New Website - And Final Post!

As of June 2009, I've officially launched a new site at www.sararamsey.com. The site is an integrated website/blog, with some static content about my work and a blog-style section that I update frequently.

Since the new website is ready to go, this is the last post on this site. However, all prior content from this blog, including comments, has been migrated to the new site, and so nothing is lost. Hopefully the new layout and added content will make up for any inconvenience you may face by updating your bookmarks.

Thanks for stopping by, and hopefully I'll see you at the new site -- www.sararamsey.com.

The End of the Agent Hunt

I have fabulous news to report -- my search for an agent is over! It all ended much more quickly and dramatically than I expected. Two weeks ago, I was worried that I might never sign (yes, I'm impatient -- it often takes years to sign). But then, last Thursday, a totally wonderful agent called me while I was at work to offer representation!

She was already at the top of my list based on her reputation, and her sheer enthusiasm for my work while she offered representation was enough to put her over the top. Still, I've read enough horror stories about failed agent/author relationships to be wary, and so I contacted the other agents who were considering my work to let them know that I had received an offer. By the end of the weekend, two other agents had made offers -- and so as of Memorial Day, I was suddenly in the unexpected position of having to come up with interview questions so that I could choose between the three offers!

I spoke to all of them on Tuesday, and while I felt that all of them could have been good fits for my work (and one in particular was the other top agent on my list, making my choice more difficult), I ultimately decided that the first agent was the best fit for my long-term goals. I mailed the contracts on Friday, and we're talking again this week to discuss the process for submissions to publishing houses.

So, it's been a complete whirlwind, and obviously I'm very excited. However, I realized while I was on the phone with one of them that I've successfully scaled the agent mountain and reached the peak -- only to discover that there's another, bigger mountain looming in the form of beginning the search for a publisher. Happily, my agent (I love saying that!) will be my partner on that climb, so I'm not alone -- but this is by no means a done deal. I spent the weekend brooding over that sobering fact, but I can't brood for long; the excitement of continuing to make progress towards my goals will pick me up again.

This means that, as of tonight, "The Agent Hunt" will be retired as a label -- staring this week, "The Publisher Hunt" will begin! Stay tuned...

Betrothals and Marriage Contracts

When I'm writing, I usually just put "[CHECK]" at the end of a sentence when I'm not sure I have the historical details exactly right, or when I don't want to bother looking up where hemlines and waistlines were in 1811 vs. 1812. However, when I was working on Madeleine and Ferguson's story last night (yes, I wrote after work! score!), I realized I'm at a point in their saga where I need to take a step back and do some research. Fudging the details in a first draft is all well and good when the details relate to a type of fabric; it's a much bigger issue when your whole story hinges on how betrothal contracts worked, because if it turns out they don't work the way you thought they did, your story may never be right again.

So, it's research time for me -- which is too bad, because I really just want to keep writing. But perhaps this is a lesson that I should do this type of research sooner; I knew about one hundred pages ago that this was coming, and if I had discovered then that the twist could not possibly work, I would have written the past hundred pages with another goal in mind. Fingers crossed that the betrothal contract is sound, or I will be one unhappy camper.

Bone Daddy

I had to share this deal that I found in my latest email from Publishers Marketplace:

FICTION: WOMEN'S/ROMANCE
R.G. Alexander's BONE DADDY, a three-novella single-author erotic anthology about a sexually charged voodoo spirit, the people whose bodies he inhabits, and the mischief he creates, to Kate Seaver at Berkley HEAT, for publication in summer 2010, by Roberta Brown of the Brown Literary Agency.

The reason I had to share is because my father, for whatever reason, likes to say "bone daddy" in a rather menacing voice when he's got his electric carving knife out and ready to do some damage to a ham or turkey. Reading this sale announcement and hearing my father's voice in my head saying "bone daddy" has scarred me for life!

Today was fine on the writing front, albeit not fantastic; I wrote ~2000 words, which is less than half of what I wanted to write, but is still eight pages farther along than I was before today. Hopefully I'll get a chance to write tomorrow, but the day job requires some serious attention. Have a lovely Sunday!

Saturday is Writing Day!

I've decided to write all day today -- well, after I blog, of course. And, since I've already been up for almost three hours, perhaps "all day" is an exaggeration. But I'm ignoring the desire to clean, the desire to shop, the desire to see friends, etc., and focusing all of my efforts on Madeleine and Ferguson for the next eight or ten hours.

Hopefully my horoscope for today is accurate:

You are energized in a very real way, for you can see what's ahead if you continue to work hard and plan for your future. But the currents may be speeding up now and this can make you nervous, even if it's also exciting. You want to succeed, but you may be afraid that it won't last if it all happens so fast that you don't have a strong foundation. Don't let your fears get in the way of your success.

Happy Saturday, everyone! By this time tomorrow, Madeleine and Ferguson will be even farther along in their journey towards the happily-ever-after.

Bloom Where You're Planted

While my day job provides many benefits (such as a paycheck) and many frustrations (such as the sixty-plus-hour weekly commitment that pulls me away from my writing), what keeps me going back is my fabulous set of coworkers. I'm very lucky in that I actually enjoy seeing many of the people I work with; there are always the occasional people whom I avoid when I see them walking down the hall, but they are far outnumbered by the people whom I would gladly sacrifice ten minutes of precious worktime to catch up with.

I had a meeting today with one of my direct reports, and the meeting reminded me just how lucky I am to work with these people, and even more importantly how much I just need to figure out how to balance the job and the writing and not get frustrated when either one is not going exactly right. The person I met with was an officer in Iraq and served two tours before leaving the Army and going into the private sector. As we were talking, he mentioned something that his grandmother told him before he left for Iraq -- that it was important to "bloom where you're planted." Isn't that excellent advice? Regardless of whatever situation you end up in, you can still strive to bloom in it.

This is far sappier than I usually get, so I apologize for the uncharacteristic lapse. I will be back to my regularly scheduled snark tomorrow!

My Favorite Things: Hair Tinsel

Occasionally I intend to post things that I currently love. Top of mind (and head, ha) right now is hair tinsel! One of my friends got it last week, and I just had to copy her; I adore sparkly, shiny accessories, and luckily my day job allows me certain freedoms in terms of my ability to occasionally act like I'm sixteen. Since I have never dyed my hair and do not intend to start until the grey starts its inevitable assault, hair tinsel is an appealing option for adding some flare to my hair without damaging it.

Essentially, the tinsel is hair-width metallic fibers that a stylist ties to individual strands of hair near the roots. Once tied in place, the strands stay there until the hairs fall out. The tinsel can be shampooed, styled, blow-dried, etc., just like normal hair -- but I would swoon with ecstasy if my normal hair could ever turn to tinsel on command.

Ten strands of metallic purple tinsel later, and my long brunette hair suddenly has an edge to it that I adore. It's not over-the-top noticeable, but I love when the metallic strands catch the light. While it's not something I would do all the time, I'm pretty sure I will have to do it again for the RWA conference -- perhaps a color to match my Golden Heart Award Ceremony dress?

To see what hair tinsel looks like, check out this site; I got the tinsel put in at a salon in Silicon Valley. Enjoy, and comment if you decide to get tinsel!

One Hundred Days of Write-itude

The Romance Writers of America conference is in less than ten weeks! I wasn't planning to attend this year, but after finding out that AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE is a finalist for a Golden Heart award, I immediately changed my mind.

So, I'm going to DC, where I intend to meet the other lovely ladies I'm becoming acquainted with online, attend some great workshops and retreats, sightsee in our nation's capital, and party my heart out until the awards ceremony. But, there is much to do before I get to Washington; while finding a dress and obsessing over shoes will take some significant thought, the main focus is trying to finish the first draft of Madeleine and Ferguson's story. Obviously, I hope that I sell MARRIAGE and that all my wildest dreams come true, but I'm not holding my breath -- and I think I'm on to something special with these characters, so I would like to have a finished draft in time to submit to the 2010 Golden Heart in December.

This is doable; I'm about as far with them right now as I was with Amelia and Malcolm last year, so finishing by December is feasible. It just won't be easy, given the demands of the day job, my summer travel schedule, and all the little things that seem to conspire against me.

My hardcore writing was supposed to start today, but instead I did five loads of laundry, reread segments of a great book (Robin McKinley's CHALICE -- a nice blend of old-timey high fantasy, romance, and beekeeping), and talked to my parents for Mother's Day. But, starting now, I'm recommitting to my hermitage; spending the next hundred (or, hopefully, only seventy) days holed up and working on Madeleine and Ferguson's story should give me something complete enough that I can start working on the second draft after the RWA conference. I will either return elated and eager to get back to the book, or despondent and in need of a distraction, so having something to edit will be key.

You can tell by the length of this post that I'm procrastinating :) No more of that -- it's time to get back to business!

I Love Me Some Star Trek

I didn't expect to love "Star Trek" quite as much as I did, but it had the perfect blend of action, comedy, and character development to kick off the summer movie-going season. And quite unexpectedly, this is the only movie I can remember in which I cried in the first ten minutes.

And if nothing else, I have a new inspiration for my bad-boy heroes -- Chris Pine as Captain Kirk is fabulous! Check him out below...

Broken Glass, Continued

I'm listening to "Walking on Broken Glass" again -- I can't work on the book because I'm at work, and I have a pressing mid-afternoon deadline that I feel loath to meet. I will meet it, of course, but "Walking on Broken Glass" is a good five-minute distraction.

Madeleine and Ferguson will demand much of my time this weekend, but I will still call my mother on Mothers' Day. What are your Mothers' Day plans?

Writing, comma, How Not to Succeed At

The best way, hands down, to not succeed at writing is to never make time to write. And unfortunately, that is the position that I find myself in this week. Despite my best intentions, I have not written since Sunday. Three days is really not such a long break, but I'm so excited to get back to working on Madeleine and Ferguson's story, and so a three- (or more likely, five-) day hiatus is frustrating.

Then again, given the state of the economy in general and my expensive tastes in particular, having a day job is a good thing, even if the day job is keeping me so occupied this week that I can't find time to write. Yes, I could make faster progress on the road to publication if I could devote sixty hours a week to it, but it's hard to slog down that road if you have scurvy because you can only afford to eat ramen. I suppose I could give up my Sephora habit -- but until they develop drugs to help ease the withdrawal pangs I would feel at never buying Nars eyeshadow or Shiseido lipstick again, I'm too hooked to drop it.

What about you? What silly expense are you unwilling to drop?

Ferguson and Madeleine -- the Story (Finally) Continues

I finished editing AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE yesterday, and while it would be nice to take a break, there's no rest for the wicked (or rather, no rest for those who dream of publication). So, I woke up early this morning and spent an hour at Starbucks before going into the office so that I could focus on Book Two.

The task for today was to reread what I had written of Ferguson and Madeleine's story so that I can jump back into the first draft where I left off in March. The Golden Heart hoopla and all of the chaos with my day job took its toll on Ferguson and Madeleine, and they've been chilling in limbo for the past six weeks. So imagine my delight when I picked up the manuscript again and realized that I already had 177 pages written; my memory thought that it was ~100 pages, so I'm much further into the book than I thought I was.

Even better, I genuinely like most of what I've written. While there are things that I will need to go back and change (including the addition of a whole bunch of historical detail; the first draft is full of incomplete phrases like, "Madeleine paused, savoring the taste of [taste] on her tongue," where I've used brackets to indicate a missing detail that I need to figure out), I'm very happy with the characters themselves. In fact, I adore them both and want only the best for them, and so I'm going to have to embrace the dark side while I put them through another 200 pages of torment before granting their happily-ever-after.

I'll keep you posted on their progress, but sleep is vital if I'm going to help them along their merry way tomorrow...

Here Comes the Rain Again

It is another cold and rainy weekend in San Francisco. It's unclear to me what SF has done to offend the weather gods, but for whatever reason, it feels like the weeks are nice and the weekends are not so nice. Obviously I would prefer to have it be the other way around, but I suppose there is something to be said for the "inspiration" the rain provides for my British-set romance novels.

I'm still slogging through edits for AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE, but I believe that I can be done tonight. Then it's back to the grind in multiple capacities -- both in my day job, which will be somewhat intense this week, and in my writing job, which demands that I start querying my heart out.

Okay, it's time to find a coffee shop and hole up there for the immediate future. Happy Sunday!

I Need To Get On the Rewriting Classics Train

My favorite new deal from Publishers Marketplace for this week is:

Janet Mullany's THE IMMORTAL JANE AUSTEN, a humorous novel about Jane Austen in Regency England who joins the vampire resistance in Bath when England is invaded by French forces, to May Chen at Harper, in a nice deal, in a two-book deal, by Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency (world).

WTF? What is it with Jane Austen being rewritten in a variety of ridiculous ways? I need to get on this bandwagon; it's just too bad that by the time I finish a book for this trend, the trend will already be dead. I suppose that means I should focus on submitting AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE, rather than developing a version of Upton Sinclair's THE JUNGLE in which he explores the horrors of the meatpacking industry and discovers that all meatpackers are, in fact, syphilitic zombies intent on infecting the American population in an effort to upgrade from their filthy tenement apartments.

Actually, given the state of the market, that idea may have promise...

In Which This Author Receives a Shock

Sincere apologies for my silence over the past few days. It's been something of a whirlwind (as all of my weeks are -- for some reason, I haven't had a single week in months that was devoid of chaos), and the blog was deprioritized as a result. I found out last Wednesday that one of the final-round judges for the Golden Heart wanted to see my full manuscript!

The good news is that this indicates that the editor has some level of interest in acquiring my book. The bad news is that I was in the middle of doing some revisions, and I only had forty-eight hours to submit my full manuscript to the RWA office. Needless to say, this was cause for alarm; while none of my edits were dramatic, I wasn't as far along as I would have liked. Luckily, I work at one of the few places in corporate America in which my boss and all of my directors are supportive of both my writing career (and yes, they know I'm writing romance) and my "real" career, and so I was able to take Thursday afternoon off to polish up my draft. Now it's back to the grind to get caught up at work, but a request from an editor made my week :)

Walking On Broken Glass

After a variety of strange and ridiculous things today, I needed a break -- and I got it, in the form of the video for Annie Lennox's "Walking on Broken Glass." It has everything I require in a good time: Hugh Laurie, costumes, absurd lyrics, and melodramatic sentiments. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GBn-BpkNsA

I have nothing new to report, but I shall write tomorrow! In the interest of getting to the writing faster, it's time for bed.

On Business Cards and Taglines

I want to get some writing-related business cards before the RWA National Conference in Washington this summer, and I'm having trouble deciding what to put on them. My name is a critical component, obviously, as are email and phone. However, I do not think I will put on my home address, both for privacy reasons and because I move often enough that I don't want to have my card be obsolete in six months.

The trickiest part is my occupation and the description of my business. I am calling myself a writer because that's what I am, even if I haven't made any money for my labors yet. Beyond that, though, I want something on the card that hints at the type of writing I do. I can do this partially through the font, color, etc. -- if I choose pink with a flowing script font, it's clear that I write traditional romances rather than paranormals (although I do want to write paranormals someday). But I also want a tagline to describe what I write in one pithy, memorable sentence.

I spent a few minutes brainstorming tonight, and clearly I'm going to have to do more -- what I came up with is definitely memorable, but not particularly useful ("Love in the Time of Syphilis" and "Sara Ramsey: Ramming It Old-School" were my two favorite inappropriate taglines). So, it's back to the drawing board -- do you have any thoughts?

See: Quitting, Not

I'm feeling pretty happy on the motivation front right now. Rewrites for AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE are going both well and quickly, and I'm looking forward to getting back to Madeleine and Ferguson's story soon (in my head I'm calling it AN INCONVENIENT TITLE because a) I don't have a title, and b) Ferguson doesn't want his).

But, it never hurts to hear a little extra motivation from someone who's been through it all before. Check out this blog post about persevering through thousands (gasp) of rejections. Happily I'm nowhere near the thousand (or even hundred) rejection mark yet, but I intend to keep going even if I reach that point.

Now it's back to the writing -- enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Dehydrated but Productive

One of the problems that I have when writing is that I forget to take breaks. Another problem is that I like to write on my laptop while lying on my couch (as I am right now), and due to the unfortunate placement of all of the tables in my living room, this means that any drink in my vicinity is placed directly behind my head. So, while I have the remnants of an iced tea not two feet away from me, I'm still feeling parched because I don't want to stop typing long enough to sit up, drink the tea, return to my prone position, and adjust my laptop for optimal typing. Then again, I'm *really* thirsty, so perhaps I should reconsider...

Okay, I'm back. I was quite productive today, but almost all of it came between 6:30pm and 10:30pm. I also had a brief spurt for an hour and a half this morning, but between dropping off and picking up my car from the service station, mailing some stuff, eating lunch, reading a couple of chapters out of a creative writing textbook, and buying waaaaay too much stuff at Sephora, I had quite a lazy afternoon. I like to think it was just what I needed, though, and I'm feeling much more relaxed and ready to tackle more writing this weekend.

I wrote 3258 words today, or approximately thirteen pages. This got me through the rest of Malcolm and Amelia's wedding scene, and I'm about halfway through the subsequent breakfast. I intend to finish that scene tomorrow, then go back and revisit the first three chapters leading into the wedding to make sure they flow properly and are fast-paced enough to build reader interest. If I'm going to accomplish all of that tomorrow, sleep is imperative tonight, so I suppose I should go to bed!

A Three-Day Weekend Awaits

I'm taking tomorrow off, and not a moment too soon -- while I did manage to work on the rewrites for MARRIAGE on Monday and Tuesday, I failed in my efforts yesterday and today. I can't let my progress stall; the Golden Heart nomination is a huge opportunity, but I'm not comfortable querying with what I have because I'm convinced that I need to rewrite a couple of chapters. Since my day-job boss is in town next week, my evenings are going to be booked up, and so progress this weekend is critical.

Meanwhile, I keep watching the video of Susan Boyle's performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" on "Britain's Got Talent." I'm a total sucker for underdogs, and her appearance and general demeanor made her the ultimate underdog; everyone in the audience was sure that this was going to be one of those cringe-worthy trainwrecks that happen in the early rounds of talent competitions. Instead, she performed "I Dreamed a Dream" so well that it's gotten over fifteen *million* views on YouTube in less than a week, and pushed the original Broadway recording of the song back onto the Top 40 charts. How incredible is that? If I never sell my books, perhaps I'll go on a variety show in twenty years and attempt to do a dramatized reading of one of my scenes, although I doubt that's the best way to break into publishing.

It's bedtime; tomorrow, I have to drop my car off to get serviced, and then I'm going to seek out a cafe and write the rest of the day. What are your plans for the weekend?

I Dreamed a Dream

Watch this chick from "Britain's Got Talent" -- absolutely amazing performance, and it sends tingles up my spine to watch her dream coming true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

(sorry, they disabled embedding)

Silver Bells and Cockle Shells

Wedding bells are tolling for Malcolm and Amelia -- for about the fourth time. After rereading AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE on Saturday, I identified a couple of areas that I want to change, and their wedding and subsequent wedding breakfast are at the top of the list. While the rest of the book is snappy and dialogue-driven, the wedding and breakfast are throwbacks to my first draft; I loved the concept and so kept the scenes virtually intact, but now they don't fit in with the rest of the book, and the heavy usage of narrative instead of dialogue makes the pace come to a screeching (albeit brief -- but not brief enough to maintain agent interest) halt.

So the concept is staying the same, but I'm rewriting that section from scratch. I wrote four or five pages tonight while sitting in a cafe after work, and was intrigued to discover that, while I changed everything and kept only a couple of original lines, I told the same exact story, with totally different details, without deviating from the original word count by more than 100 words. This surprised me; clearly I have a strong sense of how long the scene should last, even if my version of the scene has changed.

Overall, I'm happy with the progress I made tonight and am feeling much better about the rest of the edits on my plate. It was really hard to jump in at first; I "finished" AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE in December, and all of my creative focus has been on Ferguson and Madeleine instead. But once I started writing, Malcolm and Amelia came back to me -- and I think they're happy that their wedding is going to reflect the rest of their ridiculous romance.

Now, though, it's bedtime; I need to carve out some writing time tomorrow, which will be difficult due to an early-morning dentist appointment and a dinner engagement with some friends. Wish me (and Malcolm and Amelia) luck!

Rereading AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE

I procrastinated as long as I could this morning (albeit with useful distractions, such as changing the sheets on my bed and cleaning my kitchen), but I spent the rest of the day rereading the entire manuscript of AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE. I had not read it all in its entirety since I submitted it for the Golden Heart contest in December; after the deadline, I spent a couple of months relaxing/seeing friends/working on my query letter, and then submitted to a few agents in February. I was hearing back from them at the same time that I heard back from the Golden Heart -- and while I'm thrilled to be a finalist in the Regency category, I haven't had the same luck with agents.

The verdict after a reread? I'm really happy with it overall, particularly with the last two-thirds of the book. But, with the space and distance of a few months spent doing other things, there are a few pieces that leap out to me and begged to be changed. In particular, there are a couple of scenes that I love -- but that I should have rewritten when I did second-draft rewrites of everything else, because while I love the idea of the scene, the style no longer fits the stronger, faster style of the rest of the book.

So, I'm not in despair mode; I'm actually pretty satisfied with what I have, and I'm confident in my ability to fix the pieces I'm not satisfied with. It will require a couple of cuts, a couple of new scenes, and a couple of rewrites of existing scenes -- but I'm setting a goal of being done by mid-May so that I can start querying again before the madness of summer hits in earnest.

Now I'm off -- I'm having dinner at a friend's house, which is a welcome respite from my hermitage, even if I took the unusual route of buying dessert (tiramisu cake from Whole Foods) rather than making it myself due to a) time constraints and b) a lack of ingredients already in the house. Theoretically I should buy some groceries, but the book comes first. Have a lovely weekend!

Work is the Devil

Actually, work is not the devil; I'm very fortunate to have a job in these "troubled times," as newscasters like to remind us hourly. But, my day job is rather demanding, and it's all the more difficult to stay focused when all I want to do is write. I persevered today, staying in the office for ten hours and then working at home for two hours beyond that, but I'm hopeful that I can get caught up enough that I will not need to do anything for the day job this weekend.

In other news, I read this interesting stat on Publishers Lunch, from USA Today: Stephenie Meyer accounted for sixteen percent of total sales for the books they were tracking on their bestseller list. Sixteen percent! That makes my Golden Heart nomination look like a Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes invitation. I shall never get to sixteen percent market share unless I focus on the book -- so this weekend is going to be spent in hermitville. I have a birthday party to attend tomorrow night (at a country/western bar with line dancing, which should be interesting), but beyond that, I'm going to hole up with Malcolm, Amelia, and the dozen felt-tipped pens that I bought tonight and figure out what, if anything, I want to change before submitting to agents again. It's not the most fun weekend in the world, but if it gets me a step closer to Stephenie Meyer territory, it's worth it.

Social Networking == Quicksand

With the exciting news that AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE finaled in the RWA Golden Heart contest, I feel like I need to be building out my web presence in anticipation of the day when I sell my novel (or the day when I realize I'm never going to sell my novel and need some e-friends to cry to). In my quest to efficiently tackle the online space, I set up a new Sara Ramsey Facebook account and decided to dedicate more time to blogging here. I've been on Facebook for around twenty-four hours, but thanks to some support from my personal friends and the addition of quite a few of my fellow finalists, I've built up a not-too-shabby friend list. I'm looking forward to branching out more into the publishing world as I start to build out content, but I feel like this is a good start.

However, social networking is such a time sink that I wonder if I would be better off spending the time writing. In addition to Facebook and the blog, I also started a Twitter account today (you can follow me @ramseyromance -- linked to in the sidebar on this page). I've stayed away from Twitter, believing it to be yet another plague in the multitude of procrastination-enabling addictions that litter the web. With my blogs, my website, my email, my Google Reader, and the fact that I work for a tech company and spend ten hours a day online there, I'm already online enough -- Twitter seemed like the last straw. But I signed up today because it's all the rage, and I need to go where the potential readers are. Whether I'll stick with Twitter remains to be seen (the pressure to come up with something witty in 140 characters is intense, particularly since I'm used to writing 140 lines), but I do feel like there's some happy medium between the amount of time I spent getting things set up today and the practically nonexistent social networking that I do in my personal life.

What do you think about Twitter? Is it the Facebook-killer, or a flash in the pan?

Madeleine's Theme Song

I don't necessarily have a fully-applicable playlist when I write (for instance, I've been listening to Nine Inch Nails' "The Hand That Feeds" recently, which has little to do with romance -- although come to think of it, perhaps it does relate to Ferguson's relationship with his father!). But, this lovely song really puts me in the mood to write about Madeleine. Regina Spektor's voice is gorgeous, the music video is captivating, and the sentiment behind "Fidelity" matches up well to Madeleine's approach to life before she met Ferguson.



What do you think? Do you associate characters in books with any particular songs?

AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE is a Finalist for the 2009 RWA Golden Heart!

I announced this on the website two weeks ago, but in the interest of picking up my blog again -- AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE is a finalist in the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart® contest! The Golden Heart is given out every year for the best unpublished manuscripts across several romance subgenres, and I'm one of six finalists in the Regency Romance category.

This is a huge boost to my confidence, even if it's not a guarantee that I'll sell my beloved book. I won't find out whether it will win until the RWA national conference in July, but until then, I'm going to be revising (more on that another day) and submitting to agents like crazy.

I'm also going to start blogging here again -- no really, I promise this time! I've spent the last couple of weeks celebrating (and dealing with some craziness in the day job), so now it's time to get back to business.

Checking In on Ferguson and Madeleine

I am absolutely wrecked. I wrote ~5500 words today, which translates into almost twenty-five pages. I love some of it, I'm struggling with other parts of it -- and now that I've hit page one hundred (!), I need to start figuring out where this story is going and how Ferguson and Madeleine are going to get there and fall in love at the same time.

One of the issues I'm currently concerned about is Ferguson himself. I adore him, the people who've read AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE seemed to adore him -- in short, he was the logical hero for my second book. But, I sometimes wonder if the very things that made him adorable do not make him good, stereotypical "hero" material. In essence, he is an alpha male masquerading very successfully as one of the Regency's prototypical metrosexuals -- he feigns a lot of concern for his wardrobe, to the point that even other Regency dandies would find him a bit ridiculous. For example, at one point in today's marathon writing session, Ferguson showed up at a ball with a fan -- a completely over-the-top affectation that amuses Madeleine even as her more serious guardian is appalled by Ferguson's behavior.

I personally find this all very entertaining. But perhaps that's to be expected -- my best friend from high school and I still occasionally send postcards to each other from a sexually-ambiguous globetrotting spy who enjoys both dangerous situations and really great sex. Strange insight into my teenage years, given that we came up with this character to alleviate the excruciating boredom of our typing class, but I digress.

What do you think? Do you want your heroes to be the strong, silent (or grunting, Viking) type? Or are you willing to accept someone who spends too much time tying his cravats and who wears better clothes than the heroine?

I Can't Wait For This Book!

My tastes are clearly too obviously terrible. One of my friends sent me an email this week saying, "Dude this book just screams Sara."















Despite any embarrassment I may feel at encouraging the debasement of one of the classics of English literature, I'm still going to order it. I do love me some zombies, as evidenced by the fact that I own both THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE and the movie SHAUN OF THE DEAD (in which, coincidentally, a high school classmate's husband played a zombie who was taken out by a well-thrown record).

Which terrible books are you looking forward to?

Updates From the Agent Search

I'm actively seeking an agent -- a nervewracking process punctuated by fits of euphoria and bouts of depression. Several of my friends are applying for business school, and while their applications are much more time-consuming (pages upon pages of essays, packets for recommenders, and of course application fees and GRE scores), they at least have the solace of knowing that by April or May, everything will be decided and they will know where they are going. Looking for an agent offers no such guarantees -- an agent may take a month to get back to you because they're just that backlogged, or they may never get back to you because your email was eaten by their spam filter. It would be nice to know that by X date I will either have an agent or must switch gears, but that won't happen.

Instead, I'm keeping a close eye on my submissions and sending out more letters when agents I've queried have not gotten back to me within their self-set guidelines. I'm actually doing pretty well -- I've had three requests for partials (the first fifty pages)! I rewrote my query letter in January and have sent out six queries since then. Three resulted in partial requests, and the other three have not been responded to yet.

At the very least, it's good to know that I can apparently write a decent query letter. The waiting is nervewracking, but I feel like I'm taking tentative baby steps towards my goal of publication. Seriously, I cannot remember a time in recent memory when I was as blissfully happy as I was the morning that I got my first request for a partial from an agent. Hopefully I'll have more of those feelings and less of the "why doesn't anyone like me?" feelings in the coming weeks.

Historical vs. "Historical"

I wasn't as productive with the book tonight as I would have liked. I spent far too much time playing around on Wikipedia, abandoning my recent tactic of putting [CHECK] after any dubious or uncertain historical fact while writing the first draft. This tactic is a good one, since it encourages me to stay out of the interweb and away from doing a 'quick' lookup that leads into a three-hour journey down a variety of rabbit-holes. But I was debating whether to give Ferguson a fan, since the most over-the-top dandies seem to have some sort of ridiculous affectation, and that led to a lot of reading up on fashion websites.

The problem is that there is real history, in terms of contemporary accounts, well-researched nonfiction, etc. And then there is 'romance history' -- the world that Regency romance has built up over several decades, with 'rules' and 'facts' that are now accepted as the gold standard by most readers, but that just aren't very historically accurate. For instance, the waltz -- it wasn't danced at all in the early Regency, was still seen as very risque during the mid-Regency, and only came into wider acceptance in 1815 or 1816 (or later, depending on your source). But every Regency romance has the hero and heroine waltzing with each other, because the other dances of the time were more group-style (think country line-dancing, only without the boots, plaid, and awful music), and group dances where the hero and heroine are only together for bits and pieces aren't conducive to flirty conversations.

So now I have a dilemma on my hands. Do I write a romance that is as grounded in fact as possible, even if that means doing away with conventions that are accepted (and even expected) by most readers? Or do I ignore some of this and accept that these romances aren't historically accurate anyway, and just write stories that are fun and engaging? What do you prefer to read?

Recently Read: KISS OF THE DEMON KING by Kresley Cole

Over the weekend, I stepped away from my own book long enough to read KISS OF THE DEMON KING. I've been waiting for this book for months -- it's the next installment of Kresley Cole's IMMORTALS AFTER DARK series. She set up this one perfectly; at the end of the previous book, the hero of that book goes to his brother's house, and it's clear that some serious craziness is going down in the brother's life. That craziness is, of course, the fact that the brother (Rydstrom, a demon king) was kidnapped by Sabine, the Queen of Illusions, to father her child, and he eventually turns the tables and gets his revenge.

This is a romance, so things like kidnapping, pseudo-rape (they both ultimately consent), and revenge are all forgiveable in the end. Kresley Cole helps herself out by making it very clear that Rydstrom and Sabine are fated to be mates for eternity -- in her world-building, most immortal types only get one shot at love, and it's a predestined kind of thing. So, if you're not willing to forgive your mate for kidnapping you for her pleasure, you're basically turning your back on ever finding anyone else. Clever, eh?

Overall, I thought it was good. I liked how ridiculously non-stereotypical Sabine was; she starts off as an 'evil sorceress', and this leaves room for her to do and say things that romance's usual good girls would never consider. I also liked how Rydstrom developed throughout the book, eventually modifying his overly kingly behavior to embrace some of life's messiness (in the form of sex with a hot sorceress, of course).

And I was so into this book that I took it with me on the bus when I went out for dinner on Saturday -- and actually told my friends that if I got bored with them, I would go back to reading demon romance. If you're willing to risk social ostracism, that's a good sign of a book's appeal. Bottom line: if you're into paranormals, you should read this book (and the whole series, starting with A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER). If you don't like paranormals, or are not willing to read anything with light bondage, skip it.

Newly-minted RWA PRO Member!

I received a confirmation email from the Romance Writers of America staff that I've been approved for PRO membership. While I'm not yet eligible for PAN (the Published Author Network), I can join PRO because I have a completed manuscript and proof that I've submitted to an agent. Of course, that proof was that I was politely rejected, since I sent in my application before I heard back from the agents who requested partials last week. But, it feels good to make tangible progress towards a goal, even if PRO membership is not a guarantee that I will get published anytime in the next decade.

Meanwhile, I'm trying hard to keep my creative juices flowing in my subconscious while I'm slogging away at my real job. I switched offices this week, and since I have an office to myself, I took the opportunity to decorate in ways that remind me of my ultimate writing goals while contributing to the 'fun/unique' culture expected by my current employer. While I may sometimes wish that I could skip out on my day job, I must admit that it's pretty sweet to work someplace where I'm actually *encouraged* to put up things like a vintage Bon Jovi poster, several postcards of romance novel covers, and a fiber optic bonsai tree. At least I can get a few moments of visual escape in my office when I'm up to my eyeballs in Excel spreadsheets or management meetings.

What do you do to keep yourself sane at work? I use stress balls, interesting decorating principles, and the occasional Nerf blowdart -- but what do you use?

Breaking Ground on Book Two

I've survived the torturous process of writing a four hundred page book, rewriting the first four chapters multiple times, doing secondary research to make sure all the titles and details were correct, and editing the hell out of it to check for long sentences (like this one), passive verbs, spelling mistakes, and other grammatical woes. And now I'm kicking off the even more torturous process of sending query letters and hoping that my baby will attract the interest of an agent with a heart of gold who will help me to sell it for the best possible price (which will undoubtedly fail to recover the expenses I incurred by taking six months off, travelling around Europe, and taking the opportunity to buy every British history book I could get my hands on).

So why, after surviving the pain of writing the book and anticipating the pain of trying to sell it, am I even considering getting back on the horse? I know that the horse's saddle is studded with nails and that the horse has a mean temper and a viscious bite. But I can't help myself -- and if nothing else, I'm curious to know what happens with Ferguson and Madeleine as they fall in love. Unfortunately, that book will never come out unless I write it.

Which is how I found myself on my couch yesterday, trying to ignore the nicest weather we've had in San Francisco in a couple of months, setting up my Word program to properly format an as-yet-unwritten manuscript. It was a little bit exciting to go through the process of setting the right margins and ensuring that Word stopped putting 'smart quotes' and 'smart dashes' and other 'smart' formatting that could be bad for manuscript submission down the road. Then I typed the title (currently "Book 2 - Madeleine and Ferguson", although I expect to come up wtih something snappier), and off I went. I ended up writing the whole first chapter, which was around 3000 words, in less than five hours.

While I still have a lot of questions to answer and problems to resolve when it comes to the plot, I have a fairly decent feel for the characters since they were secondary characters in AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE, so I don't think I'll go through quite as much trial and error as I did with the last one. Or at least, I hope that's the case -- if I could write for two hours a day (recognizing that that's somewhat impossible but planning to make up for missed workday hours on the weekends), it would take me two months to get to the end of the first draft. That's much better than three years. So even if I fall off the wagon a little bit, I can't imagine this book will take as long as the last one.

And that's where Fate perks up, hears my naive self-confidence, and decides to throw a wrench in things. But I will try to dodge all wrenches and write as scheduled. And if you catch me posting too many procrastinatory links and blogs here, please tell me to stop surfing and start writing.

2008 Reading List Recap

2008 was a so-so year for reading. I read 28 books (plus parts of another 5 books that I didn't finish) -- good for a usual year, bad given the fact that I had six months off and should have read much more than this. But here's what I read, in reverse chronological order:

VISCIOUS CIRCLE - Mike Carey

THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD - Patricia A. McKillip

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK - Neil Gaiman

THE LIVES OF THE ENGLISH RAKES - Fergus Linnane

MR. CAVENDISH, I PRESUME - Julia Quinn

THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO - Ann Radcliffe (dnf)

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW - Mike Carey

ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT - Stephen King

FORTUNE'S FOOL - Mercedes Lackey

CHALICE - Robin McKinley

NEW MOON - Stephanie Meyer

TWILIGHT - Stephanie Meyer

THE DARKEST PLEASURE - Gena Showalter

THE DARKEST KISS - Gena Showalter

THE DARKEST NIGHT - Gena Showalter

WOMEN & MONEY - Suze Orman

WHITNEY, MY LOVE - Judith McNaught

THEN WE CAME TO THE END - Joshua Farris

HOW THE SCOTS INVENTED THE MODERN WORLD - Arthur Herman (dnf)

SEX IN GEORGIAN ENGLAND - A.D. Harvey (dnf)

GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE - Amanda Foreman (dnf)

NORTHANGER ABBEY - Jane Austen

NATURAL BORN CHARMER - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

DARK DESIRES AFTER DUSK - Kresley Cole

DARK NEEDS AT NIGHT'S EDGE - Kresley Cole

WICKED DEEDS ON A WINTER'S NIGHT - Kresley Cole

NO REST FOR THE WICKED - Kresley Cole

A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER - Kresley Cole

TO WED A WICKED PRINCE - Jane Feather (dnf)

THE ART OF SEDUCTION - Robert Green

THE LOST DUKE OF WYNDHAM - Julia Quinn

LAMB - Christopher Moore

BREATHING ROOM - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

This doesn't count the rereads that I did of several of my favorites (THE GRAND SOPHY, DEVIL'S CUB, THE MASQUERADERS, and THE UNKNOWN AJAX by Georgette Heyer, SUNSHINE, BEAUTY, THE HERO AND THE CROWN, and THE BLUE SWORD by Robin McKinley, and various others). It also doesn't count the bits and pieces I read out of a variety of historical research books, or the travel guides that I bought, or some items that ended up languising on my TBR shelf. I bought 47 books from Amazon alone, not counting items that I picked up at Borders or used bookstores, so I did my part to help the publishing industry stay afloat.

For 2008, my favorites were:

Best romance: A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER by Kresley Cole. It was paranormal, but I thought her world-building was outstanding and she's created enough interesting scenarios for many intertwined books. Book six comes out this week and I've already ordered it from Amazon.

Best research book: THE LIVES OF THE ENGLISH RAKES by Fergus Linnane. The thought of treating syphilis with mercury vapors made me a bit ill, but it provided some great background into the crazy people of aristocratic England.

Best fantasy: THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD by Patricia McKillip. I prefer the linguistic stylings of Robin McKinley (and loved CHALICE), but THE BELL AT SEALEY HEAD had a fantastic story, a wicked sorceror, a kind princess, a shy innkeeper and his rich, bookish love interest, and all sorts of other interesting characters. Highly recommend, even if you aren't usually into fantasy.

Best fiction: THE DEVIL YOU KNOW by Mike Carey. Actually, this may be fantasy -- but it's more of a noir detective story, it just happens to have ghosts in it.

The overall trend seemed to be that I was into paranormal-type books. Other than the research books and a couple of random contemporaries, almost everything I read had vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, or some mishmash of everything.

For me, I think I have trouble reading historical romances when I'm actively trying to write, which was the state I was in for much of the year. But paranormals provided me with the romantic elements I craved, while avoiding the historical elements that made reading historicals seem like work rather than pleasure.

What were your favorite books in 2008?