Welcome to my slice of cyber real estate! Both Trish and Tricia,
the two halves of my writing self, are thrilled to have you. I hope you enjoy cruising
through the pages to find out about my upcoming books, how I got into this crazy
writing business, and where in the world I'm going to be popping up in the future –
either online or live and in person.
Undertow by Dixie Browning Guarding Jane Doe by Harper Allen The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe
is catslady! Congratulations. E-mail me through the Contact page on this site with your mailing address, and I’ll get the books out to you.
Up for grabs this week:
The Legend of Banzai Maguire by Susan Grant Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters Born Innocent by Christine Rimmer
All you have to do to be in the running is comment on a blog post sometime this week.
Also, to try to build the blog readership, I’m going to be giving away three surprise books to the blog visitor who gets the most new people to come by and comment. The new visitor has to put in their post who sent them.
I’ve been working the past few days on some promotional efforts, casting a wider net online. The book business is so tight right now that authors have to depend on their own promotional efforts more and more to generate sales. To me, it’s important to do this in a smart way, taking advantage of as many no- and low-cost promotional alternatives as possible.
I already have a MySpace page, which I updated this weekend, and I’m going to check out Facebook and Bebo soon. I also just joined Goodreads, which is a social networking site with a focus on books. Hey, right up my alley! I joined their Authors program, so there’s now info there on what I’m reading, books I’ve ranked, my upcoming appearances, my books, etc. Check it out and “friend” me if it looks like a site you’d enjoy.
I’ll be keeping an updated list of all the sites I’m involved with on the Home page of my site.
My fellow Romance Bandit Cindy (aka Loucinda McGary) compiled a Books By Romance Bandits Listmania list over on Amazon. Check it out and if you want to order the books, you can do so by clicking on any of the book covers in the posts on our blog. We’re an Amazon Affiliate, so we get some spare change each time a purchase through an Amazon click-through from our blog. And that’s not just purchases of our books; it’s for anything and everything you buy through Amazon. We use that spare change to keep all the Bandita fun up and running for our loyal blog readers.
Pretty much everyone has heard of the conspiracy theories involving aliens, the U.S. government and Roswell, New Mexico. In these theories, the aliens are usually of the little green men variety. But what if there really were aliens from the Roswell crash among us and they looked like high school students? That’s the premise behind Roswell, a teen-targeted TV show that ran from 1999-2002. It’s another of those teen shows (like Buffy) that I missed when it was in first-runs. But I watched the entire three seasons recently and really enjoyed it. Like most teen-centered shows I watch, it caused ideas for future YA books to start crackling in my head. Nothing about Roswell itself or aliens, but it was a jumping-off point for my imagination.
I like how the show took the idea of star-crossed lovers to a whole different level. As Liz Parker (Shiri Appleby), one of the leads, said in one of the promos: “Romeo and Juliet came from two different worlds. Max and I have them beat. We come from two different planets.”
The story revolves around Max (Jason Behr), his sister Isabel (Katherine Heigl, before Grey’s Anatomy fame), and their friend Michael (Brenden Fehr), all three aliens from a planet they can’t remember. They were in the 1947 crash at Roswell, but they remained in incubation pods until they popped out in time to be teenagers for the show. Max and Isabel were adopted by a loving family, but Michael got stuck in the foster care system. They lead pretty normal teenage lives in Roswell, but they’re always aware that if anyone becomes aware of who and what they are, they’ll have to leave and not come back. They tell no one their secret — until Max has to save Liz with his super-duper alien healing powers. Thus begins the love story of Max and Liz. It’s definitely not an easy one as they try to figure out if they can even be together.
I enjoyed the Max/Liz story, but I was at least equally attracted to the love story between Michael and Maria (Majandra Delfino), Liz’s best friend. Their relationship is more bumpy, even when they’re together, but there’s a vulnerability about Michael behind all his macho bluster that made Maria’s love for him all that more powerful. He was this wounded guy, and Maria was what he needed to heal, even though he didn’t realize it for awhile. He’s not exactly introspective guy.
You know how Buffy had the Scoobies? Well, the aliens have a small circle of human friends who are in the know — Liz and Maria initially, then their friend Alex (Colin Hanks, Tom’s son), then Sheriff Valenti and his son, Kyle. This group often works together to foil the efforts of the feds and other various baddies who are after the aliens for horrible lab purposes.
Since you know I love YouTube fan vids, here are a couple for Roswell. The first is for Max and Liz, set to Dido’s “Here With Me,” which was the show’s theme song. The second is for Michael and Maria, set to “Ice Dance” from the movie Edward Scissorhands.
Since I’m on the Romance Writers of America national board of directors, I was able to make calls that made some people very happy on Tuesday. It was call day for the Golden Heart and RITA contests, and I was able to inform the finalists in the Young Adult category in both contests. It’s always fun to hear the reactions — ranging from shock to nearly passing out.
Call day always finds me near my computer, watching as e-mails pour in about who has gotten the call that she’s a finalist. I know a good number of the finalists this year, but here’s just a sampling — from among my Wet Noodle Posse and Romance Bandits pals.
GOLDEN HEART FINALISTS
Priscilla Kissinger, Trust in Me, Contemporary Series
Theresa Ragan, Better Late Than Never, Single Title
Susan Seyfarth, Money, Honey, Single Title
Susan Seyfarth, The Princess Project, Single Title
Theresa Ragan, Finding Kate Huntley, Romantic Suspense
Kim Howe, One Shot, Two Kills, Romantic Suspense
RITA FINALISTS
Stephanie Rowe, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Hot, Paranormal
Anna Campbell, Untouched, Regency Historical
Anna Campbell, Claiming the Courtesan, Regency Historical
Congrats to you all — and to everyone who finaled in the contests. Good luck in the final round!
I’ve been bad about posting the past week, haven’t I? I ended up being a bit more fried than I thought after my deadline, so I took a “Refill the Well” Week. I did a few odd and ends that were work related, but for the most part I’ve been perched in front of the TV watching another show I missed when it was on TV — Roswell. I LOVE it and will be blogging about it more when I finish watching the third and final season.
Sometimes it’s really necessary for a writing to take a break to just play. The last time I had a TV marathon like this (with Buffy and Angel), I came away so inspired to write that I wrote my Golden Heart-winning book from last year. And since I’ll be writing more YA soon, Roswell was a good choice to watch seeing as how it’s set in the high school setting.
My Internet is out again today, so I’m sitting in Panera catching up on e-mail and waiting for an important e-mail to arrive before I can go home. While online, I decided to see if I was up on Amazon yet. I AM!! Check it out here.
Regarding last week’s book winner and this week’s books up for grabs, I’ll post about that tomorrow. Please check back to see if you won.
A few years ago, I remember a anime movie called Howl’s Moving Castle getting some positive remarks from those who remark on movies. It was also up for an Oscar for Best Animated Movie. But like so many movies, I missed it at the time. (My Netflix queue will attest to how many such movies I’ve missed.) I TiVoed Howl’s Moving Castle over the weekend, possibly the first thing I’ve TiVoed off Cartoon Network. But I’m really glad I did. I really liked the look of the movie, the musical score, and the love story Sophie the hat maker and Howl, the wizard. I definitely recommend it if you have a chance to see it.
As with most weeks after a big deadline, I’m in catch-up mode this week — all the things that didn’t get done while I was revising. Even so, I’m beginning to brainstorm my next book to pitch to Harlequin American as my option book (the next book they have the first “option” to buy but which is not included in my current contract).
While I’m mulling, here’s a fun video for Howl’s Moving Castle set to a song I just discovered, “Nemo” by Nightwish, another Finnish rock band.
My hubby found this link, which shows what life at McMurdo Station in Antarctica can be like. I’m fascinated by life there, especially after reading Dr. Jerri Nielsen’s autobiography, but let’s just say I’m not going to be signing up for a tour of duty there anytime soon.
Okay, time for this week’s book winner. Drum roll, please…it’s L.M. Gonzalez. Please contact me through the Contact page on this site with your mailing address and I’ll get your books out to you.
The books up for grabs this next week are:
Under the Boardwalk by Carly Phillips Ship of Dreams by Brenda Hiatt Bulletproof Bride by Diana Duncan
Remember, all you have to do to be in the running to win is comment on the blog sometime this week.
Yay! I’m thrilled to be done with my revisions to Heartbreak River. Of course, my Internet is down and I had to come down here to Panera Bread to send the manuscript back to my editor. Side benefit — dinner from Panera.
I went to my local RWA chapter’s meeting today. It was a casual meeting, on collaging. So I started work on a collage for my next YA book. When it’s finished, I’ll post a photo of it here.
How wild was it that a tornado hit downtown Atlanta? It’s really scary when a tornado hits such a populated area. I remember when the one hit downtown Nashville. The sky was this weird green color. My husband can see downtown from where he works, and he said the cloud looked like the mother ship from the movie Independence Day.
Okay, I plan to totally veg the rest of the night. I’m picking up dinner, and we’re going to watch The Bourne Ultimatum, which came from Netflix today.
Max and Isabel were adopted by a loving family, but Michael got stuck in the foster care system. They lead pretty normal teenage lives in Roswell, but they’re always aware that if anyone becomes aware of who and what they are, they’ll have to leave and not come back. They tell no one their secret — until Max has to save Liz with his super-duper alien healing powers. Thus begins the love story of Max and Liz. It’s definitely not an easy one as they try to figure out if they can even be together.