HelenKay Dimon

With Round II of Sven starting and some stuff brewing here (all good – no worries) and the writing loops flaring to life with editor/agent advice, I thought now might be a good time to express a few general thoughts about writing as a career and professionalism. Consider this a “things I’ve discovered” list:

1. Writing for a living is different from publishing at any cost. Reading message boards and thoughts on publishing, one thing becomes clear: the desperation to get published can be strong enough to knock the common sense right out of an otherwise smart person. Not to suggest that there is a “right” way versus a “wrong” way to get published, but think – really think – about what you want. Is the goal just to be able to say you’re published even if that means all you get to do is hold up some cheap looking piece of crap no one would ever be able to get from a bookseller? If you want it, as in want it for the long haul and want to make a career of writing, stop jumping at opportunities that look too good to be true because they are.

2. This is a business – act like it. There are some downright scary blog discussions out there where so-called publishing professionals and authors unleash diatribes of stupid babble…and then refuse to back down. These same folks are shocked when sane people come along and point out the stupid babble. Honestly, some days you have to wonder why Prozac isn’t available in vending machines. If you act like a 7th grader, you’re going to be treated like one. Just saying…

3. This is a business – educate yourself. Sure, it’s fine to ask questions. We all have questions. This career can be confusing and having a bit of inside info helps. That’s different from not knowing anything about romance publishing. When I see an unpublished writer say something along the lines of: “I wrote this book and don’t know where it fits, so can someone help me?” I’m baffled. You wrote the book, right? How can you not know what’s happening out there and where you might fit? Unless the goal is to write something no one ever sees, I don’t get what you’re doing.

4. Bloggers are not the enemy. I’m guilty of passing the blame at times – hell who wouldn’t prefer to never be at fault – but at some point you have to take some responsibility. Didn’t we all learn that in elementary school? Karen Scott is not evil. The ladies at Dear Author are not evil. The Smart Bitches are not evil. They blog. They give their opinion. Disagree without all the childish crap, okay? See, the only one who comes off poorly in those situations is the screeching, whining author. Karen, the Bitches and the Ja(y)nes go on just fine.

5. RWA is not the enemy. RWA did not ruin your chances of being published. I can hear some of you: “But, but, but…” No. Stop it. I can’t think of a single circumstance under which this excuse could be true. Some past RWA leaders had an agenda – and she’s gone and has been gone for a few years now, so let it go – but RWA is an organization not a cabal. There is not an institutional conspiracy to make sure certain individuals never get published. It’s so silly. Honestly, I can’t even believe I’m including this one. I wouldn’t except that I’ve heard this refrain a few times over the last month. Each time I have to fight the urge to crawl through my laptop and smack the crap out of someone.

That’s all for now. Off to write…

Say that three times fast.

Yes, it is time for the 70 Days Of Sweat Round II. If you’re up for a writing challenge, have a deadline, are working toward a writing goal, need a kick in the pants or just like the idea of working in a group to accomplish something, then this idea is for you. For Round I, a group of us got together and came up with an idea to keep each other motivated as we worked under looming deadlines. For Round II, we picked up a few more sponsors. The ladies running the show this time around, including me, are:

Alison Kent, Jo Leigh, Larissa Ione, Stephanie Tyler, Shiloh Walker, Lauren Dane, Diana Peterfreund, Jaci Burton, and Portia Da Costa.

The rules are the same. Check out the website for those details. There are weekly page count check-ins but don’t let that part scare you. The goal is to get you writing, keep you writing and provide some motivation along the way. To help with that, the sponsors will stop in on websites and blogs to say hello and celebrate our joint progress.

I could give you a long explanation on why you should sign up and what you could get out of this, but it all comes down to this: why not? Really, why would you not just try it? You’ve got everything to win and nothing to lose. It’s that simple.

So, go sign up. Like, now.

You have until tomorrow to win a new contemporary romance novel. Go here to check it out.

Hint: You have a better chance of winning a book if you pick a title that hasn’t been chosen by several people already.

I showed off the cover and copy for my March ‘08 releases RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW – go here if you missed it. Also feel free to pre-order it…in bulk quantities.

Now I have another cover to show off. This one is for my July ‘08 book, HARD AS NAILS. And before you start thinking naughty thoughts – shame on you! HARD AS NAILS is an anthology involving three emotionally tough guys and a house rehab project in D.C. Hard as in tough, nails as in rehab – get it? The novellas in this one follow-up my novella in the WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD BOYS anthology.

Here’s the cover copy:

What’s better than a man who’s good with his hands? Try a trio of hard-bodied hunks who’ll be happy to flip your house, your heart…and anything else you have in mind…

This Old House

Architect Cole Carruthers’s mission is simple—visit his company’s latest rehab project and cajole the sweet old lady who once owned it into vacating the premises. But the sultry, sledge-hammer-wielding woman he finds is far from old, nor particularly sweet. For reasons she won’t reveal, Aubrey Matheson refuses to leave the house she claims is her birthright. As far as Cole’s concerned, there’s only one thing to do with this squatter: hunker down with her and discover every single one of her sexy secrets…

All About Adam

The last meeting tough-as-nails Becky Carter took with sharp-witted, wicked sexy attorney and real estate rehabber Adam Thomas culminated in a scorching-hot game of kiss-and-run. Becky was the one running, and she’s regretted it ever since. Now Adam’s back to do some actual business…or so he says. If Becky has her way, this weekend of negotiation will speed from boardroom to bedroom—and stay there…

Man at the Door

After finding herself famous for all the wrong reasons, artist Erin McHugh just wants to fix up her house, open her art studio, and settle down out of the spotlight. Then job foreman Ray Hammond walks through her door and Erin recognizes broad-shouldered trouble. Hot, young, and always in the news, Ray is everything Erin wanted to avoid. The challenge is how to resist a guy who can build anything, fix anything—and make Erin feel everything…

Note the MaryJanice Davidson cover quote – wahooo!

Darlene Ryan and her hubby Mr. Wonderful helped out about a month ago by reading a few Avon Red titles and giving us some feedback. So, when I got a book called Walla Walla Suite (a Room With No View) by Anne Argula, I emailed Darlene and begged her to do another joint review with Mr. Wonderful. They said yes and did another fabulous, informative job – thanks guys!!! Here’s what they have to say:

Darlene:

Halfway through Walla Walla Suite by Anne Argula I walked into the kitchen and said to Mr. Wonderful, “She’s a man.”

“And who exactly would you be referring to?” he asked.

“The writer,” I said, waving the book at him. “Anne Argula is a man.”

“What? You mean in a previous life?”

“No, no, no,” I said, and I may have whacked him with the book for emphasis. “I mean it’s a pen name, a pseudonym, an alias. She’s a he because Quinn (Quinn is the main character in Walla Walla Suite) does not feel like a woman. She reads like she’s a man.”

Now Mr. Wonderful has been married to me for 23 years this month (Note: I was a child bride which is why I am still only in my thirties, plus a few months, and in fact our union is probably not even legal because I was so young) so he knows when I get an idea it’s best to just stay out of my way until I get an answer.

And I did. And she is. A he. Anne Argula is the pseudonym for screenwriter Darryl Ponicsan who wrote Cinderella Liberty, among other movies. Ponicsan’s writing style reminded me a bit of the pulp detective writers of the 50’s and 60’s, lean and a bit melancholy.

Once I stopped obsessing over Quinn’s (and Argula’s) gender I enjoyed the book more. Quinn—one name like Cher and Diddy—is a divorced, retired cop with a flippant sense of humour and hot flashes. Trying to get a new life going in Seattle she makes friends with, and does some work for Vincent Ainge, a mitigation investigator. (A mitigation investigator tries to find circumstances in the pasts of killers that will persuade juries not to vote for the death penalty.) When a young woman working in the same building as Quinn and Vincent goes missing, the woman’s boss hires Quinn to investigate and both she and Vincent end up tangled in what turns out to be murder.

Quinn uses a number of expressions that come from the coal mining region of Pennsylvania that both she and the author call home and these gave me trouble. “Da frick” for example is one of Quinn’s favorite expressions and I’m not sure if it’s closer to darn, crap or the f-word. I’m all for the realism dialect can bring to a character and a story, but I like some context for them. For instance, how many of you know what a large double-double* is? Or a two-four of Blue*?

Vincent never clicked as a character for me, because that’s how he always came across—as a character, a two dimensional paper person. He needed more depth and detail for me to care about him.

Overall the mystery was solid and the ending had some surprises, but none that broke with the logic of the story. And I did figure out who the killer was. This was the second book in a series. Number three will be out next fall. I’m curious about what will happen next to Quinn—not enough to buy the next book but enough to watch for it at the library.

*A large double-double is a large Tim Horton’s coffee with double cream, double sugar. A two-four of Blue is a case of 24 Labatt’s Blue beer.

Mr. Wonderful has his say:

Walla Walla Suite wasn’t exactly a page-turner but it was close enough. It was slow getting started, but there was enough of a mystery to keep me picking the book up again.

I liked Quinn with her smart-ass comments and her straight-shooter personality. But her expressions—lose those. They might have added something to the story if I’d known what they meant, but I didn’t. Every time I saw “da frick” or “arfy-darfy” I said, “What?”

I didn’t find that Vincent, her sometimes boss, to be believable at all. He was too passive, too detached from everything but his work. I know that there are people who work passionately against the death penalty but I couldn’t relate to him. I found it hard to believe that someone who had lost a child, as he had, could be so dedicated to saving people who, in some cases, had murdered children. I did like the twist that Vincent fell for the dead girl’s mother and then couldn’t tell her what he did for a living, though.

If someone gave me the next book in the series I’d read it, but if I saw it on the shelf in a book store or library I wouldn’t grab it like I would the next Dennis Lehane or Robert Crais novel. Overall, Walla Walla Suite wasn’t terrible.
_______________

Huge thanks guys!!! Terrific as usual.

Anyone read Anne Argula?

You ever read about a research study on some subject and wonder who the hell paid to have the study done? Some of these are so obvious…and sound so dumb. Many have factors and findings that make me wonder – how did the researchers decide that?

For instance, folks at University College in London did a study on the tie between health and being in a bad marriage. According to CNN, it went like this:

In a study of 9,011 British civil servants, most of them married, those with the worst close relationships were 34 percent more likely to have heart attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends.

Not to be skeptical, but how exactly did the researchers figure out which ones were the “worst” relationships? Then there’s the problem that someone else just did a study on the same subject and found no correlation between bad relationships and health.

How is that helpful?

People whine about the death of historical romance. I think it’s bunk. From what I can see, historical romance is alive and well. And, if the ratings in the November issue (every issue, really) of Romantic Times are correct, almost all of the historical romance books out there are brilliantly written. It’s contemporary (non-erotic, non-menage a trois, non-paranormal elements) romance that’s in decline. Try finding it.

I did notice one interesting thing in that same November RT. Six contemporary romance novels earned a 4 star rating. Four of those six were identified as African-American romance. The four are:

Hot Lie Fire by Niobia Bryant – RT says “hot men, spicy women and a sexually captivating story.”

When I’m With You by LaConnie Taylor-Jones - RT says, “Taylor-Jones brings her heroine to life and refuses to make her a stereotypical victim.”

Only You by Francis Ray - RT says, “Ray does not disappoint as she continues her Grayson family series with youngest child, and only daughter, Sierra.”

Feel The Fire by Adrianne Byrd - RT says, “This novel will make the little girl in all of us believe in fairy tales again.”

Anyone read any of these authors or books? I’m betting most of us haven’t. So, here’s what I’m going to do: leave a comment here with which one you want to try and why and I’ll buy it and send it to you. The only catch is that you need to read it and email me a write-up/review so I can post it here. You have until Sunday October 14th to post the comment. I’ll announce the winners on Monday October 15th. The goal is to have the books read and the comments up on here by early November.

I found a few books on MySpace this week that I should have found earlier. See, in both of these cases, I read a more recent book and then realized there was another one (or more) out there by the author that I somehow missed.

First up is A Secret World by Jennifer Paddock. I read Point Clear, and was really impressed with the writing. I’m betting I’ll be impressed with her debut, A Secret World , as well. Here’s the information from Publisher’s Weekly:

Paddock’s striking debut is an intricately balanced story of three girls from Fort Smith, Ark., linked for life by a high school tragedy. In 1986, tennis and country club pals Sarah and Chandler hitch a ride to lunch from the less privileged Leigh; they’re pursued by footballer Trey, who crashes his car and dies. Flash forward to 1990: Chandler and Sarah have gone to college; Leigh stays behind to work at a dry cleaner’s. But their paths continue to intersect, and Paddock follows her characters through 15 years as they peel apart and reunite, capturing each of the young women in separate first-person chapters. Chandler-introspective, loyal and passionate-moves to New York to go to law school, but loses her way after the death of her financially troubled father. Leigh is still in Fort Smith, her drunken, promiscuous mother a source of embarrassment. She goes on to work at the local grocery store and marries a local boy, though she’s never quite content with the smallness of her life. Rich, stunning Sarah moves to New York in Chandler’s wake to make it as an actress (though, as her acting coach tells her, she’s a better tennis player than thespian). Supported by her father’s money, she develops a mild cocaine habit and leans on Chandler for friendship and constancy. Paddock dances between characters and years, tracing her protagonists’ tortured and happy relationships, their anguish and confusion and eventually the strength that comes to each. This is a subtle, surprising first novel, with unforgettable characters, a quiet sense of place and a nuanced exploration of the secrets, loves, despairs, friends and relatives that shape our lives.

The second is A Breath Away by Rita Herron. Herron is one of those folks I kept thinking “gee, I should read her books” and didn’t. Then I read her Harlequin Intrigue, Anything For His Son and decided to pay more attention to this author. So, I’m checking out her backlist. Here is one title:

Their worst nightmare has returned . . .

Facing the judgmental town as a murderer’s daughter is difficult enough, but with the scalding tension between her and Sheriff Grady Monroe, Darlene’s half brother, is worse. As the two of them race to unravel the mystery, it quickly becomes clear that Violet is in grave danger . . . and Grady suddenly knows that he’ll do anything to protect her, no matter what the cost . . .

Has anyone read either book or either author?

Darlene Ryan has a blog post about motivation up at her blog, Poe’s Deadly Daughters. To motivate you (get it?), she’s holding a contest. You have a chance to win a great book and do something fabulous for charity. Here’s how it goes:

Since we’re on the subject of motivation I’m going to give you all a chance–or possibly more than once chance–to find out what makes the average man act the way he does. Tell me what’s the lamest motivation you’ve ever come across in a book or a movie in comments, or just say hello, and I’ll enter your name for a chance to win The Slime Men Do, by Humble Howard Glassman–real stories from women about the crappy things some men do. For each copy of Slime that’s sold a contribution will be made to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation–and this month happens to be Breast Cancer Awareness month. So here’s where it gets fun. If there are more than 20 comments here I’ll give away two copies of the book. More than 40 comments I’ll make it three copies, more than 60, four copies. One comment per person per email address please. And no, comments from my blogmates don’t count. You have until midnight Sunday to comments.

Go check it out!

My March ‘08 release, Right Here, Right Now, is available for pre-order at Amazon. Go order with abandon. No, I mean it…

Oprah picked a new Book Club offering. Surprisingly, she did not pick one of my books. Maybe next time. This “must read” selection is Love in the Time of Cholera, by Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. You read the book in high school. Remember? Childhood love torn apart. Fermina and Florentino go their separate ways. It’s about unrequited love, politics and a whole bunch of other things. Again, you already read this. I swear. And, if you didn’t and don’t feel like reading the book, the movie based on the book is coming out at the end of this year.

In an interesting bestseller showdown, two megasellers released books on the same day and ended up as #1 and #2 on the USA Today bestseller list. The books are: The Choice by Nicholas Sparks and Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. Two men enter…yeah, well, let’s skip all that. Sparks’ book was #1.