Alison Kent's Blah Blog

My kids are all three attendants in an OUTDOOR wedding tonight . . .

One big freakin’ hour of a sobfest. OMG what a show!

. . . all will be revealed in good time. I need some input. I will eventually explain why, but for now I must be cryptic! *g*

This is a reader / author survey. You can reply in the comments section, or if you’re more comfortable, email me at info@alisonkent.com.

If you were a fly on the wall where a group of authors writing in the ever changing and often controversial erotic romance genre were talking shop, what would you want to hear, or to learn, or to discover, or even to ask? From a writing aspect, a reading aspect, anything goes! Think focus group or think tank or marketing analysis. I’m all ears!

Coming back to add a couple of great links with discussions on the subject? Cece here, and Jaq here.

Sorry I’m so out of it these days. SO much work to be done at the end of the month each month in the way of web updates. Too bad I never manage to get my own done, eh? *g* I will have more info on changes to my site soon but in the meantime, if you want to get an exclusive excerpt from my novella, LUV U MADLY, in the Blaze anthology, RED LETTER NIGHTS, the Access Romance Sneak Peek newsletter will be sending one out later this week. Go sign up – it’s the second newsletter listed on the page – and you’ll get a fun look at Randy and Claire.

Fresh from today’s email . . .

Soap star Philece Sampler (Days of Our lives, Another World, Rituals) has partnered with former Playgirl managing editor Charlene Keel to launch TantalizingTales.com, an e-publishing venture. The site (www.tantalizingtales.com) presents Keel’s previously published books, uncut and uncensored, with steamy new scenes added. The publishers are actively seeking submissions in all genres.

Keel is the only editor in Playgirl history to have been fired and then hired back. Her books are no longer in print and are now available exclusively at TantalizingTales.com. Titles offered on the site include The Sky’s The Limit, I’ll Do Anything, Come Slowly Eden, Fourplay Girls (a collection of four super-sexy short stories first published in Playgirl) by Cajun Faun & Lynne Osborne, and the autobiography of striptease artist, Jennifer Diamond. Erotic historical romances by Kathryn Fairfax are also featured.

“It’s no secret that e-book sales are exploding,” says Sampler, whose memorable 2-day diatribe made soap opera history when her character, Renee DiMera was killed off Days of Our Lives. “And in addition to e-books for sale, we offer a free e-zine section.”

E-zine departments include Show & Tail (hunky TV soap actors and celebrity gossip); Passionate Places (romantic travel) and Passionate Picks (products to enhance romance); Director’s Chair, where readers can direct the action; and Sexy Serials, where books are presented as continuing stories with a new chapter added every month.

“But be advised—this is romantic erotica,” Keel adds. “It’s not hard-core porn. Adults interested in passionate stories for women, by women, and about women—and the men they love to love—will enjoy www.tantalizingtales.com. And while much of our inventory is erotic, we’re interested in any tale that’s considered tantalizing—to the brain or the body.”

I’m trying to decide whether or not to join the National Novel Writing Month this year. I mean, it’s not like I don’t have enough writing to see me through the month.

Looking at my schedule, I see that I need to write 210 manuscript pages during November, plus my quota of non-fiction pages. That amount fits within the NaNoWriMo requirements.

However, those 210 pages are divided between two stories, so I suppose that’s cheating since the rules state:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Anyhow, I think half the fun of NaNoWriMo is the camaraderie, and honestly? I have enough trouble keeping up with the emails and blogging rounds I make now. I think I’ll give NaNoWriMo a pass, but I will post my progress since I need something to keep me honest!

BTW, the Astros game last night ran from 7:30 p.m. until 1:20 a.m. Oy! And, yes. I watched it all. Even though we’re losing, this has been some suspenseful baseball. I’m loving it!

I started watching the game in the commons at the FVT’s campus while she was in class. I’d driven her to the school since she still had too much vertigo to be behind the wheel. I can’t believe how much work I got done while I was there. I’m thinking a working environment, working in a working environment . . . yeah, maybe I need to spend my days at the college and see how much I can actually get done!

First off, about the weekend. It doesn’t matter how old your kids are. When they get sick, nothing else exists. The FVT came home from work early Friday with weird symptoms that mirrored the dh’s inner ear problems from earlier in the week. He sucked it up and never told me how bad his were until he spent one day in bed. She was scared to death, and let me know. She was better by Saturday night, so we figured it was viral (being the Internet doctors that we are!), but then by Monday it wasn’t so good again, sigh. She went to the doc first thing, and she’s better – though not 100% – but still. I was useless over the weekend. Thank goodness I had two brainless World Series games to watch. Even if the outcome wasn’t so good, watching and doing burgers one day, fajitas the other kept me busy. I also used most of Saturday and Sunday to go through my Deep Breath copy edits, and they’re on their way back to Kensington. Fun reading the book again after the time away, and not such a bad effort – if I do say so myself! I always find things I want to change, and did a lot of word tweaks while going through. But I left the bigger picture, i.e., well enough alone.

So, yesterday. I spent it working at the old day job. That’s right. Caught the bus, wore makeup and panty hose, did miscellaneous clerical tasks to help in a bind. One of my old co-workers is on vacation, and another has been reassigned to a refinery in Louisiana. That left two doing the work of at least four, if not five. Pretty funny to go into a temp situation, be given carte blanche and autonomy to go through mail, input and run checks, balance ledger entries, reconcile accounts. *g* Even funnier to remember how to do everything (but for a small change in the check running system) after 21 months away! It was a nice break. I don’t take brain breaks very often. Er, I never take brain breaks, but this was a left brained/right brained switch I needed. Of course, first trip to the restroom, I put my hand through the knee of my panty hose. And when I got dressed in the morning, I had to dig for makeup since I rarely wear it and mascara was in one drawer, blush in another, eye shadow packed away. I fixed both my breakfast and my lunch, went off and left all of it sitting on the counter, sigh. I am just way out of practice functioning anywhere but in Alison’s Writing World!

Because I’ve had the weekend from down below and don’t even have time to explain, I’m ripping off PBW and her commenters:

PBW’s Short Golden Writer Rules

1. Don’t explain the book.
2. Don’t defend the book.
3. If it sucks, trash it.
4. If it’s solid, pitch it.
5. Focus.
6. Tell the truth.
7. Teach for free.
8. Kiss no ass.
9. Forgive and forget.
10. If you can’t do #9, shut up.

No Whining

Just Write

No Excuses

Be Thankful

“Failure is effortless. Success is a pain in the ass.”
“There’s a reason first drafts are called ‘rough’.”
“You can’t please everyone.”
“No one ever made money from planning except consultants.”
“Your worst enemy is the guy who says your work is perfect.”
“Never listen to a Monday morning quarterback.”

Courtesy of Sylvia. From the PASIC 2 B Read blog:

I admit it, I am thoroughly hooked on the TV show LOST. For me as a viewer, it’s a great thrill ride. But as a writer, it’s like being immersed in a living how-to manual. I’ve never seen a show that displays Point of View or Inner Conflict as brilliantly as LOST.

Ten Things I’ve Learned From Lost Pt 1

Ten Things I’ve Learned From Lost Pt 2

This morning I decided I needed to get organized. Yes, I can hear everyone who knows me well ROFL their collective AO! *gg* Thing is, I’m writing on multiple books. One would think this wouldn’t be that big of an issue to keep organized – except I don’t sit at a desk and write. I write by hand. In the backyard. In the park. In the living room while watching the HOUSTON ASTROS. *g* I have too many notebooks and scraps of paper and index cards floating around, and I fear losing something vital. Losing the hard drive and years worth of story ideas was hard enough to deal with! Losing anything on a WIP would kill me!

Anyhow, all authors I know are office supply junkies. I may be more so than most since I do write by hand and have to have all sorts of pens and notebooks. Though, actually, since my agent gave me a fountain pen for Christmas about 3 years ago, I’ve written with nothing else. I LOVE my fountain pen. And since the FVT gave me a bundle of colored legal pads for my birthday, I’m set on the paper front for awhile!

So, once the coffee had done it’s job, I grabbed a 3-ring binder and a 3-ring punch out of the file cabinet and went to work. First, I printed out everything I had written on each project – or at least everything written on the sections I need to concentrate on right now. The Blaze, the Brava, the non-fiction project, and the new story idea that attacked (and which the SeaAggie brainstormed with me last night since it’s an idea right up her reading alley!).

I assigned each story a paper color and stuck 6 or so sheets of legal paper for each into the binder behind a pocket divider along with the printed manuscript pages. (That’s for today. I can’t see going through more than 6 sheets for each in one writing session, LOL!) I also tucked all the notes I had on each down inside the pockets of the dividers. Now it’s off to the park for a productive day! (Yes, I’m getting a late start, but such is my schedule!)

On another topic, I would like reader input on erotic romance authors. (My own personal fave is Shannon McKenna.) So as not to make anyone uncomfortable, just email me at this link and tell me who you think is the best in the field, whose stories you can’t wait for, etc. I do have a reason for asking which I’ll share at a later date. : wink : You can post here, too, if you’d like. I just wanted to offer both options.