Alison Kent's Blah Blog

I’m giving away a copy of Judy Cuevas’s BLISS. To be eligible, just tell me in the comments the most you’ve ever paid for a collectible book and the title. If you’ve never bought one, tell me that instead. Then tell me who you’ll share the book with once you’re finished reading it, or let me know if you’ll keep it for your shelves. Just curious!

I’ll let this run until April 15th, and will draw a name that evening around 8:00 p.m. central.

Update: Speaking of collectibles . . . someone calling themselves ANNABANANASEARCH on Amazon.com is selling used copies of my out-of-print books for ridiculous prices. DO NOT BUY THEM. Almost all the same books are available at Half.com for $0.75 – and if someone wants their copy signed, all they have to do is send me the book to the address on my contact page with a SAS-return envelope. There’s no reason to pay $15.00 or $17.00 or $24.00. Puh-lease.

When I’m writing I like to go with the flow, to let the characters and plot take me where they will. Being a pantser is exciting, and there are often surprises around every corner. But when it comes to my career as a writer, it’s a whole different bag. I’m a plotter. I need to know where I’m going, I need to plan and chart my course, so I can be sure I’m doing everything in my power to get where I want to go.

Goal-setting is so important, especially for writers. It’s far too easy to sit at the computer checking emails, loops, blogs and websites until a day has passed … a week … a month, and before you know it you don’t have an awful lot to show for the time spent staring at the screen.

Not only is it important to set goals, but it’s important to write them down. Writing out your goals allows the message to travel from the brain to the hand to the page, then as you read them back the message travels from the page to the eye to the brain, thus making your goals more concrete. Does this make them more achievable? I believe it does, as seeing your goals set out on the page, preferably in your own handwriting, makes them real. Also, as you keep looking at them, the words are driven into the brain and eventually become part of consciousness. You can even write them down fresh every day, which will help reinforce their impact. I have a lovely online writer friend and each week we email each other our goals for the week. At the end of each week we report on how things went, and if we didn’t reach our weekly goals we explain why not. Then we set the next week’s goals, and so on. We’ve both found that when we do this, our writing flows better and we get much more done.

While I like to dream BIG, letting my imagination go wild in the process, when I’m setting goals I use the SMART approach. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-related. “I’m going to write a book” or even “I’m going to write a book by Christmas” might be worthy goals but they’re not SMART … both are too vague, too easily put aside to focus on other things … and before you know it you’re setting the same goal twelve months later.

There are variations on the terms that make up SMART, but here’s my take …

SPECIFIC – What are you going to do and how are you going to do it? “I will write 500 words a day on my WIP before checking my emails or surfing the web” (oh, please, a dark chill has just swept down my spine). But this is a very specific and is …

MEASURABLE – I will write 500 words per day, seven days a week. You’ll know when it’s happened because you’ll have those 500 words on the page, which in turn will make you want to get 500 words down tomorrow, and the next day. Then you’ll be thinking like a winner, you’ll feel you’ve succeeded – and as we all know, nothing succeeds like success  Just make sure the goals you set are …

ACHIEVABLE – goals need to feel within reach, but make sure they stretch you. If we set unrealistic goals that need a huge commitment on our part, we’re likely to feel overwhelmed before we start, and it’s easy to let good intentions fall away at the first sign of difficulty. Equally, goals need to make us feel challenged. “I’m going to write a chapter each day until this book is finished!” Yeah, right. But 500 words a day, or 3500 each week, will get that chapter written. But again, stretch yourself a little, or it won’t seem particularly satisfying. Remember, we want that self esteem to soar!

RELEVANT – how do your goals fit with your long term plans? Are they consistent with other goals? Will they feed into your dreams and ambitions for yourself? Say your goal for the week is to rework a synopsis of an old oft-rejected manuscript, but your editor is screaming for those edits by Friday close of business. Is working on that synopsis relevant right now? Well, it might be if your overall goal is to be the very best synopsis writer in the universe, but if you want a career as a successful writer, I’d go for the editor option 

TIME-RELATED – put a time factor into the equation, otherwise things remain too vague and it’s easy to give priority to other things (remember that Internet surfing? Constant email checking?) Procrastination is the thief of time! No time factor = no urgency. Set those goals and make sure you’ve got a date by which you want them achieved.

And that’s all there is to it.

Richard Bach wrote, “You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it come true”. Setting SMART goals is one mighty step toward getting that power, and making those dreams come true.

Where will your road take you? Good luck!

Tricia Jones
http://www.tricia-jones.com
http://www.tricia-jones.blogspot.com
His Convenient Affair (Samhain Publishing, Aug 2007)

After all the excitement of having finally, finally received The Call (on the casino floor in Reno at RWA National, no less) I was left with the realization that I’d sold on two chapters and a synopsis for a Young Adult novel, a genre in which I never— let me repeat that —never expected to find myself writing. But my darling friend Alesia Holliday kept encouraging me, “You should write a YA.” My agent was a little more, erm, direct. “There’s an editor looking for Latina YA. Work something up.”

‘Scuse me? I mean, I’ll tell y’all what I told them. I wasn’t YA when I WAS YA, if you get what I’m saying. Because of circumstance and just my general nature, I was more or less an adult by the time I was twelve. The “normal” experiences of a teenager weren’t necessarily mine. Okay… well then. There was my hook for a YA. I wouldn’t try to write about what I thought a teenager should be— I would write about a teenager who was a little out of step with her peers. Who interacted better with adults than people her age and who was considered an equal by most adults because of her gift of music. In other words, I wrote from experience.

And there was my first lesson in writing YA— as with every other genre—write what you know or what you have a passion for. I got to indulge both with ADIÓS. God knows, I know from Cuban-American girls growing up in Miami and my other lifelong passion besides reading and writing is music. My second lesson in writing YA came from another dear friend, Marianne Mancusi, who, when I was whining along the lines of, “Oh man, how do I write for teenagers?” basically said, “You write the same way you would for adults, just from the mindset of a teenager. Do what it takes to get back into it, but whatever you do, don’t write down to them, because they’ll spot that BS from a mile away.”

Another lesson taken very much to heart. So, because I was coming at this from a women’s fic/romance background, I spun in some drama, a little romance, a little intrigue and jealousy, all tailored to the setting of an “American Idol” type television show with a Latin twist. And whaddaya know? It worked. I got my first inkling that I’d succeeded when I began receiving emails from women who said, “I bought this book for my daughter, but wanted to skim it first before I gave it to her—once I started, I couldn’t put it down!”

Then, the Cherries (AKA the Jennifer Crusie Fans) who count among their numbers some of the most voracious readers on the planet, started writing. “I picked it up to support a fellow Cherry, but I really didn’t think I’d be able to relate to a Cuban-American teenager from Miami who’s a musician. Boy, was I wrong!”

That’s been the recurring theme with ADIÓS—it’s defied expectations at every turn. I call it the Little Book That Could, because it continues to do things and take me places I would have never expected, most recently of course, the double Rita finals. I know Alison already blogged about it and used my own words with which to explain the situation in which I found myself so I won’t rehash the whole thing here. However, what finaling in Contemporary Single Title does for me, especially, is restore my faith that a good book is a good book is a good book. It can transcend category definitions (within reason, of course— I’m not seeing ADIÓS having done real well in Short Historical, for example ) and simply be deemed worthy of recognition, which is all I really wanted in the first place. Admittedly, I write towards the higher end of the YA spectrum, with respect to the age of my characters, but I like to think ADIÓS resonated with so many people because we can all relate, just a little bit, to the seventeen year old we once were and that people find it unique and interesting because it gives them a peek into a vibrant culture and city with which they might not be familiar.

Of course, among all my happiness and pride in the double final, I’m also kind of sad. You see, because YA didn’t make it as a category this year, there are so many good books that aren’t receiving their own slice of the spotlight. Mari Mancusi’s delicious BOYS THAT BITE and STAKE THAT!; Serena Robar’s BRACED 2 BITE; Simone Elkeles’ HOW TO RUIN A SUMMER VACATION; Bev Katz Rosenbaum’s I WAS A TEENAGE POPSICLE; Jennifer Echols’ MAJOR CRUSH and so many others. So, so many wonderful books and I want to honor them, because above all, I respect this genre I unexpectedly found myself writing in. So regardless of whether or not I win, the fact I was nominated means I get to carry at least a piece of that YA banner, which I will proudly do on Rita night.

As far as what I’m wearing for the big event? I’m plotting as we speak. Stay tuned…

–
Barbara Ferrer http://barbaraferrer.com
ADIÓS TO MY OLD LIFE July, 2006 Bronze medal: 2006 Florida Book Awards
IT’S NOT ABOUT THE ACCENT August, 2007
as Caridad Ferrer http://www.caridadferrer.com/
Pocket/MTV Books

When I was growing up I was never on a team, never in a group, never part of a special community. When I first discovered the online romance community I was amazed. Here were people, just like me, chatting about the books I loved and hated, swapping recommendations, mentioning authors I loved. Hell, even some of my favorite authors were blogging. It was an incredible discovery. (Yes, I’m pathetic). Those first few months were a dream. Commenting on posts I found interesting, reading in-depth reviews of the genre I love, entering contests while I was kept awake at night with insomnia.

I lived in this marshmallow sweet world for almost a year before I learned of the dark currents which ran beneath. It was only recently I heard of this ‘gap’ between readers and authors. I think it was on SFC or Dear Author. And I was so surprised by some of the passionate comments. It was almost as if one side hated the other.

Huh?

I though we as romance readers loved romance authors. Why? Because they provide us with our romance novels.

Yes, I know I’m naive but that’s how I perceived it. As the issue was raised on many other blogs I began to see why there was so much tension. Some authors were offended by some of the harsh reviews they’d received from readers. Some readers felt the authors were know-it-alls and intruding on reader territory (how masculine does that sound?) Another problem readers complained about was that authors weren’t commenting on readers’ blogs.

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My love of reading began at an early age, thanks to my mother. It was further reinforced by my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Yates. She would take off her shoes and walk up and down the aisles in her stockinged feet. The cadence of her voice, the slight scrape of the pages turning and the scratching sound of her stockings rubbing together had a calming–almost drugging–effect on me. Crazy as that may sound. I got used to this routine every day of my life during the fifth grade and have enjoyed it ever since. I was exposed to S.E. Hinton’s The Oustsiders in this very way during Humanities in the 7th grade. That same year, during recess, I caught the writing bug. As I honed my skills, the way I read books changed. Now that I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, every book I read after that left me with questions: “Where did they get the idea from?” “Why did they give the character that name?” “Does this place really exist?” If I enjoyed the book, I always made sure I wrote the author telling them so. Now, in my late 30’s and writing for teens, I still like to know where other authors get their ideas. So I thought I might share mine.

My first book, Secrets and Kisses (Mar 2004), sprouted from two ideas: my first kiss and my favorite t.v. show at the time, 21 Jump Street. Skylar Knight is 17-yrs-old and she’s in her final week of school. In between studying for finals and working her part time job at the mall, she’s getting kissing lessons. Yes, you read that right. Kissing lessons. You see, Blair Neuman, the most popular girl at school, is having an End of the Year Bash at her house for juniors only. And everyone knows what’s going to happen there: The Kissing Game. A new version of Spin the Bottle, but without the bottle (you’ll have to read it to see what I mean). Skylar knows her crush, Kedren Price, will be there and horror of horrors, she has no idea how to kiss! With the insistence of her best friend, Skylar begins her lessons in a most unconventional way. During the course of the week, she overhears conversations about Kedren and Blair and Skylar starts to wonder if she has more to worry about than lack of pucker power. Be sure to check out the start-up blog http://secretsandkisses.wordpress.com hosted by an older and wiser Skylar Knight.

Dance Jam Productions (Sept 2004) came to fruition through a reoccurring dream and one boring day the summer before my senior year of high school. Mataya “Mattie” Black Hawk loves to dance. When her favorite local teen dance show, “Dance Jam Productions”, hosts a contest to find new regulars, Mattie and her friends make the trek down to the park to sign up. Only to find out that she’s going to be paired up with a guy? A guy she doesn’t even know? Fantastic. Not! Enter Jarek Thanos. A guy who, as it turns out, she knows so it’s all good. Especially when they become one of twelve finalist couples who have to come up with a dance routine for the Dance-Off the following week. No problem. But teenagers are showing up on the news with scars on their sides and foul play is pointing to “Dance Jam Productions.” Not good. However, that’s the least of their problems. Jarek is starting to show an interest in Mattie, and she’s been hiding her own scars for the past ten years… Be sure to check out the start-up blog http://dancejamproductions.wordpress.com hosted by an older and wiser Mattie Black Hawk.

My current project, a YA series called Draven Atreides, Teenage FBI, was inspired by Sydney Bristow, Buffy Sommers…and my niece. Draven Atreides (pronounced Dray-ven A-tray-deez) is 16-yrs-old. She’s been in the foster care system all her life, she graduated from high school at the age of 13…and she’s been hired by the FBI as an informant. The FBI has a lot of criminals on their Wanted lists. Ever wonder if those lists could be whittled down with a little help from a teenager? You’re about to find out. The first draft of Book One, A Royale Pain, is complete and I’m working on Book Two: A Whole Latte Trouble.

My first two books were self-published, but I decided to go the traditional route with the series. That’s always been a goal of mine and I decided, “Why not?” Go for it and see what happens. It wouldn’t hurt to try. I’m currently looking for an agent and have been chronicling the journey on my blog at http://geminiwisdom.blogspot.com. 75 agencies (and counting), 30 rejections (so far), 11 requests for partials (a couple willing to see it again if a 2nd draft is done) and still waiting to hear from 40 more…it’s hurting a little more than I thought it would, but I’m trying to keep a stiff upper lip. One of the many things I love about writing is that I have the ability to take experiences, dreams, shows, music, anything I think up and blow them out of proportion to create this wonderfully fantastic fictitous world. A wonderfully fantastic fictitous world based in Phoenix, AZ, that is. Man, I love that.

Hi. My name is Celise Downs. And I’m a Young Adult Fiction author.

Celise Downs was born and raised in Phoenix, AZ. She’s a newlywed of six months and shares her home with a talkative Tabby cat named Sweetpea. When she’s not writing, she loves to read, watch her shows (Smallville, Supernatural, Bones, Heroes) and go to the movies. You can visit her on her soon-to-be-revamped site at www.celisedowns.com.

Here is Kris at the Borders in Ocoee, FL winning the first of my five bookstore gift certificates. Congratulations, Kris!

I’ll have a contest going up on the first of the month on the Contest & Giveaway section of my News & More page. The prize for that one is going to be a $50 gift certificate to either BN.com or Amazon.com. Stay tuned for that news, and other updates.

I took off from work on Friday to bury my head in the writing (even though we did go to the IMAX on Thursday night after work to see 300.) Then I spent yesterday running back and forth between the backyard where I was writing (with Snickers keeping me company, either hanging out in my chair or gutting her loofa dog on the trampoline) and the computer desk to check on the RITA finalists. Big shout-out to my Blaze and Brava sisters for their outstanding showing! Hot and steamy rules!

Are you all enjoying the guest bloggers who’ve stopped by? Because I’m going there again.

Yep, same song as before – and I’ll be singing it throughout all of April!

DON’T BE SHY!!!!

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You know, you see the RITA finalists being announced as the news hits, and you cheer with your buddies and send out WHOO-HOO’s and YAHOO’s and all sorts of things – and then one little award nomination will hit you were it counts, give you shivers, just make you believe again.

For me, that’s this one:

Best Contemporary Single Title Romance

* Caridad Ferrer, Adios to My Old Life

Best First Book

* Caridad Ferrer, Adios to My Old Life

I have tears over this. You want to know why?

Here, I’ll let Caridad/Barb tell you herself:

My beef with the Ritas this year wound up being an intensely personal one, so I’ll state that right up front. My category didn’t make it, for one– (Young Adult–in a great year for Young Adult books and we couldn’t manage 25 entries, but that’s a whole ‘nother rant) and I couldn’t go into the secondary category that would have best suited my story (Mainstream with SRE) because of the word count restriction. Not because my book was too long– while it is long for a YA at 72K words, it didn’t qualify for Mainstream because that had a MINIMUM word count of 80K. It was right there in the rules and I had somehow completely missed it, because it seems so odd that for a book to be considered Mainstream it would have to START at 80K words.

So I chose a tertiary category, Contemporary Single Title– because it started with a minimum word count of 70K. Was it the best place for my book? Oh hell no. So why go to so much effort?

Because this is my one and only shot at Best First Book. Is that arrogant, to think I had a chance there? Maybe– but who’s to say I didn’t have as good a chance as any of the other first books out in 2006 and why shouldn’t I have my chance?

The worst part was, when I expressed my frustration to one of the individuals who was taking opinions for revamping the Ritas, I essentially got a pat on the head and a “There, there, dear, so sorry, but doesn’t one of the children’s book organizations have a contest you can enter?” email in response.

My hair nearly caught on fire, I was so ticked. This isn’t about contests– it’s about the Rita. RWA has been my primary writing organization since I started in this gig– and actually, a lot of the children’s writing orgs don’t really cater to the more commercial Teen/YA books and really, so not the point. The point is, I consider RWA to be my writing home and would have hoped for a little more support from the PTB. Again, full disclosure– I did get a lot of support from many, many members of RWA who considered the whole situation to be FUBAR’d beyond belief and from people who are on the committee to revamp the contest rules, so it’s not like I was totally hung out to dry. But for this year, yeah, I’m essentially screwed.

The only thing she’ll be screwed over now is figuring out what to wear to the awards ceremony! Congratulations, Barb!!

“From what I understand, (Harlequin) readers are women who want to escape from the relationship that they’re in,” said auditioner Carlos Troccoli, 30, who was tall, sturdy and muscular. “I can bring that to them.”

That’s a quote from some uninformed egotist who auditioned yesterday when representatives of Harlequin “inspected the assets of about 200 men who lined up at a Toronto casting house on Saturday to prove they could flutter readers’ hearts better than professional models.”

Here’s hoping I don’t get Carlos on any of my Blaze covers, because I don’t need him bringing anything to my readers – and I just KNOW all of you are trying to escape the relationship you’re in. ::snort::

As an aside, I put “who reads romance novels” into Google and got this:

Where in the hell did that “voraciously devour those pornographic sexually explicit romance novels” bit come from – when the link goes to RWA’s site and those words aren’t on the page OR in the meta tags???

I did this with the release of BEYOND A SHADOW, and since THE PERFECT STRANGER releases on Tuesday (officially, though BN.com is already shipping it, and I’m sure it’s showing up on shelves, too; interesting, though, how Amazon has been holding the Bravas till their ship date – at least on my last two), and since I haven’t been around much lately to blog, I figured it would be fun to do it again. So here goes …

The first five of you who send me a picture of THE PERFECT STRANGER (yes, you have to be in the picture, too!) on a bookstore shelf in your area (tell me the store and the city/state) will receive a $10 gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I’ll share the pictures as they come in!

Email them to ak @ alisonkent.com.