Huh? What Did You Say You Write?

I’m asked this question many times. At first, I tried to give the questioner a true definition of my work. But then I learned to stop doing that when their eyes starting glazing over. You see, for a lot of authors, this is a loaded question. Instead, I tend to give the person a definition that is relatively close to what they know.

My answer? I write Twilight for adults. That way they know I write about vampires and werewolves. They also know that I write erotica by the clarification that my books are for adults. Trust me. It’s so much easier than trying to explain.

The problem is that most people, including many writers, have a difficult time defining what each genre is. What is paranormal romance? What is fantasy? What is urban fantasy? I have long since decided that the labels don’t really matter. I write, as many authors do, a combination of many genres. We blend, taking parts of one genre and adding it to another. It’s not uncommon for stories to be a mix of multiple genres.

For instance, most of my books are considered paranormal romances. However, I also have hints of urban fantasy when I write kick-a** heroines. Sometimes, I’ll blend the paranormal with fantasy with a supernatural being and then set the action in a fantasy world.

But my point is this. Does it really matter to the reader? When a reader walks into a bookstore or goes online to purchase a book, do they really ask themselves, “What do I want today? A fantasy? A paranormal?” Doubtful. For the most part, the reader simply wants a good book.

To learn about my books, please visit my website at www.beverlyrae.com.

Thanks,

Beverly Rae

Learning from Reviews: Is It Possible?

I've had books published since 2005 and have been getting reviews all that time. Not as many as most authors, but enough that I've seen the ups and downs of that aspect of the industry. Here is a compilation of what I have learned from reviews and reader responses, both for my books and other people's books:

1) Don't put a secondary plot in your erotic romance. The focus should be on the couple's relationship and sexxoring.

2) Don't forget to put a secondary plot in your erotic romance that is outside the bedroom. If the focus is only on the sexxoring, the book and characters can come across as shallow and self-centered.

3) Don't write one dimensional villains who exist only to be evil toward the protagonists.

4) Don't focus on your villains so much that the protagonists become bland by comparison. The villian cannot be the most interesting part of the book or it's not a romance.

5) Don't forget to do your research and include it in the book. And be sure to research everything, like whether or not the story takes place in a state where people are allowed to pump their own gas. No details can be left unturned. Otherwise readers will know you don't care about providing a quality product.

6) Don't overwhelm your readers with your research. Otherwise readers will put your book down because it is boring and infodumpy.

7) Don't write any more books about vampires and werewolves...please! They are overdone, and readers long for something new.

8) Please write more books about vampires and werewolves. They are fascinating, and readers long for more exciting stories about character types they love.

9) Don't include too much profanity in your fiction. While it may be accurate in your chosen setting or time period, it gets old, fast, and readers would rather see a varied vocabulary.

10) Don't exclude profanity from your fiction if you're writing characters who would naturally curse. Otherwise it comes off as unrealistic and readers will know you didn't do the research (see #5).

11) Don't write your female characters as passive, childlike or TSTL, and OMG don't describe their hands as "tiny". It's 2012. Females can be...anything. They can be proactive and strong. Probably they can even pee while standing up AND hit the bowl if they work really hard at it. (But, yanno, don't describe THAT.)

12) Don't let your kick-ass female protagonist overshadow your male protagonist(s) or he will come across as weak. If she is strong, he must show that he is strong enough for (or, yanno, stronger than) her or he is not sexy.

13) Don't expound on certain details, like food and drink items. Sure, it's delicious, but that's not what the book is about, is it? Unless you're writing a cookbook.

14) Don't forget to leave in certain details, like the deliciousness of food and drink items. It's realistic, it enhances character POV and really brings a reader into a story world.

15) Don't write any more secret baby plots. It's an irresponsible way for characters to behave.

16) Don't forget to write more secret baby plots. Readers love them; they're so heart-wrenching.

17) Don't include "issues" in romance novels. That isn't why readers like to read romance.

18) Don't forget to include some serious content, even "issues", in some romance novels. There's no reason they can't be about realistic aspects of life and people surviving it and fighting for what they believe.

19) Don't make the female character overweight or plain while the male character is totally gorgeous. That is not believable. Like marries like.

20) Don't make the female character totally gorgeous. Many readers find it hard to relate to her, especially if she doesn't know she's gorgeous ("mouth too wide for beauty"..."bosom too lush for the current fashion"). Or if does know she's gorgeous, because then she's a bitch. I forget which -- maybe both. However, the male character needs to be quite attractive. Otherwise the reader can't fall in love with him too.

21) Don't write in first person. So sick of that!

22) Don't write everything in third person. Books in first person are a great, refreshing change.

23) Don't include epilogues. If it's worth sharing, it goes in the body of the story, and an epilogue is lazy.

24) Don't forget epilogues. Readers love to drop in on the characters down the road, however briefly. It's like an unexpected gift after a story is over.

25) Don't make fun of readers and reviewers, not even with your tongue in your cheek.

Oopsie!

***

I defied item #7 this month because I released a book about werewolves and witches. It's called Pack and Coven, in which the hairy, but not too hairy, hero and the witchy, but not bitchy, heroine have quite the adventure. I'm also running a contest for a $25 gift card on my blog until February 29. All you have to do to enter is violate item #13 and tell me about the deliciousness of some tea-room style food you'd like to eat. http://blog.jodywallace.com/2012/02/pack-and-coven-release-and-contest.html

Jody Wallace
When is an alpha not an alph-ass?
Pack and Coven: http://www.jodywallace.com

PS: I confess. It's possible I took a lot of this from this fun, 4-year thread in the Amazon forums and not actually from reviews! http://www.amazon.com/forum/romance?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxM42D5QN2YZ1D&cdThread=Tx1U9IFOLVQRGXV  So if you like to talk to other readers about your reading preferences -- and you promise not to self promote, should you happen to be a writer in your secret life -- you may like that forum! But don't tell them I sent you, considering what I did re: item #25.

LOVE AT FIRST SHOT, Fringe, and New Books!

Have you ever had something that rattled in the back of your head and just wouldn't go away? A character, an idea, a little nagging voice?

Most of the writers out there will raise their hand with a roll of the eyes. Of course we have! Well, one of those little nagging stories finally came out of the closet this week.

My Paranormal Romance Novella, LOVE AT FIRST SHOT, released from The Wild Rose Press on Wednesday. This spicy little number spent years smoldering in the back of my mind before I finally sat down and wrote it. TJ Jackson is a doctor who works hard when no one's looking, approaches the world with the type of enthusiasm usually reserved for small children, and believes there's no time like the present to have a little fun.

Emma Feltman takes the world entirely too seriously. Of course, when you're a master mage in training, very few people take you seriously no matter how innately powerful you might be. Since her latest relationship broke up because her lover was a cheating dog, she's been on a sexual hiatus. Unfortunately for everyone around her, the higher her frustration mounts, the more unpredictable her magic becomes.

Now, we learned in elementary science class that opposites attract as long as they're in the immediate vicinity. Ordinarily, these two would probably never be close enough to let the magnetics do the work. So, what brings them together? A dead werewolf, of course.

Here's the blurb:

What do a dead werewolf, a kidnapped coroner, and an inept witch have in common? LOVE AT FIRST SHOT. Emma Feltman is a master mage in training with one minor problem: sexual frustration has twisted her ordinarily powerful magic into an unpredictable force of chaos. Her current job assignment is the Supernatural Clean-up Crew.

When a werewolf is unlucky enough to get hit by a car, Emma's crew is sent in to retrieve the body. Dr. TJ Jackson happens to be the coroner on duty. When it's discovered his mind is immune to magic so they can't erase the incident from his memory, they do the next best thing. They take him with them.

Stashed in a cabin miles from anywhere, Emma and TJ start things off with a bang. Literally. But can a relationship built under extreme circumstances really work?

Interested? Click HERE to skip over to The Wild Rose Press bookstore to check the excerpt out.

Now, you may be wondering what Fringe has to do with the LOVE AT FIRST SHOT. Well, TJ and Emma have a decidedly personal connection to Thursday night television.

While TJ's character may have originated in my imagination, his face looks decidedly like Joshua Jackson all the way down to his signature quirky grin. And watching Fringe really brings TJ to life for me. Curiously enough, Emma's avatar face in my notebook was Emily Deschanel AKA Bones.

Last night, I curled up with a mug of hot tea and thoroughly enjoyed that HD TV I bought my husband for Christmas. *sigh*

Okay, let me pull my mind back on business. If you're looking for some weekend reading, I hope you give LOVE AT FIRST SHOT a glance. There's also another novella that released this week from Samhain that you might want to check out since we're talking about magnetic attraction: SERENGETI STORM by Vivi Andrews.

This is the second Serengeti Shifters book. We're all familiar with the "bad boy" books. But...how about a "Bad Girl" book? Vivi writes a powerful story of love and redemption in her return to the Serengeti world. I couldn't put this story down. Here's the blurb:

The bitch is back, and nothing gets in her way. Except her own heart...

Serengeti Shifters, Book 2

Shana Delray is hissing mad. The pride's Alpha has chosen a mate - and it's not her. Bred to be his consort, she's not going to let some runt of the litter take her destined place - no matter how much ass she has to kick in the process.

Her way back into the pride is Caleb Minor - her former lover, the Alpha's loyal enforcer...and the runt's brother. And if she has to go through Caleb to get what she wants, so be it. She'll do whatever it takes to pry the little usurper out of her way.

Caleb's familiarity with Shana's manipulative ways serves him well when he's assigned to keep the seething she-cat in line. A nearly impossible task, as he's forced to use his body - in more ways than one - to save her from herself. Now if only he can save his battered heart from the explosive desire that isn't as dormant as he'd thought.

Caleb's stronger now. Tougher and harder. And, to Shana's fury, he won't be used. The harder she pushes, the more she finds her heart yielding...and suddenly she wonders if she can somehow win back the man she spent a decade trying to destroy...

Interested? Click HERE to link over to My Bookstore and More for an excerpt.

Now, I'm off to do a little light reading of my own...unfortunately, my own work. :) It's print galley time for ANGELIC AVENGER!,

Isn’t it gorgeous? The Tickle My Fantasy anthology is out in print today!!

Go ahead. Try to resist the magic. We dare you!

Carolina Wolf by Sela Carsen (psst! This is me!)
Debra knows that the teensy amount of witchcraft in her veins isn’t worth getting excited about. Yet someone—or something—thinks it’s worth attacking her. Rescuing her seals Maddox’s fate, but only if he can protect her from a rogue of his kind. A werewolf with a nasty streak…and a preference for raw meat.

The Ghost Shrink, the Accidental Gigolo and the Poltergeist Accountant by Vivi Andrews
Lucy is doomed. Not to death. To nightly visits from recently deceased Casanovas without the bodies to scratch her itch. Then a living fantasy arrives on her doorstep. Is her dry spell at an end? Not hardly. Jake has been sent to prevent her from getting laid until a particular horny phantom—and key witness in his investigation—pays her a visit.

ParaMatch.com by MK Mancos (hi Kat!)
Even though she lives without a paranormalady, Lucille has managed to carve a niche for herself with a paranormal matchmaking service. Enter Jager, deposed king of the Titans and successful paratrader. She can match anyone, except him. She doesn’t know that he’s out to negotiate the deal of a lifetime—a future with her.

Witches Anonymous by Misty Evans
Amy is done with Devil-worshipping. After swearing an oath never to use magic again, she’s in the market for a normal guy to complement her new lifestyle. And Adam looks like perfect hero material. Lucifer, however, isn’t about to be nice about letting her go…

Warning: This book contains hunky werewolves, smart-ass women and men who think that’s sexy, magic, angels, medieval legends, inter-species romance, disco music and flatulent Boxers. (The dogs, not the underwear.)

Read An Excerpt Online

A bit of magic

There're only three more days until Halloween is here. As much as I enjoy the excitement around the day, I'll admit there's a part of me that will be glad when November 1st arrives.

That's the part of me that's had to watch Halloweentown, Halloweentown II : Kalabar's Revenge, Return to Halloweentown, and let's not forget Halloweentown High somewhere near twentytwelve times each this month.





You see, my daughter has discovered magic. She's still not ready for Harry Potter (oy - I just had to go there, didn't I? Probably by next year, if the Universal Theme Park opens this year.) Yet thanks to Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place and their Halloweentown movie series she loves, loves, loves magic. She has spent the past few weeks practicing spellcasting, chanting made up words under her breath, and trying to turn her brother into a frog.



Now Wizards of Waverly Place is actually a pretty ok show. Selena Gomez is a cute, talented teen, and it's one of the few shows that doesn't have whining, annoying, or too-old-for-their-age kids on it. And the Halloweentown movies aren't too bad either - Debbie Reynolds made a pretty nice granny witch, and the movies are just the right touch of scary for a seven year old witch-wanna-be. But please, please, please stop showing the same things over and over and over. It's enough to make me miss Goosebumps, her scary-season fixation from last year.



The Halloweentown movies will be on Disney no less than 14 more times between now and the end of the month, so if you've somehow missed them you've got plenty of chances to make up for the loss. I think it may be time for me to unplug the satellite though. Otherwise I may never make it until November.

Education by Television

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
~ Groucho Marx

I think Groucho would have become very educated if he had to look at the 2009 fall TV line up. I'm looking the network choices over, and finding very few shows to get excited about.

That means more time for writing and reading though! My silver lining.

So what am I looking forward to? It's a short list. First, a few returning shows.
- Castle on Monday - and I admit I watch it for Nathan Fillion more than the writing. He'll always be Captain to me. Unfortunately this show isn't Firefly, so I'll probably only remember to turn it on a few times during the season.
- I'll TiVo NCIS on Tuesday and watch it later in the week with hubby. It's about the only show we both watch.
- The Mentalist on Thursday. Ok, so there are two shows hubby and I both watch. This one we'll also TiVo to watch together later.
- Dollhouse on Friday! I'm having an "ugh" moment seeing Fox is leading into it with a pair of sitcoms. Hopefully Summer Glau can chase my fears of imminent cancellation away.

Wow. One show I'll actually plan to watch, one I'm Eh about, and two that are on there to be 'date shows' with the hubby.

Maybe there's something more exciting in the new shows? Don't get too excited.
- V (ABC) Premieres: Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 8/7c. Notice that the new show I'm most excited about won't be here until November. From TV Guide :

Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell stars in this reimagining of the 1980s sci-fi miniseries and series as FBI counter terrorism agent Erica Evans. She is the first to discover that, beneath the skin of a presumed friendly visiting alien race, they're more sinister than anyone imagined. Evans' son, Tyler (Logan Huffman), sees the Vs as an opportunity to make mankind unite with a common goal while news anchor Chad Decker (Scott Wolf) wants to advance his career by getting an exclusive interview with the aliens' leader, Anna (Morena Baccarin).

Am I letting nostalgia get in the way of judgment? I loved the original miniseries. Even bought the novelization, and held onto it until college. The diretoor and cast have a lot of geek cred, so I'm hanging onto my high hopes for this one.

- Eastwick (ABC) Premieres: Wednesdays, Sept. 23 at 10/9c From TV Guide :

The producers of this fantasy series about suburban witches, which stars Rebecca Romijn and Lindsay Price, hope the third attempt to bring John Updike's novel to the small screen will be the charm. The big-screen version, The Witches of Eastwick, was a major success in 1987.

I liked the movie ok, but always thought there was more potential here than a 2 hour movie could catch. So I'm going to give this one a shot. And, witches. Fun times.

- FlashForward (ABC) Premieres: Thursday, Sept. 24 at 8/7c From TV Guide :

ABC has high hopes for this series, centered around a bizarre event that allows millions of people to briefly see flashes of the future. What do they see? What does it mean? And should people be worried if they don't have a future? Watch to find out, we don't know, and yes.

The hype around this one reminds me a bit of the hype around Heroes. And Heroes was fun for one season. Ok, for most of one season, they actually lost me about 2 episodes from the end. Maybe ABC has found a similiar spark with this one?

- The Vampire Diaries (The CW) Premieres: Thursday, Sept. 10 at 8/7c From TV Guide :

Brooding high school newcomer Stefan (Paul Wesley) can't get his mind off classmate Elena (Nina Dobrev) — perhaps because the two of them were deeply in love 130 years years ago. Yeah, Stefan is a vampire, and so is his reckless bad-boy brother, Damon (Lost's Ian Somerhalder). This one also features a special guest appearance by massive amounts of fog.

Vamps. They're hot, they're now, and they may be getting close to being overdone. Unlike HBO's True Blood (which you'd think would be marketed to adults only with all that blood and sex) this show is aiming for the high school crowd; think Twilight fans here. Will the show have any appeal outside the 15-18 demographic the network usually aims for? I'll tune in once or twice and give it a shot.

And that's it for me. One new show I've got as a don't-miss, and a few I'll give a shot. There's a few more on cable that look interesting (Stargate Universe being the big one), but again - a lot of yawns across the listings.

Have I missed something? Is there a show out there that you're especially excited about and think I should give a try?

I'm looking at one bright spot out of this. Maybe I'll be able to find time to get to a lot of great books that have been waiting on my TBR pile for far too long.

Paranormal Tunes (or Monsters that Make You Want to Shake Your Booty!)

"Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon. Who doesn't crank up the radio when that tune comes on? It came on this morning while I was doing the school commute and has been playing in my head all day.

So for fun today I'm going to list as many paranormal songs as my hubby and I can brainstorm. If you guys can think of more--add them in the comments.

Werewolf, Vampire, Zombie, Witch and "other" songs (in no particular order):

• "Bloodletting" by Concrete Blonde
• "Monster Mash" by Bobby Picket
• "Wolf Moon" by Type O Negative (I got to see these guys in concert--twice! Peter Steele=yummy)
• "Suspended in Dusk" by Type O Negative
• "Witchy Woman" by the Eagles
• "Magic Man" by Heart
• "Black Magic Woman" by Santana
• "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr.
• "J.B. Witch Dance" by Masters of Reality
• "Of Wolf and Man" by Metallica
• "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones
• "Thriller" by Michael Jackson
• "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo
• "Twilight Zone" by Neil Norman
• "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by the Charlie Daniel's Band
• "Bark at the Moon" by Ozzy Osbourne

And my husband says, "Pretty much anything by Rob Zombie."

Just for an side note--I'm not listening to any paranormal themes at the moment. I've got "Fingers" by Pink playing. Hmmm...I wonder how many songs are about...?

~That's it for now :)

Margo

Origins of the Tooth Fairy

First let me explain WHY I’m posting about the Tooth Fairy. My eldest daughter had to have five baby teeth pulled today (yes…big ouch!) and about the only thing that made her feel better was telling her that there would be a big payoff under that pillow tomorrow morning.

Of course, she thought “a million bucks” would cover it. Ha Ha. I was thinking more along of a fiver, but I guess when you’re eight it doesn’t hurt to dream big.

My girls have these adorable “piggy bank” style boxes that come with a book to record the date and a satin pillow with a little tooth pocket. There was much drama first about IF five teeth with roots would fit in the pocket (they did) and if the Tooth Fairy would find five teeth on one night a bit suspicious (we left a note to explain they were pulled). So after everyone was tucked in, I found myself wondering, “How did the Tooth Fairy come about?”

Surprisingly there isn’t much out there about this. I found two sites with helpful info: Dr. Bunn’s site (Yes, I think that’s his real name) and the good ole’ Straight Dope site.

Both agree that our modern Tooth Fairy myth is a very new story—less then a century old. In the 30’s there were two stories by different authors published about her and this is apparently where the idea of a fairy who finds teeth under pillows and gives out money for the little pearly whites really took off. Straight Dope goes on to say the toothy miss wasn’t even commercialized until the 1980’s when such things as “Tooth Fairy” boxes (see above) began appearing on store shelves.

What is interesting to me as a paranormal author is the witch connection. Yes, the witch connection! While the kind, sparkly tooth fairy is a figure that gives comfort to modern day children across the nation, those poor middle-age peasant kids had no such luck. Instead people have found traditions in England and Europe that suggest baby teeth were burned or buried to prevent the local witch from using the baby teeth to CURSE the children.

Yep. I guess teeth worked even better than hair for hexing those serfs.

Wouldn’t that make the great opening of a paranormal story?

A mother burying the first tooth of her first-born believing she’s alone in the woods…and then when she leaves the scene—a haggard old creature could appear and dig through the freshly turned soil until a small yellow nugget of tooth is held gleefully in the fading sunlight!!!

Can you picture it?

I’m going to leave you with another interesting medieval tooth tradition. Some cultures believed that if a buried tooth was eaten by a dog, the child’s adult teeth would resemble a canine. This also worked with hogs and mice.

I didn’t know a person’s teeth could resemble a hog’s. But then luckily I live in a century where we can visit the dentist and have five teeth pulled so we don’t look like we’ve got a mouth two sizes too small with teeth two sizes too big.

Have a great weekend!
~Margo

Oh the power!

One of my favorite paranormal characters to write are witches. Maybe it's because it lets me experience magic powers vicariously. My problem is limiting myself (and my characters) to a believable number of gifts. Yes, usually the plot dictates what the main gift should be, but oh man! It is so easy to just add a power here and there, thereby creating the "super witch." Unfortunately, that's not good. Too much power makes the character completely unbelievable unless there is some major drawbacks to having so many gifts, not to mention the fact that it becomes too easy to have a "magic" answer for everything. With a super witch character, you're going to have a hard time maintaining suspense if she can just wave her hand and solve every problem.

The question becomes where to draw the line. How much is too much? At what point does your character become the equivilent of Q from Star Trek or an ascended ancient in Stargate? There is no magic number (no more than 4 powers to each customer) and every story is going to have different requirements. One option is to let the character have a couple strong gifts, and a very limited ability with some others. Mercedes Lackey did this with her character Vanyel in The Last Herald Mage trilogy. he was strong, yes, and had almost every gift out there, but some were only useful in small things. (Example: he had the firestarter gift, but it was only strong enough to start a campfire, and would't have been useful as an offensive weapon)

In a project I'm working on now, I divided the popular "powers" into elemental groups. Any one witch can have as many gifts as I care to give her/him in one group. Having powers from more than one group, ultimately destroys the witch and drives them insane. Some pairings are slower to disable the user, but others, like fire and air can mess them up pretty quickly. And what happens when some pour soul starts developing powers in all four elements? I don't know yet. I'll let you know when I get the story done *grin*