Alright. I'm over the broken record about judges and competitions and everything about them. I've had my rant, albeit quietly, about the injustice of it all so I'm not going to go there today. But that really doesn't leave me with much ;-)
What I want to ask is how you feel about marriage in this day and age. Some of you know my partner, Doug, and I have been to three weddings over the last three months with another one just after Christmas. Others know we were going to get married in June just gone but had to cancel. Now we seemed to have changed our priorities and the wedding isn't even something we talk about. Like most, Doug and I did it all backwards. We got pregnant, bought a house, had a baby, had another baby but are still living in sin and enjoying every minute of it. Back in the day and not too long ago, marriage was just the next logical step in the course of a girls dating life. You meet the guy, fall in love, get married, buy a house, have sex then the babies come. Not now. I don't many women who have, or are, saving themselves for marriage and Mr Right. More commonly, it's Mr Right Now and virginity is a word you forgot the meaning of a long time ago. I'm not saying all the women around me are having sex at twelve and being little sluts. I'm just saying the term 'try before you buy' is being taken more and more literally in terms of the man you are going to marry. And why shouldn't I? I'm only going to get married once! Then there are those who get married because the old logic kicked in and took it as the next step. Are they happy? If Bridezilla didn't rear her ugly, frazzled, bossy head and you went through with it all, are you happy? $30,000 dollars later, was it worth it? I'm not asking these questions because I don't believe in the sanctity of marriage. I do. I still term that day of one of the biggest of my life and it hasn't happened yet. I have friends who are already married and divorced and most of them are younger than me but it doesn't put me off. I want to pledge to my life to his in the house of God and then I want to celebrate it with all my friends and family but not at the expense of our financial happiness. Make no mistake, I'm going to go a little Bridezilla and I want our wedding to be perfect and that means spending a little money. I don't want to settle for the wedding that someone else might have been happy with. I want what I want (with some input from Doug) and I won't settle for less. Some days the wedding seems so insignificant in the face of providing our girls with everything they want and need and more. Guess that means I shouldn't hold my breath... nah, just kidding. I'm going to write that next bestseller, publishers are going to fight over me and I'll be able to pay for ten weddings!! Anyway, I'm off to my first hen's night of all these weddings and I'm going to let my hair down, wish the bride good luck and be happy. I'm going to have fun =)
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Howdy doody =)
First of all, thanks to the four people who left comments last week. You'll all be getting a little something from Alexis and I to say thanks! Now I want to talk about luck and being in the right place at the right time. As some of you already know, I've been cyber stalking Anna Campbell to get a copy of her latest release, Captive of Sin. Finally it paid off and I won a copy from Nalini Singh's blog. I really like Anna and the stalking wasn't a burden for me at all but it got me thinking about luck. You enter a story into a competition like the Harlequin iHearts presents. 544 odd entries and my little one seems so insignificant. I feel like I'm swimming in the ocean with sharks circling around a ring of dolphins. The dolphins are on my side but as soon as I flail or show weakness, I'm toast and the sharks will rip me apart. Okay, I'm feeling a little morbid today. While I'm frantically trying to finish my women's fiction, I'm thinking about entering into the Australian Emerald at the end of the month, I'm also thinking more and more about the right book, at the right time, for the right person. That's what it's all about. It's not that my writing is crap or that I'm not ready to sub or that the judges comments scare the living shit out of me. Everything in this game is completely subjective. You might be having a bad day and be more judgemental. You might have had an ex-boyfriend with the same name as my hero or the dog that bit you when you were four with the same colour eyes. I understand all of this but I also think it's a little unfair in competitions. I know. This started out as a blog and now I'm having a rant. If my story is regency noir and the hero walks into the room, takes the stranger into his arms and kisses her senseless, puts a bullet into her fiancee and then rides into the night on his trusty steed, believe me when I say, this is what happened! It's my story. Go with it for a minute. In one of my regencies, the heroine avenges her father in a duel and shoots the cretin in the thigh (she missed, she was aiming for his...). When her guardian tells her it isn't appropriate behavior for a young lady of good breeding, don't mark me down because you agree. If she has a hissy fit over being treated unfairly, don't tell me that gently bred misses don't have hissy fits! The feisty ones do!! If you don't understand or read the genre, don't judge it! Sometimes when things happen in an era we didn't see, you have to abandon your own preconceptions and just read. You can't tell me that in the early eighteen hundreds there wasn't an heiress anywhere that didn't have a mind of her own or a tongue in her mouth that she wasn't afraid to use (that didn't come out right). You just want me to believe that all men were either scandalous rogues or fat, balding, sweaty boring gits. My hero and heroine are who they are because I made them that way. If they aren't believable, tell me that. If you don't like them, let me know. But don't tell it wouldn't or shouldn't happen because it can and it did. Now back to my women's fiction. I decided to have a shot at something different when I couldn't find an entry into the dark regency world I'm fast falling in love with. I've had a couple of my awesome critters read it and they all though it was well written and hilarious but will you? If I enter it alongside single title suspense, regency, medieval, will it have a chance? I'm not sure but what I do know is, if I'm not in it, I can't win it! Damn, I didn't win the lotto... But I didn't buy a ticket. Same concept. If I want my name and my work out there, I've got to put my fear of sharks to the side and trust that my work is good enough to stand on it's own two feet and that I have just as much right to be there as anyone else. If I don't win, I'll take the critism and chalk it all up to experience. Maybe I'll learn something new. Maybe I'll crack the shits and go postal (I would never do that) but at least I can say tha I tried. Without trying there is no failure and I won't learn from my own mistakes without someone to point them out (delicately please) Anyway, that's it from me this week. I want to say thanks again to Alexis for being my crash test dummy last week. While I didn't get the number of responses I was after, I tried =) Have a great week! I realised today on top of everything else that I can't count. I thought tomorrow was the 6th but it turns out I was just wishful thinking that I had another day up my sleeve somewhere. So without further ado... (and I apologise for all the font changes, unavoidable...) As promised I have an exciting author interview today coinciding with her newest release. Now comes the hard part. I’m relatively new at this kind of stuff so if there’s something I’ve missed or you want to know something else, please leave a comment and one of us will get back to you. I would like to introduce you to Alexis Fleming (here’s where you clap), a mum and granny, a wife, business woman and writer of Erotic Romance. Alexis has very kindly agreed to be my first interviewee, something of a trial and error guinea pig or crash test dummy depending on which way the wind blows. Hi Alexis and welcome to my rants page. Alexis –Hi, Bronwyn. Thanks for having me and I’m more than happy to be a test dummy. Hey, those crash test dummies are all skinny and gorgeous, right? Oh, and young! Hmm, but sexless! Not a great way to be... Tell me first about your new release 'Honey Trap' debuting today at Ellora's Cave. Alexis – Honey Trap was a title I’d had in my brain for ages. No story to go with it, just the title. Whenever I come up with a title I think would look great on a book, I jot it down. Eventually the story line to match the title comes to me. This is what happened with Honey Trap. Honey Trap is part of the Going Down Under series Ellora’s Cave is publishing, all written by Australian writers. Here’s the blurb. Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing ISBN: 9781419925269 Release Date: 6th November 09 Link to book: http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-7771-50-honey-trap.aspx BLURB: Going Down Under Seductive scents…torrid suspense… For Australian scientist Kyla Harris, danger is not her middle name, but when she invents a cologne that acts as an aphrodisiac, she becomes embroiled in a CIA case. Sexy American agent Logan Matthews is assigned as her bodyguard when someone tries to steal her sensual formula. Kyla finally has the edge in the war of the sexes and Logan Matthews is her target. A little fun in bed…on the desk…in the Aussie bush—what better way to test her cologne? It’s just a shame Logan’s only reacting because of the formula…or is he? Link to Excerpt:http://www.jasminejade.com/productspecs/9781419925269.htm That sounds really exciting! What a great premise and I love the Down Under factor! How many does this make it for you? Alexis – Um, hang on, counting… lol I’m relatively new to Ellora’s Cave so Honey Trap is only my fourth over there. One of those is also in print in an anthology. With Samhain Publishing, I have five books out, all in both digital as well as print. I have five with Changeling Press, one of which is also in a print anthology. I’m also with Total-e-bound Publishing with four digital books, three of which are in print. And last but not least, I am part of Heart & Craft which is in print with Allen & Unwin. I’m also a contributor to an anthology coming out in print with them on 1st December. Considering I didn’t get my first contract until August 2004, it has been a busy few years. Sounds like it! I understand you haven't always written Erotic stories. What did you used to write and what made you decide to make the switch? Alexis – I started out writing fantasy and contemporary romance, but even then, my stories were highly sensual. I’ve always seen the act of making love as part of the whole falling in love package, so why deprive my readers of that? When a friend suggested I try erotic romance it really wasn’t a big stretch for me. I just opened the bedroom door a little wider and let my imagination (and libido) have at it. I think whatever I write it will always be hot. That’s just the way I see the stories in my head. Hmm, does that make me a dirty old woman? Never! What does your husband and family think about what you write? I know my partner would think it's Christmas every day but I don't think I would ever be able to tell my dad. Alexis – My husband doesn’t have a problem with it, although he does sometimes want to know where I get my ideas. In fact, my hubby often does my final proof reading before I send my work to the editor. With my daughter, it’s easy. Not only is she a published writer in her own right, she’s also my sounding board and one of my critique partners. My son doesn’t have a problem with his mother writing hot books, but he’d prefer if his fiancée didn’t read them. For one reason only. The first time she read one of my books, she raced my boy off to the bedroom afterwards. Yes, he enjoyed the benefits, but he said it felt like having mum in the bedroom with him. lol As for my mother-in-law, she keeps asking when I’m going to send her a copy of one of my books. Um, never? My father-in-law was a minister of religion and I’m not certain my mother-in-law would approve. In fact, I know she wouldn’t. lol Many, many years ago my mother-in-law nearly fainted when she realised the lingerie party I hosted included sex toys so I totally understand! How do you fit it all in? Writing and life? Have you found a balance or do you wing it day to day? Alexis -- Hubby and I run a busy motel which is pretty much a 24/7 job. That means my writing has to fit around the motel. It’s not always easy. I hit the floor running at 5.30am, answer email, do my promo, and then it’s into the shower to be ready to start work in the motel by 7.30am. Most of the mornings I’m tied up with doing the laundry for the motel and running the cleaning team who do the rooms. Afternoons I manage to find some time on the computer, but most of my writing takes place after 5.30pm. I’m spoilt because hubby cooks dinner and just calls me when it’s ready, so I can go on writing. After dinner, it’s back to the computer. During the high season, I really don’t get a lot of writing done. I tend to arrange all my contracts so nothing is due from the end of December to the end of April. After that, things slow down a bit and I can get in more writing time. And finally, what would you like to rant about? It wouldn't be a rant page if you didn't have something you want to get off your chest! Alexis – Hmm, a rant. Have to think a bit. Okay, in my everyday life, one of my pet peeves is rudeness. In running a motel, I guess I’ve seen every character trait come through our reception door. Most people are terrific, but then you get the ones who are so rude, either to hubby or myself, or, and this really gets up my nose, to my staff. That’s like a red rag to me because there is no excuse for rudeness. In my writing life, I think the thing that annoys me the most is seeing some authors pulling down other authors. There’s no excuse. If you have a grievance with someone, deal with it in private. Don’t take it to blog land and make it fodder for gossip. It puts us all in a bad light. I work in a supermarket so rudeness is high on my list of intolerable-s and having been a bystander in one too many Facebook bitch fights and insulting blogs, I see where you’re coming from. I’m not a fan of bashing anyone in public forums unless it’s Centrelink (run by the Aussie government) or Telstra (the largest of the Aussie telco’s). But to individually single someone out and give them hell without the right of reply is a cowardly act. God, listen to me, I’ve taken over your rant =) Thank you so much for your time, Alexis! I wish you every success for Honey Trap! I'll be going to buy a copy right now (just don’t tell Doug!) Alexis – Thanks for having me, Bronwyn. It’s been fun. If you want to visit Alexis' website just click on her name anywhere in the interview and I'll deliver you there =) If you want to purchase a copy of Honey Trap, click on one of the links shown either side of the blurb. Now make sure you leave a comment for a chance to win an electronic copy of Honey Trap (if you aren't into erotic romance I'll give away a big box of Cadbury Favourites or a book and a little goody if you're over the ocean) The winner will have to answer the question... How hot do you like your romance and why? Tell us what kind of heat you like and the best answer will win, you have till Friday the 13th November!! Ooh, scary! Now, I won't be doing this every week. I'm think the first Saturday of every month will be interview an author day so come back next week for more rants or news of my progress in today's tough market. Have a spectacular weekend! |
DisclaimerI'm a published author but I'm still mostly stumbling about in the dark looking for the right paths so this blog is about that, though sometimes something will give the me the shits and I'll have a bit of a rant. I'll try not to be offensive but occasionally my mouth opens without asking my brain's permission so I'll apologise in advance. Archives
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