My parents are in town, so I’ll be with my mom today. Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

I’m about to go pick up my parents at the airport. While getting ready, I got a fabulous call from the lovely ladies at the Greater Detroit RWA Chapter saying that YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY is a finalist in the single title category of the Booksellers’ Best Contest. Yay!!!

Almost a year later and this book continues to kick butt. It was featured in Cosmo and at E! Online. It was a Reader’s Choice nominee at AAR. Now it’s a finalist in the Golden Quill and the Booksellers’ Best. No wonder my editor told me just last week that she loved this book.

For those who haven’t read it, it’s still available in trade. It will be out in mass market (for somewhere around $7.00) in March ‘09. As soon as I mave the mass market cover, I’ll post it.

To the creators of the tv show Lost, the people in charge of Lost and anyone at ABC who is affiliated with, or makes decisions on behalf of, Lost:

I have been loyal. I have watched every show in every season since the beginning. When you had that one season, the one I like to call The Season That Went Nowhere And Made Me Think About Tuning In For The 43rd Season Of ER Instead, I stuck with you. I’ve swallowed the idea of polar bears in the tropics, a smoke monster that’s just silly and now time travel all in the hope of a payoff that will be worth it. I did not complain that you kept Claire around much longer than necessary (and thank you for taking out Shannon before I had to beg). I’ve tried not to snicker at the idea of that Daniel Faraday guy being a genius. I have ignored the fact you made Jack the leader when he is clearly a putz. [Would it kill the guy to tie up the people from the boat and insist they answer a few simple questions? ] I’ve been disgruntled but accepting of the fact you brought in a really interesting character - Miles - and now never use him. I weep that we do not see more of Desmond or Sawyer, but I accept it. I’ve even put aside my lawyer training and tried to believe that the survivors never ask a follow up question of the people trying to kill them. I mean, come on. Locke tells Hurley that Ben killed all the people in the Dharma Intiative and shows him the mass grave, and Hurley doesn’t ask why? More importantly, he doesn’t ask how? See, those are tidbits the rest of us not involved in the crash would ask. The how part is something I might want to know in case Ben decides the kill again and I need to run.

A sojourn to Tunisia? Fine. A disappearing cabin? Sure, why not. Dead people walking and talking? Bring. It. On. But you’ve gone too far this time. You have now journeyed into the one area that is sure to lose me (and many of the other loyal followers who continue to insist you guys are brilliant while fearing you are dragging us into the abyss). Do you know what I’m talking about? Let me be clear. I am bemoaning the number of commercial breaks this season. Honestly, what the hell are you people thinking? Last night’s episode had almost as many minutes of commercials as it did of the show. I don’t care what the financial folks at ABC are telling you, that’s too much. My husband reads the paper during commerical breaks, so he’s pretty tolerant. Last night even he got ticked off. See, a man should not be able to read the entire Wall Street Journal while waiting for the show to come back on.

Look, I get it. Shows cost money. You’re nearing the end and want to wring every penny out of this baby. Got it. No one is more appreciative of a commerical artist’s need to make money than I am. I tried paying the Countrywide mortgage in ARCs and that didn’t work. Truly, I feel for you. But there has to be another way. Maybe you could stop with the whole Lord Of The Flies thing where you have unnamed survivors wandering around the island, never speaking to the attractive leaders of the group. Just get rid of them and save on their pay. They bug the fans anyway. We think they’re losers for not standing up now and then and at least demanding a line or two.

Whatever you need to do to go back to a more rational number of commercial breaks - preferrably fewer than one every four minutes like last evening - do it. Really. Do. It. You have made some risky moves in thie past. This is the worst. It is guaranteed to lose fans. It’s too much. And, frankly, you owe us. If we’re going to have to wait from May to January for a new season, the absolute least you can do is give us episodes that are longer in content than 29 minutes.

Sincerely,

Your humble fan, HelenKay

I read an online interview with Toni Morrison in Time. Morrison is a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author…but you know that. Heck, the woman has won about a billion writing awards. My favorite of hers is BELOVED. I’ve read it 3 or 4 times. I think I kept hoping it would be less heart-wrenching on subsequent reads. It wasn’t.

Morrison was asked 10 questions. Her answers were interesting. I like what she says about why she started writing:

My deepest passion was reading. At some point—not early, I was 35 or 36—I realized there was a book that I wanted very much to read that really hadn’t been written, and so I sort of played around with it in trying to construct the kind of book I wanted to read.

Notice how she did not start writing for glory, money, fame or to hit bestseller lists. Just saying.

Her advice for aspiring writers goes like this:

The work is in the work itself. If she writes a lot, that’s good. If she revises a lot, that’s even better. She should not only write about what she knows but about what she doesn’t know. It extends the imagination.

Now, that advice won’t get you published, but it provides a good direction to getting started. My sense is that her underlying point is: just write and keep writing.

I’m blogging over at the Brava Authors today and welcoming our two newest Brava authors - Mary Wine and Beth Williamson. Welcome ladies!

I’m going to try to dedicate one post per week to talking about my upcoming release, HARD AS NAILS. The idea is to break your will and force you to go pre-order a copy. I have no shame.

This week’s entry comes from the fabulous Jennifer and her new review site, Wild On Books. She’s posted an early review. She says:

What better way to follow up her hot little debut novella titled HARDHATS AND SILK STOCKINGS from the anthology When Good Things Happen To Bad Boys than to write a collection of stories starring the hunks in the supporting cast from that book? HelenKay Dimon brings us three sexy romances for Cole Carruthers, Adam Thomas, and Ray Hammond, who we first met in HARDHATS AND SILK STOCKINGS. I, for one, was ecstatic to see more of this sexy trio as they fall for women who are more than their match in HARD AS NAILS!

That’s the perfect introduction for HARD AS NAILS.

The three novellas are related. They revolve around a house rehab. I’m interested to see if people have favorites as between the three stories. For Jennifer, the first novella, THIS OLD HOUSE, Cole’s story, is her favorite. She says:

Although HelenKay Dimon infuses a dose of natural humor in all of her stories, I think THIS OLD HOUSE was the funniest of the three in HARD AS NAILS. Truly, this story personifies everything I love about this author’s work – witty, romantic, sexy and just plain fun!

You can read the entire review here. Thanks Jennifer!

I don’t give out a lot of romance writing advice because, well, I just don’t unless someone asks me. You ask me and I’ll go on for hours. You’ve been warned. But having spent the last few weeks judging entries for three different contests, I would like to suggest the following**:

1. If I read 20-25 pages of a contest entry and can’t figure out who the hero is or who the heroine is, you have a problem. See, my judging sheet has a space for grading the heroine and the hero. I need to check off boxes and give scores on issues like characterization, consistency, dialogue and a whole host of other areas. These sections are generally worth something like 25 points. Awarding points on a hero or heroine gets tough when I don’t know who the hero is or who heroine is. On a global level, confusing the crap out of the reader is never a good idea. Further, I’m convinced editors and agents only read so many pages of a manuscript before determining whether it is worth the time to go on. You have to catch them early. Confusing them as to who the hero or heroine is will not help you.

2. Some of you are making point-of-view (POV) harder than it needs to be. I know you’ve read books where the POV bounces around. I know. Believe me, I know. Still, I think you need to go with the general plan of not doing that. Stick to one POV per scene. Do not get caught up with all of these characters you may want to use in future books you’re thinking about writing once you sell. Focus on selling this one first. Don’t get lost in telling us how every person and animal in a scene feels. I know you think it’s effective. You’re wrong. It’s confusing. More importantly, fair or not, bouncing POV suggests you don’t know the writing basics. That gives editors and agents one more reason to give your manuscript only a cursory look. Don’t make your job harder.

3. Prologues are not your friend. I wish I could figure out why everyone is writing prologues…and make them stop. I talked about this briefly last week but it needs emphasis. Ten pages is not a prologue. It’s a chapter. Ten pages of prologue on a character who seems to be something other than the hero, heroine or villian amounts to ten wasted pages. Here’s the hard truth: you get one shot at making an impression with an editor or agent. Make those pages sharp and relevant. If you’re thinking about starting with a prologue, stop and ask why. Also, remember that the contest judges are seeing a parade of misused prologues. Try to separate yourself from that pack.

**This is my view only. As with all writing advice, review and assess and figure out what works for you.

In one of the coolest things ever, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW got a review mention in the Chicago Tribune this weekend. The Chicago Tribune!! Danielle was nice enough to write and tell me. I squealed with joy. Lucky for Danielle, she was not here to hear me.

Reviewer John Charles - my new favorite man on the planet - said this:

“Sharp writing and plenty of sexy romantic sizzle give “Right Here, Right Now” its own irresistible flavor.”

Yay John!

Check out the review section (see link above) because the reviewer talks about books by Judi McCoy, Sherry Thomas, Amanda Quick, Gemma Halliday, Julie Kenner and others. We love when reviewers mention romance…and are nice about it. Congrats to all the romance authors mentioned, and thanks to Danielle for letting me know I was one of them.

I just found out YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY is a finalist in the Hot, Sexy, Sensuous category of the 2008 Desert Rose Golden Quill. Yay!!!

Now that’s a good way to end a week.

Today marks the official start of Brenda Novak’s 4th Annual On-line Auction for Diabetes Research. This is a truly amazing event. I have no idea how Brenda finds the time to do this and still write great books, but she does. And we all win.

For those who love Brava books (my imprint), there are two baskets of books donated by the Brava authors and up for auction. Each basket contains 22 books. That’s about $300 worth of books each. Go here and here to bid.

My editor, Kate Duffy, has some amazing donations listed, including ones where she guarantees she will review a proposal within 24 hours. Twenty-Four hours. She’s my editor and I don’t get a response within 24 hours. Don’t really expect one either since she is so busy, but you can get that from her. Check out her listings.

I’m giving away two additional items: a never used Ferragamo purse that I got at a private function in Honolulu (check it out here) and a beach basket filled with all my books…including those that are not available in bookstores yet (check here).

There are books and goodies and critiques and trips and a whole bunch of other stuff. This is a great cause and a great opportunity. Don’t miss out. Go bid and bid often.

UPDATE: Darlene is right! Do you love mysteries? You can also win a copy of RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW in an amazing basket donated by Poe’s Deadly Daughters (go here to check it out). Frankly, this basket is soooo good that I’m seriously thinking about bidding on it even though my book is in it.