatal Attack and hoping to get deeper into that one very soon. I was talking to my writing friend Jessica yesterday, and she was mentioning about how she is thinking a lot about her new book but not getting much chance to write. That gave me the chance to share one of my writing philosophies with her: thinking IS writing. It counts. If you are thinking about your book, mulling over where you want to go, getting to know your characters, or plotting as you drive, shower or cook, you ARE working on your book. Writers often fail to give themselves credit for the time it takes to puzzle out a story. If we aren't putting words on a page then we feel like we're wasting time. It all counts.

It's pouring rain here in RI, my favorite kind of writing day. I'm heading to the gym and then my Realtor friend Dawn and I are going to an open house at the house former Congressman Patrick Kennedy is selling in my town. Naturally, we have to grab lunch, too, so let's hope I can get my work count in this afternoon! Speaking of that, I used to think it was funny when authors would Tweet or FB about not making their daily word count or the various challenges to meeting the daily goal. I'd think how I'd hate to be beholden to a daily goal. Shudder. That was when I had a full-time job on top of my writing and couldn't set unmanageable goals for myself. I don't believe in setting myself up for failure. Now that I can do whatever I want during the day, I'm seeing the point of the daily word count goal. It keeps us from being total slackers! These days, I'm setting myself up for failure by NOT having a daily word count goal. Food for thought as I move forward with new life, month two!

I want to add a daily mention here of what I'm reading for fun. My reader friends at Marie Force Book Talk were gabbing about Lisa Kleypas (one of my all-time favorite authors) this week, and a few titles were mentioned that I hadn't read. Here I thought I'd read all her books, but alas that was not the case. Even though I'm supposed to be reading/judging books for the RWA RITA contest, here I am reading Then Came You (which I loved) and Dreaming of You (just started). How am I supposed to read RITA books when there are unread LK books demanding my attention? What are you reading? What's the latest book you just couldn't put down?

Last night I attended my daughter's swim meet (they won!) and she swam the 500, which is 20 lengths of the pool. Watching her cut through the water, it occurred to me that at no time in my life could I have done that. Neither of my kids are what you would call "natural" athletes like their father (they got just enough of my genes to ruin them!). Rather, they are "scrappers." They get out there and give it their all. They'll never be the best one on the team, but they bring plenty of heart to the game, which makes us very proud of them. Since it was a girls-only meet, I was surrounded in the stands by a group of high school boys cheering on the girls. That was the perfect time to receive an email from a 17-year-old boy in New Zealand who has been reading my books and "learning a lot" about women and relationships and sex and what is expected of men in these situations. The very sweet note from a lovely boy halfway across the world got me to wondering if reading romance novels shouldn't be mandatory for all teenage boys. Maybe if they better understood women and how to be half of a successful relationship, there'd be a lot fewer divorces. What do you think?

Have a great Friday!

Dear Diary: Reader Mail

Before I get into today's post, I have an update from yesterday. We broke the news to Brandy that her under-the-bed office is shutting down, since our new bed will have drawers and not provide access to her favorite hideout. Later in the evening, I went into my room and noticed Brandy had barfed on the bed, which has never happened before in the two years she's lived with us. And they say animals don't understand English? Mine does! I've always thought so, and now I have proof. She's pissed, and she's letting us know it!

Yesterday was a really good writing day that took me up to 41,000 words on Hoping for Love. Things are heating up between Grace and Evan, but he's about to do something he'll regret for some time to come. Can't wait to dive back into their story! I mentioned this yesterday to some of my readers, but I thought it would be fun to bring it up here too: I hate writing love scenes. In fact, I hate writing them so much that it takes me a day or two to "recover" before I can go back and re-read what I wrote. My readers tell me they like my love scenes, which I really appreciate, but they do give me grief! What's funny is, like the act itself, when it's going well, I can tell. Everything is firing on all cylinders (literally—LOL) and it's "coming together" the way it's supposed to. Okay, enough with the puns. You get the picture!

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about my readers. I've been blessed to encounter the nicest, friendliest, most supportive group of readers. We are having BIG FUN over at Marie Force Book Talk where we now have 95 members, and we're growing every day. I really enjoy being able to hang out with my reader friends on a daily basis. Our Falling for Love Readers Group is now up to 75 members, and you're welcome to join us after you've read the book since there are spoilers galore in the individual book groups. We have groups for each of my books as well as the McCarthys of Gansett Island Series and the Fatal Series. Anyone is welcome to join, so come on down! For a full listing of all the reader groups, visit my Facebook page. They are listed under "Info."

In addition to all the fun we have on the groups, I receive such lovely email from readers after each new release. Here is a sampling of what readers are saying about Falling for Love:

Naomi wrote:

This book had so much going on that it kept me so excited the whole time. And I loved it when you left so much possibility for at least 2 or 3 more books! I can't wait to find out about Owen/Laura. I loved the banter between Grant and Stephanie.  Gals with attitude are always great! And love scenes were very steamy, yet really tasteful.  I enjoyed reading it.

Anyway, I enjoyed every word.  There is so much hope for more stories!  I love it! I can't wait to read Evan's story, as well as Adam, Owen and maybe Doctor David?!?! Now, I'm getting myself ready for another Fatal series!  I've already pre-ordered it. So while I wait, I'm reading Love at First Flight once again! Thanks for all the books you write.  You make me laugh/cry and make my day a lot more enjoyable!

Anna wrote:

Just finished Falling For Love, and it was sooooo good!! I loved it!! I am so glad that there is more to come. You are amazing, and you have such a gift for writing. You blow me away every time with your books, and I am always left wanting more. Thank you for all your hard work in writing such excellent books!!!!!

Jill wrote:

I have just finished reading Falling for Love which I only found online yesterday...don't know how I missed it  and as usual absolutely loved it. I am pleased to hear that you are now writing full time as this means not only more books  but more often as well....A win win situation....Can't wait. Best wishes for a long and happy career.

Rhonda wrote:

You've done it again!!!! I couldn't put this book down! It killed me to have to work today and not sit at home to read!!! You're writing really makes me feel like I'm right there in the story with them. You truly have a amazing gift! And I loved the first glimpse of Evan's book. 

Karen wrote:

I then decided to try your McCarthy series and have been consuming them like a crazy woman. I read Maid for Love and Fool for love within two days and I'm hooked. I just started Luke & Sydney's story and was so happy to see that I have Falling for Love waiting for me once I finish Ready for Love. I cannot wait to hear more about my favorite couples, Maddie & Mac, Janey & Joe and the rest of the family. I just read your blog and found out that you're now a full time author. Congrats! I promise to keep you in business and will look forward to reading more of your books. 

Alyson wrote:

Picked up the McCarthy series & I swear to you, a marching band could have gone thru my bedroom & i'd have been none the wiser. My mom RAVES about the Fatal series, but I'm going to have to wait till the last one comes out so that I can have a marathon. Write faster! You're fabulous. :)

Now you see why I love my readers. Thanks to every one of you for making my new life as a full-time author possible. If you keep reading, I'll keep writing. Deal?

Dear Diary: What Weekend?

Another weekend has flown by in the blink of an eye leaving me to wonder what happened to the last two days. We spent some time on a snowy Saturday getting ready for the next phase of our home renovation project. Our new king-sized bed arrives tomorrow. I ordered it online and "some assembly required" has Dan up in arms about just how much assembly may be required. We went with a storage bed with drawers underneath since we have a small room and can use all the storage space we can get. Brandy the dog will be bummed to lose her under-the-bed "office" hideout, but it's her fault we needed the bigger bed. She insists on sleeping with us and is a huge bed hog! We're also sacrificing bedside tables for a bookshelf headboard. Can't wait to see it all put together, but tonight we get to move everything out of our room. Our current bed is going to the guest room downstairs, so that's where we'll be sleeping until the new bed is put together. Good times! More upheaval! Can't wait to be done! My goal was to have it mostly done by the end of January. We may make that goal. We'll see!

Yesterday, I spent a big chunk of the day on the odious task of paperwork. Where does it all COME FROM? It piles up in my kitchen until it starts to avalanche and I have no choice but to deal with it. There's personal stuff and business stuff and kid stuff galore. I caught up my business checking account and tax deduction spreadsheet that I let go for a staggering amount of time and then I am left to piece my recent life back together so it makes sense to the accountant. When the check register says "PayPal," something else has to go with that transaction. Thus a trip through the PayPal history is required. Are you seeing why this process always gives me a headache? New Year's Resolution (it's not too late to make them, is it?): Keep track of expenses and deductions AS THEY HAPPEN rather than weeks later. If that actually happens, I'll be shocked. But I will try...

Also yesterday, I got to see my son score a point in hockey and then get into a scuffle with another player that involved the use of their hockey sticks in an unauthorized manner (AKA stick to body). Dan and I were shocked that Jake took a swing at another kid with his stick, because that is soooooo not like him. He says he was provoked. We say if he does it again he won't play anymore. Sheesh! This isn't the NHL, boys!

Watching the New England Patriots earn another visit to the Super Bowl was a highlight of the weekend. The game was sooooo stressful! Can you tell me why I care so much? I'm not much of a fan until things get interesting at the end (sort of the same way I am about the Bachelor—talk to me the last three weeks. Before that, who cares?). However, I'm ALWAYS a fan of Tom Brady who is just too cute for words. He's not only the best quarterback of his generation, but he's a gentleman and not afraid to say he played terribly in a playoff game in which he didn't throw for a single touchdown. I like that about him. He takes the blame when it's his fault. There's not a prima dona bone in his body, at least not that he shows us. We're hoping for a different outcome than we got in the 2007 Super Bowl face off with the Giants, a win for NY that my son still calls "cheap." (One of his favorite words.)

Over the course of this weekend, I also did a re-read of what I've written in Hoping for Love so far (good news, I don't hate it) and laid out the print version of True North while I watched the game. That will be coming soon to Amazon! I'm trying not to put pressure on myself to write on the weekends, but I'm certainly using that time for other business-related matters. Here's another New Year's Resolution (I really hope it isn't too late): Take a day off every now and then. What must that be like? I can't remember!

Have a good Monday!

Dear Diary

So much for my big plan to post every day. I totally blew off day 2! That's an auspicious start! Yesterday was a productive day with another 2,000 words in the bank on Hoping for Love, more promo work on Falling for Love and (shocker) MORE work on the website from hell. I also registered for the Romance Writers of America Conference in Anaheim, CA. I'm really looking forward to the three conferences I have coming up:

• PASIC (Published Author Special Interest Chapter) in New York City on March 8-10 (I'm on a self-pub panel)
• New England Chapter Conference in Salem, MA, April 27-28. I'm the Saturday luncheon speaker (gulp)
• RWA in Anaheim from July 25-28 (I'm organizing a reader dinner on July 25 after the literacy signing if anyone is interested in joining us.)

I'd love to connect with nearby readers at any of these events, so let me know if you are interested in getting together.

Today I'm hoping to get a lot of writing done, but the carpet and tile guy is back for another two-day engagement that has my house turned upside down AGAIN. So I'll do what I can!

Oh and this AM I was invited on a local TV show, the Rhode Show, which is Rhode Island's equivalent of the Today show. I have to be in Providence at 8:30 a.m. for this engagement. I predict getting up at 4 a.m. to make myself presentable!

Finally, I'm celebrating the very good showing Falling for Love has had on Barnes & Noble, where it was ranked no. 71 overall this morning. That is very exciting! It's doing well on Amazon, too, with a good placement on the contemporary romance bestseller's list. Thank you to my lovely readers for making this possible!

Off to write! Have a great day!
xoxo

On Anniversaries and Milestones and Lessons Learned Along the Way

Today is the sixth anniversary of the first time I ever wrote THE END. I finished my first book, Treading Water, on May 18, 2005 with great fanfare and celebration. My family took me out to dinner, there were flowers from the hubby and excitement from my dad, who'd been after me to "write that book" for years at that point. Sadly, my mother, who had died nearly two years earlier, wasn't there to join in the fun, but I believed then—and I continue to believe today—that she's had a hand in all the wonderful things that have happened in the last six years. After all, she was the one who put a book in my hand every night before bed and said, "Read." And I read and read and read some more. Reading has always been my no. 1 hobby. Over 10 years as a Navy wife, my favorite books got moved more times than I could count, but parting with them was never an option. Nineteen years of marriage later, I still have them. One of my prized possessions is a first-edition copy of Love Story, which is one of those books you wish you could read again for the first time.

Since I loved to read and writing was the only thing I've ever been any good at, I suppose writing fiction was my destiny. Last week, I finished my 18th novel, and I'm happy to report it's still fun, although no. 18 was greeted with considerably less fanfare than no. 1 received. I believe it went something like this: "Congrats, Mom. That's awesome. What's for dinner?" :-)

I thought it would be fun today to recount a few of the lessons I've learned in the last six years.

Lesson No. 1: Nothing Ever Goes as Planned
When I finished Treading Water (still, in my humble opinion, the best book I've ever written), I was surprised to discover the romance fiction world had been invaded by vampires. They were everywhere in 2005-2006. Contemporary romance was a dying genre, and few agents or editors were taking on new contemporary authors. When I realized there was literally no market for my lovely book, I did what I was told not to do: I wrote two sequels. Those three books are still my favorites, and they are the ones my core group of readers still talk about all these years later. After six years and five published books (with three more coming soon), guess what? Treading Water is out on submission to publishers. Contemporary is making a big comeback. I've had a bit of success with my earlier books, and my ebooks have really taken off. The time is right for my most-loved book to have its moment. Whether or not it will sell is anyone's guess, but I remain optimistic. I have no doubt that my readers would go crazy over those three books, so keep your fingers crossed that an editor will, too. Getting back to the nothing goes as planned heading: I kept writing, and my seventh book became my debut, Line of Scrimmage. Go figure! (If you haven't read the story behind Treading Water and The House That Jack Built, check it out.)

Lesson No. 2: Writing May Be a Solitary Endeavor, But It Doesn't Have to be Lonely
I have made some of the best friends of my life within in the romance community (writers and readers), and they've made this perilous journey so much more fun and bearable than it would've been otherwise. I won't name names here, but you know who you are, and you know what you've done to prop me up, so I will just say thank you.

Lesson No. 3: The Publishing Business is a Marathon Not a Sprint
People ask me all the time what the secret is to getting published—and staying published. I give the same answer every time: you have to want it with every fiber of your being. Just like people who run marathons or climb mountains, an inner drive fuels writers to keep showing up every day, to keep putting butt in seat and fingers on keyboard when it would be so much easier to just say ENOUGH already. You can't ever give up. Years ago, when nothing was going the way I'd thought it would (see Lesson No. 1), I kept telling myself the only thing I knew for SURE was if I gave up it would never happen. It's as true today as it was six years ago.

Lesson No. 4: Don't be Afraid to Take Chances
I wanted to write this series, you see, featuring a DC cop and a U.S. Senator in every book. I wanted it to be a romance series with mystery and politics and an enduring love affair between two complex characters. I was told it couldn't be done. I was told that romance demands a new couple in the second and subsequent books. I was told to write it to formula. I didn't do what I was told, and my Fatal Series is the result. I could've given in and done it the way "they" wanted it done, but I wouldn't love writing that series quite as much if I hadn't done it my way. I was also told you shouldn't write the second book in a series before the first one sells. Twice now I have benefitted GREATLY from not listening to that advice. Write whatever is calling to you, and don't listen to people who tell you "it's just not done." Maybe it just hasn't been done YET. For five and a half of my first six years in publishing, self-publishing was a taboo. And then, seemingly overnight, it wasn't. I gave it a whirl, and it's been the BEST thing to ever happen to my career. Take chances. Sure, you might fail, but wow, if you succeed, it's so much sweeter because you took a risk. Those other books I wrote along the way? I worked on them constantly for years. Any time I learned something new or identified a bad habit, I went back and applied it to my earlier books. One of my favorite quotes is luck is the convergence of preparation and opportunity. When this new opportunity arose to deliver my books to readers, I was READY, and the response to those books has made me feel VERY lucky indeed.

Lesson No. 5: Trust Your Gut
If you sense that someone is feeding you a line of bull, they probably are. If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. If a relationship you've worked years to attain with an agent, an editor, a critique partner or anyone else affiliated with the business isn't working, don't be afraid to speak up. You are your own best advocate, and it's true what they say that no one will ever love your book as much as you do. A writer friend of mine told me the other day that she loves how much I love my books. Well, hell yes, I love them. If I didn't love them you'd certainly never get to read them. I love all 18 of them. Some more than others for sure. I didn't always love the process of creating them, but I love the end result or they'd be under the bed where no one could ever see them. None of my books are under the bed, and I hope you'll get a chance to read them all someday.

Lesson No. 6: Listen to and Respect Your Readers
One of the things I've come to realize is that in the publishing pecking order, readers tend to fall pretty far down on the list. In MY world, they are no. 1. Everything I do is for my readers. Every ounce of work I put into a book is for one reason: because I will be asking my hard-earned readers to part with their hard-earned money, and I want them to come away entertained and moved in some way or another. Sometimes they leave happy. Other times they are mad with me (I love that just as much) and sometimes they've fallen a little bit in love with one of my characters (Nick Cappuano anyone?) If readers finish one of my books thinking and feeling SOMETHING, ANYTHING, then I've done my job. I have kept all of the emails I've received from satisfied readers, and I treasure every one of them. I know what my readers want from me because I talk to them often, via email, Facebook and Twitter, and I am listening.

Lesson No. 7: Protect the Work
Writing and storytelling are the most important parts of my "job." They come first and foremost, ahead of promotion, attending conferences, networking with other writers and fooling around online. Without words on the page, there's nothing to promote or sell or read. Protecting the work sometimes means living like a hobbit, saying no to social events that sound fun and forgoing the glass of wine that would make me so sleepy nothing else gets done that day. Protect the work. It's everything. But it's also important to know when it's just not happening on a given day and not trying to force it. That, too, protects the work.

Lesson No. 8: Keep Your Priorities Straight
I've had a great run as a writer. I've been blessed beyond my wildest dreams with so many wonderful moments along the way. But writing is not my full-time job. I have one of those, and it gets all my attention every day before I write a word because it, too, has been one of the great blessings in my life. And before either of my two "jobs" come my two children, who are the most important people in my life. They are tied for No. 1 (and no, I do not have a favorite, contrary to what they might say), and they always come first. All I really care about is seeing them to successful adulthood (and hopefully getting a few grandchildren if they are feeling kind toward their mother). Anything else that might come my way via my books is frosting on an already very nice cake. My husband and kids have been my top supporters, my greatest champions and biggest fans. They come first. Period.

Lesson No. 9: I'm Doing Exactly What I Was Meant to Do
To everyone who has read my books, to friends and family who have encouraged and supported me over the last six years, to the first editor who said yes, to the publisher who took a chance on an unconventional romance series to the wonderful agent who has stuck with me through thick and thin, thank you. Because of you—all of you—I'm doing exactly what I was meant to do, and I'm loving every minute of it.

My Core Story

Since last year's RWA Conference, I've been thinking a lot about something Jayne Ann Krentz said in her luncheon speech. It was about knowing your core story as a writer, and remaining true to it in all your books because it's what readers come to expect from you. So I started to think: What is my core story? I'm not sure I have just one. I've given this a lot of thought, mind you, and these are the core stories I've come up with that resonate through most of my contemporaries (I am excluding the Fatal books because they are an entirely different animal altogether!):

1. I'm told I do love triangles pretty well. I enjoy writing them and examining all the various implications for all three parties.
2. For some strange reason, I like to write about fame in all its many iterations and what it does to regular people.
3. I often work in the "gray area" between the black and white of right and wrong. I like what goes on there, the murkiness and the uncertainty.
4. I like to write about families and family dynamics.

You will find some or all of these themes in all of my books. Line of Scrimmage and Love at First Flight featured love triangles. Everyone Loves a Hero looks at what fame can do to a regular guy and his relationships with regular people. Recently I decided to post two of my unsold books because readers were asking for more, and I have plenty more to give! True North touches on issues related to fame and how it can impact one's desire to lead a "normal" life. In a way, it contains a love triangle because Liana has to choose between the man she has come to love and the high-profile career she thought she wanted. The Fall is all about that grey area, what goes on in the murky place between right and wrong. It was fun to take a doctor who thought he knew himself so well and show him he knew nothing at all. It also contains one hell of a love triangle and is fat with family dynamics! Here's some more about True North and The Fall:

True North
The first time Travis North lays eyes on Liana McDermott, she’s wearing the most hideous bridesmaid dress he’s ever seen. He doesn't immediately recognize the world-famous model who is attending her cousin Enid's wedding at the country club he owns. Thanks to Enid's shameless matchmaking, Travis and Liana become acquainted and later embark on a two-week fling intended to be free of emotion and entanglement. As Liana's return to work gets closer, however, Travis wonders how he'll ever let her go when the time comes while Liana considers whether he might be her true north. Two high-powered careers, two amazing weeks and a love that comes along just once in a lifetime. Is she ready to give up her career for a different kind of life? Does he want the same things she does? After insisting on an emotionless affair, she can't very well ask him. Or can she?

Find True North here. Thank you to everyone who has bought True North this month. I'm truly blown away by the reception it has received.

The Fall
Dr. Ted Duffy has finally met a woman who makes him ache with desire. Too bad she’s dating his best friend of twenty years. This simple premise has momentous consequences for Ted in “The Fall,” a story that explores the bonds of friendship, the expectations of family, and the power of love to unite and divide. Ted is a third-generation pediatric oncologist in Boston. He is thirty-seven years old, married to his work, and his patients are his kids. He and his college friends spend summer weekends in Newport, Rhode Island, which is the only break Ted gets from the grind of his job. After a devastating loss at work, he leaves for Newport where he meets his friend’s new girlfriend, Caroline. During that first weekend together, Ted and Caroline fall in love. When they later act on their feelings, shock and disbelief ricochet through his tight-knit group of friends and family. A highly respected doctor, a beloved son and grandson, a loyal friend, Ted is stunned by his sudden free fall from grace. Sometimes love is not enough...or is it?

Find The Fall here.

Hope you enjoy these new offerings and I'm curious to know what you all think about core story. Do your favorite writers tend to stick to certain themes? Are you always looking for those themes in their books? Are you disappointed when you don't find them?

To Review or Not to Review...

There's a great discussion going on over at Dear Author about authors reviewing other authors' books on Goodreads and other online venues. This issue is a murky, swampy mess for authors, and shocker, I do have an opinion on it. Rather than spout of on Dear Author, I am spouting here, in my own cyber living room.

I decided years ago to keep most of my opinions to myself when it came to the work of other romance writers. It goes back to the "do unto others as you'd have done to you" credo we were taught as children. If I don't want other authors spouting off about all the things that are wrong with my books, why would I do it to them? Why would I give a fellow romance writer a one-star review on Goodreads when I might someday be asked to work with her in some capacity or another? What do I gain from posting that negative review about her work in a public setting?

This goes for my friends, too. I would never give an author friend anything less than a five-star review on a public site. Why? Because anything less than a five suggests there were things about the book I didn't like. Maybe they were small things that really didn't matter much in the grand scheme, but I would not want my friend to wonder what it was about her book that made the difference between a four and a five for me. Why should she have that question in her head from me when she has so much other praise and criticism being hurled her way? Authors have enough arrows slung at them—friendly and not-so-friendly—to be wondering what it was about their book didn't work for their writer friends.

If I wouldn't give a friend less than a five-star review, that pretty much removes any value the reading public might place on my reviews, right? So why bother? The closest I will come to expressing an opinion is the list you see on my sidebar of books I've read in 2010 with stars next to the ones I truly loved. The remainder span a wide range from what would be a DNF on a traditional review site to a 4-star review. I don't feel the need to differentiate between them. That list began more as a curiosity experiment. I knew I read a lot, but I had no idea what the full number of books for a year would be. As the list unfolded, I realized I wanted a way to highlight the books I truly loved, thus the star. I never felt the same need to show which ones didn't work for me.

I was talking books yesterday with a group of reader friends and one of my all-time favorites came up. One of my close friends HATED that book. Another started it but never finished. How a story hits one reader vs. another is always going to be a subjective exercise. As an author, I believe it is far more important for me to be supportive of my author colleagues than it is for me to express my negative opinions about a colleague's work. And whether we know each other or not, whether one is small potatoes like me or a NYT bestseller like Nora Roberts, we are all colleagues in a business where we put our souls on display in every book. That's why when we started the book club, there was one major rule I emphasized and that was respect for the work. You don't have to like the book, I said, but you must respect the author. I believe that with every fiber of my being, and I try to live it in my online interactions.

What about you? Where do you stand on authors reviewing authors?

Building a World Within a World

(More re-posts from the blog tour!)

When I started work on Fatal Affair, I knew I wanted to write about a female Washington, D.C. police detective named Sam Holland, so the first thing I did was research the Metropolitan Police Department. Whoa! I quickly learned the department is enormous with levels and layers and complexities I couldn’t begin to bring to my story without weighing it down with details the reader would find tedious at best. Being the “seat-of-the-pants” writer that I am, I pressed on with the book as I pondered how to deal with this world-building challenge.

Over the course of the book, a department of my own making began to take shape. There’s a chief, deputy chief, detective captain, detective lieutenant, detectives, patrol officers, a medical examiner, etc. The chief of the real-life MPD is a woman. I would’ve loved to have done that in my books, but I needed the chief in the Fatal Series to be a crony friend of Sam’s dad. Her father, a disabled former deputy chief, plays a big role in this series, so his character helped me to inform and shape the others. Sam’s struggles to contend with being the daughter of a fallen hero while working for men she used to call “Uncle” is a central theme of the series.

I also tried to give each of Sam’s fellow officers context in their relationship with her. The chief was her Uncle Joe when she was a kid. The deputy chief is still a close friend of her father’s, as is the detective captain who serves as Sam’s mentor. Her lieutenant is her nemesis. He believes she’s gotten where she is in the department because of who she is and sets out to cause her all sorts of trouble as the series unfolds. Within Sam’s closest group of coworkers, her partner serves as a kid brother of sorts, while other colleagues fill a variety of roles in her personal and professional life. Over the course of the series, I hope to develop each of these relationships by giving these characters stories that keep them front and center in Sam’s life.

So I created my own version of the Metropolitan Police Department. I note in the acknowledgements that it is a department of my own making and is in no way intended to mirror the real thing. As a reader, how do you feel about world building? Do you look for the world to closely mirror the real thing whenever possible or do you prefer to immerse yourself in the world the author has created and suspend your disbelief during the story?

Identify It, Own It, Fix It

So you’ve written your first book, polished it to sparkling perfection, and entered it into a few contests to get some feedback before beginning your agent search. Then the scores from the contests come back, a baffling mix of “love it!” and “hate it!” that leaves you scratching your head and looking for the common denominator. How is it possible that your novel isn’t setting the literary world on fire? Could it be that your manuscript contains one or more of the 15 most common problems new writers encounter along the journey to publication?

Are you dumping all your back story into the first five pages? Does your story begin in the wrong place? Do you know how point-of-view works? Have you never met a comma that didn’t vex you? If these challenges are holding you hostage in contests, you might not get the desired results when you begin submitting to agents and editors. But don’t despair! These issues can be addressed, and you can move forward with confidence that your manuscript is ready for prime time.

In my two-part class that begins on Monday, we’ll look at the most common challenges writers encounter that keep them from achieving their publication goals. For instance, does your voice match your genre? What does that even mean? Well, if you’re writing for the young adult market, for instance, you might want to find a young adult reader who can tell you if your language is current. I found out this week that saying “word” when you agree with someone is so last decade. I live with a soon-to-be fifteen-year-old who knows how kids talk. Unfortunately, I don’t write young adult. I probably should as I am living in a young adult laboratory at the moment!

How’s your blocking? Do your characters’ movements within a scene make sense? Are you forcing your readers out of your story to ask how he can possibly reach that from there? If your heroine is ripping your hero’s shirt off while he has his hand in her panties, your readers are going to say wait, how did she get that sleeve off without interrupting the goings on in her panties? You don’t want to force your readers out of the flow of the story by giving them reason to wonder how something is possible within the confines of a scene.

While we’re talking about panties, let’s consider purple prose. Throbbing members and steaming channels have no place in romance novels. There. I said it. If your love scenes are making readers, judges, agents, and editors go ewwwww, you might have a problem with purple prose. We can fix that with a few tweaks here and there that keep the emphasis on the emotion and the senses rather than the throbbing and steaming.

Whatever your challenge, identifying and owning it will save you time and trouble later. Check out View from the Judge’s Chair: What’s Holding You Back? Part 1 begins Monday at Story Stew University. As part of the class, we’ll review your first chapter and help you identify and fix these common problems. Hope to see you there!

The House That Jack Built

Yesterday at the library event, the librarian mentioned the story I have on my website that I titled The House That Jack built. It's about my writing career, how it all started and the first character who ever took up residence in my mind as a real live person. I realized I've never shared that story with my blog readers, so here it is!



The House That Jack Built
Writers work toward the ultimate goal of publication. We stress over sentence structure, editing, agents, pitching, querying, etc. The list of things to stress about is endless. But how often do we stop to take a moment to appreciate the special journey we are on as authors? Since I started to write seriously four years ago (UPDATE: make that seven years now!), after saying for years I was going to, I've had a few amazing things happen to me that never would've happened if I hadn't embarked upon this journey. I have several anecdotes, but this is my favorite....

The first character to take up occupancy in my mind as a living, breathing human being, was a handsome, successful architect named Jack Harrington. Jack and I ran around together for a long time before I ever put fingers to keyboard to tell his story. I wanted to write about a man who has it all—a wife he still adores after twenty years of marriage, three beautiful daughters he'd do anything for, and a life most people would envy. That life is turned upside down when his wife is hit by a car and plunged into a coma. I wanted to show Jack's struggles to rebuild his life as he becomes the custodial parent for his daughters—two of them teenagers with all the accompanying issues—and I wanted to show his conflict when he finds a new love. These issues make up the core of my first book, "Treading Water," which led to two sequels, "Marking Time," and "My Side of the Street." It's "Treading Water," however, that is the book of my heart.

Since I finished "Treading Water," I've thought of my writing as "The House That Jack Built," tying into his career as an architect and the unexpected building blocks that came from "Treading Water." As I was finishing "My Side of the Street" in July 2006, I decided to drive out to Chatham, Massachusetts, so I could finish it in the town where it was set. Yes, this was a huge indulgence, but it coincided with the half-way point of summer vacation and my kids were driving me nuts. I had earned this night away! The first thing I did when I got to Chatham was drive around to check out the four streets I had chosen from hundreds on a map to place my characters' homes. I figured if there was, say, a cement factory on both sides of the street, the people of Chatham would know I hadn't bothered to come out there and check—if I was lucky enough to see the book published. I am pleased to report there were houses on all four streets, but on the corner of the fourth street, there was something else—a red house with a sign on the side that said, "The House That Jack Built." No, I am not kidding, and yes, I sat there and cried. If ever there was a "sign" that I was on the path I was meant to be on, there it was. It was without a doubt, one of the most amazing moments of my life, and I will never, ever forget it. (Thanks to my friend Janet Campbell for taking the picture for me!)

That same week, after I got home and told my sister-in-law this story, she approached me at a family party to say, "You won't believe this! I was having trouble sleeping at my friend's house the other night and got up to see if she had a magazine or something I could look at." She found an old copy of Architectural Digest, which is mentioned in "Treading Water," and there was a spread with the headline "The House That Jack Built." She had torn it out for me and that page is framed over my desk to remind me that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and it's about the journey, not the destination.

I still have fingers and toes crossed for the "Treading Water" books. Maybe someday...

More of My Personal Pet Peeves

You've been waiting breathlessly for this list, right? Well, I've been doing a LOT of reading lately, and my list of peeves grows longer by the day. So here goes nothing...

1. Abandoning the core couple halfway through the romance. I've read a few books lately where the main couple is all but forgotten for the last half of the book. I love a good sub-plot as much as the next reader, but if you've asked me to commit to your couple at the outset, give me their full story. Please.

2. Data dumping. I don't want to know your characters' entire life story in the first ten pages. Don't do this to me. Nothing is more boring to read than nonstop recitation of past history. There are so many clever ways to get this job done. Please be clever.

3. If you build me up with crackling chemistry and sensual encounters that lead to the happy couple landing on a bed, please oh please do not have the next scene open with the sun creeping through the blinds. I beg of you. Show me what happens. Especially if you are writing for a line that promises a certain heat level. I have expectations. Please meet them.

4. Please remember your characters' names. I recently read a book where the name of a secondary character changed halfway through the book. I notice these things. Please remember the names of the people you create. If you don't, who will?

5. Kids in romances who are bratty, not cute. Thinking of what I would say to the kid takes me out of your story. Please discipline your bratty fictional kids the same way you would if they were actually yours. Don't make me have to do it. Don't make me.

UPDATE: Bonus Peeve that I thought of last night after I posted this: unplanned pregnancies in romance. Sorry, ladies (and gents), it's 2010. We all know how to prevent pregnancy. The unplanned babies need to stop. We're also grown ups, not horny teenagers in the back seat of Dad's car. The minute you foist an unplanned pregnancy on me, I think your characters are too stupid to live. ESPECIALLY if one of those characters work in the medical field in ANY capacity. That makes them even stupider. Now I have a pregnancy SCARE in my next book because of a "malfunction." I think that's different, but you may disagree. If you do, let me have it! :-)

Those are the latest additions to my list. Tell me some of yours!

OH and please don't forget to vote for Love at First Flight for Best Book of 2009 at the Long and Short of It Reviews! We're in 2nd place!!