The ALTF series boys and their music

So, guess what? A LITTLE TOO MUCH goes on sale in just four weeks! FOUR WEEKS! I love that Harper is getting these books out so fast and y'all don't have to wait months and months for the next books in the A Little Too Far series. So, today is a musical celebration of all three A Little Too Far novels. And you all know how I love my men, so they are the focus of my celebration.

Each of my characters has a musical inspiration. There's always one song that is their musical embodiment. And there's also a song that is the overriding theme of the entire novel. My musical tastes tend to be eclectic, so sometimes something blasting out of the car next to me at the stoplight will catch my ear. Or maybe it's actual elevator music. Or something that pops onto the radio while I'm mopping my kitchen floor. Or something emanating from the television during a football game. If it speaks to me, chances are it's going to end up in one of my books in one form or another.

So, my boys. In A LITTLE TOO FAR, we meet Trent and Alessandro, and one of them is the hero in A LITTLE TOO MUCH as well. My hero in A LITTLE TOO HOT (book 3, Jan 2014) is Harrison, and I can't wait for you to meet him. This weekend I was listening to my writing playlist on shuffle, and their three songs came up back to back to back. I laughed out loud as I was listening, because it struck me how different the songs are from one another. It got me thinking about my guys. They couldn't be much more different in nature, personality, and upbringing, and their songs reflect that.

So, let's start with Trent. Trent is a musician, and, as an artist, is sensitive in a more soulful way. He's got a bit of an wild streak, and tends to be a little impulsive, but he's not a "bad boy." Quite the opposite, really. He cares about people (especially Lexie) and, despite his string of women, he's just generally a stand up guy. In the acknowledgements for the book, I tell my readers that the overriding theme of ALTF is Lifehouse's "All In," but the song that shaped Trent is Rob Thomas' "Ever the Same," which really sums up Trent and Lexie's whole relationship. Whenever I watch this Youtube vid, I hear him singing this too her.

Alessandro, my Italian-French-American almost-priest, takes that path because he believes he has a lot to atone for and it's his only route to redemption. He has a huge heart and an enormous capacity for love, but he also believes he doesn't deserve to be loved. He's suffered immeasurable loss at the hands of others, and he's never totally come to terms with that loss. He's a tortured soul and, no matter what he does from here on out, he'll never be able to totally forgive himself for the wrongs he believes he's perpetrated on others. He's bound to forever suffer in silence, and the song that embodies his suffering is "My Sacrifice" by Creed.

And in A LITTLE TOO HOT we meet Harrison. Harrison is that sexy combination of sweet and tough, but he has his own demons. For the most part, he does a decent job of keeping them in check, but they drive him, and his need for revenge boils just below the surface of his cool-as-a-cucumber demeanor. Without giving too much away, I can tell you that things get interesting for Harrison when he meets a certain friend of Lexie's, and what happens from there, neither of them could have ever predicted. The song that shaped Harrision is "Don't Ya" by Brett Eldredge.


So...yeah. Three guys, three different personalities, and embodied by three very different songs. But I love them all, and hopefully, so will you =) Do you have songs you feel embody Trent or Alessandro? I'd love to hear what they are!

You never know what little thing might change your life

It's September first! Time for my September Debut Contest! But...uh...well.... It will be up tomorrow! Promise! I'm working on something to make it extra FUN, so it will be worth the wait!

Thanks for checking in yesterday to catch the scorching-hot Luc trailer! All day, while Vania was editing and I was stalking my inbox, I was thinking about what a whirlwind the last year has been.

And then it occurred to me that it's been almost exactly a year.

Sunday marked exactly one year since I sent the query for Personal Demons to my truly fabulous agent, The Suzinator. It wasn't the first query I sent. Actually, it was the ninteenth. I was hopeful, of course, when I hit the send button, but, being a total newbee to all things publishing, I had no idea what that little click of the mouse would set in motion.

Suzie was truly fabulous even then. She read my query and got back to me within 24 hours with a request for the full manuscript. Everything from there happened in a blur.

So, I've been waxing nostalgic and went back to read my blog during that time and found this. It's my blog post from exactly one year ago today. I thought it was funny to go back and read, so I'll share it with you. Here goes:

My Muse is nuts...
So, I got home from my business trip to Austin on Monday and found out that our family reunion was moved to my house. Today!

It turned out to be fun, and I think everyone had a good time. Now back to writing.

I have three works in progress, and I know I should be working on the other two, but the one that’s really speaking to me (I mean that literally. My characters won’t shut up.) is a sequel to Personal Demons—which I have out on submission with agents. I’m trying really hard to redirect my muse, but he’s not hearing any of it. Problem is, even if my muse isn’t, I’m smart enough to know that spending time and energy on a sequel of a book that hasn’t sold is a waste of time. I’m thinking about writing it anyway—just to shut him up—and leaving it in first draft while I work on the others. By the time I finish those, maybe Personal Demons will have found a home with a really cool agent and editor. Who knows?

Along those lines, I’m still getting requests for manuscripts, so I have lots of really amazing people reading my work, and it’s very exciting and a little scary, but in a really good way. I’m staying optimistic. I will get a call from one of them. Soon. Maybe now… *stares at the phone*

Okay…maybe not right now…but soon.

So, what do you think? Should I bash my muse unconscious with a baseball bat and move on to a new manuscript, or just do the sequel and get it out of the way so my muse will be happy and move on to other projects with me? Truth is, I’m pretty sure I can’t write without him. After all, my job is really just dictation. So he may get his way in the end whether I like it or not.

Update 9/1/10: I was able to resist the urge to write the PD sequel while I waited on agents, but I couldn't hold off forever, and I did write it in November when we were on submission to editors. I couldn't help myself. And I've never finished those other WIPs, though one of those has been whispering in my ear recently. =)

What were you doing one year ago?

Ho, ho, ho and a book deal for you!!!

I must have been EXTRA good this year, cuz Santa made a special trip today and gave me what I really wanted.

It was nearly impossible for me to bite my tongue during (Unofficial) Official Agent Appreciation Day because I wanted to shout from the rooftop exactly how amazing my agent, Suzie Townsend, was. But, alas, it wasn’t official yet, so I couldn’t. I’ve always known she’s a rock star, and now I have proof.

*drum roll*

I’m beyond thrilled to announce that Suzie has sold my young adult debut novel, Personal Demons, at auction to Tor/Macmillan in a three book deal.

My shiny new editor, Melissa, still loves me because she’s only known me for one day. Also—she’s never met Suzie in person, which has worked out for the best cuz, if she had, she undoubtedly would have noticed Suzie’s bald spots, which would have prompted the question “What happened?” to which Suzie would have had to cross her fingers and reply “Alopecia. Runs in my family,” or risk losing our book deal. (Suzie is lovely, really, and her hair will grow back, I think, once I become a less frustrating client.) ;)

But I digress.

So, I’m blessed that my book (actually my three books!) has found a home with an awesome editor. I’m so looking forward to the next months/years getting to know Melissa and working with her to make my books the best they can be. I can never properly express my gratitude for her belief in me and my work.

All right. For those inquiring minds that want to know, here’s my story. If you really don’t care, stop reading now because, though the timeline is relatively short, I’m a writer which means, by definition, the story is going to be long.

First, let me say, I’ve read a LOT of author blogs about their road to publication. Many of them talk about their lifelong aspiration to write—how they knew they were destined to be a writer at age 5 when they started scribbling captions in their coloring books or writing plays for their friends and family.

That was SOOOO not me.

Not only did I never even consider writing a book—I hated to read them. I devoured Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in 7th grade and read a hand full of Stephen King books in high school, but other than that I was able to fake my way through four years of high school English without ever reading a single book. I was well out of college with a Masters and a Doctorate (for which I rarely cracked a textbook) before I took any interest in reading at all.

So, along comes my daughter, who’s an avid reader. I was thrilled that she took an interest in reading. And, being the diligent parent I am, I felt it was my responsibility to know what she was reading. I started browsing her books and found that I really enjoyed a lot of the YA novels she was accumulating. Then, in some unexplainable stroke of insanity, (maybe some kind of aneurysm?) I decided last July (2008) to do something special for her 14th birthday. I sat down and wrote her a 120K word YA thriller that I finished in October, in time for her birthday. I thought I was done—but my Muse had other ideas. I’d caught the bug.

Orlando is my Muse, in case anyone cares. Here's him looking particularly Musey...

I started my second novel (a realistic contemporary YA) in October and queried in January. I’d done a lot of blog reading and got that the road to getting published was nearly impossible. My true belief was that I didn’t have a prayer. So I was shocked out of my socks when five agents requested manuscripts. I got a lot of positive feedback, but no offers. Still, I was one step closer, and realized I must know how to write a query if I was getting requests. So all I needed was a really great book.

On February 2nd, 2009 I was listening to Saving Abel (one of my favorite new bands) and reading a bio where they said they got their name from a biblical quote: “there was no saving Abel.” That got me thinking about Cain and Abel, and I was mulling over ideas for a book when a name popped into my head. I thought to myself, Lucifer Cain, what a fun name for a demon. That was the beginning of Luc and Personal Demons. Even though his name was inspired by Saving Abel, his theme—the song that totally shaped his character and the story from his perspective—is Savin’ Me by Nickelback. Frannie, whose story this really is, was inspired in the same way by the song You Found Me by The Fray.

I don’t have any logical way of explaining how I felt as I was working on Personal Demons except to say I knew this was going to be “the one.” I typed away like a crazy person, trying desperately to keep up with my Muse, and I just felt like I was “in the zone.” (The “typing like a crazy person” was a challenge, as I worked full time and my husband didn’t know I was writing until I signed with my agent in September.)

A few weeks later I went to the San Francisco Writers Conference, where I met some great people and heard about the Big Sur Writers Workshop. That workshop was in March. I had to send a writing sample to be critiqued right away, and all I had completed (that I was willing to show anyone) was the realistic contemporary YA manuscript that was out with agents, but I figured that ship had already sailed. So even though I was only eight thousand words into my first draft of Personal Demons, I decided to take a risk and send it.

The critique groups and agents there were awesome and I got some VERY encouraging feedback as well as a request for the full manuscript when it was finished, so I got serious and finished it. I sent 18 queries in June and July and got a lot of manuscript requests really quickly. (I'd share my query letter, but there are spoilers—things I thought necessary to capture agents' interest and show them my book was different than the multitude of YA paranormal books already out there.) But then everything seemed to stall. I tweaked the manuscript while I waited on agents, but didn’t want to mess with it too much.

In August I was on a business trip to Sydney and was surfing the web when I found a blog interview with a new agent at FinePrint Lit—Suzie Townsend. (Thanks Realm Lovejoy.) I sent my e-query to this new agent and one other agent at 10am on 8/29/09. That was a Saturday. I figured if she was fast, I might expect to hear from her sometime the following week. So I nearly fell off my chair when an email came at 11:30am THAT SAME DAY requesting my manuscript. Less than two hours after my query, my full manuscript was in her hands.

I already had eleven other manuscripts out, some since the middle of June, so I figured I was in for a wait. But another email came just over two weeks later in which she told me she was having some second readers take a look. Coincidentally, I had received a call from another agent that same day offering representation, so I emailed Suzie back to tell her and she sped up the process on her end, calling to offer representation two days later. I received two other offers and sat down with my options.

I ended up choosing Suzie for a multitude of reasons, the biggest of which was her sheer enthusiasm for my novel for no other reason than she loved it. All the agents said they loved it, but they all had personal stories of how the themes of the novel related to their lives. That was nice, and it made me feel really good that my story touched someone, but in truth, I wanted the person representing my novel to just flat out love the writing and the story—no heartstrings attached. That was Suzie.

Suzie had some excellent revision requests, which I worked on for about two weeks, and four weeks after signing with her, we went on submission. Seven weeks after submissions went out Melissa phoned with an offer. Mad scramble—auction—and then my new and totally amazing editor. Whew…

Two months after the original submission, deal done and my novel has an awesome new home. Ten months from concept to sale. I’m truly blessed.

Now for revisions...

Characters on the loose! Get out of the way!

One of my characters really pissed me off today.

It’s my own damn fault, really. I know I could keep my characters in line (literally) if I wrote with an outline. And I’ll tell you one thing for sure. If I outlined this story, it certainly wouldn’t be going where it’s going, and my character definitely wouldn’t have done that.

But, I’ve learned that I just have to let it happen. Because, truly, where I thought the story was going was much more predictable and pretty darn boring.

So, what I’ve learned in all of this: I don’t necessarily have to like what my characters are doing to my book, but I’m darn well going to let them do it.

But I’m still pissed.

Where do you get your ideas?

Managed to get 22,000 words in this week in between work, soccer games, horseback riding, volleyball practice and general survival activities. (ie: shopping, laundry, cooking, cleaning) We’ve got lots of steamy sex scenes, cheating boyfriends, murdered best friends—all the staples of a good story.

In the midst of all that, I got the standard “Where do you get your ideas?” question from a patient who is also an aspiring writer. The question made me think about the creativity and great storytelling in the books I’ve enjoyed reading and how intimidating that can be to a new writer. Because I remember being in absolute awe upon finishing a book I really loved and thinking I could NEVER come up with something like that.

My criteria for a good read has always revolved around the story being not only unforgettable, but also how well the author keeps me wondering—and wanting more. I’ve always been disappointed in a book if it was predictable. Basically, if I could have written it, I think it’s boring.

Which is why I never thought I could write a book. Because, if I wrote it, it’d be…well…boring.

That’s mostly because I’ve never considered myself to be a terribly creative person. I think of myself as pretty much common-sense-down-to-Earth. And that’s why I give so much credit to my Muse and the things he comes up with to keep me awake all night. When I go back and read my work the first time through for edits, I’m always surprised to find myself not bored. Even smiling sometimes. Who would have thunk?

So, back to the question: Where do I get my ideas? Seriously, my two novels started with the tiniest spark. A fun name popped into my head. (Dusty Lane for a cowboy and Lucifer Cain for a demon.) That’s it. Then I just took that and ran with it. No outline. No plot arc. Just me and my Muse. He figures out how to put my ‘fun name’ character into a situation that he needs to be written out of. Then we write.

The point of all of this is that everyone has a story to tell, (even me, it turns out.) and the way each of us tells it is likely to be different, and maybe even exciting to the people who didn’t write it. So, when you get that idea—no matter how small—don’t think it’s useless because it’s been done or doesn’t seem exciting enough. Take it and run with it—and trust your Muse. Because you never know how it’s going to turn out until it’s done. And maybe I—and a whole bunch of other people—would love it.

My muse is a wannabe rock star

I went to one of the most insanely good concerts I’ve ever been to in my life last night—Saving Abel, Hinder, Papa Roach and Nickelback. My muse and I were in ecstasy. Saving Abel is the best new band on the planet and they rocked the house. If you haven’t checked them out, you can do that here. (Seriously—check them out.) Hinder and Papa Roach melted my face off and then Nickelback burnt the place down. It was seriously just about the most fun I’ve ever had. And I got home at one in the morning and wrote all night.

Being relatively new at this whole writing thing, I’m not sure how it works for everyone else, but my muse is the boss. I’m just the poorly paid help with the laptop. (Okay—slave labor, really. I won’t be poorly paid until we actually sell something.) And one thing has become glaringly apparent. My muse is a wannabe rock star. Which, I’ve decided, is a good thing, ‘cause so am I.

My last book, Personal Demons, started when my antagonist’s name popped into my head. That was the spark for the concept of the story. But his whole character was inspired by, and developed around, one song (Savin’ Me, Nickelback). My protagonist—same thing, different song (You Found Me, The Fray). I’ve had people read my novel and say that I’m really inside my characters' heads. Truly, I’m inside the song, but the songs become my characters. It’s really cool when I read back my work and it feels like the character embodies all the meaning and emotion of the song. (As I see it, anyway.)

So, thank God for rock stars and muses that want to be them. Another great song from the concert: Nickelback, Rockstar. Enjoy.



Going to bed now. G’night.

My muse is nuts...

So, I got home from my business trip to Austin on Monday and found out that our family reunion was moved to my house. Today!

It turned out to be fun, and I think everyone had a good time, but I’m glad it’s over. Now back to writing.

I have three works in progress, and I know I should be working on the other two, but the one that’s really speaking to me (I mean that literally. My characters won’t shut up.) is a sequel to Personal Demons—which I have out on submission with agents. I’m trying really hard to redirect my muse, but he’s not hearing any of it. Problem is, even if my muse isn’t, I’m smart enough to know that spending time and energy on a sequel of a book that hasn’t sold is a waste to time. I’m thinking about writing it anyway—just to shut him up—and leaving it in first draft while I work on the others. By the time I finish those, maybe Personal Demons will have found a home with a really cool agent and editor. Who knows?

Along those lines, I’m still getting requests for manuscripts, so I have lots of really amazing people reading my work, and it’s very exciting and a little scary, but in a really good way. I’m staying optimistic. I will get a call from one of them. Soon. Maybe now… *stares at the phone*

Okay…maybe not right now…but soon.

So, what do you think? Should I bash my muse unconscious with a baseball bat and move on to a new manuscript, or just do the sequel and get it out of the way so my muse will be happy and move on to other projects with me? Truth is, I’m pretty sure I can’t write without him. After all, my job is really just dictation. So he may get his way in the end whether I like it or not.