HelenKay Dimon

Thanks to all who entered to win a copy of Jill Shalvis’ THE SWEETEST THING and to those who put in bids at Operation Auction. Jill is feeling better and her book is amazing, so the winner is a very lucky reader. And that person is….

StacieDM (comment #9)

Congratulations! Email me with your address and I’ll get the book out to you.

And what I’m talking about is so much goodness! Let’s run it down…

Today is release day for my dear friend, Jill Shalvis. Her amazing book THE SWEETEST THING (I got an early read on this one and…yowsa!) comes out today. Jill is in the hospital recovering from an appendectomy so you should buy two copies. No, really, that makes sense in my head. Since I love the book so much I’m giving a copy away (on Thursday). Post a comment here for a chance to win. In case you’re not familiar with the book, here it is:

Two Men Are One Too Many . . .

Tara has a thousand good reasons not to return to the little coastal town of Lucky Harbor, Washington. Yet with her life doing a major crash-and-burn, anywhere away from her unfulfilled dreams and sexy ex-husband will do. As Tara helps her two sisters get their newly renovated inn up and running, she finally has a chance to get things under control and come up with a new plan for her life.

But a certain tanned, green-eyed sailor has his own ideas, such as keeping Tara hot, bothered . . . and in his bed. And when her ex wants Tara back, three is a crowd she can’t control-especially when her deepest secret reappears out of the blue. Now Tara must confront her past and discover what she really wants. If she’s lucky, she might just find that everything her heart desires is right here in Lucky Harbor.

And have you checked out Operation Auction? The items up for bid are AMAZING. I’ve been outbid about a thousand times on a bunch of items, but I am determined to win something! If you’re interested in my books, you can bid on my Hawaii-set books HERE. You get all of them plus a bunch of Hawaii goodies. If you prefer my Intrigues, you can win ALL of them, including early e-copies of the upcoming LOCKED & LOADED and THE BIG GUNS by going HERE. These don’t come out until August and September, so you get a first look.

Please go to Operation Auction and bid then send a good thought Jill’s way for a speedy recovery.

OPERATION AUCTION is open!! The auction runs through April 1st. New items will be added as the week goes on, so check back frequently.

This auction is for Fatin, a valued member of the romance community as well as my assistant and friend, and her children. Her husband was killed on March 8th. TO read more about that awful day, go here.

The items up for auction are incredible. Books, agent and editor critiques, goodies and so much more. I’m donating two books bundles: (1) all of the books in my Harlequin Intrigue Mystery Men series (including the two that are not out yet); and, (2) all of the books in my Hawaii-set single title romance series. I’ll let you know as soon as those auctions are posted. In the meantime, please visit the auction and bid. You’ll win something great and do something important at the same time.

Fabulous reviewer Lori and I talked about thrillers a bit the other day in the comment section of one of my posts. We both wished there was an easy reference for new thrillers and mysteries. And, strangely, that got me thinking about voice. No, really, it makes sense. Hold on…

If you’ve been on my Events page, you know I teach fiction writing classes at MiraCosta College and UC San Diego (extension campus). Starting in April, I’ll be teaching Novel Writing II at UCSD (click the link for more info and don’t let the prerequisite scare you because we waive that in many cases).

When I teach I use excerpts from Gillian Flynn’s DARK PLACES to explore the concept of voice and to highlight the importance of a strong opening. DARK PLACES is, well, dark. From the first line, the reader is dragged into bleak situation. By the end of the first paragraph, the reader knows what Libby Day’s life was like growing up. Flynn paints a picture and drags you in. Students, those writing lighter women’s fiction and paranomal romance and mysteries, were riveted by Flynn’s voice – the words she uses, the rhythm, the flow, the tone.

The book first appealed to me as a reader because of the subject matter. Here’s the blurb:

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started–on the run from a killer.

That is absolutely the type of book description that results in a guaranteed buy from me. It just turned out to be a perfect teaching tool as well. And if that results in a few extra sales for Flynn, then all the better.

Here is the opening that convinced me this book was a perfect teaching tool as well as a great book:

I HAVE A MEANNESS INSIDE ME, REAL AS AN ORGAN. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it. It’s the Day blood. Something’s wrong with it. I was never a good little girl, and I got worse after the murders. Little Orphan Libby grew up sullen and boneless, shuffled around a group of lesser relatives—second cousins and great aunts and friends of friends—stuck in a series of mobile homes or rotting ranch houses all across Kansas. Me going to school in my dead sisters’ hand-me-downs: shirts with mustardy armpits. Pants with baggy bottoms, comically loose, held on with a raggedy belt cinched to the farthest hole.

In class photos my hair was always crooked—barrettes hanging loosely from strands, as if they were airborne objects caught in the tangles—and I always had bulging pockets under my eyes, drunk landlady eyes. Maybe a grudging curve of the lips where a smile should be. Maybe. I was not a lovable child, and I’d grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it’d be a scribble with fangs.

You kind of know what you’re getting when you read a beginning like that, and the book did not disappoint.

Yesterday was grooming day for the pets in our house. This is always traumatic (for me and them). The dog acts like we’re sending her to slaughter when she’s really just going to the groomer van parked in the driveway. Usually the problem is the nail trim for the cats. Specifically, for this little dude:

Oliver weighs eight pounds. He has one eye and a pushed-in nose that makes him snore like a drunk old man. He loves people and he turns into Satan's spawn when he gets a nail trim. We actually put a plastic ball over his head so he can't bite me or the groomer. Today, thanks to said ball, he was fine.

No, the problem was Jack:

Jack, who also has one eye, is laid back. He likes to eat and sleep and that’s about it. He tends to have the “why are you looking at me” expression on his face all the time. He wants attention for exactly two hours a day, and he picks the when and how. In other words, he’s a typical cat. But he’s never been a problem during nail trimming time….untill yesterday. He went a little nuts and scratched one of my arms and gave me a puncture wound bite on the other hand. Don’t worry, I got him back. I bled all over him.

So, despite the understanding I thought we had when we rescued these animals – we provide love, food and attention and, in return, they never bite us – the score looks like this:

Cat: 1 Human:0

Regular readers of this blog know I like to read mysteries, romantic suspense and true crime. I like other genres, of course, but I always take a second look if a book falls into one or more of those. I just saw the book SO MUCH PRETTY by Cara Hoffman and am intrigured. Take a look…

When she disappeared from her rural hometown, Wendy White was a sweet, family-oriented girl, a late bloomer who’d recently moved out on her own, with her first real boyfriend and a job waiting tables at the local tavern. It happens all the time—a woman goes missing, a family mourns, and the case remains unsolved. Stacy Flynn is a reporter looking for her big break. She moved east from Cleveland, a city known for its violent crime, but that’s the last thing she expected to cover in Haeden. This small, upstate New York town counts a dairy farm as its main employer and is home to families who’ve set down roots and never left—people who don’t take kindly to outsiders. Flynn is researching the environmental impact of the dairy, and the way money flows outward like the chemical runoff, eventually poisoning those who live at the edges of its reach.

Five months after she disappeared, Wendy’s body is found in a ditch just off one of Haeden’s main roads. Suddenly, Flynn has a big story, but no one wants to talk to her. No one seems to think that Wendy’s killer could still be among them. A drifter, they say. Someone “not from here.”

Fifteen-year-old Alice Piper is an imaginative student with a genius IQ and strong ideals. The precocious, confident girl has stood out in Haeden since the day her eccentric hippie parents moved there from New York City, seeking a better life for their only child. When Alice reads Flynn’s passionate article in the Haeden Free Press about violence against women—about the staggering number of women who are killed each day by people they know—she begins to connect the dots of Wendy’s disappearance and death, leading her to make a choice: join the rest in turning a blind eye, or risk getting involved. As Flynn and Alice separately observe the locals’ failure to acknowledge a murderer in their midst, Alice’s fate is forever entwined with Wendy’s when a second crime rocks the town to its core.

I made it to the second round of the DABWAHA tournament. Thanks to all who voted for me in the first round. If you have a minute before noon CST, please pop over and vote for UNDER THE GUN here. I’m up against an awesome book that everyone loved, so I could use some help…like, a miracle.

Thanks!!!

I am a huge fan of the tv show Justified. The fact Timothy Olyphant stars in it is a big part of the attraction. And he wears this hat…and carries a gun…and is generally adorable as he walks the very thin line between right and wrong. I have one problem with the show. Not all the shooting and the criminal stuff. Love that. No, I dislike this season’s rekindling of the romance between Raylan (Olyphant’s character) and Winona, his courthouse worker ex-wife. [Is she a paralegal? I don't even know. I've watched every episode, some more than once, and have never taken the time to figure out what she does.]

Reading reviews of the show the general view is that Raylan, a sharpshooter U.S. Marshal with a tendency to get in huge trouble, is better off with his ex than last season’s bed partner, Ava, the bad girl who killed her abusive hubby. I disagree with the general wisdom here. If I were writing Justified – and I totally should be – The whole Raylan/Winona romance would not be happening. Nope. My issues:

1. The Winona character is the least interesting person on the show. Sorry, but she is. We are in the middle of some silly subplot with her husband (yeah, she remarried someone other than Raylan but they’re now separated) and stolen money. Her taking a walk on the bad side doesn’t make the character more interesting. I actually think the storyline doesn’t make much sense.

2. Raylan is part bad boy. He carries a badge and is the law, but he’s had a rough past, including having a felon for a father. The idea of Raylan with the put-together blond wife doesn’t really work for me. I think his naughty side would come out and he’d be attracted to Ava, the woman he naturally would have been with had he stayed in Harlan, Kentucky and followed his father’s footsteps into crime.

3. One of the more interesting aspects of the show is the relationship between Raylan and Boyd Crowder, a guy Raylan grew up with who also has a criminal (now dead) father. Boyd is probably who Raylan would have been had he not gone for a law enforcement career and left town. Having Boyd end up with Ava and Raylan end up with prettied-up Winona is too…easy. It’s a simplistic subplot in the middle of complex show. And have I mentioned that Winona is not all that interesting?

So, I would like to ask the writers of Justified to stop the Raylan/Winona romance. They want to sleep together from time to time and otherwise mess up their lives, fine. A full-on romance? Please no. You can come up with something so much better.

As I said the other day, my first Intrigue UNDER THE GUN is one of the nominees in the Dabwaha Tournament (and I still don’t have a clue what that stands for). So, you ask, what happens now? Well, you vote. In the first round I’m up against Christie Ridgway’s NOT JUST THE NANNY. I happen to know Christie and like her. We live only a few miles from each other and she’s very nice….

Yeah, whatever, her book needs to lose here. My guy with a gun clearly beats her nanny. Come on! Just look at him:

So, keep checking the Dabwaha site to vote on all the brackets and when UNDER THE GUN comes up, well, vote for it.

And IMPULSIVE was chosen for another book tournament. I’m thrilled! I’ll find that link and post it.

In follow-up to my post from yesterday…

Fatin has been an integral part of the romance community for years – she owns and runs the RR@H Novel Thoughts and Book Talk blog, is an administrator of the WriteMinded loop, an author assistant and a tireless advocate for romance novels. She is also a friend to many in this community. On Tuesday, March 8th, she lost her husband in a senseless act of violence, leaving her alone with four children. You can read more about the tragedy here: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9233067/. The romance community would like to rally around her. Therefore, we will be holding auctions on ebay the last week of March. More information on exact days and donations will follow.

If you are an editor/agent/author and would like to donate something for the auction – such as a critique, mentoring, lunches at RT or RWA, swag, signed books, etc., please contact me at hkdimon@gmail.com with your donation. Your help is greatly appreciated! Larissa Ione asked readers recently what type of items they’d most like to bid on, so you might find this list helpful: http://www.facebook.com/OfficialLarissaIone/posts/200490423313803.

Please help if you can. Thanks.