Alison Kent's Blah Blog

I have a good dozen-plus books here to package up and mail out to recent contest winners, so please bear with me! It’s just more than I can fit in at the moment since my schedule consists of writing and, uh, writing. And more writing. And writing on top of that. *g*

From Access Romance:

There’s been a lot of stir over the past couple of years over sex and its role in romance–how much sex there should be, when it’s appropriate, and even how the characters should have sex.

Almost without exception, the debate ends up dissolving into insult. One side sniffs, “Those erotic romances have no plot–they’re just all about sex and nothing else!” The other sneers, “Some people are just uncomfortable with their bodies and just think sex is dirty!” And then it quickly becomes a mud-slinging contest, where one group is hypocritical and judgmental and the other is over-sexed and amoral and, within a few short exchanges, each hates the other more than ever.

In short, both sides seem to do a lot of talking, but neither seem to do much LISTENING. And I’m concerned by that.

Go check it out! Good stuff!

Yesterday, PBW posted an entry about writing where she said:

With all our technology, electronic gadgets and wireless wonders, we’ve been made more efficient, more productive writers, and I’m not knocking that. I appreciate it a lot. But I do all this homemade, hand-written, artistic stuff because it reminds me of who I am. I’m not e-mail. I’m not a PDA. I’m not a laptop. I’m a writer. Writing is my living, but it’s also my passion.

Here is what I posted in the comments (with the added visual of the WIP):

I handwrite huge chunks of my books. I have a fountain pen that was a Christmas gift from my agent several years ago, and with just the right paper, it flows beautifully. I type fairly fast, so I’m always ahead of the thought process when writing. When I handwrite sections of chapters and chunks of conversation, it’s a much more natural flow because the pen on the page allows me to reach a stream of consciousness I am never able to do by typing.

To me, typing is work, writing is creating. It’s very strange, I know, but it has to do with the pen being one or two words behind my thoughts, allowing me to keep thinking rather than the fingers on the keyboard always being ahead and waiting. When that happens, I lose the flow, and stumble.

I LOVE handwriting. I do all my story notes, my brainstorming, everything by hand. And I keep ALL my notebooks! Since I wrote while commuting for so many years, I got into the handwriting habit and think it’s one I’d rather not break. Of course, I hate having to then type in all that I’ve written, but it works as an editing stage. I’ve written by hand, and then I edit by typing so that once it’s on the page, I’m done.

Now, I’ve also written a WHOLE lot of manuscript pages on my Alphasmart, so it’s not like I can’t keyboard. (And, as we know, years and YEARS ago, in the days of HUGE glasses and BIG hair, I was known to dictate, ahem.) But when I’m stuck, there’s nothing like that nib scratching over paper to clear my head and start the flow.

And then because she’s too cute not to share (and because I got a new phone with a camera), here is Geisha, the (former) FVT’s shelter “puppy”. She’s 7 months old, 50#, all lanky legs and body and smiling doll face – and has been part of the family since January.

I’ve updated my sidebar with my (very limited) 2006 & 2007 releases because I found out yesterday that my November Blaze title won’t be INFATUATED at all, but will be INFATUATION. This is fine with me, as I believe I had actually sent that in as a top choice and it was tweaked along the way, but the change is being made because the book is already listed on Amazon as INFATUATION!

I don’t know where in the process the goof happened, but it did! (And the link to Beyond A Shadow doesn’t yet work; I just plugged in the ISBN since I got it this morning.) Also, the FIRST thing I’ll be doing once I hit this deadline is FINALLY porting over my Website into my new design, so look for that at least by the first of July. Still a lot of copying and pasting to do, though the design is in place!

Besides forgetting how much I LOVE Bucky Covington’s voice, can I just say . . . where else can you see live performances by Al Jarreau, Live, Meatloaf, Mary J. Blige, Tony Braxton, Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, Dionne Warwick and Prince?

Update: Walt has more observations on the finale (and a giveaway!).

Copyright © 2006 Random House Kodansha Co., Ltd. All Right Reserved.

I wish I hadn’t lost the manuscript for The Shaughnessey Accord when my hard drive crashed or I’d paste here the scene that I think this cover is representing – a cherry scented bubble bath shared by Tripp and Glory. *g* Oh, and I got a note this morning from the editor in Japan who says:

Tripp’s is titled in Japanese as “Sweet Fingertips”. Sometime I feel so guilty to have a title which is completely different from the original one, but to make the book most attention getting on the storefront, the translation is not catchy enough.

UPDATE: And the winners are . . . Kat C., Kris, Aztec Lady, Nienke, Crystal*

I rarely check my Website’s stats. Lately, I just haven’t had time, but even before I got so busy that blogging had to take a back seat, I didn’t pay a lot of attention. I knew who was visiting by the comments left here and the conversations we have – as well as the ones you have without me. Anyhow, I ran across a post yesterday when following some link, and the blogger commenting mentioned a monstrous jump in traffic since adding a blog to an existing site. So I decided to check my stats.

And, no. I wasn’t setting you up to share them with you. I was setting you up for a huge thank you! Here I’ve been a horrible blogger for at least two months while getting these two pressing books finished up, yet you all have continued to stop by. My stats are down a wee bit, but nothing like I would expect when I’ve given you no reason to come back! If you’ll hang with me till the end of the month, that will all be remedied. I promise I shall return to my snarky yammering self.

I’m entering the manic phase of the book. The phase where I have to do a certain number of pages every day no matter what. And honestly? I love knowing I’m not the only one who hits this spot. Lee Goldberg recently said:

(…) I torture myself by counting how many days I have left until the book is due, how many pages I have to write a week, a day, an hour to make the deadline (…)

I hate getting down to the wire where I count pages per hour. It seems so . . . desperate. Which I suppose I am! But I’ll do it. I’ll get there. At the moment I’m still fighting a major plot point, and it doesn’t seem possible. But I’ve been here before and I trust when the time is right the solution will be there – else I’ll be in a big fat bunch o’ trouble!

One of the reasons I’m dying to be done – besides the obviousmess of being done – is because I have let EVERYTHING around my house go this year. Just go. It’s horrible. The son is moving out the first of June (he was wooed back to an amazing job he’d quit a year or so ago, yay, and was offered additional perks), and my empty nest will be almost complete. (The stepson swears he’s going soon after; we shall see.) I’m dying to clean and organize and THROW AWAY CRAP. (Hush, Walt.) I’m also DYING to sit in my backyard and do nothing for a week but read. READ, READ, READ. I can’t wait.

Speaking of reading and organizing, the dh recently relocated all of my author copies from their boxes to a new bookshelf, and I see I am overflowing with copies of BEACH BLANKET BAD BOYS. If you’d like a copy, sing out here in the comments and give me your favorite cleaning/organizational/unclutering tip! On Saturday, the 27th, at noon central, I’ll draw 5 names to receive a copy.

UPDATE: And the winners are . . . Allison, Ellen L, Crystal F, Leippya, and Linda H

. . . and I still have copies of DEEP BREATH to giveaway, I’ll do that now in lieu of a real post.

To help you decide if you really want one for yourself, or even for a friend, here are all the posts I’ve linked to previously during my viral blogging blitz – or at least all the ones I could find (in no particular order – if you blogged and I’m missing it here, let me know) – so you can see if you’re even interested. *g* (Note: Many of them point out PROBLEMS in the book; no, I’m not too proud to let you know that I’m not so perfect that I work for every reader!)

Kelly, Stacy, Sybil, Alyssa, Emma, Laurie, Pink Pen, PBW, Jane, Night Howls , Lynn Raye Harris, Shelly, Romance Reviews Today, Bella Online, Maura, and Caro . . . Updated to add: Jaye.

Now, to win, post a comment and tell me what fun stuff you’ll be doing this summer. I’m in need of fun stuff in a very bad way, so let me live vicariously through all of you until I can shed this ball and chain and get out in a couple of weeks! *g* We finally hit summer here on the Texas Gulf Coast yesterday – 92 degrees with 63% humidity. It’s always in May when we switch from breezy and bearably warm to plain ol’ hot. I still try to write outside if I can (with a fan close by), but right now my allergies are bugging me too much and I’m having to stay in the air conditioning. I’ll choose five winners next Wednesday, the 24th, noon central.

From Jo Leigh:

I’m going nuts trying to find someone, anyone, to help me with the research on amputation. It’s so critical to the book that I can’t possibly complete the book without it. I’ve posted on loops and here, and all I can do is ask for one last favor from my kind friends – please, if you have a blog, if you have a writer’s loop, could you please ask if anyone can help? Maybe they know someone who’d be willing to talk to me? I would appreciate it more than you know. I’m at the end of my rope.

Here’s what I’m looking for – someone who has direct experience with a hand or arm amputation. They can reach me at jo_leigh@infostations.com.

From Karen Templeton:

Heard yesterday (and this is confirmed) that Silhouette Intimate Moments is being “renamed” to Silhouette. . .Romantic Suspense. Yeah, that’s a catchy name, huh?