Alison Kent's Blah Blog

I had planned to wait a couple of months before talking about my December 2009 Brava release, WITH EXTREME PLEASURE, Kingdom Trahan’s book, but since the cover is up around the web – though I haven’t yet set up a page for it – I figured I’d better do something to let readers know it’s coming! If you’ve read NO LIMITS (and if you haven’t, why not!), then you’ve met King. And you’ll remember that Michelina Ferrer wanted King and Simon both to do a photo shoot for a new men’s fragrance ad.

ONLY SOMETHING THIS DANGEROUS…

After three weeks in Manhattan, Kingdom Trahan is ready to get back to bayous, crawfish boils, and afternoons fishing on the Gulf. But before he can pull out of the parking garage, he meets a curvy detour. King noticed Cady Kowalski on the photo shoot he just endured—sexy and confident, with a waifish look that belies the way she corralled him into submission using only a can of hairspray. Yet Cady isn’t confident now. She’s bruised, edgy, and desperate to get out of town…

COULD FEEL THIS GOOD…

For years, Cady has been looking over her shoulder, wondering when the gang of drug-running criminals who killed her brother would make their move on her. She’s grown used to having no one to turn to, no one to trust. But King isn’t walking away—not even when their lives are threatened, again and again. Drawing Cady’s pursuers out of hiding is the only way to end this, and it’s also the most reckless thing they can do…short of diving into a red-hot affair from which there’s no turning back…

The scene that follows is the beginning of chapter two as King leaves NYC. Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry �

The winners of the Too Many Books, Too Little Storage Space giveaway are:

Malissa Thomas, Pamk, cheryl c, Kristen, Hilcia, Armenia, Mari, Stacy S, Pam P, Lisa Ferris

Send your mailing addresses to ak@alisonkent.com and I’ll get the books sent out!

I’m going to be participating again this year in PBW’s Left Behind & Loving It workshop series to run the week of July 13 – 17. These are craft, industry, genre, publishing, etc. workshops given by bloggers during the week of the RWA national conference. They’re given online, FOR FREE, at attendees’ convenience. You can sit and read in your jammies while drinking your morning coffee, ponder what you’ve read, come back and ask questions without worrying about the allotted hour slipping away. There is no allotted hour. There is no dress code. There is no registration fee and you can put anything you want on your name tag. No one will ever know. Or even care. So go wild!

I miss going to conference. It’s the ONLY reason I maintain membership in RWA. I’m not a member of any chapters. I belong to no chat loops. I scan the RWR and eNotes, but read very little. I think I’m a member of PAN, but couldn’t say why. I stay a member so I can get a break on the conference fee because I LURVE conference so much. It’s the only time I get to see my bestest writing friends in person. Not to mention my editors and my agent, though Jennifer and I have yet to hook up since we haven’t yet attended the same year. As far as industry or writing info however? I get all of it, every single bit, online. It’s true. Except for four online workshops I’ve paid for over the last three years (looking to see if I could pick up anything new; I didn’t), everything I’ve learned has been through a freebie. (Oh, except for Barbara Samuel’s wonderful Girls in the Basement and Circles of Quiet workshops which I’ll skip buying groceries to pay for; they’re that good.) And I like to pay forward the freebie goodness, to share my knowledge and experience.

Last year I gave three workshops, one on The Voices In Your Head, one called All Authors Should Be Wordsmiths, and a third titled We’re Writing Men. I was on deadline at the time, and unable to be as thorough as I would’ve liked. This year, I hope to do better (though I’m not guaranteeing anything, heh). And as with last year, there will be giveaways this year, too. This is what I know I’m going to workshop:

• Writing in Deep Point of View
• The Author’s Website
• Plotting Through Character

Updated to add:

• Scene & Sequel

And, uh . . . that’s about it. Anything crafty anyone wants to hear me talk about?

Laurie G asked:

What has been your best seller to date?
Favorite book of yours? Favorite book ever?

(She also asked about 1) promotion, 2) genres, 3) ebooks, 4) piracy, and 5) pricing, to which I say 1) promotion’s out of hand, and it’s hard to be original anymore or to know what works, 2) genres are cyclical, 3) ebook’s day will come but I’m a print reader all the way, 4) pirates will roam the Internet as long as there’s an Internet to roam, 5) no real clue except everything seems to go up and once there it rarely comes down.)

My favorite book ever. Hmm. I’m going to have to go with THE THORN BIRDS. I’m not a re-reader, and I’ve read that one three times, and just bought a copy to read again. I’ve seen the mini-series at least twice. Plus, I named No. 1 Daughter after the main female protagonist, so it made that much of an impression on me!

My favorite book of my own is probably BEYOND A SHADOW, and if you’re interested in reading it, watch for it at a remainder table near you! Or support your struggling author and head to Amazon where you can get a brand new copy for the cost of three Starbucks lattes! Of course, if you hold the same opinion as this Amazon “reviewer” (a review I saw for the first time today) then spend your money at Starbucks instead!

If I had known this was a biracial romance, I never would have bought it. That is so not my thing! Didn’t even finish it.

My best seller to date is without a doubt THE SWEETEST TABOO. Yep, my fourth Harlequin Blaze (Dec ‘02) has out sold everything I’ve ever written. I can’t find my June ‘09 royalty statement (been cleaning, you know), but the November ‘08 statement shows it earning $22,475.38 in the US and twelve foreign countries, some which have printed it more than once, hello Germany, 3x! Even though THE BANE AFFAIR runs a close second with $22.5K approximate net earnings (I say second because TST had more earnings showing on the statement that I can’t find), followed by CALL ME, my very first Temptation at $21.5K, THE SWEETEST TABOO has seen more action, and was even reissued in the UNDRESSED anthology two and a half years after its initial release. This little book has had legs in a huge way, and I’m not sure why. I wrote it during one of life’s hell times. The writing itself was fun as “Men To Do” was a joint project with Jo Leigh and Isabel Sharpe, but it never felt any different than my other books as it poured onto the page. The only unique thing is that my hero, Sebastian Gallo, was a horror novelist, and I wrote pieces of his book inside mine.

Here’s a snippet. Oh, and Sebastian’s cat was named Redum. *g*

Raleigh Slater needed to catch up on his shut-eye. The catnaps and midday siestas he’d been surviving on weren’t cuttin’ it anymore. He needed eight hours. He needed ten. Hell, combine the two and make it an even eighteen. He was running ragged and it was beginning to show.

Not in his work. That wasn’t going to happen. He hadn’t busted his ass for the biggest part of his his life only to turn around and fuck it up by falling asleep on the job. But it was beginning to show in his face.

He dragged a hand down his jaw, needing a shave, afraid as dog-tired as he was that he’d slip and slice through his jugular if he put as much as an electric razor to his skin. He stared at his mirrored reflection, realizing the thought actually held a measure of appeal.

One nice clean slash and it would all be over. His career. His life. And the godforsaken wait for the end he’d seen coming since turning down a devil’s bargain with the prince of darkness himself. A decision Raleigh was living to regret.

Yep, one good slash and he’d be done with this nightmare. And wasn’t that exactly what HE was waiting for Raleigh to do. To take himself out. To realize the monumental mistake he’d made when he’d “just said no.”

That was why HE had sent the woman. Raleigh should’ve been faster on the uptake. He’d taken way too long to figure it out.

Every time he turned around. she was there, crossing his line of sight while he sat holed up on a stakeout, distracting him from the subject at hand with her long-as-the-Mississippi legs and amazingly fair skin – considering she lived in a city where the sun ate and burned flesh with abandon – and her copper colored hair swinging . . .

This is the most recent German edition (10/07) put out by Mira Taschenbuch in their Mira Erotik line. Germany seems to like ‘em hot. And on the right is a drawing sent to me by a fan of the book who was doing his/her own manga version of the book. You can click for the larger version. For some reason, this book hit with readers. I’d love to know the secret so I could recreate it every time, but I’m guessing it’s a secret for a reason, so I’ll give each book my full attention and not rely on pixie dust!

In my Too Many Books, Too Little Storage Space giveaway post, where I asked for blog topic suggestions, Armenia gave me this one:

I love your book covers…these men are gorgeous. But I have heard/read that, as an author, you have no input as to what goes on your cover. Is that true? Because when I read a novel I invision that hero from the front cover with all his actions and thoughts. Have you ever gotten a cover on your book that just was way off the mark to your ‘visual’ hero? Now that would be a fun blog!!

The answer is yes. More often than you can imagine. As I’ve said before, I’m a very visual writer. I’ve found more than once that I’m stuck on a story because I thought I could skip the first step in my process. Er, the second step, really. The first is to give my characters their names. I can’t do anything until I know who they are, and their names are a huge part of that. My hero in A LONG, HARD RIDE was originally Aubrey Davis. My editor wasn’t keen on Aubrey, while I thought it the perfect Southern name for my Southern set story. I gave the name to my hero’s father instead, and then named my hero Trey. It was easier than I’d anticipated to make the mental switch.

The second thing I do is find pictures to represent my characters. As a rule, I don’t use famous people. I’ve done so once or twice, mostly for secondary characters though I did use Jesse James for Rennie Bergen in INFATUATION, but for me famous people already have their own personalities. I’ve seen them in the news, in the movies, on TV. I need my own characters. I don’t want celebrities to act the parts. I want my story people to come alive, and I need photos I can attach to them to make it happen. I have a folder of model agency bookmarks and use them all the time. One of my favorites is SMG Models, though I’ve also used 62 Models & Talent. Less often, I’ll tear pictures out of magazines, but that’s only because I rarely have magazines here to tear from. Print ads have some great visuals, though more often than not, the models are way too young to have any character in their expressions. They’re bland baby faces without depth, and give me nothing to build on, no stories to tell, no secrets.

The cover for BEYOND A SHADOW, the story of Alexa Counsel and Ezra Moore, has to be my biggest disappointment. Maybe seeing the photos I used for the characters will help you understand why? The cover depicts two Caucasians, the female a blonde. Not exactly what I had in mind, and GOD do I love that book. Such a let down not to get something more representative of the content on the cover but such is marketing

If you’re thinking that might be Jeffrey Gaines, you’re right. I love his music, and he made a great Ezra Moore, with his longer hair and shorter hair both, as Ezra cut his dreads just in time for this book, heh. It was clear that Ezra was black and Alexa was brunette, yet I got stock “romantic” art instead. And green art at that, sigh.

The cover of LARGER THAN LIFE was one I liked well enough, but it didn’t seem to do anything for readers. I’m thinking if my image of Mick Savin had been used instead, things might’ve been different. (And, really, you all should click the links and read the excerpts. These books are good, LOL!

For my September Blaze, ONE GOOD MAN, Harlequin’s art department got it right. I may have mentioned that for all HQ novels, the authors fill out online AFS (art fact sheets) and give tons of detail about the characters’ looks, clothing, and scenes we think appropriate for the cover. The scene they chose for OGM was perfect, well, almost. The characters aren’t wearing what’s shown, but the porch railing and the desert mountains in the distance are exactly right, and I’m guessing the link I included to a photo of the Guadalupe Mountains came in handy.

The characters themselves aren’t too far off, and I actually included links to their photos, too, to give the art department a visual. If you missed it the first time, you can see a video of the cover shoot here. I’m really really pleased with this one, and I like being able to give input. I gripe every time I have to do the AFS because they really are a lot of work, but with this end result, I should just shut up about it, right? I’ve pasted this cover scene after the jump. Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry �

I posted the other day that there was no crying in reading. (The “no crying in baseball” scene from A League Of Their Own is one of my favorite ever, and I tend to borrow heavily and apply at will.) I figured I should counter that post with another and say there’s no crying in writing either. Except that would be an outright LIE!

You see, there IS crying in writing. I do it daily to HelenKay and she pretty much reciprocates. We do it behind the scenes, off camera, out of sight where it belongs. She’s my person (tm Grey’s Anatomy). I have several other persons (names omitted to protect the equally guilty), but HK (who I know won’t mind being outed) and I seem to be on the same crying wavelength. And it’s not even crying so much as blowing off steam, venting frustrations, and yes, all over the things that are out of our control. It’s a healthy sort of stress relief. We don’t make things worse by giving exaggerated life to our concerns, but downplay them instead, calming each other, offering solutions and alternatives and answers and imagined explanations.

All writers need such friends in their corner. This writing gig makes for a lonely existence. We create from backyards and offices and Starbucks and sandwich shops across the globe and never know what’s going on behind NYC’s publishing doors. It helps to have a sounding board, and I’m lucky to have not only my fellow writers, but @cuppacafe to sound off to when I feel like Violet Beauregarde about to blow.

Yesterday at GenReality, Joe Nasisse said:

At a writers’ conference recently, I was listening to a group of writers lamenting the current state of the publishing industry. One constant theme seemed to be the idea that they had no control over their careers. They were dependent on editors who they didn’t know and rarely got to talk to for the acquisition of their books. They were dependent on a nameless, faceless sales person (or, if they were really lucky, sales team) to sell their books to the retailers who will carry them on the shelves. They were dependent on the publicity department to…well, you get the idea.

The bottom line seemed to be that everyone else has a bigger impact on the success of the writer than the writer themselves.

I didn’t say anything to that disgruntled group of writers, but if I had, it would have been one word. Bullsh*t.

I get all that. Really, I do. And I do what Joe advises. I currently have two projects shopping, both some of the best writing I’ve ever done. I know that in my gut of guts. I haven’t done enough the last few months to work on my brand, but after the horrid crunch of the last several years, I’ve decided all I’m willing to do (so I can remain sane) is blog here and at GenReality, sharing my thoughts on craft and my experience with the writing life.

(Oh, and hang out on Twitter.)

I have an amazing agent. With my most recent project, she gave me incredible suggestions on making it bigger and deeper. And I do treat my career as a business though, again, I know my limits. I’ve run up against that wall and am not going to bang my head there again. Being a professional writer means writing. That’s where I must concentrate my efforts because if I don’t, there is no business. One thing Joe mentions that I can’t emphasize enough is the importance of surrounding ourselves with the right people.

We can control the people we surround ourselves with and who influence our daily thinking. Surround yourself with other authors who see nothing but dire problems in the publishing industry, and that’s likely how you’ll see things too. Surround yourself with forward-thinkers who are constantly trying to come up with ways to do things better and you are likely to be caught up in their enthusiasm.

And this is where having a person (or persons) comes in. The people I’ve surrounded myself with look for answers. We may whine and we may cry but we search for the positive, we don’t dwell on the negative, we cheer one another’s successes and accomplishments. Yes, we know publishers are moving at the pace of dead snails these days and are being very particular in what they buy. Contracts are slow to come. Money is slower to come. Deadlines are the only thing with any speed, and deserve a few tears for their bullying insistence we keep our butts in the chair, our hands on the keyboard. And that’s okay, as is our crying and whining to our persons. It’s when we let our crying take control of our careers that things go south. That much I know from experience. And am here to tell you that crying is best saved for spilled milk, Jodi Picoult novels, and the final scene of Billy Elliot. Goosebumps EVERY time!

When No. 1 Daughter moved home in February, she boxed up all my bookshelves so she could replace my books with hers. I’ve been going through the boxes this week, organizing by genre, getting rid of what I know I’ll never read, etc. But those are all the books I bought for myself. The matter of my NO LIMITS copies is something else entirely. Kensington sent me copies above and beyond my usual case of 48, or whatever, so I need to dump some of them as @cuppacafe keeps tripping over the boxes that have been sitting behind the sofa for two months

I’ve got enough mailers that I can give away ten, US shipping addresses only. I’ll draw the winners from comments made by Friday, June 19, 2009, 8:00 p.m. CDT. To be eligible, you have to give me a blogging topic. I can discuss a craft issue, or answer a question about one of my books, or give advice (as long as you remember you get what you pay for), or talk about reading. Be creative!

What would you like to see me blog about?

Today at GenReality I’m talking about where ideas come from. But I have a funny to share. I wanted to make a reference to something but could only remember 3 of the 5 in the sequence. I searched and searched and searched on Google. I put in every combination I could think of. I got results that were related, but weren’t what I wanted. As a last ditch effort, I went to Bing, Microsoft’s new decision engine.

I put in the same search criteria and found it. Fourth item. And funniest part? The search result was a post on MY OWN SITE from 2005. Yeah. Go Bing.

An author once said to me that she didn’t understand why anyone watched Reality TV because there was nothing about it that was real or interesting. (This same author didn’t understand why anyone would watch Everybody Loves Raymond because the family was mean, but that’s another blog post.) I, of course, argue that Reality TV, while not always interesting has an incredible amount of realism. Yes, much of the shows are scripted. But the behind the scenes snippets, even if manufactured (and isn’t that what writers do? manufacture?), give viewers a look at the lives of the contestants, their GOALS (to travel the world, to buy a house), their MOTIVATIONS (to see the land where their forefathers lived, to give their family a better life), and that personal look, as much as the “talent,” is what creates the rabid fans. Having a reason to root for a contestant – or a character – is what fiction is all about.

In her blog post, How Reality TV Made Me A Better Writer, author Dawn Atkins says:

Reality TV keeps me honest! Yes, that’s right. I watch reality shows to track the nuances of a face in shock or sadness or embarrassment, the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory. Reality shows make me cringe and look away a lot, but they remind me about the not-always-pretty aspects of people and, to be fair, some of the lovely ones, too.

I totally agree. Body language, facial expressions, scene blocking, etc., are all reasons I watch reality and scripted TV both (I’m a very visual writer), though some actors are way better at breathing life into their characters than others. But craft aside, there are numerous comparisons to make between Reality TV and publishing / writing. In my GenReality post, Talent Only Gets You So Far, I compared the publishing process – getting out of the slush pile, landing an agent, etc. – to American Idol.

American Idol reminds me of the publishing process in so many ways. All those hopefuls vying for a handful of spots. Talent that gets overlooked because the singer chose the wrong song, had an off day, wasn’t relevant to the Idol vision. Wannabes who have no clue about the music business, or are stunned to hear they can’t carry a tune in a bucket. But they’ve studied! They’ve won contests! Their friends and moms love them! Uh-huh.

This week, agent Kristen Nelson makes a comparison of her own in her Dancing With The Stars Analogy post. Stated this way, it seems so simple, but there are many creative types whose work could benefit from more study of their art and its craft.

People, in general, don’t actually believe that if they take one tango class, they are ready for Dancing with the Stars.

But for whatever reason, this same viewpoint doesn’t apply when it comes to writing novels. Lots of aspiring writers really do think they can hammer out a first novel without studying the art form, without participating in a critique group, without learning the mechanics and boom, get a publishing contract. Get a big advance. Become a bestseller.

And as Shannon Stacey says, Craft: It’s a process, not an single act.

Craft isn’t the act of putting words on the screen until you have enough of them to get to the end of the book and collect your paycheck. Craft is in the rewriting. Whether you edit each chapter as you go or you edit at the end of the first draft, you have to take those words whose sole purpose was to get the story down and refine them into a finished product.

Today at RTB, Barbara Ferrer has a super article about reader entitlement. If you haven’t read it, go and do because she’s a wise, wise woman. I’m not giving commentary on her post, however, but on the first comment in response instead because I’m kinda floored and am hoping such sentiments are limited.

I think this business is very different from baseball.

Let’s look at this first. Publishing is a business. Baseball is a business. Fans love the books. Fans love the games. Fans get upset when their favorite author doesn’t write up to par. Fans get upset when their favorite player doesn’t perform up to par. Fans pre-order auto-buy authors because they can’t wait to read their books. Fans pre-order season tickets because they can’t wait to see the games. Publishing and baseball may be very different in some ways, but when it comes to fans, not so much.

But, the commenter does have a point. The publishing business is very different from baseball in that players, if they’re in the rotation and healthy, hit the field and play game after game after game. Authors may show up in the dugout every day, but there’s no guarantee they’ve got a full nine innings in them each time. They may have 500 words. They may have 1500. They may have 5000. There are a whole lot more factors in an author’s hitting the field than being healthy and in the rotation.

The commenter goes on to say that if readers complained she wasn’t getting her stories out fast enough, she would be flattered. Also this:

I would apologize profusely and re-commit myself to getting the goods out even better and faster.

Apologize? You’re kidding, right? We’re not running bases here. We’re not throwing balls at 92 mph and hoping to hit 98. We don’t bide our time in the minor league, waiting to be called up to the show. From our very first sale, we hit the shelves with the big leaguers, and rushing through books isn’t doing anyone any favors.

Here’s the deal. Baseball players play baseball FOR A LIVING. A huge percentage of authors write PART TIME. That means most of their days are taken up with earning a living wage at a job that provides benefits. Writing time is limited to evenings and weekends, and are authors supposed to forget they have families? Are they supposed to closet themselves away while their spouses take the kids to Little League and soccer and dance recitals? Seriously, would a reader expect that of an author?

Because let me tell you. That’s the only way most authors’ books are going to get written any faster. And that doesn’t even take into consideration the fact that an author can’t write when there are no words to be had. Call it writer’s block, call it burn-out, call it whatever. Authors can suit up and make their way to the on deck circle, but if they don’t have a bat to swing at the ball, game over.

Professional Standards imply that the author will continue to create stories the readers will love and deliver them in a timely manner.

Really? And who determines a timely manner? Because while one book may take me two months to write, the next may take me six, or a whole year. Does that mean I’m not a professional? Even baseball games will run into extra innings. The game takes what it takes. The book takes what it takes. Yes, we have deadlines and we know how to schedule our writing time to meet them, but we have so many circumstances outside of our control that when we do deliver our books in a timely manner, that doesn’t mean they’ll get into readers’ hands any sooner. Sometimes, reader fans just have to wait out those long extra inning games.

Karen Templeton said it best in her response:

Y’know, sometimes it really isn’t simply a matter of discipline, of sitting down and putting the words on paper. Or hard drive, whatever. Sometimes, Life slaps the writer upside the head. Sometimes, the well runs dry. Sometimes what seemed perfectly feasible at the beginning of the journey runs into unforeseen snags in the middle.

For the words to get onto the page, they have to be there to begin with. And when outside stuff messes with your head — or worse, your heart — that delicate mechanism that produces stories out of ether goes kaput. If you think that’s frustrating for the reader, imagine how terrifying it is for an author. And the reader may have no idea how often the author sincerely tried to MAKE the writing happen…except for some writers it just doesn’t work that way.

Bottom line, we don’t have designated hitters or pinch runners. The writing is all on our shoulders. As long as authors got game, readers get the win.

Want to know how to survive the current publishing economy?

Agent Nathan Bransford tells you:

“Listen up! We got a big submission Friday night, and the publishers out there are going through some hard times. They want to see your submissions sparkling! They want perfection, and as the literary agent of this here team I aim to give it to ‘em! It’s time to look deep inside yourself and step up yer game! This means everything from revising to your queries to your submissions needs to be absolutely 110% perfect. And anyone who wants to cry about it can take off their shoulder pads and get off my field!”

I’ve actually had a similar conversation with my agent, minus the football analogy. The current market is going to squeeze out the manuscripts that are less than they should be, and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing for everyone, the genre, the readers. Yes, it’s scary to those of us trying to keep our careers afloat, but stepping up our game should be a part of our process with every book we write.