Fiction Building Blocks: Showing and Telling

Showing and Telling

Showing versus telling sounds simple, but for many it isn’t. Many writers when beginning their journey have Show, Don’t Tell scrawled across their manuscript pages.

By showing instead of telling, you draw the reader into the story at that moment letting them experience the scene. Your goal is to transport the reader to the world you have created. You don’t want the readers to know that you, the creator exist. A reader is more likely to suspend disbelief when they are in the character’s head.

A scene takes place in real time (at this moment), with a setting and a specific location, it will contain some kind of action, something that happens. What does this have to do with showing instead of telling? Everything.

Here is an example of telling:

She watched the man from the corner of the room and decided he was dangerous. Gathering her purse, she left as quickly as possible.

When reading the example you feel distanced. Ambiguous words also give an unclear picture of what is going on. The key words are she watched and decided. There is no description or verbs that show action in this sentence.

Showing takes more words than telling. Adding sensory details and action to show the emotion the character is feeling.

Rewritten passage of telling into showing:

She kept her gaze pinned on the man in the dark corner of the shabby bar. A shiver of fear ran through her as the man looked at her. When his jacket shifted, the outlines of a gun flashed.
Big trouble. More than she bargained for and nothing but her wits to get her out of this mess.
Gathering her purse and holding it close to her body like a shield, she slid out of the lumpy booth and headed for the door. She wouldn’t breathe easy until she was far away from this place that reeked of stale cigarettes, body odor and death.

Showing takes more words than telling. Showing puts the reader into the story. Telling distances the reader.

Here is the beginning of my story A Cursed Heart. Can you see how action, description and emotion are all blended together?

A Cursed Heart
By Keelia Greer

Scottish Highlands
The time of Druids and Magic


This vision was different. No longer watching from a distance, she experienced his pain and anguish. Her muscles tensed, her fingers curled into fists against the consuming weight of the man’s suffering. His anguish bubbled over, scalding her in a hot wash.

“Come to me. With all speed...”
The words were rough, raspy and urgent. They echoed and repeated in Tani’s mind. His deep voice surrounded her in the vision, but what spoke to her soul were his eyes. She gasped and shivered from the intensity of his gaze.

She tried to move but could not. Tears slid down her cheeks at her inability to help him. Her training as Druidess had not prepared her for visions such as this—with all of her senses engaged, the feeling in all areas of her being heightened and magnified.

Notice that the words I used were concrete, not abstract. When editing don’t forget to watch out for qualifiers such as very, rather, quite, really, almost, just, slightly. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever use these words. It means you need to stop and see if there is a way to show instead of tell.

Words that categorize--awful, pretty, pleasant, nasty, delicious to name a few is fine for everyday speech but in creative writing, they don’t work.
When to Tell
Telling is used in scene transitions of time, viewpoint, or distance. It’s also used to establish setting or mood and for that hated word—synopsis. Telling compresses giving a tighter word count.
Recap of Showing and Telling:
Showing:
* Show what is important, what is the focus of the scene.
* Use: Emotion, Action/action verbs, Dialogue, The Five Senses
* Eliminate Passive Verbs
* Avoid generalizations
* Show a bit of your research
Telling:
* To tighten word count. Telling compresses, it uses less words.
* Transitions in time, distance or viewpoint
* Alert the reader of a piece of information that you don’t need to go into detail with, but is important to character or plot.
* Scene transitions
* Writing synopsis

I hope this post has helped clarify when to show and when to tell.

Best,
Tambra Kendall/Keelia Greer

Tall, blond & handsome?

Hi ya'll. I'm doing revisions at the moment, so this is gonna be a short post. I hope.

To set the stage for this topic, before the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference (which was held last weekend), RWNZ asked the pubbed authors to send in jpegs of their covers. And as we were all being seated prior to the start of the awards dinner, we noticed each place setting at the table had a rather unique placemat: a laminated RWNZ member's book cover. Pretty cool, huh?

And after the dinner & festivities (visit my website for some fabulous photos!) a group of us diehards invited ourselves back to one of the hotel rooms -- apologies for gate-crashing your room, Joanne! -- where we had a great time drooling over some of the more steamy covers.

We were lucky enough to have a couple of multi-pubbed authors in our group: namely Natalie Anderson, who writes for Harlequin Mills & Boon Sexy Sensation, and Nalini Singh, who's very well known for her Berkley Sensation Psy/Changeling paranormal series. So as you can imagine, we had plenty of covers to drool over, and Nat even had an Italian one....ultra-delicious!

Nat made a comment about how sometimes her story's heroine doesn't much resemble the one portrayed on the cover. And, inevitably -- as it usually does whenever a gaggle of female romance writers get together -- our discussion turned toward the male of the species.

Specifically, cover models.

Even more specifically, the hair color of the male cover models.

Nalini reckons that these days you'll practically never see a blond hero on the cover of a romance novel. Today's readers like 'em tall, dark & handsome -- even if the hero is depicted as being blond, or brown-haired, or whatever, in the actual story. Dark-haired hero. Period.

Nat agreed. And these ladies are multi-pubbed and very successful and they know what they're talking about when it comes to marketing.

Even so, I was flabbergasted. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"Nope!" came the chorus.

Marketing know what sells, and blond guys evidently don't sell as well. So even if you're a NYT best-selling author and you've written a hero with white-blond hair, he's not gonna be blond on your cover. He'll likely be in shadow, or highlighted with a background color so you can't actually tell what color hair he has.

I was still dubious. So dubious, in fact, that when I got home, I relayed this to my husband, and we went through a stack of my books, looking for an alternate hero -- a blond hero. Even a hero with light brown hair or a red-head would do.

I did find one hero who didn't have dark hair. Ironically, he's on the cover of one of Nat's books: Bedded By Arrangement.

Now this is a Harlequin Sexy Sensation Australian edition, and Jake is most definitely sandy-haired. And just quietly (sorry all you marketing gurus) I think he's pretty darned haaaaawt!

BTW, I had to scan the cover from my own copy of the book because I couldn't for the life of me find this edition anywhere on the internet.

Even more ironically, the Mills & Boon Modern Extra (UK) edition of Bedded By Arrangement that I did manage to find (see below) depicts a dark-haired Jake.

They've changed him -- wahhhh!

And I gotta say, that even if did buy this edition to read again, I'd still imagine Jake as blond-ish, as per the cover of the first version I read.

I just had another look through my bookcases and found another blond hero on the cover of an Australian Harlequin Mills & Boon Super Romance: Mr. Irresistible, by Karina Bliss.

So could Australian publishers be more daring about this whole dark-haired hero thing than US or UK publishers? Or are they catering to their primarily Australian and New Zealand readers, who really don't mind either way, provided the hero on their cover is just plain handsome as sin?

Who knows. (I personally think that Australian publishers might just be pretty damned daring, because I found a hero with a completely shaven head on the cover of another Sexy Sensation: The Perfect Girlfriend by Colleen Collins.)

So here are my questions:

• Do you have a preference for dark-haired heroes on the cover of romance books?

• Would you ever not buy a book that had a blond (or otherwise) hero on the cover?

• Can you find a reasonably recently published US published romance on your bookshelf that depicts a blond hero (or at least, a hero who doesn't have dark hair) on the cover?

• Had you even noticed that dark-haired heros seem to have become a trend?

I'm looking forward to your responses -- please! -- because I really need an excuse to procrastinate over my revisions further.

;-)

Maree

Coming out of my (literary) closet

This seems to be my year for coming out of the closet. And high time, too. It's getting pretty stuffy in here!

It all started as I worked on Wicked Temptation, the first book in Red Sage Publishing's THREE KINDS OF WICKED series.

If you've heard me blathering on about this series, the you probably know that all the stories hinge on a menage scene to drive the story conflict and the HEA to resolution. I'd never written menage before Wicked Temptation, and I admit, I never angsted more over a story in my life. But let's just say, once all was said and done, this was the story that brought my hesitation to write a three-way love affair to a grinding halt.

But while I was writing it, the strangest thing happened. You see, I grew up southern, with the proverbial soutern-fried stick up my butt when it came to truly embracing alternative lifestyles. While I've since adopted a mindest of "love is never wrong", I've had a difficult time reflecting that change in attitude in my work. So I always envisioned I'd write the typical m/f/m menage.

But during the menage scene in Wicked Temptation, my series hero, Trey, kissed the other hero, Russ. Say what? My uber-hot alpha boy in a tonsil-jerking liplock with another *gasp* man?


Uh.....yeah. And you know what. It. Was. Hot.

So hot that had DH been home at the time I wrote that scene, I'd probably be ready to pop a litter of bouncing baby liane's by now. ;) But I figured that was the end of my dalliance into m/m romance.

Or ...not.

Cause you see, I still had to write the end story to close up THREE KINDS OF WICKED. And it just so happens that I couldn't bear to leave my *other* hero from Wicked Temptation without some sort of HEA for himself. So without spoiling the plot of Wicked Redemption, just let me say that Trey, the series hero, is very much bisexual.

Holy Moly, is he ever. Yes, this is me wiping sweat from my brow. And no, it's not a hot flash. :)

The last thing I ever expected when I wrote that scene was to find myself feeling so....uh....frisky. By the time I was done, I had seven pages of deliciously tender, plot advancing, breath-stealing, heart thumping lovemaking...between two men.

I've been devouring m/m romances ever since. I've never admitted it to anyone,particularly not my ultra-alpha DH. Uh...until now...cuz I'm pretty sure someday he'll stop by and read this. :)

So as of today, I'm taking another giant step in coming out of my literary closet.

Here goes.

Hi. My name is Liane. And I'm addicted to m/m romance. Worse, I am powerless to control my addiction.

I blame author Selah March for my naughtly little fetish. Her story, Wild Horses, specifically. And I swear, Mom, if you're reading this, I bought the book for research when I realized Wicked Redemption was going to be heavy on m/m action.

What I found in Wild Horses was a gripping, emotional love story.

No, really, I did.

But what I never expected was to enjoy it as much as I did.

But I did. Enjoy it, that is. Oh, boy, did I! And now my nefarious little reading secret is out.

Friday, I'm going to talk about another M/m romance I've been reading, The Boys of Summer by newcomer, Cooper Davis, available at Samhain. It's a gripping, emotional read, a true romance by any standard.

And hot. Did I mention really, really, hot.

So, until Friday, let's talk about naughty little reading secrets. What sorts of things do you read that you might not talk about in your every day lives? Have you ever read a m/m romance or f/f romance? Are you a TRUE CONFESSIONS addict? A picture book collector? Do you secretly stash grocery store tabloids under your bed for some clandestine night time enjoyment?


Writers Gone Wild really wants to know!

When a good book GETS you down

I'm reading an amazing book right now. It's not published yet, and not finished but I've been lucky enough to get to read it along the way. I can honestly say I think it's one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. The love between the two protagonists is so real...so strong. It's a love that wouldn't be accepted in their world though. They have to hide it, and it's killing them. Seriously, this is one of the most unique story ideas I've ever heard of and it is controversial but she weaves us a beautiful, tug on the heartstrings story nonetheless. I think its a story that needs to be told, and I'm glad someone is telling it.

The thing is, I'm scared for the couple. I don't see a way they can end up together. There is SO much in their way. So many things to overcome. The last chapter I read a huge bomb was dropped on us and it left me feeling bummed all weekend. I couldn't stop thinking about the book, wondering how this will be overcame and wondering if these two will indeed be blessed with a HEA. This story as my entranced. It's emotional, but I'm so emotionally invested in it, there's no way I can stop reading it.

The good parts are oh so good, and when they're together, you feel the love lifting off the pages but I'm so scared for the ball to drop on them that is has me down. I've never really experienced this before, and I'm a little thrown by it.

Have you ever had a book affect your day to day life? Has a good book ever gotten you down?

All I can do is keep reading it and hope and pray the author can find a way around the conflicts and give this couple their HEA. She's a brilliant writer, I have no doubt she can do it and I'll be waiting with bated breath until she's done.

Story Behind the Story: Award Winning Author, Leigh Court

Today, I have with me award winning author, Leigh Court. Leigh is going to talk about her latest release from Red Sage Publishing, The Bet.

Leigh, Thanks for stopping by Writers Gone Wild today. Our theme today is the "story behind the story", so with that in mind, let's get started.


LIANE: Tell me about that first moment of inspiration for your story, THE BET, in Secrets Volume 27: Untamed Pleasures.

LEIGH: One of my favorite things to do as an author is to throw my characters into impossible situations, and then watch what happens (while enjoying as they fall in love in the process, of course)! In THE BET, the impossible situation is set up right in the first line -- two drunk friends make an outrageous wager after my hero declares that he can, um, er, satisfy a woman using just his words.


LIANE: Oh my God, talk about a great hook! Did your story come to you full realized, or did it take you a while to reach your final version? Did you ever reach a moment when you thought you'd never get to "the end?"

LEIGH: I always start out with a "What If" question as a launching point, so I wouldn't say the story was fully realized, but I certainly had a general idea of where I was going with it. After all, half the fun of writing is not to have everything planned out, but to take the story where your characters want to go!


LIANE: So what did it take (time, amount of work, etc) to get you from that Eureka moment to getting "the call".

LEIGH: I'm not a fast writer. A chapter a week, usually. I honestly don't know how some authors churn out 4 books a year (but I certainly am in awe of them). So for a novella, it takes me 10-weeks to write it (each chapter is very polished, no re-writes) then I write up the Query, submit, and wait to hear back! (I'm very lucky to have an established relationship with Red Sage, so my submissions get read more quickly than 'slush pile' submissions, I'm sure.)


LIANE: Got to agree, there are a few perks to having an editor who knows your work! And speaking of the call, our readers like nothing better than those "I got the call" stories, so how about sharing yours?

LEIGH: I had a pretty amazing first "Call" for my story THE DISCIPLINARIAN, in Secrets Volume 15. I had subbed the first 10-pages, got a request in the mail for the full manuscript, and then the editor called me to buy the story TWO DAYS after she received it. Seriously, no matter where in the world you were on June 2, 2005 at 12:54pm, I'm surprised you didn't hear me scream!


LIANE: Why do you think this story was right for Secrets?

LEIGH: Contrary to what some people think, erotic romance is all about emotion, not all about the sex. Sex is important, but the emotion of the story is equally important, just like in any romance. If you tell an emotional story, with characters that readers will care about, you've done your job as an author. In fact, if you take away all the sex, ideally the story should still be interesting. That extra bit of spice just makes it right for Secrets.


LIANE: I agree, emotion really should drive the heat. I can't imagine writing any other way, myself! Leigh, for some of the authors in this Secrets anthology, as much as a year and a half passed between the time the story was sold and the time the page proofs were delivered. How did you feel looking at your story after so much time? Did mistakes glare at you, or were you still thrilled with your own words?

LEIGH: There is nothing, NOTHING, that beats the feeling of holding your book in your hands for the first time. It's a dream come true. That said, when the giddy glow wears off, you sometimes do read the words and think that you could have written it better! (I guess it's like a painting that way -- does an artist ever know when a masterpiece is 'finished?')

LIANE: You know, my story in Volume 27 was my first sale ever, so while I was overjoyed, like you, I saw so much I could have done better! Leigh, if you could write a sequel to your story, where would it take you?

LEIGH: I could definitely see a sequel to THE BET focusing on the globe-trotting adventures of my hero & heroine.


LIANE: Now there's a story I'd love to read! So, what's next for you as an author?

LEIGH: I just sold a novella to Samhain to be part of a 3-author anthology in September. This will be my first experience with e-publishing!


LIANE: Good luck with it. And spreaking of epublishing, how about you finish the sentence: Small press/epress publishing, not just ________ anymore.

LEIGH: Not just a first step anymore!


LIANE: Great answer! Finally, for our hopeful authors out there, what do you feel is the single most important thing you've done to make your work publishable?

LEIGH: I think the most important thing I've done was just to keep writing. You get better with each story, your craft improves, and when you're ready, you'll sell. Everyone who's any good at anything in this world needs practice/experience before they can succeed!


LIANE: I couldn't agree more! Leigh, thank you so much for sharing your wisdome here at Writer's Gone Wild today. I understand you have a special offer for our commenters today?

LEIGH: Yes, I'll be giving away a one chapter critique of up to twenty pages for one commenter.

LIANE: Wow, not every day an award winning author such as yourself makes such a generous offer! Leigh, if our readers want to learn more about you, your work, and your novella writing workshops, how can they find you?

LEIGH: The best place to learn about me and my work is on my website! And thanks for having me. It's been fun!

Format doesn't matter!

I'm back from the RomAus Brisbane conference and it was amazing. Inspiring. Brilliant! Despite the traditional Australia vs New Zealand trans-Tasman rivalry that is so apparent in sports and sometimes spills over into other aspects of life, too, I was welcomed and made to feel right at home. I think this is a romance writers thing. We romance writers are just plain nice people: what more can I say?

Anyway, I was delighted to learn that I was considered to be a published author by this incredible group of people -- just squeaked in with my novella's wordcount. I even got called up on stage on the Saturday morning and was presented with a First Sale ribbon. How wonderful was that? Pretty darned wonderful! I was so stoked that I'm sure I ended up standing there in front of the entire room with a completely goofy smile plastered all over my face. I'll have to get round to checking out the photos.... Or maybe not, LOL.

And I also got to attend the published author's workshop. I felt a bit of a fraud, though, because the room was full of multi multi-pubbed authors. Really famous, brilliant multi-pubbed authors. And there was much discussion about the joy of going into a bookstore and seeing your book(s) on the shelf.

I have one book out in eBook format so that's kinda not an option for me. And I was half-hoping that someone would speak up for the ePubs -- yanno, someone who's extensively published in eBook format, someone with cred, someone who would just give these wonderful ladies -- and they were truly wonderful! -- a gentle reminder that not all of us will get to hold our book in our hands and stroke the cover. Or sign copies for friends. Or sneak into our local bookstore and rearrange the shelves so our book is at the front.

But hey, that's my issue, not theirs. I should have been the one who spoke up, instead of feeling like I somehow didn't quite deserve to be there. And I'm sure that they all would have been very understanding about my lack of self-esteem.

I mentioned something of the sort to a bunch of ladies who semi-adopted me and was roundly scolded for harboring such ridiculous notions. "You're published!" they said. "We'd love to be in your situation. We're working our butts off to be where you are right now! So don't you dare talk yourself down!" Yikes! I duly considered myself roundly chastised and promptly quit feeling like a poor relation.

And just in case I was still daft enough to be harboring such insidious thoughts, I was soon hit over the head yet again with a reason why I should immediately tromp on them and grind them beneath my heels. This is a freaking awesome story, BTW, and by god, the entire RomAus organisation deserves a medal for their progressiveness. Just sayin'. And when you read on you'll find out why.

So, if you're a romance writer who's ePubbed and a you're member of RWA, you'll doubtless be aware of all the controversy regarding entries into the RITA. If not, then just briefly, the RITA is the RWA National contest for published authors and in order to enter, you must send "proper" printed and bound copies of your book. I won't go into any further detail because the controversy is ongoing, I really don't wish to discuss it here, and besides, it would take an entire post to explain. Suffice it to say that for an ePubbed author, having to produce bound books of the quality required by the RITA rules and regs can present more than a few problems.

Anyway, Romance Writers of Australia (RomAus) has its own pubbed author contest called the R*BY, Romantic Book of the Year. It's a big deal for downunder authors (i.e. those hailing from Australia and New Zealand). And Suzanne Perazzini, one of our RWNZ members, decided to enter two of her books. Except she's ePubbed. So she checked with the contest organisers that it was okay for her to enter and that her entries would be accepted. Wonderful organization that they are, RomAus said, "Yes!".

She duly printed out 7 copies of each book on her printer at home, spiral bound them, and posted them to Australia. Aside from the entry fees, it also cost her a small fortune in postage. Ouch.

And our girl finalled. With both books. Score!

Even better, she won the Romantic Elements category of the R*BY! (And I was so very proud to be sitting at her table and watching her stunned reaction as she went up on stage to receive her award.)

Anyway, here's where it gets really interesting. The category coordinator came over afterward to congratulate Suzanne, and told us that when she opened up the huge great manuscript box and saw the format the entries were presented in, her immediate reaction was, "Poor thing doesn't stand a chance!"

And it gets even better! She also told us that she'd known for ages that Suzanne had won her category, and she was so thrilled for her that it was really difficult not to say anything or let the cat out of the bag. "It just goes to show," she told us. "Format doesn't matter. It's the writing that matters."

And then she quietly told us that even though only winners are announced, Suzanne's second entry, had actually come second in her category as well.

Talk about blow me away. How freaking fantastic is that? I really don't think that many other people in the room understood just how much of a triumph it is to see an e-Published book, printed out at home and spiral bound by the author, win such a prestigious award.

FORMAT DOESN'T MATTER. IT'S THE WRITING THAT MATTERS.

Frame that and hang it on the wall!

And if that hadn't served to wholly convince me that I am a "proper" author, who deserves to sit in on published author workshops, then there was this:

I've been Kindle-d.

A couple of days back I got a Google Alert telling me there is a link to a Kindle edition of Even Demons Get The Blues on Amazon. I can even do a search on my name on Amazon, and my book will come up.

Woot! And I gotta say, that for me, that's just as good as seeing my book on a bookshelf in a bookstore. And I truly mean that. Really.

:-)

Maree

Soundtracks

I love all kinds of music. I'm not one of those people who knows names of every band and every song, but I know what I like. When I'm starting a new story, I usually have a 'soundtrack' of sorts. I listened to a lot of Fergie and Shakira when I wrote Trust No One. For my current WIP, titled Retribution, I finally finished my 'official' soundtrack.


1. She Wolf - Shakira
2. Encanto Natural - Palomino Diaz
3. Dejame Tocar - Correa Bros. & Amy Bell
4. Mariposas - Ilona
5. Please Don't Leave Me - Pink
6. New Divide - Linkin Park
7. The Way I Rock - Beau Black
8. La Belle et le Bad Boy - MC Solaar
9. Carry on Wayward Son - Kansas
10. Second Chance - Shinedown


Each song reminds me of a different part of the novel. I love how a song can put you in a certain mood almost instantly. I might add songs to this soundtrack but for now it's perfect. What about all you writers out there, do you listen to music while writing? And readers, what song has the ability to put a smile on your face instantly? For me, it's pretty much anything by Shakira. The woman is a little eccentric but she's got so much passion and it shows in every note she belts out. I was lucky enough to make it to one of her concerts a few years ago and I keep praying she comes back to my city!

True Blood, baby! (spoilers)

I have a new love. We recently just added HBO to our cable and I found the hotness that is True Blood. LOL.

I had seen a few episodes from season one last year. Of course they gave us the free weekend and played a few to try and addict me, which they did. Still, at the time I didn't see the point in paying all the extra money for one show. See, I'm not a big TV watcher. I knew I wouldn't even watch the channel except for that on hour every Sunday night. So, I held off. After switching cable providers we got offered an awesome deal on HBO so my first though: HELL YES! True Blood. Since then I've devoured all season two both on demand and weekly. I've learned everyone loves Eric and I do too. The man his hot but I have a soft spot for Bill still. Maybe it's because I didn't see all of season one to get the same affect as everyone else? Not sure but I can say I am mad at Eric for tricking her last week but my heart broke for him because of Godrick. That was a powerful scene on that rooftop, wasn't it? I actually had fallen a little in love with Godrick too and it broke my heart that he killed himself.

I can't wait to see where the show goes next. Mary Anne is one freaky chick? Hopefully they can get her out of there soon.

Do you watch True Blood? Eric or Bill? If not, what is your favorite show on TV?

The Ritual of Tea

The ritual of tea is a chance to journey back in time where elegance reins. There's nothing like relaxing and lingering over the lush, steamy brew.

I am an avid tea drinker. (Not just my southern sweet iced tea, either.)
I also collect tea pots.

Normally, I make a mug of tea in microwave and then it's back to writing, marketing, whatever. But sometimes, I take the time to boil water and prepare one of my tea pots with PG Tips or Typhoo tea. The ritual is soothing. Comforting.

What makes a perfect cuppa? A recent book purchase Afternoon Tea by Susannah Blake published by Ryland Peters & Small. ISBN: 978-1-84597-206-6.

Ms. Blake says, "It should be made in a pot and served in thin bone china teacups with saucers. The bew itself should be one that you can barely taste—not because of a weakness of flavor , but because a perfect balance has been achieved. There should be no thinness or bitterness, just a perfectly rounded flavor. When you take your first sip, it should provide instant comfort and refreshment, and not a single jarring sensation.
The key to making a good cup of tea is, of course, the quality of the tea leaves, and the water. The water should be freshly drawn and boiled that (but never reboiled) and the pot must be warmed before you add the tea leaves and water in order to maintain the brewing temperature.
The choice of tea is up to you, depending on whether you want a fragrant Darjeeling, a scented Earl Grey, a full-bodied Assam, or a smoky Lapsan Souchong. Experiment with different brands and try to choose a tea that will complement the delicacies on offer.”

When I’ve reached a spot in my work where something isn’t working I make a mug or pot (depending on how stubborn the problem is) and leisurely sip and think. This process works for me, perhaps it can work for you, too.

The ritual of tea stimulates the body, mind and soul.

Hugs to all,
Tambra/Keelia
Cowboy of the Night and A Cursed Heart both available
From Red Rose Publishing.

Up, up and awaaay!

By the time you read this post -- provided Blogger lets me schedule it! -- I'll be in Brisbane, where I'm attending the Romance Writers of Australia (RomAus) conference. It's my first ever overseas writers' conference, and the first time I've ever travelled overseas on my own. (Well, I did fly overseas back in 1997 to meet up with my husband in Sydney, but I had our then one-year-old daughter with me, AND I was pregnant with our son, so that doesn't count, LOL!)

So this is kind of a big deal for me. If I screw up, I'm on my own. And to make it even more stressful, I'm flying out at a sparrow's fart (as we say in New Zealand) i.e. reeeeally early in the morning, and flying back in around midnight. So there'll be no-one to drop me off and no-one to pick me up. I'm it.

And then there's the horrors of packing for somewhere much warmer and realizing you haven't got any suitable summer footwear--those killer high-heeled sandals are not gonna be comfortable if I have to wear them all day. Do I feel a Brisbane shopping expedition in my future? I'm thinking, oh yeah!

Anyway, the horrors of all the getting-ready-to-go aside, I'm looking forward as all heck to this. First and foremost is the social side -- the opportunity to meet some fellow tweeters and RomAus loopies. Gawd, I hope I don't get an attack of the shys (yes, it does happen!).

There's the e-list dinner tomorrow night -- I hear a rumor about karaoke. Yikes! It'll be a helluva ice-breaker, regardless ;-)

Oooh! And let's not forget the Arabian Nights cocktails party. (Sorry guys, I'm leaving the sparkly harem pants at home. A little too see-through for my liking -- another 500 or so gym sessions needed before those get aired in public. And did I mention they are just so very sparkly?

Saturday morning there's a breakfast for all us SFFP types, a chance to yawn, comiserate on the lack of sleep, and eat -- sounds like a damn fine way to start a day to me, LOL. And that evening there's the awards dinner, where I get to kick back and watch other people try not to fall off the stage or trip down (or up!) the stairs as they collect their awards. (I'll get my turn at the RWNZ awards dinner the next weekend, so I'm hoping the "make a dork of yourself in public" gods are on strike about then.)

So all in all, it's looking set to be a great conference...provided my 4am alarm goes off, and I actually hear the alarm and don't sleep through it, and my car doesn't break down on the way to the airport, so I make my flight!

Catch y'all next week!

:-)
Maree

Outward Appearances

Outward appearances play a huge part in the way we view others. It might not be right, but it's inevitable that most of us make snap decisions about others we're meeting for the first time based at least partially on what the other person looks like. Other things come into play like attitude and body language, but judging others based on outward appearances is part of our biological makeup and in some cases, it can be used as a survival technique but that's another post for another day :)

In romances, our heroes and heroines are always attracted to each other by the end of the story. It might not happen right away and it's often a gradual thing. In some cases, the h/h may have a case of lust at first sight and if the author does it right, she can convince me of love at first sight (check out Julia Quinn's Everything and the Moon for a fantastic example). I'm still on the fence about love at first sight, although Quinn certainly made it convincing. My husband swears it was love at first sight when he met me and after three dates he proposed (it took me a couple days longer to realize I loved him). As a huge romantic, I love the idea of it, but I'm not sure if the line between love and lust gets blurred. What do you think? And what books have you read that are a good example of love at first sight?

Okay, now it's time for some blatant promotion. I have a release today! Finding Hope, a hot romantic suspense, releases from The Wild Rose Press today. When I wrote this story, I wanted to write about a hero who fell for the heroine despite her looks. Hope, my heroine, looks exactly like someone Luke, the hero knows and he has no attraction whatsoever for that woman. When he falls for Hope, it has nothing to do with her face. For more information, click here.

Mmm, love those Alpha males

Today I want to talk about something I think we ALL love: Alpha Males. Now, I have a confession to make, I didn't start reading romances until about four years ago. At that time I was a stay at home mom for the first time, living in a new city, in a new state. I was lonely and honestly, my reading helped me through that hard time in my life. I went from a town where I knew everyone, to a place where I knew no one so I found my friends (and fantasies) within the pages of the books I read.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the topic at hand. Before I started reading romance or erotic romance I never thought the Alpha thing would do it for me. I don't know why. I mean, my hubby is alpha in a way. Not completely but he isn't beta either. I guess he kind of falls in that in between category, if there is one. So I guess in some ways I didn't have a lot of experience with those completely alpha men that I now adore. I love my men cocky, self-assured, and possessive. I mean, I don't want him to be a jerk. I don't want him to think he owns the woman or I don't want him to try and run her life but I do want him to want to protect her, even if she can protect herself. I like my men, manly. I want him to know what he wants and have no problem with admitting it, especially when it is the heroine who he wants.

*sigh* So sexy.

Do you like Alpha males? Who are some of your favorite alphas you've either read or written?

Indulge, much?

I took part in the #askromancewriter discussion on Twitter yesterday, and we got to talking about the things we indulge in to get us through. Yanno, those little things we resort to whenever we need a pick-me-up.

Mine used to be taking time out and relaxing in a hot bubble bath, surrounded by scented candles and a good book. But alas, I've now got allergies to anything highly perfumed, so it's just me and the Epsom Salts. There's also the added downer that although our house now has 3 showers, it only has one small bath... and it's not very private at all. What were they thinking when they didn't put a bath in the ensuite upstairs? The room is flaming big enough! Sorry, but showers just do not have the same level of indulgence as a long hot bubble bath. Which I can no longer indulge in. Sigh....

Anyway, back to the subject.

As much as I enjoy a glass of wine or bubbly, I indulge in a glass a little too often for me to consider either a true treat. No, my idea of an indulgence is something I don't have very often at all. Something that I occasionally crave and can't stop thinking about. Something that makes me feel just a little bit wicked (and a heap more happy!) when I indulge in it.

And mine is chocolate: dark dark, sinfully rich, high-cocoa-content chocolate.

For me, the taste of dark chocolate brings to mind a scene I remember from one of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books. Jean-Claude is by this stage so completely bonded to Anita that he can now experience the pleasure of eating and drinking through her. He coaxes her to eat a certain food and when he tastes it through her, he presses his hands to his lips, partially closes his eyes, practically comes on the spot at the sheer deliciousness of it after so many centuries of deprivation.

Not that I ahh...do a Meg Ryan for real whenever I eat dark chocolate. But it definitely helps improve my mood! Mmmm. Chocolate. Oh, the bitter-sweet, melt-in-your-mouth decadence of it!

One of the tweeters confessed that Denny's Cheese Fries were her secret indulgence. Not entirely sure what they are--perhaps a similar concept to the chilli cheese wedges we get at Denny's in New Zealand? Regardless, they sound absolutely sinful.

For another, it was Pepsi. And as a bonus, the caffeine helps keep her awake when she's pulling a late night because of a writing deadline. And many of the people I follow on Twitter have tweeted about a particular food, snack, or dessert that they like to indulge in.

Funny how so far these indulgences are all food-related? Let's not even go there, okay? LOL. I do follow a couple people who tweet about their passion for shoes. Calorie-free, perhaps, but certainly a wee tad more impactful on the wallet! Think I'll stick to my chocolate bars so my husband doesn't have kittens when the credit card bills arrive.

Seems to me, that we all--especially in today's tough economic climate--need some little indulgence, something that we can use to get us back in the right headspace when we're doing it tough. Or alternately, to treat ourselves with when it's just gone right for us and we want to celebrate!

So c'mon, spill. Anyone else brave enough to share their secret indulgence? That thing you suddenly crave and just can't stop thinking about? That thing you suddenly just know you want and must have?

Mmmm. I'm visualising a nice big slice of chocolate brownie right now. Guess what I'll be having we go out after Ceroc dance class tonight? I can almost taste the chocolately goodness now....

;-)

M

Plagiarism?

I just read an article that Stephenie Meyer is being accused of plagiarism. Obviously I don't know all the details but what I've read so far is sketchy. An author named Jordan Scott is planning to file a copyright infringement suit against Meyer claiming that there are plot similarities between an apparently obscure book she wrote called The Nocturne and SM's Breaking Dawn. First, I'd like to say I've read neither book and I'm not actually a fan of SM. It's not that I don't like her work, I just don't read YA.

Why the claim of plagiarism? "In a cease-and-desist letter Williams sent to Hachette Book Group, he provided comparisons from the two books of a wedding, a sex-on-the-beach episode and a passage where a human-turned-vampire describes the wrenching change." (I copied this from the above linked article.) Oh, and another example she used is that both heroes called their wives 'love'.

Um, seriously? That's what she's using for the basis of this suit? I can't count the books I've read that contained weddings, sex on the beach, and heroes (or heroines) calling each other love. Personally I think it's a stupid nickname that would sound awkward in real life. I much rather prefer sweetheart or babe (even though that one gets overused too) b/c they sound more natural. Okay, back to the point. The examples the author is using are weak at best, especially the one about how the human-turned-vampire goes through a wrenching change. I don't read many vampire books but I do read a lot of shifter stories and so many different authors use the same terminology, (alpha, beta, etc). but as long as it isn't a Janet Daily/Nora Roberts thing going on, it's highly unlikely there was any plagiarism. Sounds like someone simply wants to cash in.

I'm interested to see how this plays out. Thoughts, opinions?

Hi, my name is Madison and I'm an erotic romance author

Have you ever told someone you read or write erotic romance only to have them look at you like either



A. You just sprouted another head.



Or



B. Like you just admitted to some horrible, deep dark secret that they wished you would have or think you SHOULD have, kept to yourself?



Now don't get me wrong I know that everyone has their own comfort level. Some people are okay with shouting their reading/writing preferences from the rooftops while others keep their preferences a little more quiet. No matter which of the above ways you feel or if you're somewhere in between there's nothing wrong with it. Everyone should do what makes them feel comfortable but I have to admit, I wonder what the big deal is. I will also fully admit that there are SOME people who have no clue what I write and never will. I understand the comfort level of those I know and I try to respect them but there is that other side of me who wants to tell them, "hey, it's just sex. What's the big deal?". I mean as long as it's consenting adults doing the reading, writing, or performing ;), I just don't get why we should be ashamed of it. I don't get why writing or reading about a basic human emotion or action is bad. What's wrong with helping add a little spice to some one's marriage? Or giving someone a little something spicy to dig their teeth into on a lonely night. Even more important, what's wrong with reading a really well written story that just so happens to have some hot sex thrown in?

How do you feel about "coming clean" about your reading or writing preferences? Any stories about wild reactions when someone found out what you read/write?

Getting Back on Track

Getting back on track has been slow for me.

I've only written in spurts and then the chronic fatigue bites me in the butt and I have to go and take a nap. This is not the way to get my projects finished.

In my mind, I've at least determined which ones come first. But they're all needing to be finished right now.

So, I'm asking what y'all do when you have more than one deadline looming over your head.

Hugs and thanks for the suggestions!
Tambra
Cowboy of the Night: Recommended Read! Available from Red Rose Publishing
A Cursed Heart by Keelia Greer, a recommended read from Red Rose Publishing
Goin' Down Book Two from Aspen Mountain Press