November 27, 2011

A peek at my next project

I'm happy to say that my new eBook is coming along nicely. My countdown calendar gives me 7 weeks and 20 hours for my desired completion (prior to my editor tearing it up, LOL). This is an unlikely love story I'm tentatively calling Isn't She Lovely? and is shaping up to be the most layered, complex romance I've ever written, really more of a mainstream storyline, since I break several romance rules. One of the many good things about being an independent publisher is that I'm in charge, and there are no rules!

I started writing this story with one man and one woman who had well-defined backgrounds, each struggling to cope with the circumstances of their respective lives, he with the loss of his wife in a fiery car crash he and his son witnessed; she a divorced mother of two trying to make ends meet as she takes baby steps toward getting a college degree. To this I added one inciting incident that made their paths cross, in which his troubled teenage son through reckless behavior causes an injury to her young son. After that, the story pretty much plotted itself...the characters' personalities and those of the people close to them dictated the action.

I happen to think it's an exciting, fast-paced story that readers will be able to identify with (but of course, I'm biased). Today's reader tastes being what they are, though, I'm sure that some will complain that it takes too long for the hero and heroine to burn up the sheets. Given the circumstances of the hero and heroine's initial meeting, bringing sex into the equation too early would turn my project into some silly fairy tale. I mean, what kind of woman would look at the father of the boy who caused her son a grievous injury and want to jump his bones? Can you even imagine anyone behaving in such a manner? This heroine hasn't much use for either the father, whom she feels is a ruthlessly ambitious politician who is sacrificing his troubled son, or his son, whom she feels is being neglected by his surviving parent, but also feels he is more than a little spoiled.

I will probably use a disclaimer in my marketing efforts warning potential readers that this is more of a mainstream romantic novel than a single title romance with instant attraction between the hero and heroine (and trust me, there will still be people who miss it, just as people continue to ask me why they haven't seen my latest books on store shelves).

Yes, I've written books where the air has been thick with sexual tension from the very first meeting of the hero and heroine...in both The Heat of Heat (one of the main character's dress gets caught in a man's zipper while waiting for an elevator) and A Kiss of a Different Color (an unexpected dance dip inadvertently pulls down the neckline of the heroine's blouse, captivating the hero), and even in the tamer Save The Best For Last when the heroine experiences the equivalent of a taste bud orgasm and is embarrassed when the hero reminds her he's there. But I'm all about the individual story rather than writing the same kind of story, and in this story, at least the beginning, this type of action is inappropriate.

What's your opinion? I'd love to know. 
November 24, 2011

Black Friday Sale!

It’s technically still Thursday night here in Wisconsin, but it’s after midnight on the East Coast.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. While you're sitting in your armchair getting those Black Friday bargains on the Internet (or after you get home from duking it out in person), download some good reading courtesy of sale prices of my Bunderful Books eBooks: For today only, four eBook titles are on sale at Smashwords!

eBooks regularly priced from $2.99 to $3.79 are just $1.50 to $2.99.

To order, visit my author page at Smashwords , select your eBooks in the format for your particular device (Kindle, Nook, Sony, etc.) and enter the following codes at checkout to get the sale prices:

A Love of Her Own, normally $2.99, sale price $.99 with code PR77D
Save The Best For Last, normally $3.29, sale price $1.99 with code VC76W
The Heat of Heat, normally $3.49, sale price $1.99 with code ZE72Z
A Kiss of a Different Color, normally $3.79, sale price $2.99 with code QV68Z

Remember...the sale is only for today and only at Smashwords.com. As always, I wish you good reading!
November 17, 2011

Off to Florida

Going down to see the littlest Underwood, born November 15th.  Isn't he precious?  This makes two grandchildren for my husband, one granddaughter and one grandson.  Grandma Bettye can't be more proud!

November 13, 2011

Giveaway Winners

Congratulations to the following winners of my eBook Giveaway:

Paula Cadwell
Margaret Faria
Earline Bentley
Cynthia Medley
Adrienne Dortche

I will be contacting the winners to arrange for eBook prize distribution.  Thank you to everyone who entered.  I wish you good reading!
November 12, 2011

I guess if you build it they really will come...

The deals of Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) have been a part of American life for many years now, with some people camping out all night in the cold to be among the first to grab special early morning deals.  In recent years there have been reports of violence erupting, which I suspect that in these tough economic times might continue as cash-strapped customers desperate to provide a nice holiday for their children go to extremes.

This year the stores themselves can be accused of going to extremes.  Some stores, like Kmart and Toys R Us, have been open on Thanksgiving Day in recent years during morning and afternoon hour, offering bargains to lure shoppers in.  This year more stores than ever are moving up their store openings to midnight on Black Friday:  Target, Macy's, Best Buy, and Kohl's among them.  Walmart, not to be beaten, is opening stores as early as 10PM Thanksgiving night.

I personally don't think this is a good idea.  Not only does it rob the store employees of the opportunity to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with their families and friends, but it also cuts into consumer family life, with people excusing themselves after that apple pie a la mode to go to bed until it's time to get up to go shopping.  So much for after-dinner conversation.  I did all my shopping online last year after Thanksgiving and got wonderful bargains and free shipping to my local store...and I didn't even have to get dressed to do it.

There's a thin line between a desire to be first and a fanatical drive to do so.  I mean, isn't 4 and 5AM early enough?  Must stores really feel it necessary to cut into the actual Thanksgiving holiday?

Of course, if no one showed up the stores would have no reason to open so early.  As Thanksgiving weekend approaches, I find myself thinking, wouldn't it be a victory for home and hearth if the stores opened at 10PM and midnight and no one showed up until 5AM?

I know, I know.  Fat chance of that happening.  But I find it a lovely thought nonetheless...

Will you be shopping in the stores on Black Friday?
November 10, 2011
The Interesting Buying Habits of Readers of Interracial Romance

One of the nice things about books on Amazon is the feature that shows what other books readers are buying when they buy a particular book. This is handy for both readers and writers. I've found it interesting that until I started Bunderful Books to publish my stories, there was virtually no crossover of sales between my mainstream and romance novels; people apparently bought either one genre or the other.

It's been just a few weeks since I released my latest independent title through Bunderful Books, A Kiss of A Different Color, and I've noticed something else: There seems to be no crossover between this, an interracial romance, and my other contemporary romances. Out of 30+ pages of other products people who have purchased AKOADC  have bought, none of my other titles are listed. Instead, the great majority of other titles are also interracial love stories.

Shucks!  And I was thinking that this book's success would spur sales of other titles.
November 7, 2011

Scrivener for Windows now available

This is a happy day.  The Scrivener writing software is finally available for download, after months of constantly updating the new betas the creators made as they ironed out bugs.  I absolutely love this software...it has everything a writer needs to go from concept to final draft, and an easy corkboard view that tells you at a glance the status of each.  I've already downloaded and registered my copy.  This is definitely $40 well spent.

I am one happy writer.