THE REV IS COMING!
April 24th, 2008
PROMISES REVEAL is up for pre-order at Amazon!
How hot is he?
He’s a man who survives by his wits and lives by his own code. Along the way he’s left a trail of broken hearts, broken bones, and quite a few broken laws. But when he gives his heart to the right woman, it comes with a promise he’ll never, ever break…
Dedicated artist Evie Washington doesn’t fancy herself the marrying kind. But the moment she admitted that her faceless portrait of a naked man was modeled on the devilishly handsome Reverend Swanson, the whole town assumed her innocence had been ruined. Now her family’s determined to save her reputation—even if it means taking away her hard-won freedom.
It’s Brad “Shadow” Swanson’s preacher status that’s a pose—to avoid the law . Now he’s been convicted of the one crime he didn’t commit. And if he doesn’t step up and marry Evie, he’ll have to admit his true identity and replace his collar with a noose. Of course, a life sentence in the spirited beauty’s bed wouldn’t exactly be torture—and it just might be the key to making an honest man out of him…
What is your dream…
April 22nd, 2008
house? Who is your dream agent? Those are two questions an aspiring author gets asked all the time. They were asked of me. Once by my agent, constantly by everyone else. My response to my agent was to the point. I don’t have a dream house, I have a dream deal. The simple truth is that no two authors have the same experience at the same house so wishing for a house doesn’t make much sense to me, but wishing for a scenario surrounding the purchase of a manuscript, that did. In my view, my first contracts were my foundation for the rest of my career. I wanted them strong and in accordance with how I saw my career going. Before deciding on a dream house, I always support understanding what’s important to you as an author before progressing to decisions.
Agents- I’m always so surprised by aspiring authors who fixate on an agent without having ever spoken to them. It’s all well and good that they’ve made ex deal for ex author, but that doesn’t correlate that they’ll be able to do the same for another’s manuscript. They’re not miracle workers or magicians. There’s a lot of variables that surround a manuscripts arrival on the market. There’s a lot of variables that surround an author/agent relationship. IMO, it’s best to explore them and discuss aspirations and concepts of a working relationship before mentally committing to an agency, because you are forming a relationship.
RIP our little mascot Lillian
April 6th, 2008
Our little mascot, Lillian, passed on. Brain cancer. The Alpha’s are heartbroken but consoled that she was rescued from a hellish situation and moved onto a good life and very much enjoyed her last years as a social butterfly.
The search for a new mascot is on. Weigh in with your choice: (A contribution monthly is made in the mobettes name) Feel free to visit Tabby’s Place (an exceptional no kill no cages sanctuary for last chance cats) and read through the profiles.
Sarah
For the love of all that’s holy, I need vowels
April 3rd, 2008
I received an email message the other day. You all know how I love to chat and receive emails. And I always anwer emails. If you send me an email and don’t hear back, it’s because the internet must have messed with the communiqué. Anyway, I open it and I swear to God I have no idea what it said. There were no caps, no periods and the worst of all, no vowels!!!!!!  Do you know how opening emails like that messes with a dyslexic’s head? 
Anyway, I couldn’t read the message no matter how hard I tried. I felt badly but I had to email back and request vowels. Lots of vowels!!!  Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s the fact that I’m a writer, but the text messaging format doesn’t work for me. I like capitals, punctuation, vowels, a clear exchange of pleasantries and idea without the need for decoder rings. I don’t have a formal bone in my body, but please. if you email me, please toss in a vowel or two. 
Sarah 
I sound like a broken record
March 13th, 2008
This last year, there have been multiple posts on blogs and such from writers that are unhappy with how their relationship with their publisher is going. They don’t feel they’re being treated right. Now, I’m sympathetic to a writer’s frustration, but as 99 percent of these issues are contractual issues, the writers’ problems often stem from their lack of concern with the details in their contracts at the time of signing the contract. There seems to be a misconception out there that a contract is merely a guideline while the actual rights and obligations a publisher owes an author (and vice versa) stems from some other origin. Common courtesy, moral fortitude, pick your implausible source. The reality is, the extent of the detail in the contract is the extent of the obligations on both sides. If an author signs a contract that never says a publisher has to publish their books, and the publisher pulls them from the site, the author has zero right to complain, because when they signed the contract, they said this was all right with them. Just because the books aren’t for sale doesn’t mean the author deserves their rights back. They may resent the sale of rights with nothing to show for it, but again, if they signed a contract that didn’t cover their butt with the basics like saying the publisher was obligated in return for these rights to maintain the books for sale and to what extent, what do they want the rest of the world to do? The author is the one that set the terms and limits not the public at large. Now, if there’s an out of print clause in the contract, they may be entitled to their rights back, but, only to the extent and under the terms of this clause because again, the publisher is only obligated to whatever is in writing on the contract. Which pretty much means making sure there’s the correct wording in a contract to cover an author’s butt in all eventualities is an imperative. And that responsibility is 100 percent on the author.
I’ve heard hiring an attorney to review the contract is expensive. I’ve heard the publisher won’t negotiate. I’ve heard the publisher might not “Like” them if they negotiate. I’ve pretty much heard it all. And my answer is always the same. This is a business. That contract an author’s life blood in this business , so an author has a choice but just because an author makes a choice not to cover their butt, and for whatever reason signs what’s put in front of them, doesn’t make a publisher evil. Business is and always has been everybody out for themselves. That’s why there are contracts. To contain the self serving nature of the business on both sides. An author can spend $150 upfront to have their contract and the clauses (or lack thereof) in it explained to them before they sign so they are making an informed decision, or they can pay 2-3 K at the back end when their naive trust or lack of initiative blows up in their face. It’s pretty much that simple. Publishing is not a social club. So please, all aspiring authors, please write this down. Tape it to the computer whenever you send out a query. THERE IS NOT ONE SINGLE PUBLISHER IN EXISTENCE THAT WILL PUT THE AUTHOR’S INTEREST AHEAD OF THEIR OWN. I don’t care how sweet their online persona. Whenever an author is presented with a contract they should understand they are now swimming with sharks and if they don’t find or hire some teeth of the own, they will become lunch down the road, and ultimately, when that happens they have no one but themselves to blame. In publishing, on ounce of prevention is worth several pounds of cure.
While in good times, any publisher will find it easy to present an author friendly image, as soon as hard times hit (and they always do) the publisher has only one recourse, to squeeze as much life blood as they can out of their assets. In publishing, this is the rights granted to them in the contract and how they can manipulate them into income. And they will get creative about it. That’s their job, to keep the company financially afloat and if they have to do it in an “author unfriendly “manner, they are going to. I don’t know how to make it more clear. This business isn’t any more stable for publishers than it is for authors. Remember that. Put it on a sticky on the computer. Do whatever it takes so when a contract is put in front of you, you see it as the absolutely vital instrument to your future it is and take the time and spend the money to make sure it works for you as well as it does for the publisher. Because the only ones at the table come signing time are the author and the publisher. The only ones who have any interest in the terms of the contract are the author and the publisher. And the only ones who will be effected by those terms down the road are the individual author and the publisher. It’s too late to complain after the contract has been signed. Too late to research. Too late for anything except to live with the consequences.
That may sound harsh, but it’s the cold, hard reality of a writer’s life and there’s no getting around it. There are likely 50 excuses one can trot out when faced with a contract to not get professional advice or to not heed the advice given. Not one of them will cover an author’s butt down the road. When it comes to contracts, authors have to be  informed, proactive, professional and determined.
My sump pump worked!
March 9th, 2008
Woot! My sump pump worked!!!! No water in the basement. We’ve always had a hole for a sump pump, but it never seemed to come on. Didn’t matter the first few years we lived here as it was a drought, but last year, we had a small lake in the basement. I called a service man out. His determination. Yes we did have a sump pump. One with a big lever action activator that was way too big for the tiny hole it was in so it could never get it up. He put in more appropriate style sump pump. I’ve been taking it on faith that it would work this spring. And, IT DID!!! (we have an underground spring issue in the Spring) Girl child heard it going at it all night (as this faint rhythmic scary noise that kept her up) and my basement is bone dry. Woot again!
Sarah 
Running Wild Excerpt/Teaser
March 6th, 2008
So, I had to pick out an excerpt for Running Wild’s RT Debut and thought I’d share. I think this one will do. What do you think?
Running Wild Excerpt © Reprinted by permission. All Rights reserved.
He kissed her hard, his tongue sliding over hers, stealing her protest, leaving only a soft exhale of his name in its place. He pulled back. This close she couldn’t miss the power emanating from him, or the glow in his eyes. The glow that marked him as something other than human.
“Later I’ll explain everything to you, but you will obey me now.”
“No.” Of the hundred fractured thoughts and words scattered through her mind, that was the only one she could get out.
He pulled her into his chest, against the body she’d made love to the night before. The inhuman body.
“I can handle this, seelie.” Donovan’s hand stroked down her back. The gesture was hauntingly familiar in the surreal landscape of her thoughts. So was the confidence in his voice. “I’m a Protector. It’s what I do.”
Car doors slammed, snapping her out of her paralysis. Her hands balled into fists against Donovan’s shoulder. Men were coming to kill them. She didn’t need to deal with anything more devastating than that right now. She pushed away from Donovan’s embrace. Feeling strangely calm, oddly detached, she asked, “Can you handle them?”
“Yes.”
She bit her lip as shadows crested the hill, slithering over the snow, growing with every heartbeat. They only had seconds to come up with a plan. “What are you going to do?”
His eyes glowed. He touched the bruise on her cheekbone in a feather-light caress. “I’m going to kill them.”
The difference between Erotic romance, Erotica and Porn
March 6th, 2008
I think this is one of the most reoccurring discussions in the romance world. To me as a writer it’s crystal clear because there’s a huge difference in structure and well, Romance is a genre and every genre has rules that must be followed. Since I’ve weighed in so much on the subject already, I’m going to be lazy and repost. 
Too often I think what makes a romance a romance gets overlooked in discussions on whether erotic romance is romance, erotica or porn. As in real life, the speculating on what the H&H could be doing, might be doing or shouldn’t be doing seems to have a high distractability for the participants drawing them away from the bottom line: The level of heat in a novel has absolutely nothing to do with the romance of a novel. They are two different components of story structure. A well done erotic romance can steal a reader’s breath the same way a sensual romance can because those breathless moments don’t come from the love scenes. They come from the characters and how they interact. And more importantly, from the author’s skill in handling that interaction.
Obviously, reader preference as to what heat level they prefer to have their breath stolen will vary, but there is no direct correlation between heat level of a novel and a novel’s breath stealing potential. That all takes place within that perfect dark moment when characterization, conflict and plot collide hopefully with enough emotional impact that the aftershocks linger in the readers minds long after they close the covers of the books.
In my opinion, erotic romance and erotica can be separated by content/structure. To me, as a writer, there’s a huge difference between erotic romance (which adheres to the rules of the romance genre) and erotica. This is not to say there can’t be a woman’s fiction book with erotica elements, or erotica with women fiction elements (blending genres is very common) but I’m just discussing the difference between straight erotica and erotic romance and not defining beyond those boundaries.
Erotic Romance- the book is 100 percent romance with all the elements, plot, pacing, conflict, characterization, dark moment, and the Happily ever after ending. The only difference is the loves scenes are more descriptive. Erotic romance still must conform to the genre rules of romance. Within the previous categories you will have the growth of each character, the growth of the relationship, revelation of the deeper conflicts, the expansion of the plot, and the steady pacing all building to the Dark moment which resolves into the Happily ever after. In an erotic romance, you could remove every love making scene and still have a kick butt story as the love scenes enhance the story
but are not the story. (the acid test)
Erotica- The love scenes are the story and convey whatever it is the author wants to say. There can be romantic elements within the story, but if you pulled out the love scenes, there would not be enough leftover material to make up a story. In Erotica, everything in the book is there to support the love scenes which are the thrust of the story. Characterization, plot development, etc are all minimal as they are restricted to boundaries of the message the author wants to get across. Everything that is not a love scene has been written to give the sex scene a reason to be, so if you take them out there will be very little left of the book, and that little bit would clearly be sitting there saying, “Bring my love scenes back so I have a reason to
be.” Does that makes sense? It can be well written and emotive, but it’s not genre romance. There does not have to be a happily ever after ending. The hero and heroine do not have to be heroic. The story arc does not follow the genre rules of romance.
Porn- Rarely any attempt at an emotional component. Pretty much slot A tab B sex without any embellishments beyond the imagination put into positions and situations.
Now what do I not understand?  What is the difference in romance between urban fantasy. fantasy and paranormal subgenres.
Sarah 
Sam’s Creed’s And Running Wild’s covers
March 1st, 2008
They’re up on my website.
Sam’s Creed-Spice  did a couple last minute tweaks to Sam’s Creed that have made it even more stunning.  Along with the design, I just love that eye popping color. Must be the Aries in me. Drool away! 
Sarah 
Heads up!
March 1st, 2008
I noticed that Ellora’s must be switching over printing of Promises Linger and Promises Keep from Lightning Source (which meant they were never out of stock) to the same printer who does Promises Prevail which means they will likely start becoming difficult to find if past history holds, so if you want them and you see them, it might be good to grab them.
Sarah, who somehow killed off all of February’s entries yesterday and endured a website doing all sorts of funky stuff which she must now fix. Bad website! 
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