Alison Kent

This morning, Holly says:

While I can’t exactly call the last two months a vacation–I have, after all, done a whole lot of writing in those two months–they were time away from this thing I love. And the more I was away, the more I enjoyed being away, and there wasn’t a single part of me that didn’t look at that and think, “This is not good.” (…) Today I woke up hungry for the first time in a long time.

Since finishing the CIG and getting it sent off last Monday, I haven’t written anything fresh. In fact, the only writing I have done was to tweak what I’d already written on my next Blaze so I could get back into that mindset. I also did my picture board for Ezra’s book. I’d had him in my head for awhile, but found the perfect visual depiction. It was Alexa that took me longer. I had no clue what she looked like - and I can’t write without knowing what my story people look like. So off I went to one of the model sites I use for my characters. And, voila! There she was!

Though my circumstances are different from Holly’s, I so relate to what she’s feeling. I haven’t written a word of fiction since mid-October, even with two books hanging over me needing to be written asap. The CIG filled a blank space I’d left in my schedule that I’d originally planned to use to write something totally new. But the CIG took longer than I’d expected - because it was longer than I’d expected - and threw off my other deadlines. Luckily, I had enough time built in before either book needed to go to production.

When my agent and I first discussed the CIG book, she said it would need to be around 85K words. When I got the CIG manual, I saw they wanted approximately 320 pages. And since I’m a fiction writer, I think in fiction manuscript terms. 250 words per page, 25 lines per page, double spaced, 1″ margins, 12 pt Courier New font, blah, blah, blah. It was all doable.

I was way off.

Basically, a CIG contains 25 - 30 chapters that are divided into 4 - 6 sections with each chapter being 12 - 15 pages long. It also contains at least 2 appendices. In addition, the finished book has what are called sidebars - those little snippets of info that appear in a cutesy graphic box within the text.

The manuscript has to be written in 12 pt Courier New font. There are no page numbers. There are no headers. The manuscript is single spaced. Each chapter is a separate file. Additionally, the sidebars are included within the manuscript and set off by embedded “production directives”. Not the type of writing or formatting I was used to doing at all. I spent half of October while doing the samples figuring out how to put the manuscript together.

So, now it’s time to get back to fiction. Today is the day, in fact. I do know what I’m doing as I have 3 more books contracted and 2 of those outlined and ready to go. I’ve gone to bed every night this last week thinking of the conversation I left dangling between Milla and Rennie in the second chapter of Infatuated, the Blaze, trying to figure out where to pick it up. Last night, I finally had an itch of where to go. I’ll reread the tweaks I did last week, make sure they work, and then off I’ll go.

I’m not sure I remember how to write, so wish me luck!

Title: HEART OF GOLD

Author: Jessica Bird

Year: 2003

Why did you get this book? Jessica Bird is J.R. Ward, and I enjoyed DARK LOVER enough to want to see what she had done in straight romance. So, yes, it was on my TBR pile, but it’s only been there since my November 4, 2005 Amazon order.

Do you like the cover? Yes.

Did you enjoy the book? Enough so that I just went to Amazon and bought An Unforgettable Lady based on the excerpt in the back of Heart of Gold. Still, I had a few problems with it - but nothing serious enough to keep me from finishing it!

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? No and yes.

Are you keeping it or passing it on? Passing it on, but I don’t keep anything.

Anything else? The font was wonderfully readable - especially since the book was 438 pages long!

Carter Wessex is an archaeologist on a mission.

She wants to find a fortune in missing gold but she needs permission to dig on Farrell Mountain first. The trouble is, sexy Nick Farrell is renowned for keeping people off his property. When Carter approaches him anyway, sparks fly at their first meeting. The ruthless corporate raider doesn’t want his vacation home disturbed by yet another trespasser, even if she’s a beautiful one. Things change when he realizes Carter, who is the estranged daughter of another financial tycoon, could be useful to him.

When Nick invites her to come to the mountain and dig, she’s suspicious of his change of mind and well aware of his ruthless reputation. But, as she gets to know him, their initial attraction becomes an undeniable passion. As skeletons are unearthed, and the details of the gold’s disappearance are gradually unveiled, they embark on a love affair which touches Nick’s heart in a special way. He realizes he’s falling in love with her but tragically, it’s too late. His plotting is revealed before he can stop the events he put in motion and Carter suffers a betrayal so deep, she fears she will not recover.

Can Carter forgive the man she’s given her heart to and learn to trust him again? Will the mystery of the gold be solved? As Carter comes to the end of the dig, she finds more than she ever bargained for up on Farrell Mountain.

Spoilers . . .

Read the rest of this entry �

A couple of good posts on critiquing at Sandra K. Moore’s place - #1 and #2. Good discussion on what makes suspense here at Lee’s place and Joe’s place.

On the international giveaway? I’m out of BOUND TO HAPPEN and INDISCREET. Also, TOTALLY CHARMED is not part of the lot, sorry. I only got 2 copies of that myself! I’m loading up a few boxes today, so will email those of you who’ve requested copies once they hit the post office.

I mentioned the other day a few things I learned while writing my CIG. One of those is that I can actually sit and write at my desk. I loathe doing so, but it is possible - or maybe it was possible since I was writing non-fiction and was doing research and outlining and rearranging for flow, etc. I haven’t yet tried to sit here and write fiction, though I will be doing so very shortly!

I liked a lot not having to type up handwritten scenes, and I couldn’t use my Alphasmart because the CIG required too much back and forth writing, checking one chapter to make sure I hadn’t already covered one topic that fit in another. It was very detailed work, so being at my desk with all my research resources and entire manuscript available helped make it happen.

One day when we had really bad storms, I even sat at my desk with my laptop since I already had all my notes and outlines spread out! That said, I’ve had more repetitive stress problems in my elbow this past month than in the past year. I know that’s from sitting and writing. I did make sure to get up, stretch, take a lot of breaks, etc., but the elbow is still tingling and the neck is stiffer than I like.

That’s it for now. Sorry to be so boring! I’ve taken a full week off and spent it organizing and cleaning and vegging. (I actually watched the first 5 hours of 24 yesterday to catch up for tonight, heh!) Now I have to get back to work!

In case anyone was interested in having a trailer made for book promo:

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Lots I need to get done today, and I’m afraid it’s not going to happen. We have bright blue skies and gorgeous sunshine, and I feel a day of reading coming on. I’m almost finished with my contemporary romance read for Angie’s TBR challenge. Feels like a good day to get that done.

So, this is just a quickie drive by post with a couple of reminders.

Any international readers (I’ll now open this up to those in Canada, too.) interested in copies from my backlist, click here.

Anyone interested in reading Deep Breath for a possible viral marketing blogging blitz, click here.

Anyone interested in a copy of my CIG (August/September) for the purpose of blogging about the book to get the word out, send your mailing address to “cigreview @ alisonkent.com” (copy, paste, remove the spaces) and I’ll hold onto your name.

I’m not quite sure what sort of marketing I’m going to do with this book, so if you are interested, tell me a little bit about your writing, etc., when you email. I just want to know what you’re looking for in a how-to book about writing erotic romance!

FYI, the book has a lot of straight fiction writing information, too, so you don’t necessarily have to be writing erotic romance to get some good out of it. You’d just have to skip the sex chapters!

So, over on Michelle Rowen’s blog, she’s listed her book reading top 10 and says:

6. I’ve never read a book twice.

Guess what? Me neither! (That I can recall; perhaps an old Mary Stewart when I was in high school?)

What Michelle asks that I’m bringing over here is this question:

Okay, I’m wondering, and I’m putting this out to all of you… does a romance novel have to have a great deal of sex in order to be worth reading? One of the main complaints about B&S is that it doesn’t deserve the title “Romance” because there are no explicit sex scenes. That people seem to be disappointed by this fact. This does not surprise me. What surprised me is one review that said basically that since there was no sex, the book should have been marketed as a young adult novel!

I have two answers to this question. The first one is no. Absolutely not. There is a reason there is a subgenre of sweet romances. Many readers want the story of the couple falling in love and don’t need a single sexual encounter to appreciate the beauty of true romance.

Second answer, absolutely. *g* But that answer is much more complicated. It has to do with readers’ expectations based on reading the author before. If a reader were to pick up an Alison Kent book that was a sweet romance, I have a feeling it wouldn’t be kindly received. (Which is why if I ever get the urge to write one - and there are times I do - I’d write the book under a different name.)

That’s not to say that every book an author writes has to out sex the previous ones. Not at all. For a book’s sexual content to be successful, it needs to be a part of the whole, not thrown in for extra sizzle.

So, here is *my* question. Has the rise in popularity and proliferation of erotic romance done a disservice to authors who prefer not to write explicit sex scenes - or, even more importantly - to readers who prefer not to read them? Or is it all part of the genre’s popularity ebb and flow?

(As an aside, someone recently pointed me to a post where the poster was bemoaning the lack of the word “dick” in romances where “cock” oe other euphemisms were used. Two words: House Style. Never assume the author doesn’t have the balls to say dick. She may simply be used to having the dicks edited out of her manuscript and has been trained to say cock instead.)

This question is spawned by what I’ve gone through the last few weeks and where I want to go this next year, so I’m curious.

In her book, WAY OF THE CHEETAH, author Lynn Viehl says (among many other inspiring and common sensical things!):

The most productive writers are focused people. They are consumed with their work. Writing is the number one priority in their careers, and they will sacrifice what pleasures they must to in order to write. (…) The bottom line is that nothing gets between them and their work. Nothing.

What about you? What sort of writer are you? Do you need a balance between isolation and socialization? Does the idea of devoting 18 hours a day, seven days a week for a month at a time if a deadline requires make you think you’d be better to keep writing as a hobby? Have you found a happy medium? Or is it all or nothing for you?

I do all my book buying online. Have for years now. Once in awhile I’ll go into a brick and mortar store, but it’s usually for coffee, heh. I like to read excerpts at authors’ Websites or their publishers’ Websites, etc., from the lazy comfort of my own home, and that’s how I choose what I’m going to buy. It’s all about the blurb and the sample. Most of the time it works.

There are 3 local stores that I frequent, or I guess that I “infrequent”. One’s 3.5 miles away. One’s 4.5 miles away. One’s 12.5 miles away. (The next would be 15.5 miles, but since it requires a trip down the I-10 corridor, it’s not going to happen unless I’m desperate.) The closest one is a very romance friendly independent new and used store. They also stock all the required reading for the local schools, and the place hops all the time. The second closest is Books A Million, and its romance section rocks. They stock all category lines and keep a couple of months’ worth. They stock Black Lace. They stock every book you’ve seen reviewed in RT. It’s a great place to find what you want. I wouldn’t doubt if they don’t strip but quarterly. I’ve never seen a store with such a huge romance section.

The third is a Barnes and Noble. I used to love to go there and just book-geek out, but haven’t in probably a year. Last time I was there, they had pretty much quit stocking categories at all. They had Desire and Presents and maybe Special Edition. All shelved spine out, bottom shelf, last row. So, I had quite the surprise when the dh took me there Monday night as part of his get-me-out-of-the-house-after-turning-in-the-book campaign. First of all, an entire ROW of Manga! Four tiers on each shelf, spines out, packed in like sardines. And girls sitting on the floor reading them. This tells you how long it’s been since I was there. Manga was probably special order last time!

But here’s the thing. The shelf with the Desires all crammed together on the bottom row? Still there. However, there was a hanging shelf end cap extension thing that had the Next books, the Presents, the Special Editions, the Intimate Moments, and . . . BLAZE! GOES DOWN EASY was right there on the top row, YAY! I have no idea if this was a store display, but it had graphic shelf-talker type tags that gave the whole thing an official HQ look. And those were the only lines with marked slots. I’m just glad this BN is carrying categories again - and shelving them so prominently!

Anyone else seen these hanging racks in BN?

I finished the book, sighed, then smiled, then said, “I can’t believe I have to wait almost a whole year to find out what Ezra is up to! Damn!”

That’s from a reader who won an ARC of DEEP BREATH. Yes, I am cruel. But it is my job and I am doing it to the best of my ability!

Yesterday I spent the day with a case of adrenalinitis. You’d think that after writing (MS Word Count) 104,713 words (that was what went in, and doesn’t include the samples and pre-writing extras) in a twelve week span of time that included five family birthdays, one wedding anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year that I would have collapsed. It took until last night to do that. Today I resemble a zombie. I did get my desk and writing area cleaned up yesterday - or about 85% worth anyway of what I need to do. Some dusting remains, and some filing. I want to start back writing next week in a clean work space!

I also went through a lot of books that remained boxed up from my office move in September - ran across my copy of Dean Koontz’s HOW TO WRITE BESTSELLING FICTION (that I see is worth anywhere from $60 to $300!) when looking for Dwight Swain’s TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER and Christopher Vogler’s THE WRITER’S JOURNEY and Robert McKee’s STORY. I spent so much time while writing the CIG talking about writing techniques that I wanted to look through these books that have helped me so much and just kinda zone out on someone else’s words for awhile.

If anyone cares *g*, those are the only three writing books I kept out of the maybe 20 I had. They’re the only ones I’ve ever used or found helpful for what I need - which is story structure. Writing, I can do. Dialogue, I can do. Sex, descriptions, etc., I can do. Inspiration I get from reading blogs of everyone in the same boat or commiserating with friends. But structure has never come naturally or easily for me. These guys make it work.

I also pulled three books from my shelf to see what I wanted to read for Angie’s January challenge since I’m running out of time. It’s sad. I have almost no straight contemporary romances anywhere on my shelves or in the books I’ve boxed up. My reading taste for the last couple of years has been moving further and further into suspense, and that’s what takes up the bulk of my TBR pile. I did find three, a Nora that sounded good but looks to have some woo-woo ghost stuff in it, so I put that one back and started one of the other two. I may read a few pages of the second today to see which grabs me the hardest, but so far so good.

I have more to say, but I’m all typed out right now.

Not those kind. Just the viral marketing kind I mentioned below. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to think about it, ha! But if you’re interested in perhaps receiving a copy of DEEP BREATH in March for a blogging marketing blitz in early April, email me at marketing @ alisonkent.com (copy, paste, remove spaces) and I’ll hold onto your names. (Also, please include the URL for your blog, thanks!) This does NOT mean you have to like the book. You can think it sucks toad balls and still post about it. This is simply an effort to get the word out.

If you’re not familiar with my SG-5 series, the books have been compared by Booklist and other reviewers to Mission: Impossible, Alias, Die Hard, I Spy, James Bond, etc. One of the books was a National Quill Award Nominee. Here’s the back cover copy for DEEP BREATH and you can read an excerpt at this link:

When a guy stops at a roadside diner, he expects bad chili, not a hostage situation. But that’s where SG-5 operative Harry van Zandt finds himself when an armed cartel blows through the door. They’re not after him but the woman in the next booth, and their message is clear: she’s got seventy-two hours to locate and deliver a valuable historical document or her brother dies. And if Harry wants to live, he’d better go with her.

Harry has his own undercover mission to finish, but with a trigger-happy band on their tails, it’ll have to wait. Not that he minds helping Georgia McLain. The tough treasure hunter is as smart as she is sexy. She’s also desperate. That artifact could finally clear her late father’s name. She needs Harry if she’s going to double-cross these thugs and keep it for herself, and her gratitude is the kind that could turn a guy’s head. Too bad that document is also of vital importance to the Smithson Group, and Harry’s top-secret mission is to get it before it falls into the wrong hands. Now, the beautiful, infuriating woman he’s starting to fall for could lead him right to what he needs—and what she so desperately wants.

Out on the open road with a price on their heads, two unlikely lovers are caught in a game of secrets, lies, betrayals, and desire, where trust is risky and love is no time to catch your breath…