Filed under: fiction, new release, romance | Tags: aubrey leatherwood, cobblestone press, erotica, interracial, model lover
- A picture may be worth a thousands words, but a touch… a kiss…
Hello Pals!
Let’s see:
New contract – check
Wild Rose will be publishing my short Traveling Violations. I’m in the middle of editing right now. Maggie is trying to get home from a year spent as a preschool teacher in Korea when she’s stopped in Secondary Inspection by Customs. Trapped there for three hours, her only saving grace is Jake. Jake has hung around because he likes her, or does he really think she’s a drug mule?
Request for full – check
Freya’s Bower sent a request for the full manuscript of the prequel to The Rock Star’s Retreat. Bear D’Amato, the drummer for Touchstone, has to go on tour soon and he’s not looking forward to it. One of the guys in the band just broke up with his supermodel girlfriend and he’s taking it suspiciously hard. Another is divorcing his wife because he caught her cheating on him. A third is caught in a bad marriage that looks good on the outside, but it rotten on the inside. When elementary school teacher Maureen rolls into his brother’s garage with squeaky brakes, he seizes the chance to take a vacation from his life. But Maureen isn’t a vacation, she’s a lifestyle and he’s got to admit that he’s been hiding a few things from her.
Print contract – check
Lyrical Press will be publishing Spark Of Desire in print format in May. Info and excerpt here.
Dream Job Search – check
I applied to work in Abu Dhabi public schools. Yeah, Abu Dhabi on the Arabian Peninsula. I’ve already passed the initial screening and now have to go to Atlanta for an in-person interview. This is a dream job. Excellent pay, excellent benefits, challenging work, great weather. I could take a long weekend and visit the Pyramids from there.
Latest WIP finished – no check
I’m writing a novella follow up to the follow up to Rock Star (making it the 4th title in what was not supposed to be a series <cough>.) I’m most of the way through it, but not quite finished. I’ve been busy.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: aubrey leatherwood; model parent; fiction; contract;
Hey Amusees,
I have to share! I just received a contract from Cobblestone Press for my steamy short Model Parent! Thanks to CP for the acceptance and for helping me share another one of my favorite couples with the world.
Aubrey Leatherwood
http://www.aubreyleatherwood.com
I’m excited to announce that The Mammoth Book of Irish Romance, containing my story ETERNAL STRIFE is now out! Here’s a little about it:
An enthralling collection of romantic tales set amidst beautiful Ireland’s lush ancient landscapes: pre-Christian ruins, green hills, rugged cliffs, and pounding Atlantic surf. These stories—by writers such as Roberta Gellis, Bertice Small, Jennifer Ashley, Claire Delacroix, and Mary Jo Putney—honor Ireland’s rich heritage as a land of poets, magic, and mystery.
Available from Amazon.
–Posted by Dara England.
Filed under: fiction, writing | Tags: aubrey leatherwood, awards, CAPA, erotica, the people you know; the sex they have
Badge for Cupid and Psyche Award Nominees
I was already thrilled, already ecstatic when I found out that The People You Know; The Sex They Have was nominated for a Psyche Award over at The Romance Studio. But imagine my super-duper happiness at finding out that I am also a nominee for Favorite Erotica Author 2009 in the Cupid and Psyche Awards as well. Really, Me? Woo hoo! Now, before I start thanking my mom, God, and the Academy, I have to confess to being a little bit choked up. I’ve always just been happy to write. I don’t do it for the money. I don’t do it for the fame. I do it because I’ve always done it, love doing it, and live for those rare occassions when someone truly has a Vulcan mind meld with me on where I’m coming from in a story (yes, I did say Vulcan mind meld). Writing is not my job, it’s my love and having readers love what I’ve created or my “portfolio” means everything to me.
Happy,
Aubrey
http://www.aubreyleatherwood.com
For the purpose of qualification, I am calling an intermediate writer one who has finished at least one book but has not yet been published. When I say “at least one” I’m not kidding. I thought I was the only loon who just wrote books and stored them on my hard drive, but when I had dinner with Natasha Moore a few months ago she admitted that she too had several finished titles ready to go on her computer when her first was published.
1. Get out there and establish your name. I have been told by reliable sources in the know that an editor who is on the fence about acquiring your book will check the internet for you. Do you have a website or a blog? Do you have any kind of web presence that shows you know how to market yourself? Make no mistake, you will be marketing yourself and if you appear clueless it can become a mark against you.
2. Be careful what you say in your blog. You as a person can believe anything you want, but once you get out there you must remember that you are branding and marketing yourself. I have seen writers get roasted and served on toast for a unthought through comment. Be aware of everything you say online. Remember, what happens on the internet, stays on the internet.
3. Keep writing. WooHoo! You finished a book! Is that the only one you have in you? Publishers and agents don’t want to hear that. They want to know you have a career ahead of you. Besides, it’s going to take a year or so to grind through the editing cycle once you sign the contract. If you wait until the book is out to start the next one by the time you get it published, any interest you wll have generated will have evaporated.
4. Follow no rule off a cliff. I don’t remember who I first heard this from, but it is perfect. I know I said in the beginning writer essay to follow every rule faithfully but you’re more grown up now. With at least one book under your belt, you can start to tinker with the rules to see where you can break them to good effect. Just be prepared to have critique partners and editors tell you to stop doing it.
5. Study the market. What ever market it is you’re aiming at, now is the time to really get familiar with who publishes what and what’s popular. While you’re writing your first novel, it’s too constraining to be trying to write to a market, but once you’re through one, then you can start looking around to see what’s out there. I’m not saying you need to hop from sweet romances to vamipire horror because that’s big now. That’s actually a really bad idea because by the time you finish your book and get it ready to sub, the market might be glutted and nobody will want to look at your baby. But being aware of what’s going on in the market is a good idea the same way being aware of other cars on the road is a good idea. You might not want to own a Mercury Grand Marquis, but when it’s coming up behind you, you probably want to know where it’s at and how fast it’s going.
6. Support your buddies. You’ve got some writing buddies now and you need to support them. When they have a new title coming out, you should make mention of it on your blog. If you read it and liked it, you should talk about it. (If you didn’t like it, you should figure out how not to hurt their feelings and keep your darn mouth shut to the rest of the world.) I frequently post ads for novels written by friends. It’s pretty easy to pop together the HTML and post it. In turn, when my books come out, they post mine. Also good is commenting on other writer’s blogs. They feel better because they don’t feel like they’re talking to themselves and you get traffic to your blog. You should also try to visit other (non-writing) blogs. You can get some good traffic from those to and the different persective is always good.
Finishing that first book is always monumental. Then you realize you haven’t climbed the mountain, just the foothills. But the company is good and the work is fun. (It is fun, isn’t it? Because if it is’t fun, you need to just go watch TV. Writing is too difficult and requires too much sacrifice for it not to be fun.)
~Charlotte
Hey Amusees,
Grayson posted from her newest WIP and I figured I’d post a double dose of two new WIPs which are related!
The first is Model Parent (working title):
Confirmed bachelorette, Pamela Lane, is not interested in a husband and kids. She’s already got more than she can handle taking care of the models contracted with Lane V Modeling Agency, as well as some of their overreaching parents. When she finds a new model destined for greatness, of course she expects the minor to come with an over-protective father, but who knew he would look so good?
Unedited Excerpt:
“Let me see her sheet.”
As she reached for the clipboard clutched to her partner’s chest, Valeria smacked her on the back of the hand. “Her name is Alicia. That’s all you need to know.”
When Pam told her team to help control her workaholism, they’d gone a little too far. “You know this is having a reverse affect on my stress-level.”
Valeria only smiled.
Pam sorely wanted to say something about Valeria’s cat-that-ate-the-canary smile, but she felt her cell phone vibrate in her pocket. She took it out and looked down at the screen.
That was not a sigh. That was not a sigh. That was not a—
“Did you just sigh?” Valeria arched an eyebrow at her over an even wider than normal smile. “Awww…”
“I hate you,” Pam mouthed as she made her way away from the shoot and toward her office.
“Hi!” her voice was light, airy, teenager-y. New. Even when she had a crush on someone as a kid, she hadn’t sounded like that.
“Hello, beautiful,” a deep slow rumble caressed her from the other end.
She let her eyes roll closed for just a second. Maybe it made sense that she melted when she was with him. Yes, that made sense. But his ability to reduce her to warm pudding with only a voice disturbed her more than a little bit.
“What’s going on?” She asked hoping she sounded cool and not at all breathy.
He hesitated. “Not much. Just wanted to hear your voice.”
Sinking into a chair in her office, Pam covered her eyes with her palm letting herself be consumed by the moment. “I’m glad you called.”
“I missed you.”
Pam wasn’t going to be able to take much more of this. Did anyone in the world know how sweet he was? Anyone? Did anyone know that he wasn’t an enigma at all, rather an open book? Heart on his sleeve.
“I missed you, too,” she murmured back before adding, “Even if I did just talk to you last night.”
“But you didn’t see me.” He sounded steady, manly, not at all pouty. Okay, maybe a little bit pouty.
“Don’t pout. Did you forget a little thing called Fashion Week? We’ve been swamped since it concluded. And we had to get work completed ahead of open call today.”
“Then after you should have spent the night with me.”
The second is Fan Mail
picking up where Model Parent left off
Bad boy , Tommy Touhy, is out for blood when he catches a perp who’s been stalking Alicia Langerud. Luckily for the stalker, Tommy’s pulled off of him before he can do any lasting damage. But Tommy is unsettled. Alicia is a beautiful, gentle woman who deserves protection. She’s also one hundred percent under his skin, has been since they were kids. Can Tommy resist when she attempts to thank him for saving her life?
Unedited Excerpt
Tommy’s biceps twitched violently, aching. His jaw hurt and shook as his teeth ground together from strain. Something hard, small, and cylindrical bored into his back. It felt like a beer bottle and while it hurt like hell, Tommy wanted it to stay whole. He prayed it didn’t burst beneath him. He growled at the thought.
Blood, sweat, and saliva dripped onto his face. Desperately, he thought he felt the bottle contracting, a subtle squeeze before it popped. In his mind eye, he saw a pair soft blue eyes, wide with terror. His anger redoubled and so did his strength. Tommy drew in two deep and quick breaths. Then with everything he had left, he pushed up, hard, while swinging his left leg. The guy outsized him by at least twenty-five pounds, but Tommy managed to reverse their positions with the maneuver. He slammed the man’s wrist against the floor so his knife clattered to the ground. But the asshole wasn’t done fighting.
A heaving breath and a sickening attempt at a smile came before he rasped, “You don’t think I know you. I know who you are.”
Tommy drew back his fist and punched the guy as hard as he could. The man was going to have a broken nose.
Blood flowing freely now, not just from the corner of his mouth, but a fountain from his nose, the man tried to laugh. “She will be mine. Mine forever. Not yours anymore. She—“
He struggled to get up, but Tommy was stronger and he was really, really pissed. Another hard and fast jab. Now, the bastard was going to have to have his teeth removed from the inside of his cheeks.
Though the talking stopped, the rebellion remained, and Tommy wasn’t satisfied. A third blow sent the man into the oblivion of unconsciousness, but Tommy’s anger wasn’t appeased. He saw those blue eyes in his mind again, heard her voice as it wavered telling him “Tommy, I’m so scared.”
The wicked looking knife glimmered for him. He reached for it but jerked his hand away when the backup he hadn’t waited for, arrived. But an angry haze still blurred his vision, and his heart still pounded. His skin itched and burned like he was being attacked by tiny flames. His fist connected again anyway. And again. And again, until two officers dragged him off the guy.
Like a raging bull, Tommy stumbled around, loping in circles and breathing hard, his fists clenched. He needed to get a hold of himself. He really did. But some things, some things were unforgivable. What this man had done, could not be forgiven, and Tommy was damn near certain he could have killed him.
Finally, when he could breathe again, the paramedics demanded to check him over. A couple cuts and bruises, nothing to write home about. But, when he looked down and realized there was blood caked into his Christian Audigier t-shirt and dripped onto his Superdry pants and Diesel shoes, he wasn’t near anything. He wanted beat the bastard until he pissed himself all over again.
Aubrey Leatherwood
Filed under: A Sharpest Wife, fiction, romance, writing | Tags: fantasy, grayson reyes-cole, WIPs
Hello Friends!
I have started a new WIP I’m thinking will be the beginning of a new fantasy/romance series I’m working on. I have the name of the series all together, however the name of this story is tentatively called “Galan, The Impostor”. This tale features a tempestuous relationship between the young woman, Raeche (Ray-kuh), and the Emperor Lanus (Lah-noos). Here’s a little piece from the second chapter. I’d love to know what you think!
—-
On a day that knew no sun, on a day when only the blackest of dark clouds blanketed the sky and hung so low they were pierced by the mountains in the West so that from them fell raindrops fat and fast that assaulted the ground and raised a noise only overridden by the loud crack and roar of thunder and lightning, a storm brought the child.
Raeche knew pain the likes of which she had never experienced before. As her flesh rent while she tried to deliver her, the child, angry and frightened, lashed out with its first blast of magic. The strike of an untried empathy swamped them fear and anger. Even Raeche’s ever-increasing fear that the Emperor would come for her in the dead of night to strangle her, run her through, or have her dragged through the Royal City behind his mount while she screamed until she died, was forgotten.
Instead of trying to kill her, the Emperor stayed near, soothing them with his own Spirit of the Empath—strong for a male—as much as he dared through the labor. In preparation for the birth of their first, the royal couple had been warned that the interference of too much magic at birth could drive both mother and child mad or worse. Though Raeche knew herself to be an unfair woman, her heart and soul told her she would be forever grateful for his help and restraint.
However her heart and soul had always been traitors. And in this, they betrayed her once more.
After the labor was done, the nurses cleaned the girl-child, Taritana, performing her duty as Personal and Woman of the Spirit, blessed her, and—as Raeche listened carefully, waiting for The Rage that would overtake the Emperor—Valor, performing his duty as The Emperor’s Personal and Man of the Spirit also witnessed the Emperor’s acceptance of his heir. Only then, was the child returned to Raeche, laid in her arms against her breasts.
When the new heir to the Empire, finally calm, and on her way to slumber, blinked at her, Raeche noticed the pale almost icy green irises of her eyes, already open and perceiving. They looked just like the Clear Pool beneath the trees of the Forest to the East. With timid, trembling fingers, she brushed back the portion of the blanket covering the baby’s head. Skin fair like the moon, Rucha’s wisps of hair shined with the color of the sun at its highest.
Raeche gasped then. And Taritana, who was pretty but bitter and sometimes choked with jealousy watched, her eyes narrow and dark like the entrance of a sword’s sheath. She didn’t fail in her duty, though, rather proceeded with the ceremony as she proffered the child and Valor stood at her side. Raeche accepted Rucha in her own rite, proud she did not stumble and inspire further suspicion.
Raeche looked up at her husband the all-powerful, tall, fair, golden-haired, green-eyed devil.
She had known nothing of fear before this day.
Grayson Reyes-Cole
http://www.graysonreyescole.com
Filed under: Uncategorized
For purposes of qualification I consider a beginning writer to be someone who has decided to write a book, but hasn’t finished one yet.
1. Nobody is going to steal your idea. Don’t be afraid to have someone critique your work because you think they’re going to take your plot and sell it before you. Critique is vital, especially to the new writer. Now I’m not saying that a book, movie or television show that looks hauntingly similar to yours won’t show up, but that doesn’t mean your story was stolen. My husband and I have a weird symbiosis with Joss Whedon. His character Buffy the Vampire Slayer bears a striking resemblance to my husband’s character Mara, Celtic Shamaness. Mara predates Buffy. I was working on a sci fi epic not long before Firefly came out. One of the characters in my sci fi epic is the ship’s mechanic, she used to be a dancer, but she’s a little crazy now and her name is Kaleen. Yeah, I shelved that puppy.
2. Make friends with other writers. Not only they not steal your ideas, they will (if you choose well) be your best support network and biggest cheerleaders. I’m a member of Romance Divas and they are an incredibly supportive group of romance writers. Your friends and family love you, but they don’t really understand the devastation of getting rejected on a full request after waiting for 5 months or the joy of a really good review.
3. Don’t let anybody tell you what you should write. For years I didn’t write romance because I was embarrassed. It’s so cheesy, y’know? At some point I realized all the fantasy and science fiction I was trying to finish and failing to was just romance in costume. If you want to write something, you write it. If you don’t love it, you won’t be able to finish it and even if you do, it won’t be any good because your heart isn’t in it. Just write what you love.
4. Know the rules of writing. Until you get good, or at least better, at this you’ll want to follow the rules. Yes, Nora Roberts headhops, but you aren’t La Nora. This is not to say that you can never break the rules, but for right now, while you’re learning your way around, follow them. After a while you can learn how to break the rules to good effect. Yes, it’s a pain, but when you were learning to compose paragraphs in school, you had to follow all the rules and now you’ve internalized them so you don’t have to think about it. That’s the idea behind this.
5. Enjoy yourself. Writing is hard, don’t beat yourself up over it. Expect to have trouble with the story at some point. Expect to want to chuck it out the window. Expect to have your characters do weird things. Also expect to have times when the writing is going to well that you don’t want to stop.
Just finishing that first book is a huge accomplishment. I remember finishing Three Alarm Tenant and thinking, “Even if it never gets published, I finished a book.”
~Charlotte
Steampunk Workshop
January 21-23, 2010 at Romance Divas
Featuring:
Zoe Archer
Meljean Brook
Gail Carriger
Sarah A. Hoyt
Katie MacAlister
Dru Pagliassotti
This workshop will take place at the Romance Diva Forum. All are welcome. To get access to the forum you will need to register.
