Archive for the 'Interviews' Category
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Sabrina Darby introduces her own brand of erotic romance with her single author collection, On These Silken Sheets (link to excerpt), available in stores now.
***
 I remember getting The Call really well because I was sitting with my dad in front of my computer, watching CNN.com as John McCain introduced Sarah Palin as his running mate. I hadn’t thought too much about where or when it would happen––if it would happen––but I never would have imagined my father being the first person to know simply from the way I said hello on the phone. It was August of 2008 and it had been three months since I’d emailed the complete version of my book to Avon Red.
And I say complete, because they had already seen two of the novellas of the single author anthology I had submitted.
In January of ‘08, I had the idea for a short erotic story, which started with this one vivid interlude. From those …
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Terri DuLong’s first book, Spinning Forward, is in stores on Tuesday.
***
 The older I get, the more I realize that I’ve always been a late bloomer. At age 25 I was divorced, a single mom with three children—and not much of an education. So I joined the ranks of college kids much younger than I and ended up earning a degree in secretarial science. I remarried, worked as a legal secretary and at age 34 discovered I would bloom once again—graduating from college a few years later as a Registered Nurse.
During all of these years, I wrote. No, I didn’t write for publication. I wrote because I had to write. I had been writing all of my life—volumes of pages to pen pals around the world, diaries and journals. Writing was my passion but never once did I consider that it could also be a career.
Like my mother, I’ve always been an avid reader, and it was my …
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Gary Morgenstein is a novelist/playwright who sold his first book, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, at the age of 26 to St. Martin’s Press. With the rights reverted, Morgenstein took the opportunity to rewrite it and re-release it on Amazon.com.
***
Orson Welles once said, “Better late than early.” I wonder if that’s true with a writer. I sold my first novel when I was only 26, a wunderkind. I’d written a few books before, getting nowhere. Then I lucked out, landed an agent who sold Take Me Out to the Ballgame, a novel about baseball fan violence, to St. Martin’s Press. (A novel which I have recently completely re-written, modernized to reflect America circa 2009, and republished at Amazon.com)
But I had no idea what publishing meant. I didn’t understand marketing or promotion. I didn’t understand the publishing business. Or any business really – at the time I worked as a writer for professional wrestling magazines. The corporate world was a …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. This week, we are graced by three author letters. This last comes from Therese Walsh. Her debut release, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, is in stores beginning October 13, 2009. Janine will be posting a review of this book shortly and it is one of Dear Author’s October recommended reads.
***
In July of 2008, my agent sold my debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, in a two-book deal to Random House. That’s the happy ending. But, as readers, you know that every happy ending is preceded by a testing journey and dark moment, when all seems lost. I’d love to tell you about mine.
In 2002, after years of writing children’s book manuscripts, I decided to try my hand at adult fiction: a romance. I imagined a heroine—a romance languages professor (Maeve)—and a hero—an antiques dealer with an English accent (Noel). I decided to begin the story at an auction house, where my characters …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. This week, however, we are posting a number of First Sale letters. Because I don’t know how to run my own calendar. But these are great stories, no? Today’s story is from Jessa Slade. Seduced by Shadows is her first urban fantasy.
***
Sometimes I think I took the world’s most boring route to getting The Call. No late night runs across the border. No emergency tracheotomies. No trumpet fanfare.
Instead, it was like a Ken Burns epic: Slow pans across the scene, endless talking heads, a pretty picture, and then a few more slow pans for good measure. Maybe some bagpipes. I’m not complaining, mind you, just sorely tempted to rewrite with more Bruckheimer-style, multi-stage explosions.
Almost a hundred rejections over more than ten years on nearly a million final draft words. The math isn’t exact; I’m rounding to the nearest heartache. On the plus side, my plodding journey did hit most of the cliché mileposts on the …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Today we have Kate Pearce, the author of the historical erotic romance series ‘Simply’ from Kensington. The fourth in the series, Simply Wicked, is out in stores now. She also writes for NAL, Ellora’s Cave, and Cleis Press.
***
I hate to start with back story, but I was of those kids who made stuff up all the time, so much so that I had a ‘slight problem’ distinguishing imagination from reality, a skill that wasn’t much appreciated throughout my childhood. By the time I moved to California from London in 1998, I’d forgotten about making stuff up, being far too busy bringing up four kids, remembering to drive on the wrong side of the road and hoping everyone had a nice day.
And then, I visited my local bookstore and discovered the ROMANCE section. It was huge! I immediately started reading my way through every single author I could find, and I realized that I had found my people. As I couldn’t …
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Kylie Brant has a trilogy of Romantic Suspense books out from Berkley. The first release, Waking Nightmare, was out in September. Waking Evil, the next in the series, will be on the shelves next Tuesday.
***
 Usually it takes very strong margaritas to get me to tell my first sale story. After all these years it still makes me wince at my ignorance. But I started writing before the Internet made it so easy to network with other writers. I didn’t belong to any writing groups or know anyone else who was writing. I just decided one summer I was going to write a book.
After a few months, I deemed it ‘ready’ and opened up the cover of my favorite books (Silhouette Intimate Moments) to see where to send it. I got the phone number for the company in New York and called to tell the receptionist I had a book I wanted to send in and asked …
Welcome to a new feature at Dear Author: the Intro Interview. Alyson H. will bring us occasional interviews with newly-published authors. If you are an author with your first (or perhaps second) novel coming out, and you’d like to be considered for an interview, send your name, web information, and release date to DAintrointerview at gmail dot com.
****
 This month, we’re meeting Leanna Renee Heiber, whose Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker leads off a series that’s part fantasy, part historical-paranormal romance. In Heiber’s Victorian London, Jack the Ripper is no mere elusive criminal—supernatural forces are at work, an apocalyptic unrest threatening the city. The title character is also a refreshing mix: people keep describing her as timid, but Percy Parker’s heart “is fortified with passions.” She keeps rising to—and above—the occasion, and the blushing, crushing schoolgirl becomes the dauntless heroine.
Leanna is also a playwright and actor, and her novella Dark Nest won the Prism Award. She and fellow writers Maya Rodale and Hope Tarr founded Lady Jane’s …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Today we are featuring two first sale letters. The first is by New York Times Bestselling Author, Kat Martin, whose latest romance, The Christmas Clock, features two people who really need a second chance.
***
I never wanted to be a writer. Or at least I never knew I did until I sort of stumbled into it. But I always had stories rolling around in my head and when my husband started writing a Western novel, I thought…hummm…maybe I could do that.
I had characters and a plot in mind right away, a western romance because I loved reading them, and coming from a western background (my great grandmother came out in a covered wagon), I was comfortable in that time frame.
But how to actually write?
I needed to learn the basics so I went to the first writers’ conference I could find, which happened to be in Santa Barbara, California, and turned out to be one of the best in the country. I went …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Claudia Dain writes romance stories about the woman getting everything she wants. Her latest book, To Dazzle a Duke, is in stores now with her mass market reprint The Courtesan’s Secret to be released in October. In case you missed it, Ned and I put together a little lego video of her book, The Courtesan’s Daughter.
***
It wasn’t easy, let me just say that right off. I’d written two books before I even sent the first book to a publisher. When my manuscript pages came back, untouched by human hands (I’d be willing to swear to this in court), I figured out that I should probably get an agent.
That took forever. I was writing my fourth book when I got an agent. She loved my third book and sent it around to the publishers. Months passed, a year or two passed (I’ve blurred this period in my memory), and while she was waiting to hear back about book three, she read …
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Tracy Wolff, author of both Harlequin Superromances and erotic romances from NAL Heat, serves up her story today. Her latest release, Tie Me Down, is in stores now.
***
 I’ve wanted to be a writer forever—seriously, from the time I put pen to paper and understood that I could use letters to make words, I’ve been crafting stories and characters in my head. I went to school and trained to be a writer (I have a bunch of degrees in English and am now a college writing professor) and always knew—with the arrogance of youth– that one day I was going to write a book that got published.
Of course, real life got in the way—grad school, marriage, a job, babies—you get the idea. Well, there came a time when, despite this, I knew that if I didn’t start writing soon, I was just going to let my dream wither and die. I wasn’t willing to do that. …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Louisa Edwards’ debut book, Can’t Stand the Heat, is on shelves tomorrow. (It’s probably in the stores in right now, but it’s official release date is tomorrow. Go forth read, buy & get the urge to cook or eat). You can read an excerpt here. Comment to win a copy of the book & a Can’t Stand the Heat apron.
***
Back when I worked in editorial at a major publishing house, all the assistants used to get together and discuss the elements of a surefire bestseller. For instance, I thought a vampire Navy SEAL romance couldn’t help but do well. Two hot trends for the price of one! It was a joke at the time, but when I got married and moved to Ohio, leaving the world of publishing behind, the idea stuck with me. I laboriously wrote, rewrote, and polished a paranormal romance that, while not purely vamps and SEALs, definitely had its roots in that joke.
The manuscript got me my wonderful …
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Jeane Westin began her writing life as a freelance journalist, then wrote a number nonfiction books and finally came to her first and true love, historical novels. She has a great website up (www.jeanewestin.com) where she updates regularly the “Fun Facts” section about life in England in the 1600’s.
****
After a career as a journalist writing articles for magazines and newspapers and several non-fiction books, I decided to leap off a literary cliff and write a novel. My agent at the time wasn’t thrilled. She’d had other clients infected with “novelitis” (her word) and she’d lost sure non-fiction sales. Still, I had to follow my muse and she recognized I wanted a new challenge.
In the mid 1980s, multi-viewpoint women’s novels were popular and I had a great idea for one…Love and Glory, about four of the first women to enlist in the military during WWII. As a very young woman, I had joined the army as a way to get to college on …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Today we welcome Randy Sue Coburn, author of A Better View of Paradise, in stores now.
***
My first novel, Remembering Jody, sold a little over ten years ago, and the peculiar path that book took to publication might resonate for others who have hit the wall and don’t know where to turn. Which was exactly how I felt when the agent representing Jody gave up after six rejections.
Damn! Not only had I been abandoned by someone whom I’d embraced as a collaborator in launching a high-flying literary career, my book was no longer a virgin; what other agent would take Jody on, tainted as it was by rejection? Never mind that this is a situation that happens all the time in publishing—I was too naïve to know.
I’d been working on this book for years, and since it was more than a little autobiographical, about growing up Jewish in the South and a long friendship imperiled by mental illness, I took …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Kit Donner’s debut, Notorious Bridegroom, is in stores now. You can visit Kit at her website: http://www.kitdonner.com/
***
Unlike many writers, I haven’t spent my life thinking about writing and getting published. That dream seemed too unattainable, so why dream it? However, like many writers, I had read lots of romances, and thought I could write something similar. Some day. Maybe.
Some day happened in 1991 when I had a germ of a story about spies during the Regency period. Although I have a BA in English literature, I couldn’t have told you much about English history including the time of the Napoleonic Wars. I did know that Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, thanks to ABBA. Then I heard about Romance Writers of America and found a local chapter in Delaware. My first chapter meeting I thought, this is where I belong, with other writers excited about writing and romance.
 From 1991-1993, I wrote …
 Quartet Press is a new digital publisher specializing in romance stories. I love the people behind Quartet Press and believe that they are bringing technological, marketing, business expertise, and vision that we’ve not yet seen in digital publishing. But, I had some concerns that because these individuals weren’t long time romance readers that perhaps their definition of romance and mine were not consistent. I tried to ask the hard questions for which the readers here might want answers but if I didn’t hit the right ones, drop a note. I am sure the QP people would be happy to answer if they can.
***
1) What exactly are you offering? I have read romance but is it spicy romance, erotic romance, fantasy romance, contemporary, historical, romance with were tentacle sex?
k2 (Kassia Krozser): As tempting as the were-tentacle romance sounds on paper, so far we haven’t encountered great execution. We are, however, very excited about the possibility of a story featuring a were-faux pug, though I suspect, for obvious reasons, said faux pug is more sidekick material than hero. We shall see. Nobody can resist a pug, right?
When it comes …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Barbara Bretton is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 40 books. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world. Her works have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries. You can visit her on the web at www.barbarabretton.com and read more about her current release, Laced with Magic.
***
Sometimes even I don’t believe the way my first sale happened but it was 1982 and my dreams were as big as my hair. There’s something to be said for blissful ignorance. Who cared that the odds were definitely against me? I’d just beaten cancer. At that moment in time even the impossible seemed within reach.
It didn’t matter that almost everyone in my life (except my husband and my parents) thought I was crazy because I knew I was going to become a published novelist one day. I can’t blame my friends and family for being skeptical. I was thirty-one years old …
Earlier this year, Harlequin announced it would be launching a Young Adult line. The line is officially called “Harlequin Teen” which can be found at HarlequinTeen.com. The line launched yesterday with My Soul to Take by New York Times author Rachel Vincent in trade paperback. A hardcover from another New York Times Bestselling author Gena Showalter, Intertwined, which will be available in September.
 Natashya Wilson, editor for the Harlequin Teen line, was gracious enough to answer a few questions for our Dear Author audience. Drop a comment or question about the Harlquin Teen YA line and be entered to win one of copy of either Gena Showalter’s Intertwined or Rachel Vincent’s My Soul to Take. International readers are welcome to enter but I will order that book via Book Depository so Showalter’s book would not be mailed until September. Contest will close at midnight July 30, 2009 CST.
***
Your target age group is 12-18 year old girls. Do you expect than older readers will pick up the teen books?
NW: Definitely. While our books are …
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Lynn Raye Harris‘ debut novel, Spanish Magnate, Red-Hot Revenge (Harlequin Presents) has an official release date of August 1, but look for it in stores now.
***
I love First Sale stories. During the dark, hard times when I slogged through muck and doubt and disbelief I could ever write a story someone would buy, First Sale stories were my hope (yes, the phrase is always capitalized in my mind). When I wanted to quit, I’d stumble across someone’s First Sale story and the flame of perseverance would rekindle. To be able to share my own First Sale here with you now is a great joy.
To begin properly, I have to say that I read my first romance when I was about twelve years old. It was a Harlequin Presents, with a dashing alpha male (probably a sheikh) and a virginal heroine. I was hooked. I read HPs for several years, then dropped away …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between.
Roslyn Hardy Holcomb is the author of three books. Her most recent book, Pussycat Death Squad, is available from Loose-Id.
***
My first sale story should probably be a primer called How Not to Get Published. My first book happened purely by accident. Back in 2002 I was on a message board with other romance readers complaining about interracial romances. I think I read my first one in 1999, and being in an interracial marriage, I really liked them. However, they were few and far between, and many of them were quite tentative when it came to the more erotic aspects. I had just finished one that had no sex at all, and I was beyond annoyed by it.
So, my friends challenged me to write a love scene of the type I’d like to see in a romance. I’ve always been a writer, primarily of technical and instructional copy, but I’d never written fiction in my life. I had a lot of experience reading romances, however, …
Each year, RWA recognizes excellence in romance writing through the RITAs, considered the top honor in the genre. Though awards are presented in a dozen categories, a writer has just one shot in her career to win the Best First Book award. This interview series focuses on the debut authors nominated in that category. Alyson H undertook to bring this idea to Dear Author and completed all the interviews. This is our last interview. The winner of the Best First Book award will be announced this Saturday.
***
(U.K. title: The Wrong Sort of Wife?)
[Time: mid-spring. Place: a bench at a noisy playground.]
Boon Companion: What’s your book?
Alyson H.: Your Roots Are Showing by this new author, Elise Chidley. Get this—this woman—she’s a mom with toddlers, and she writes an e-mail to her sister, complaining about how boring her life is, and how her husband just doesn’t do it for her anymore, even though he’s gorgeous and rich and most of all, British, and then—and then! She accidentally sends it to her husband! Instead of her sister! And he leaves her!
BC: Because of that? Must have been some e-mail.
AH: Oh, yeah. (Sound …
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Mary Jo Putney is a historical author who has penned over twenty nine books since 1987. Her latest, Loving a Lost Lord, is in stores now.
***
 My first sale, and I still don’t quite believe it
Just as Alcoholics Anonymous members have drunkologues that describe their descent into drinking and their recovery, writers have first sale stories. Mine is—a little embarrassing. Too easy. Though the romance market was much more open in the mid-80s, it still sounds too easy. But sometimes, the universe smiles, and it did for me then.
As a kid, I was an obsessive reader, the kind with thick glasses and a flashlight under the blanket to read books at night. But I can’t say that I dreamed of someday becoming a writer. I grew up in the farm country of Western New York, with 140 inches of snow every winter and lots of cows. Becoming a writer was simply beyond my imagination.
But I did have a good imagination. During boring classes, I composed sagas in my head, …
Each year, RWA recognizes excellence in romance writing through the RITAs, considered the top honor in the genre. Though awards are presented in a dozen categories, a writer has just one shot in her career to win the Best First Book award. This interview series focuses on the debut authors nominated in that category. Alyson H undertook to bring this idea to Dear Author and completed all the interviews. Alyson is a great interviewer and elicited some fun information. Alyson makes you, the reader, interested in the interviewee. It’s a great skill. Thanks Alyson and I hope the readers of Dear Author enjoy this six part series.
***
 Private Arrangements was a huge debut, off like a rocket that made us startle, widen our eyes, and say ooooooh. No doubt publishers would love a formula for whatever combination of elements contributed to the book’s success, but here’s the thing that made all the rest of that stuff matter: Sherry Thomas wrote one fine story. PA is proof of the infinite freshness of the romance genre, and Gigi and Camden, while too true to be “easy,” are characters who stay with you, not just between readings, …
 Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Monday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between.
Nancy Thayer is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Hot Flash Club, The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again, Hot Flash Holidays, The Hot Flash Club Chills Out, and Moon Shell Beach. She is also the author of a new June release, Summer House. She is the mother of Samantha Wilde, whose debut novel, This Little Mommy Stayed Home, comes out on June 23. Nancy lives on Nantucket. You can visit her website at www.nancythayer.com.
***
Your Life Is Not a Novel. Or Maybe It Is!
By Nancy Thayer
I wrote the first six chapters of my first published novel with a pencil on a six-by-nine notebook while I was in Helsinki, during the one hour my two small children napped behind their closed bedroom door in a Spartan fourth-floor concrete walkup.
I’m writing this on my Imac in my study with a half-moon window looking out over Nantucket harbor.
I’ve published nineteen novels, a few short stories, and two commissioned novellas. I’ve made my living writing novels.
Because …
Each year, RWA recognizes excellence in romance writing through the RITAs, considered the top honor in the genre. Though awards are presented in a dozen categories, a writer has just one shot in her career to win the Best First Book award. This interview series focuses on the debut authors nominated in that category.
…
|
-
-
November 2009
| M |
T |
W |
T |
F |
S |
S |
| « Oct |
|
|
| | 1 |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 |
|
|
|
|
Loading ...
Open Threads at Dear Author. Want to know what new releases are out this month and what readers are excited about reading? Check out the threads below. 
We don’t like to censor comments nor do we endorse the comments of any poster. We do reserve the right to moderate comments but most of the time will not, believing, as Justice Brandeis did, that the greater good is in “more speech, not enforced silence.”
