HelenKay Dimon

To my U.S. readers: Happy Thanksgiving!

To everyone else: Have a nice Thursday.

I am crashing on a deadline. Must get this book done so I can enjoy Thanksgiving. In the meantime, some thoughts on the Harlequin Horizons debacle:

The Harlequin Horizons venture, Harlequin’s escape into vanity publishing, is all over the internet. I’m a Harlequin author and love writing for Harlequin. Even though it’s against my professional interests in many ways, I totally support the stand taken by the professional writing groups, RWA, MWA and SFWA.

I don’t have a problem with self-publishing. If you have a cookbook or a family memoir or a book you couldn’t get published through traditional means but wanted your family to have, then go ahead. Self-publishing makes sense there. The Harlequin Horizons idea is not really self-publishing. It’s a vanity press and I find it upsetting for these reasons:

-Harlequin gave the vanity press arm the Harlequin name which messes with Harlequin’s brand. [Harlequin now says it won't do this.]

-Harlequin uses its impressive reputation to lure folks into its vanity arm and then doesn’t give them Harlequin branding or Harlequin benefits. That feels like a bait and switch to me.

-Harlequin suggests that it will monitor all of these Horizons books with the thought of possibly offering them a “real” Harlequin contract. Come on now. How often will Harlequin acquire one of these books for its traditional Harlequin? Never or damn close to it. That sets up unreasonable expectations on the part of writers who are desparate to be published.

-Harlequin suggests these writers can forge a new career by paying to have their books published by the Horizons vanity press. Frankly, that’s not going to happen. I know there are three authors you can name who got a start with some form of self-publishing. Save it. Those are the exceptions.

-The Harlequin rejection letter will direct people to try the vanity press option instead. That means Harlequin hopes to make money off these same people it just deemed not good enough to publish in the first place.

-The fee scale is unbelievable. If a writer wants her book printed, edited and marketed she must spend thousands of dollars. The hard fact is that she’s likely to only sell 100 copies. In other words, she’s going to get screwed financially and not be one step cloer to being a published author.

-After paying thousands of dollars the writer still has to split the profits with Harlequin. She doesn’t get to keep 100%. She gets 50%, and that’s on net, not on cover price.

Bottom line: it feels like a scam. It kills me to say that because I could not love Harlequin more. I am thrilled, positively giddy, to be writing for Harlequin. But this is a mess. It’s bad for Harlequin’s reputation, for authors and really bad for the people who fall for the Horizons line.

All that being said, I believe people need to take responsibility for their bad decisions. In the publishing relationship the money flows from publisher to writer. It should not go the other way. Not if you want to be truly published and pursue a writing career. If you want to break into this business, it’s your job ot know that. If you pay big money to get your book printed and then nothing happens with your writing career, you have no one to blame but yourself. You’re a grown-up.

But Harlequin also needs to take some responsibility here. This isn’t RWA’s fault. If Torstar, Harlequin’s parent company, wants to start a vanity press – go ahead. Just don’t link it to Harlequin. Don’t make false promises and raise hopes. Instead, stick to the business of publishing great books.

And for a brilliant recap about this issue, go to Jackie kessler’s blog. She said everything I wanted to say and did it in a great format.

Candace Bushnell, the author of Sex and The City has written a prequel. It’s a YA (young adult) book about a teen Carrie Bradshaw called The Carrie Diaries (April 2010). I was reading about it at The Book Case Blog. Saw the cover and am not sure what I think about it. Here it is:

I like the colors but it kind of lacks a punch. Thoughts?

Have I mentioned my weekend plans? Uh, yeah, I’m doing a booksigning with Linda Howard. THE Linda Howard. Actually, I’m in a group signing with an incredible line-up of talent:

Linda Howard
Beverly Barton
Linda Winstead Jones
Sylvia Day (aka SJ Day and Livia Dare)
Judy Duarte
Chris Green (aka Crystal Green)
Jill Sorenson
Barrie Summy

Can I tell you how excited I am for this? To make it even better, we’ll be raising some money for READ San Diego, a literacy charity. Wahoo!

So, if you’re near the Barnes & Noble in Oceanside at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, stop by.

Want to win a copy of KISSING SANTA CLAUS? There’s a contest over at Bookin’ With Bingo. There’s also an interview with yours truly.

Enjoy and good luck!

Earlier this year I signed a contract to write for Harlequin Intrigue. I am absolutely thrilled to have six books scheduled and am hoping for even more…once I get these written. When I announced the deal, some folk, mostly fellow authors, asked why I was writing category romance (shorter romances with a limited time on the bookshelf) since I’ve been writing single titles for years. See, the theory – one I think is outdated and wrong – is that you start in category romance and then, hopefully, make the jump to single titles. Seems to me writing is writing and it makes more sense to do both if that’s what an author wants to do.

So, here are the quick and dirty reasons why I added Intrigue to my writing schedule:

1. Great respect for Harlequin: The financial world fell apart last year and everyone lost money. Well, every business except Harlequin. Harlequin made money. That means stability. There are enough unknowns in the publishing world, so why not write for the Big Mamma of romance publishing.

2. Option Clause: This is one of those business things. The business reality is that by virtue of the contract I have with Kensington, my single title publisher, there are limits on what kind of books I can submit to and write for other publishers. Because of the shorter length of category romance, writing for Intrigue does not impact my Kensington option clause at all. Because who wants to get sued by their publisher? Not me.

3. Fell In Love All Over Again: I used to read a good amount of category romance then stopped. Then two years ago I judged the Romance Writers of America RITA contest (for best published romance) and got four or five Intrigues in my judging stack. I loved them and started picking up Intrigues again. When my agent later asked me if I had considered writing category romance in addition to single titles and I told him I would love to write for Intrigue, he said: “Then why aren’t you trying to do that?” Consider this my “well, duh?” moment. So, I wrote a proposal and six weeks later got the call from my Intrigue editor, Denise Zaza. Now I’m an Intrigue author or I will be in March 2010 when my first one, UNDER THE GUN, comes out. [Notice how I put a promo plug in there?]

4. Romantic Suspense: I love romantic thrillers, suspense and adventures. Short, long, written on napkins – the length doesn’t matter. Also love writing them. Having the opportunity to write something so fast paced and suspenseful and romantic makes me giddy.

5. Because I can: Really, it’s that simple. I love to write and want to do this for a living. Whenever authors try new things you see a “she’s following the market” or “she must have been told to do something else” or some other strange speculation. For me, I love to write all lengths, including short stories (stay tuned for more news on that), and plan on writing a bunch of different things. I hope my readers will follow me when I try these new things.

Whenever I think about Veteran’s Day I think about my great uncle. His name is Duane Fisher. He fought with the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles” in WWII. Normandy, Bastogne -you name it, he was there. He also fought in Korea and Vietnam. Hard to imagine a bigger sacrifice or a greater definition of honor and duty.

My uncle now lives in Florida – yeah, he survived three wars and everything else life has thrown at him. He recently wrote a book about his life in the military. It’s called GERONIMO DAY. He has a lot to be proud of, including a distinguished career and loving family, so putting this book together is just one in a lifetime of accomplishments. Good job, Uncle Duane.

Thank you to all who serve.

I can’t take credit for that title, though I do kind of love it. Cosmopolitan magazine came up with it to describe one of my books. That’s right, the Cosmo editors picked my novella It’s Hotter At Christmas from the KISSING SANTA CLAUS anthology as the December “Red-Hot Read” – wahoo!! This is my second spotlight in Cosmo and I am just as thrilled the second time around. YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY was a “Red-Hot Read” in 2007.

So, here’s what you need to do:

1. Go buy this copy of Cosmo. By the way, that’s Fergie on the cover and, yes, I know you don’t believe me. I was skeptical but it’s her…or an air brushed version of her.

2. Turn to page 236 and read about “Officer Naughty.” The book is different from this excerpt because Cosmo revises and rewrites it, but who cares. This intro is correct:

Hawaii’s no paradise for Marissa, who’s stuck there for the holidays after her purse is stolen. But a tall, dark police officer is about to give her a December to remember…

3. Then go to your favorite book-buying venue and purchase KISSING SANTA CLAUS.

4. Actually, since the hero (Ted Greene) shows up in YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY and IT’S HOTTER IN HAWAII, you should buy them too. And, really, why not just get the entire Hawaii-based series and grab HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO as well. In fact, just go HERE and buy all of my books. It’s easier. Trust me.

There is an article in the Wall Street Journal called How To Write A Great Novel. It’s basically about how great writers write what they write. Follow that?

Here’s the beginning:

Richard Powers lounges in bed all day and speaks his novels aloud to a laptop computer with voice-recognition software. Junot Diaz, author of the Pulitzer-prize winning novel “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” shuts himself in the bathroom and perches on the edge of the tub with his notebook when he’s tackling a knotty passage. Hilary Mantel, whose Tudor drama “Wolf Hall” claimed this year’s Man Booker Prize, jumps in the shower when she gets stuck

Disclosure: I’ve never written in the shower or on the edge of the tub. Ideas come to me in the shower – come to me no matter where I am, actually – but I do not bring notebooks into the bathroom. Seems kind of funky to me for some reason.

Two of my favorite (non-romance) authors, Kazuo Ishiguro and Russell Banks, are included in the article.

From Banks:

He scribbles out his first drafts in longhand, working from 8 in the morning until 1:30 in the afternoon in a small writing studio.

From Ishiguro:

He collects his notes in binders and writes a first draft by hand. He edits with a pencil, then types the revised version into a computer, where he further refines it, sometimes deleting chunks as large as 100 pages.

Some authors didn’t want to share:

A few authors bristle when asked the inevitable question about how they write. Richard Ford declined to reveal his habits, explaining in an email that “those are the kind of questions I hope no one asks me after readings and lectures.”

My theory on how we all write: one sentence at a time.

I went to B&N over the weekend. Had a few dollars left on a birthday gift card (thanks, mom & dad) and was ready to spend. Also signed my books while I was there. To my great joy, the B&N had about 1,000 copies of my books…okay, 12.

What I bought:

SEALed and Delivered by Jill Monroe – I really like Jill. We chat several times a week via email. She’s funny and smart and an incredibly talented writer. She also mentioned me and the hubby in the acknowledgements of this book, which makes me want to buy 100 copies. SEALs, San Diego, romance – honestly, what are you waiting for? Go buy it.

Indiscreet by Carolyn Jewel – Admittedly, historical romance is not my favorite. I appreciate the craft but for some reason generally don’t connect to it like I do to other romance subgenres. Still, I read it now and then, and sometimes love it. I picked up this one because this book is getting rave reviews and because of the author. Carolyn Jewel is someone I follow online. I like her online personality. This is a case where twitter sold a book.

What I wanted but they weren’t out yet:

Hard to Hold by Stephanie Tyler – I’ve known Steph for a few years. A group of us were trying to get published and all got The Call around the same time. Something about sharing the will-we-ever-get-published anxiety forms a bond. And I am so thrilled for her because she has three Navy SEAL books coming out back-to-back. That’s just cool.

Skin Game by Ava Gray – Ava Gray is Ann Aguirre. Ann is another author I got to know by following her online. Like her and, in turn, want to read her books. She’s proof, along wth Lauren Dane, Jaci Burton, Shannon Stacey, Maya Banks and a few others, that being a cool author online builds a readership. I buy all of these women because of my interactions with them online.