HelenKay Dimon

I bet you’re thinking I forgot to pick a winner for my monthly blog contest. Well, yeah, that’s exactly what happened. I wrote a check this morning and realized it was the 2nd. Guess it’s a good thing I had that little plumbing disaster this morning after all. I know it worked out great for the plumber. Not so much for my checkbook.

Anyway…

The winner of the August contest is Mary G (comment #1 from the August 22nd post). Congratulations!!!

I was reading an article about Stephen King yesterday. Seems a woman ran her car into his house’s security gate, causing something like $100,000 in damage. She wasn’t a crazed fan. This really was an accident, but the article mentioned a few non-accidents at the King home:

In 1991, a man broke in while King’s wife, author Tabitha King, was home alone at the distinctive home, which is surrounded by an iron fence and gates with gargoyles and interwoven designs of spiders and webs. She ran to a neighbor’s house and called police.

In 2003, an illegal immigrant charged with stalking King was ordered removed from the U.S. He was arrested while sitting in a car across from King’s home after he harassed the author and left notes on his mailbox asking to speak with him.

I am trying to imagine being so popular that people would try to break through a creepy iron gate to get to me. My first thought is that the subject matter of his books attract some crazy folks, but I’ve heard stalker stories from authors who write sweet romance. It’s one of those can’t even imagine that situations. I’ll be thrilled never to experience anything like this.

One of the gifts my parents gave me is a love of travel. They recognized my wanderlust and encouraged me (ie paid for me) to travel overseas from the time I was 12. My hubby loves to travel even more than I do. Together we’ve been to some amazing and fun place, some close to home and others halfway around the world. With all that in mind I’ve decided to start something new. Every Monday I’m going to post a photo from our household collection, vacation and others.

This week is the view from a house we used to rent in Corolla, North Carolina. We stayed in the same house every summer and made the drive from Maryland to North Carolina while whining about the traffic. Knowing we would have this view kept us coming back:

This week’s topic is holiday. I’ve written two Christmas novellas, so I decided to pick one of those. I went with my novella, “It’s Hotter At Christmas” in the KISSING SANTA CLAUS anthology. This book was a Cosmo “Red-Hot Read” and excerpted in the magazine. The title of the article was…wait for it…Officer Naughty. I love that.

Marissa leaned her head against Ted’s shoulder. “We’re not going to get much eating done if you keep doing that.”

He was counting on that. “Soon, but you have a show to watch first.”

“What do you have planned?”

“I can’t take credit for this one.” He nodded out to the water. The vast ocean remained dark except for the flashing light connected to a buoy.

“Are you seeing something out there that I don’t?”

He rubbed a hand up and down her back. “Wait for it.”

“I don’t-”

“Be patient. It starts at nine.”

She gave him a long, lingering kiss that almost made him forget about anything but dragging her back to bed. Almost.

“So, Officer Greene, what is ‘it’ exactly?” she asked when she finally lifted her head.

“Look.”

She followed his gaze. There on boats and floating barges was a holiday light show to make even the biggest scrooge smile. Flashing red, white and green lights brightened up the dark sky. Outlines of blinking colors in the form of angels and snowmen danced across the water. A tree with wrapped packages underneath moved back and forth in front of the other boats.

“Look at the Santa!” With wide eyes and clapping hands, she watched the parade of lights and listened the faint sounds of Christmas carols playing from one of the barges.

When he hugged her close, she willingly fell back into his arms. She hummed and smiled. He had seen her in passion and in anger. Seeing her filled with happiness far surpassed anything else.

“They’re beautiful.” She whispered her thoughts in a reverent tone of the type usually reserved for church.

Not more beautiful than her. “They do it every year during the week for Christmas.”

“How did I miss this yesterday?”

“You were probably working.”

She turned around and planted a hot, wet lingering kiss right on his lips. “Thank you for sharing this with me.”

“My pleasure.”

“I almost hate to leave.”

He refused to get excited. To show any interest. “I thought you hated Kauai.”

“I never said that.”

“I thought I heard you scream that in the airport right after we met that first time.”

She had the grace to blush. “I wanted to be home for Christmas.”

He tried not to tie any significance to her use of the past tense. “You will be.”

And for the first time that sounded like a terrible idea.

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Don’t forget to check out the other Snippet blogs:

Lauren Dane
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
TJ Michaels
Jody Wallace
Lacey Savage
Ashley Ladd

It’s that time…

GUNS AND THE GIRL NEXT DOOR (Intrigue, Jan. 2011) and GUNNING FOR TROUBLE (Intrigue, Feb. 2011) are up for pre-order at Amazon. These are the first two in a miniseries of four. The books are related to my very first Intrigue, UNDER THE GUN, and follow the other operatives of the Recovery Project. Luke, the hero in UNDER THE GUN, plays a significant role in the miniseries. So, if you liked him before get ready to see more of him now.

GUNS AND THE GIRL NEXT DOOR teaser (ie, the unedited first few paragraphs):

Ignoring the burning in her thighs and tears stinging her eyes, Mia Landers ran. Her arms pumped, propelling her through the thick woods. She had to reach her car before he caught her.

Dead leaves crunched under her feet, drowning out the pounding heartbeat in her ears. When stray branches scratched against her face, she pushed them out of the way and concentrated on staying steady on the patches of dirt beneath her. The path had been lost to time and the night was pure black, but she refused to give up. Not when she could hear him screaming her name in a crazed frenzy behind her.

GUNNING FOR TROUBLE teaser:

Caleb Mattern’s watch vibrated against his nightstand. The second after the warning alarm went off and the green backlight flashed, he rolled off the mattress fully awake with his hand grabbing for the gun tucked between the bottom of headboard and his of stack of pillows.

Dressed only in a pair of gray boxer briefs, he stalked in a crouch through his dark bedroom. The curtains were drawn tight, not letting any light seep in and ruin his nightly four hours of sleep. Any brightness and he wouldn’t even get that much.

So, this is how the end would come. Trapped in a one-bedroom condo in his underwear. He smiled at the thought.

And for those who have asked about the other Recovery agents, here’s the info:

-GUNS AND THE GIRL NEXT DOOR – Holden’s story
-GUNNING FOR TROUBLE – Caleb’s story
-LOCKED AND LOADED – Adam’s story
-THE BIG GUNS – Zach’s story

I’m at Access Romance today talking about Jonathan Franzen. What fun.

Before I get back to more cover talk, I wanted to make an announcement for those in Southern California…

I’m teaching a four-week workshop on romance writing at MiraCosta College in September. Both beginners and advanced writers are welcome. Here’s the description:

Approximately 50% of all paperbacks sold are romance novels. The billion-dollar industry is the top performer on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. If you enjoy reading romance or always wanted to write one, this class is for you! Through classroom discussion and exercises, bestselling and award-winning romance author, HelenKay Dimon, will guide participants in the fundamentals of romance writing, including structure, plotting and characterization. The knowledge you’ll learn will translate to writing any form of popular fiction–romance, mysteries, science fiction, etc.–and at the end of the class you’ll have an idea for a book, the beginning pages and the tools to keep writing!

You can get more information here. I hope you’ll give it a try!

Every week or so there’s some sort of author kerfluffle on the internet. An author will say something to tick off other authors or fans or bloggers or the universe or someone’s Aunt Mille, and then the pile-on starts. There are times the author deserves the virtual smack. Other times not. For whatever reason, Laurell K. Hamilton has been at the center of a few of these internet battles. I have a theory as to why. There just seem to be some folks who like this sort of attention.

Well, looks like today is kerfluffle day. Hamilton posted a blog called Bleeding on My Keyboard. Admittedly, I engaged in some eyerolling at her delivery and need to take a shot at other authors. Here’s an example:

Some very successful writers don’t seem to feel that emotional connection to their work, or at least not to the degree I do. I used to envy them until I realized the price of that cool distance. They write like they feel with less depth, less of themselves on the page. It is a safer way to write, less frightening, less hurtful, less pain for the writer, but the writing shows that. I can read most other writers and tell you within a few pages which of them “feels” strongly when they write and which do not. Now, some can fake it better than others, but in the end it is a fake. They don’t believe in their own work, their own world, their own characters.

I…uh, okay. Let’s just say this probably isn’t the best way to get people to sit at your table at the RWA conference. I’ve found that authors don’t like to be told their books lack depth. Go figure. They also hate to be called fake. Authors are sensitive that way.

Maybe a better way to do this is for LKH to stick to her process and not go on about her pain versus the pain of other authors…or whatever she’s talking about here. But, you know, it’s her blog. She allowed to be an asshat on her blog. And, of course, those who are offended are free to say so, but my advice to the author who had a near meltdown at reading this? Remember LKH is LKH and move on.

This week’s topic is foodies. For whatever reason, the first scene that came into my head was a diner scene in YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY. It’s not about foodies or even food, really, but I thought it would work here.

The waitress came over and took their order, leaving a new basket of sugar packets. As she walked away, Kane stared blankly at a spot on the wall above her head.

“She your type?” Annie asked.

“Huh?”

She nodded in the direction of the counter. “The waitress. You’re staring at her ass.”

Kane wished he could think about another woman’s ass. The only one on his mind was Annie’s. “Staring into space. Nothing sexual.”

She flipped the music screens on the jukebox and looked at the song titles. “Sure.”

“If I were staring, I’d tell you.”

“Right.”

He put his hand over hers. “Your radar is off. In fact, you proved last night that you can’t tell when I’m really seducing a woman or not.”

“Did it ever dawn on you that I might not be interested in you?”

He dropped his hand and chuckled. “No.”

“Arrogant.”

“Tease.”

She winced.

“Don’t tell me I offended you.” Since he said worse things to her, he doubted that was the case.

“Hardly.” She shifted in her seat and winced again. “My knee is throbbing. That pivot move you did in the parking lot this morning didn’t exactly promote healing.”

“Damn. Sorry about that.”

“I’ll make you pay later. Right now I need aspirin.”

“Put your leg up.” He patted his lap.

“Why?”

“So I can rub it.” Touching her would destroy his control, but he owed her.

She closed one eye and peeked at him through the other. “Is this another seduction?”

“I’ll let you know when I switch to seduction mode. Maybe after we eat.”

She slipped her ten dollar sneaker onto his lap. “It hurts, so not too hard.”

“Give me some credit. I’m a professional.” Using only his fingertips, he massaged the area around her knee with slow, gentle circles.

“Do you have a license in this?”

“You wish.”

“Yeah, I kind of do, too. You can’t blame a girl for trying.” Her head fell back against the top of the booth. “If I fall asleep, get the food wrapped up to go.”

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Don’t forget to check out the other Snippet blogs:

Lauren Dane
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
TJ Michaels
Jody Wallace
Mandy M Roth
Ashley Ladd

Forbes just published its list of the highest-earning authors (calculated however these things are calculated for a twelve-month period ending in June). Here are the top five and their estimated earnings:

1. James Patterson – $70 million
2. Stephenie Meyer – $40 million
3. Stephen King – #34 million
4. Danielle Steel – $32 million
5. Ken Follett – $20 million

Surprised?

I come in at number…yeah, the chart doesn’t go low enough to list me.