Archive for April, 2007

April 29, 2007 • 27 Comments

The House of Night series is set in a world very much like our own, except in 16-year-old Zoey Redbird’s world, vampyres have always existed.

In this first book in the series, Zoey enters the House of Night, a school where, after having undergone the Change, she will train to become an adult vampire–that is, if she makes it through the Change. Not all of those who are chosen do.

It’s tough to begin a new life, away from her parents and friends, and on top of that, Zoey finds she is no average fledgling. She has been Marked as special by the vampyre Goddess, Nyx. But she is not the only fledgling at the House of Night with special powers. When she discovers that the leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite club, is misusing her Goddess-given gifts, Zoey must look deep within herself for the courage to embrace her destiny–with a little help from her new vampyre friends.

When I was asked to review Marked, I wasn’t sure what my reaction would be. I don’t read paranormal books, especially not books with vampires in them.

Well, all I can say is WOW!!! It hooked me from the start. It’s one of those rare books that, if you have to put it down, you spend the intervening time wondering what’s going to happen next to the characters.

I love Zoey, for her strength of character, and also her vulnerability and the loyalty she shows to her friends. The writing is really evocative and the atmosphere the authors create eerily realistic – the Dark Daughters scene toward the end of the book is totally riveting.

I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. I’m sure P C Cast and Kristin Cast are going to have an awesome career in young adult fiction. Check out www.pccast.blogspot.com for an article by Kristin on writing the book, and also the website of P C Cast http://www.pccast.net/

April 26, 2007 • 1 Comment

As many of you know, I am a tad addicted to TV (not least reality shows, especially Idol) matched only by my good friend and crit partner Amanda.

Well, imagine my delight when last night I stumbled on the first in another show, that I am definitely going to continue watching - even if it is on late.

Jerry Hall’s ‘Kept Man’, which is about 12 guys from USA who fly over to the UK and compete for the prize of being kept by Jerry for a year. What a cool concept. Now, in my naivety (as fitting a YA author) I don’t imagine sex is involved and that the prize comprises them living in luxury for a year, accompanying Jerry on her engagements and having lots of pocket money…. WOW!!

OK, so I’m shallow…. what can I say…..

Has anyone else seen it?

April 22, 2007 • 2 Comments

I’m so excited that my very good friend Emily Gee has agreed to let me interview her. Her debut book is incredible, and already selling huge numbers on Amazon, despite it not being due for release until April 30th.

Please tell us about your latest book.

Thief With No Shadow is a dark and romantic fantasy adventure. It’s set on a world where the ordinary and extraordinary co-exist and magic runs in certain bloodlines. The heroine Melke is a wraith and can become unseen. In exchange for her brother’s freedom she is forced to use her magical gift to steal.

Melke’s theft has devastating consequences. The stolen necklace was strung with tears, and without it Bastian sal Vere can’t break the curse that is destroying his family–a curse that will reach its brutal climax at the next full moon. He strikes a desperate bargain with Melke: a healer to save her brother’s life, in return for the necklace.

But undoing her crime may cost Melke her life. The necklace is deep within a salamander’s den, a place of flame and pain that no thief has ever returned from. And time is running short. The moon grows full, and someone must face the creature that laid the curse and suffer its terrible vengeance.

How long have you been writing, and what made you start?

I was overseas travelling in the mid 1990s when I first thought about writing fiction as a career, but I didn’t start seriously until four or five years ago. And as for why I started: I’m a daydreamer. My head is always full of stories. Writing allows me to justify all the daydreaming I do!

Many people spend a long time finding an agent. Can you tell us about your agent hunt?

I found my agent (Richard Curtis in New York) in a roundabout way. I entered a first-three-chapters competition in Australia and didn’t final. I sent the judges thank you notes, and one of them contacted me. She’d loved my entry and wanted to know whether she could mention me to her agent. Would I mind? (Answer: Heck, no!)

Richard liked my work, but it took six months of re-writing to turn the manuscript into something he wanted to represent. That manuscript didn’t sell, but the next one (Thief With No Shadow) did.

Everyone loves a call story. What was yours?

It’s an ‘email’ story, and not at all exciting. My agent emailed me–and I almost didn’t see it because I was running late for work. It wasn’t until I was in my car and driving down the street that reality hit. Would you believe I started crying? (Totally not the reaction I ever thought I’d have.) I work mainly with men, but fortunately it was vintage and they were all out harvesting grapes, so none of them saw!

Do you have a writing routine?

My routine is to walk, then write. Weekday mornings, I go for an hour’s walk and then sit down at my laptop until it’s time to go to work. In the weekends I go for longer walks up the hills, and I write for more hours. The walking really helps me to write. By the time I get home I can see the next scene clearly in my head. And if I ever get stuck, I go for another walk. Usually the problem is sorted by the time I get home!

(And if I’m writing in the evenings, I have another routine–one involving a glass or two of wine. It makes the words come more easily!)

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Firstly, don’t give up. Secondly, be prepared to make changes to your manuscript. Often my first reaction to suggested changes is a flat-out No. But usually after a day or two of reflection–or a week or two–I realise that the changes will make the story stronger.

Can you tell us about what you’re working on now?

I’m writing another dark and romantic fantasy adventure. It’s not set on the same world as Thief With No Shadow, so isn’t a sequel. The main characters are spies. One’s a poorhouse foundling and the other is a nobleman. Magic doesn’t play such a large a part in this book, although it’s still pivotal to the plot. The working title is Witch-Eye.

 

 

 

Emily Gee is the daughter of award winning New Zealand author Maurice Gee. She loves to travel and has lived and studied in Sweden, backpacked in Europe, and travelled overland in the Middle East, China, and North Africa. Her varied career includes stints as a field assistant in Antarctica, a waitress on the Isle of Skye, and a rehabilitation instructor in New Zealand. She currently works in the wine industry in Marlborough, New Zealand.

 

 

 

April 17, 2007 • 1 Comment

I was delighted when Maxine Sullivan agreed to be interviewed.

 

Please will you tell us about your latest book:

My debut book “The Millionaire’s Seductive Revenge” was a February release in the USA and will soon be a June release in Australia and New Zealand. It’s the first book in the miniseries called “Australian Millionaires – Affluent, Influential… Impossible to Resist!”

I’m thrilled to say that on its release in the States, it reached #3 on the Waldenbooks Bestseller List for two weeks in a row.

How long have you been writing and what made you start?

I’ve been writing forever. Actually, it’s well over 20 years because I have a rejection slip from Mills and Boon dated 1986. But I was writing even before that, though back then I had no idea I should keep records so I could talk about it twenty years later. J

As to what made me start, it’s my mother’s fault. Yes, she willingly takes the blame for this. She’s an avid romance reader, who got me hooked on all those early romances back in the seventies. I can still see those covers and remember my favourite authors, and how excited I was when it was time for a new supply of books to be released.

Everyone loves a good call story, what was yours?

I decided to enter the eHarlequin Desire logline contest, where I submitted a couple of sentences about my story and won the chance with 9 others to do an online pitch to the senior editor of Desire, Melissa Jeglinski. So I did an online pitch to Melissa on 9^th January 2006. She asked a couple of questions about the manuscript and said to send her the full, which I did on 16th January.

Not quite two weeks later I was sitting down having my first cup of coffee, reading through the writing digests, when I got an email from my agent saying that she hopes I get her email before going to work and to please call her. I froze. I told my husband and he said to get on the phone. I said I couldn’t and that it was probably a rejection anyway. Talk about fear of success!

But I bit the bullet and picked up the phone. My agent said she had some good news for me - that Melissa had called her and she loved my manuscript and wanted to buy it. I was stunned, then I said I had to tell my husband. I threw open the study door to tell him but he was already waiting on the other side and had heard me talking. So we were laughing and talking and I was saying I couldn’t believe it. I’m not one to scream and shout but you can bet I was happy, if not a little numb.

Then my agent and I got down to the details of the sale. I had some minor revisions to do first, but thankfully the senior editor was interested in a second manuscript, and also in a third one that I hadn’t completed at the time. Those three manuscripts ended up being the “Australian Millionaires” miniseries.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Believe in yourself and in your stories and don’t ever let anyone take that faith away from you. And whether you get enough rejections to kill a tree or not, it doesn’t mean that you can’t write or that your stories don’t have value. But also be prepared and know that most writers need to ‘pay some sort of dues’ first and accept that’s the way of the universe. So take that time and learn all you can about publishing and the writing itself. It will come in handy one day.

Can you tell us about what you’re working on now and what books are coming out in the future?

In 2006 I sold 4 books to Silhouette Desire. The first three are all set in tropical Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia, and are a part of the “Australian Millionaires” miniseries. The heroes in those three books are best friends who find their match in some feisty heroines.

My second book in the series, “The Tycoon’s Blackmailed Mistress” will soon be published in May 2007 in the States, and then Down Under in July 2007. The third book, “The Executive’s Vengeful Seduction” will be published in August 2007 in the States, and October 2007 in Australia and New Zealand.

And I’m very excited about my fourth Desire, which is part of the “Diamonds Down Under” continuity series with five other Australian and New Zealand Desire authors. The first in the series is due to be published in January 2008 by Bronwyn Jameson, followed by Tessa Radley in February 2008, myself in March, Jan Colley in April, Paula Roe in May, and the final book in the series by Yvonne Lindsay in June 2008. It’s an exciting series that is going to be something really special.

Bio:

Maxine Sullivan’s dream came true in January 2006 when she sold her first book to Silhouette Desire. Maxine currently lives in Melbourne, Australia and is delighted to be one of the few Australians to write for the Silhouette Desire line. She can be contacted through her website at http://www.maxinesullivan.com

Thank you so much, Maxine. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

April 14, 2007 • 4 Comments

No…. but we’re getting closer.

In case you’re wondering, I’m referring to the publication of my book. This week I’ve been in contact with both my publicist at Flux, who outlined all the things that will be happening, and also my editor - who has emailed regarding edits/revisions. So it’s all very exciting and makes the prospect of holding my book that much closer.

I also need to be more proactive regarding marketing my book over here in NZ. So, next week I’m going to see about arranging a book-signing. Now, that is seriously scary, not least because we haven’t lived in this area very long and I don’t have any friends close by who I can enlist to attend….. which means…. I have to rely on real people (totally unconnected to me). What if no one turns up???

I won’t go there… Anyway, I’m sure the shop will have contacts…. and maybe I can bribe my friend who lives only 2 hours away to attend….Kate are you reading this?????

April 7, 2007 • 2 Comments

I’m thrilled to be interviewing international best-selling author, Anna Jacobs.

Please will you tell us about your latest book

I’ve got two paperbacks out recently, one from each publisher. One is a modern novel, “The Corrigan Legacy”, a family relationships story with a few twists. The other is a historical saga ‘Bright Day Dawning’, one of a series set against the background of the early days of the music hall in the UK, before the fancy theatres, when there were singing rooms or music saloons attached to pubs. It was very interesting to research. The stories in this series are all separate tales, each with a complex set of plots and sub-plots linked to the embryonic music hall in a small, imaginary town. Well, actually, all my books have lots of plots and sub-plots - the minor characters just seem to insist on joining in the fun

How long have you been writing and what made you start?

I’ve always loved writing. I wrote French textbooks first, back in the 70s and 80s, and had 9 published. But no one reads those for pleasure and I always wanted to write novels more than anything else. It was difficult finding the time, with children and a full-time job, but I used to get up at 4am to write. Writing should come with a health warning: Beware, this is addictive stuff! Once I started writing seriously, I couldn’t stop. I’m still addicted to it.

Many people spend a long time finding an agent, can you tell us about your agent hunt?

I spent five years finding one, because I live in Australia and I wanted one in the UK or USA. This was before the Internet became so helpful and writers’ groups so well organised, so it was like hunting for an agent in a dark room. In the end I settled on the UK and joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association there, intending to enter a book in the New Writers’ Scheme. But before I could do that I’d had a book accepted, still without an agent. I attended a talk by a UK agent put on by the RNA and later on, he took me on. I’m still with him and he was worth waiting for.

Everyone loves a good call story, what was yours?

It was a double call story, actually.

First stage was: I’d been getting rejections for a few years, nicer and nicer ones but not ‘the call’. Then I saw a writing competition put on by Random House publisher and New Idea magazine in Australia. I only had one manuscript not submitted so I entered that. The months passed and I forgot about it. Then, one day at work the phone rang and a woman told me I’d finalled in the competition. Tears of joy started trickling down my cheeks because I knew the three finalists of the previous year had got published. My colleagues in the office were looking at me in dismay so I put my hand across the phone and said in a tearful voice, “It’s good news.” You’d never have thought so to see me.

I was flown to Melbourne and put up in a suite at a posh hotel, then taken to a glittering function that evening. My husband paid his own way. Bryce Courtenay presented the prizes and I came second out of over 800 entries, winning $10,000 and publication. I thought I’d taken off as a novelist.

But the publisher produced the book in hardback only, which isn’t a good thing with a new author and it didn’t sell well. However, I got a call from the editor saying she was recommending the next book I’d sent her for publication. And then the management changed and the new people abandoned the competition and my second book with it. I came down with chronic fatigue syndrome, too, and life seemed very bleak for a few months.

Second stage of ‘the call’: I remembered the agent I’m heard talking in London and wrote to him, enclosing two chapters and a synopsis. He wrote back to send the whole manuscript and I did. A month later it was accepted by the first publisher he’d sent it to, Hodder & Stoughton (now Hachette). I’d also sent off a fantasy novel myself before getting the agent and five weeks later an Australian publisher accepted that.

To add to that incredible year, I was contracted to write two more historical novels and two more fantasy novels, making it six sales in all. I was tap dancing on the ceiling!

Since then I’ve been producing two or three books a year and loving it!

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Don’t send away your first novel straight away. First novels are rarely good enough. Set it aside and write another whole book - yes, really! Then come back to the first one and you’ll see how to improve it. If it gets rejected a couple of times, then set it aside again and write some more, then come back to it again. Each book you write will develop your skills and if you don’t give up, you’ll get there. It was my sixth novel that got the call, since when I’ve had four of the other five published - one has too trite a story and I’ve not attempted to sell it.

It takes longer to develop professional standard writing skills than people realise.

Can you tell us about what you’re working on now and what books are coming out in the future?

I write historical sagas for one publisher and modern novels for another. This is very stimulating and refreshing for me as a writer. I’m nearly at the end of another modern novel, which is set in both Australia and England. After that, I’ll be working on a historical.

I have another historical saga coming out in paperback in July in the UK, a couple of months later down under. ‘Heart of the Town’ is the fourth and final (for now) in the music hall series, set in the 1840s. At the same time the next historical ‘Tomorrow’s Promises’ comes out in hardback. This one is set just after World War I and focuses on the women who did men’s jobs during the war and then were chucked out of them to let the men back. My heroine drove a motor bike and buys it, then returns home to face hostility and an unexpectedly dangerous situation.

The paperback of my modern novel ‘Family Connections’ comes out in September in the UK.

I’ve also gone back to my old love, fantasy, and have a fantasy romance coming out in the US in December - ‘Tenebrak’ is under my Shannah Jay name.

So it’s all very exciting.

BIO:

Anna Jacobs writes historical sagas, historical romances and modern novels for two UK publishers Hodder & Stoughton and Severn House, plus the occasional fantasy novel as Shannah Jay. As of 7/07 she will have 40 novels published. Others are contracted and in the pipeline. Her recent novel ‘Pride of Lancashire’ won the Romantic Book of the Year award (longer category) from the Romance Writers of Australia in 2006. She is also No 27 on the Most Borrowed Authors list in the UK. See http://www.plr.uk.com/trends/

mostborrowedauthors/top100/2005-2006.htm

She has abiding passions for her husband (of course!), writing stories, social history especially women’s history, and reading. She doesn’t have any housework genes at all, but happily works long hours at her writing, producing three novels per year. Visit her web site for more information: www.annajacobs.com