Professional Milestone

Today marks a professional milestone for me; Publishers Weekly published my very first—and bylined—feature article. Here's how it happened.

One of my PW editors, Rose Fox, emailed me a few weeks ago and asked if I'd be interested in working on a feature article for the upcoming romance issue of the magazine. The topic? Author online self-promotion. With a two-week turnaround time and a brief to include authors from a variety of imprints/lines/publishers, and a list of publicists for the major publishers, I jumped in.

Emails back and forth to the publicists, my suggestions and theirs, and I put together a list of more than 20 authors. They represented all romance subgenres, included debuting and long-published authors, those who kept it strictly professional online and those who treated readers to personal or off-the-cuff commentary, those who started blogging for fun and those who began to blog as part of a plan to become published. Some intrigued me for other reasons; one because she found a unique way to promote herself by not actively promoting herself, another because she'd sold a quarter of a million ebooks before being picked up by a mainstream publisher, and a third because of her pop culture connections. I did not know most of the authors, but some I knew from my years at AAR.

Twenty interviews later, with 36 pages worth of Q&A and follow ups, I sat down to actually write the article. It took me two eight-hour days to complete it, and another couple of hours to come up with the sidebar of do's and don'ts Rose asked me to pull out of the article itself and use to create a sidebar, along with quotes from the interviews to match.

My draft was due to Rose on Monday, November 14th; because I'd exceeded the 2,100 word count by 500 words (what else is new?), and didn't have a clue if it was any good whatsoever, I emailed it to her the Friday before so she would have plenty of time to edit (and I could rewrite if necessary). And then spent a sleepless night wondering if she'd hate it or approve.

I woke up at 5:30 that Saturday morning from the pain of a dreadful, full-frontal headache, presumably a tension-release headache like those that plagued me after finals all throughout college and graduate school. I checked my email and discovered a couple from Rose. First, and I'm totally channeling my one-time baby-sitter Sally Field here...she liked it, she really liked it! Next, she asked me to secure print-ready cover art for the article. I took a migraine pill and went back to sleep, secure in the knowledge that I hadn't fucked up my chance to prove I could write a magazine-quality feature article.

Over the next few days I gathered up all the print-ready cover art, and went through Rose's edits to clarify certain points. As always, her edits transformed my lowly draft into something terrific. Today the print version of the magazine went on sale, and those with subscriptions to PW can access it online.

The payday for the article is roughly the amount I receive for a year's worth of reviewing, and while the money itself isn't what's important, that my writing is worth it means a lot to me. It only took me fourteen years to get a gig like this; hopefully it won't be another fourteen years to get another.

Professional Milestone

New at H&H: Look Me in the Eye

Online today from me at Heroes & Heartbreakers: Look Me in the Eye When We Do That.

The idea came to me while reading a particular scene in Christine Warren's Black Magic Woman. Initially Macmillan sent me the book in advance of its release so I could write a Fresh Meat about it, but my timing was way off. Instead I wrote Reading Series in Order as a result of Warren's unusual method of incorporating her Fixed series into the longer, more mainstream The Others series by rewriting the original stories as longer books, then interspersing brand new books. The first release of The Others, for instance, which was published in 2006, is actually ninth in the series' reading order.

The scene that set me off was a love scene, and after developing the concept, I got approval to write a more expansive piece, which I did last week. It's probably going to be the last of its type for me for awhile so that I don't lock myself into a specific blogger mode over at H&H. Once you read it, I think you'll understand what I mean.

I say that with a caveat, though; if you don't regularly read my stuff, don't read this one or you may end up with the wrong idea about me. Truly...I'm not pervy.

As for me, I've got two PW books to review this week, so I'm off to Starbucks to read for awhile. Yesterday, btw, I tried out the new Starbucks card app on my Droid...OMG great is how I'd describe it.

New at H&H: Look Me in the Eye

Still Reading After All These Years

When I finished reading Anne Stuart's The Wicked House of Rohan and Ruthless, it occurred to me that she is one of a very select group of authors I've continued reading since discovering the joys of romance novels in 1993. Of the select group of others, most fell by the wayside immediately or almost immediately. I read 23 books by 13 authors the first year I read romance, and Anne Stuart is the only one I continue to follow oh-so-closely. I don't read all of her romantic suspense, but have read every one of her Ice books and nearly all of her historicals (and have TBR some of her very old category titles). Lisa Kleypas and Teresa Medeiros are nearly auto-buys, but much less read.

Rather than going year by year, let me list my most frequent romance DIK authors (from most to fewest multiple DIKs), whether or not I continue to buy and/or read them, and if not, how long they lasted. It's not a tremendously large list, so it shouldn't take that long.

Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, with 11 DIKs, the 11th added just last year with 2009's Promises in Death: I discovered Roberts in 1997 but didn't read her as J.D. Robb until 2006. I continue to read her as the latter, not so much the former.

Julie Garwood, with 9 DIKs: I read Garwood's 1993-published Castles in 1994, beginning a string of DIK reads. Sorry to say, but I gave her up when she moved into romantic suspense in 2000. She wrote another historical a couple of years ago, and though I bought it, it remains unread.

Catherine Coulter, with 5 DIKs: Coulter was among the thirteen authors I read in 1993. While her quality varied from terrific to horrendous - and some sub-genres went off-limits quickly - I continued to read her Regency-set historicals long after most, stopping after Pendragon, with 25 books by her under my belt..

Kathryn Lynn Davis and Anne Stuart, both with 3 DIKs: If Kathryn Lynn Davis hadn't stopped publishing with Somewhere Lies the Moon, no doubt I'd have continued to read her. As for Stuart, she continues to amaze me.

Connie Brockway, Christina Dodd, Jillian Hunter, Mary Alice Monroe, Julia Quinn, Deborah Simmons, and Katherine Sutcliffe, all with 2 DIKs: I have several of Brockway's books TBR and will probably buy her again. As for Dodd, I continued to read her long after she and her closest attacked my integrity, and that of AAR, but at some point I realized I could no longer give any author business if she actively tried to destroy my website. Eventually that extended to Julia Quinn, whose behavior was more subversive. She was the only author contacted in 2007 to participate in AAR's 10th anniversary who refused, and unless she hears of this, she probably has no idea that I know why. (Hey, as a private citizen, I'm no longer obligated to take the high road.)

I continue to buy and read Jillian Hunter, even though it's been two years since reading Wicked as Sin, which I thought was only slightly better than average. I only fell in love with Mary Alice Monroe in 2002, and until last year's Last Light Over Carolina, she'd consistently blown me away. I look forward to her next book.

Deborah Simmons only recently returned to publishing after a hiatus, and I continue to buy her books, though it's been a while since I've read one. Finally...Katherine Sutcliffe, who stopped publishing in 2005. I stopped reading her after My Only Love, which I liked, mainly because her books' premises stopped interesting me and I knew she was capable of some real clinkers. Then too, she became the poster child for Bad Author Behavior. I felt she was misunderstood and tried to help her navigate what was at the time uncharted territory, and it exhausted me.

What other authors have been published for a very long time whom I continue to read today? The first who comes to mind is Mary Balogh. I didn't "get" Balogh until 2001, but my favorite book by her to date was just published this summer: A Secret Affair. She's been published since 1985, so...wow. Linda Howard is another long-published author to have thrilled me fairly recently - with her Blair Mallory books. Though I only first read her in 1999, she was first published in 1982, so again...wow.

Other authors published way back when whom I read for quite a while, even if none of their books ever earned DIK status: Let's start with Loretta Chase, whose 1995 "classic," Lord of Scoundrels I only first read in 2006. More than a decade after publishing LOS, she published Your Scandalous Ways, which I truly enjoyed, and I happily look forward to reading both back-list and subsequent releases as time permits. Chase's first book, btw, was published in 1987. Next up: Patricia Oliver, who died several years ago. She's the only Trad Regency author I "got" for many years, and deserves mention simply for that reason. Also, Lorraine Heath and Leanne Banks - both of whom I continue to buy if only rarely read - and Elizabeth Lowell, Ruth Langan, and Jill Barnett, all for whom I have multiple books TBR, even though I stopped buying them some time ago.

I'm sure I've left out many authors I'll later wish I'd included, buts it's time for the flip side, and a few long-time authors I eventually gave up on. Obviously there are many, many, oh-so many I can't possibly list them all, but these three came to mind for three different reasons, so I'm listing them: JAK/Amanda Quick, Marilyn Pappano, and Elizabeth Bevarly. I read many books by each of these authors, and gave up on Krentz/Quick when she eventually became derivative of heself. As for Pappano, while I have many from her backlist, and even am a fan of books following Season for Miracles in her Bethlehem series, once I subsequently read SFM, I was turned off so strongly that I never bought another of her books. With Bevarly the reasons are many, and not all are book-related. Apparently I do hold a grudge. 'Nuff said.

After writing all this, it amazes me that Anne Stuart, Mary Balogh, and J.D. Robb continue to thrill after so many years in print. I look forward to additional greatness from them, others on my list, such as Loretta Chase, Linda Howard, Lisa Kleypas, and Terersa Medeiros, and still others - from Madeline Hunter (whose first book came out a full decade ago!), to Elizabeth Hoyt to Rhyannon Byrd to Cherise Sinclair - whose careers are not yet as long-lived. And if Sinclair's name comes out of thin air, know that I rarely write about the erotic romance I read, although that will likely change in the very near future.

Still Reading After All These Years

Jared by Sarah McCarty

Jared

Sarah McCarty

Grade: B-

Urban Fantasy Romance

I've been out of town this week, and the one book I finished was one I sold the night before leaving to one of "my" customers...Sarah McCarty's Jared. It's the second in her Shadow Wranglers series (following Caleb), which features a family of nearly 300-year-old vampire ranchers.

Although it's not connected to one of the author's lesser-known books - The Conception, which was supposed to have been the first in The Others series that never came to fruition, possibly because she moved from Ellora's Cave to Berkley and Harlequin in the interim - I can't help but wonder whether the idea for her Shadow Wranglers grew out of the EC-published book. Both, after all, feature vampire brothers battling formidable foes who will stop at nothing to achieve their evil goals - including horrendous scientific experimentation - and seemingly innocuous or weak heroines who turn out to have unique biologies that render them the perfect mate, and, as you might suspect, are the only women able to turn their battle-hardened vampires into loving husbands.

I think in the past few years I've read just about everything Sarah McCarty has written. At AAR you can find my review of Sam's Creed, her response to winning an award in AAR's annual reader poll for Caine's Reckoning, and some commentary about Running Wild at both AAR and my old blog. She's not an author I would have read five years ago, but now she's an auto-buy for me, even though her books have an over-the-top quality and can be incredibly kinky. The kink is toned way down in Caleb and Jared; probably the most kinky of all her books is Mac's Law. It's a book so kinky and focused on a single sex act that I'm not sure why I like it, but I've long moved beyond questioning what draws me to particular kinks.

Anyway, it turns out that it's not just kink that draws me to McCarty; while I noted before writing this that AAR rated Caleb as "burning," my sensuality rating for Jared is "hot." A strong hot, to be sure, and explicit, but as far as erotic romance goes, it's nowhere near burning.

Let me get specific about Jared. Jared Johnson rescues Raisa, a delicately beautiful vampire from the enemy: Sanctuary vampires who plan to create a master race of vampires and to kill Renegades like the Johnson brothers before taking on humanity. Both characters came from a different time; Jared may be one tough dude, but he has an almost courtly manner when it comes to caring for Raisa, who has somehow survived as a vampire for almost three hundred years even though drinking blood makes her violently ill. Raisa's on her own mission, though, and while Jared would take her under his protection, she is as honorable as he is and plans to carry out her task whatever the personal cost.

Along the road to his ranch they must spend some time with one of the few werewolf packs who won't tear a vampire to shreds, and it is while under their protection that Jared learns about Raisa's blood allergy...and that his is the only blood she can drink. More complications ensue once they make it back to his ranch, complications involving two of his three brothers. To say more would give spoilers, and while I guessed one of them, the other came entirely out of left field for me, so kudos to McCarthy for that.

McCarthy's books are perfect for those who like to read about killing machines who are forced to deal with emotion and embrace their humanity as a result of falling in love. Which is why I put up with her sometimes ridiculous love scenes - we won't get into the book featuring a chapter-long sex scene performed on horseback - and the other flaws that crop up in her writing.

I'm going to add an "If You Like..." recommendation here...if you like McCarty's vampires or werewolves, you might like Lora Leigh's Breeds. I'm nearly finished with Lion's Heat and find Jonas Wyatt cut from the same cloth as the Johnson brothers, although he's an extremely difficult character. Still, it's amazing what love will do to a killing machine...

Jared by Sarah McCarty

Books To Look For

I've been very vocal about my love for Gail Carriger's Soulless, my only Publishers Weekly starred review for 2009. And I've hand-sold quite hard Lori Handeland's Phoenix Chronicles. At the bookstore I hand-sold about 50 copies to date of the former - and because of that sales record the store will be sent roughly the same number of copies of the sequel, Changeless. As for Handeland's series, I've sold roughly 3 1/2 dozen of book one, somewhat less of book two, and less still of book three.

Part of the problem is that with an urban fantasy series, you can't sell books two or three without selling book one. Because we haven't had many copies of each book at one time, I can't often do what I managed to do during my last two shifts: sell all three together. Most readers new to the series, though, take a slower approach and simply buy book one. When they come back, we don't have books two or three, and they end up ordering copies online, or they go elsewhere. It's tough because the series is very much a sleeper; I can only hope it catches on, and with Keri Arthur's Riley Jenson series coming to an end in June, there will be one less series with which it must compete.

Last week I read Changeless, which is terrifically funny, very visually Steampunkish, and, like Soulless before it, pitch perfect. The cliffhanger ending is its only flaw, but I'm sure all will be resolved in book three (Blameless), to be published at the end of summer. But back to Changeless...there's a moment during which a rather clueless character remarks about the love between "Pyramid and Thirsty" that so reminded me of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I marveled at Carriger's skill. (My daughter has so far been the only one to "get" the reference, which surprised me as those I asked were literate folk.)

I've not yet read Chaos Bites, although I did read the excerpt Handeland has up on her site. As expected, it was exciting, intriguing, and sexy, and I look forward to reading it as soon as it goes on sale. Because it's such a sleeper series, though, I worry about its long-term success and whether or not the author will be given the opportunity to take it where she wants it to go. At the author's website, just one title (Demons at the Gate) is listed beyond Chaos Bites...I hope the series won't end there.

So here are covers of both books, with links to the author's sites, as well as some of the other books I'm looking forward to in the near future:

What are you looking forward to reading...and if you read urban fantasy, can I convince you to try The Phoenix Chronicles?

Books To Look For